God and Mr. Peick weren’t through! – Part 9

At the time we moved there, Chicago’s Old Town was the hippie center of the city. Drugs were just on the ascendancy. And, we began hearing about teenage runaways, bad LSD trips, the homosexual community, and experiments in communal living. We became used to beads and leather, long hair and guitars, beards and bare feet, as well as driving around and around and around on Friday or Saturday nights for as long as twenty minutes hoping for a chance at anything resembling a parking spot.

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when Yippies camped at night in Lincoln Park, we watched the rioting from our apartment and closed the windows to protect ourselves from tear gas fumes. It was nothing to see our building on the television coverage.

In the daytime, the Circle Church staff could observe the confusion in Grand Park from the block where our original offices were locates. We almost felt the police clubs as they met with heads directly below us.

Once we opened our door to frantic banging and found eight frightened Chicago teens who had been chased into the cul-de-sac of our courtyard by the authorities.

“Those cops will kill us!” they whispered, eyes wide with amazement. We, quickly ushered them to the back door and down the steps, as Karen admonished, “Go home and stay out of trouble!”

Earlier, during the riots which followed Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, we spent night hours listening to sniper fire from the Cabrini Projects, those settlements of horror which border close to the .Old Town strip. Our children had been picked up by their grandfather to ride the train with him on his way home from work, but we didn’t want to leave.

The first night of rioting, before the National Guard had been mustered, our doorbell rang. It was my brother Doug, a surgeon, who had driven into the city to attend an orthopedic convention. He became aware of the danger when he saw store windows being boarded in preventive measures, businesses closed, and the convention canceled on account of the riots.

“Do you kids know what’s happening?” he demanded.

We were well aware of it. That very moment we had been sitting on the kitchen floor with our backs against the door just listening to the small sharp explosive sounds which we knew were deadly. Karen had been “junking” with a friend that afternoon—some blocks away—when a truck veered in front of her car, forcing her to the curb.

“Lady, I wouldn’t go down that street. Those people are mad as Hell. They’re breaking windows and setting everything on fire. Go home.” She did.

“Don’t you think you’d better come with me?” asked Doug.

Frankly I felt safer in our third floor apartment than having to snake my way to Glen Ellyn on an expressway which was under siege, and I declined. At any rate we didn’t feel right in running.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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