Today started out earlier then usual. We had a meeting in Pasadena at 9:00 am and we were told to expect heavy traffic (its LA). We planned to be in the car at 7:28 am and not to expect everyone to be in good moods. Surprisingly we did not snap at each other and survived the drive to Pasadena as we slowly woke up to embrace the day!

Our meeting was with a member of the Mosaic church, Nathan. He is a strengths finder coach for gallup. We all took the strength finder test before we arrived to find out our top five strengths (talents). Nathan talked about how often we focus on our weaknesses rather then our strengths and try to improve at what we are not good at rather then excel at what we are good at. We work hardest and succeed more often when we use our strengths. He referred to our top five strengths as talents because a strength is knowledge plus skills plus talents. There are 34 talent themes and Nathan discussed them all with us. He showed us how important each individuals talents are to the team because we can't all be talented in the same areas. Each person's different talents bring something different to the group which helps it to be effective. In our group it was interesting to see each others talent themes and how they played out in our daily lives. It also helps you understand how each person in the group operates and how the other members can help them use their strengths better. I think it is awesome that God gave us certain unique strengths for his purpose. I enjoy to learn about people and they way they are so this was very interesting to me. We eat lunch with Nathan and Jonathan Stockstill at a place called Zankou's Chicken which had Lebanese food (which made Luke very happy).

After a great morning we decided we needed some chill out time so we came back to the church and had a little nap time or relax time! Its funny how you do not appreciate naps when you are a kid and everyone always tells you, "You just wait one day you are going to wish you could take a nap." True Story. After nap time, Bruce, Josh, and I went to a Dodgers game!!! Thomas, Luke, and Storm stayed at the church had some relax time and an amazing Lupita dinner. I think they even had a slurpy adventure down to 7-11 but the machine was broke (as Storm would say "sad day"). Overall a pretty great day!

So about the Dodgers game... it was awesome! This was Josh's first MLB game and it had been quite a few years since Bruce and I had been to a game... so we were excited. Pastor Jeff and Kendall had scored some sweet free tickets for themselves so we rode with them to the game but couldn't sit with them. Pastor Jeff is probably the most southern person we have met here in LA so far, we blared country music on the way which reminded me of home. Inside the stadium, Bruce, Josh, and I found our seats then went to get Dodger dogs and something to drink... interesting! Anyways we got back to the game... Dodgers vs. Marlins!!! We got to see Manny Ramirez, cheered a lot, participated in the longest wave we had ever seen and really enjoyed the game. Sadly, the Dodgers lost 3 to 6. After the game, we got to watch the fireworks!! The coolest part was we got to go down and stand on the field to watch the fireworks. We walked over to left field and stood where Manny plays and took looks of pictures!!! It was a really fun night and great experience!!

Please be praying for the last week we are in LA. I know that most of us are home sick or at least missing someone so pray that we enjoy the last week here. Pray for the connections we have already made that we will be able to have some amazing final conversations with them in person and be able to get their contact information and continue those relationships when we are back home! Pray for the information and contacts we are handing off to people here in LA that those will be passed on to the right people for the specific person. Pray that this week flows well and as we are faced with some hard goodbyes to people we have become very close to this summer that we will have strength. Pray for the group as we begin to debrief or reflect on this summer. I also want to thank you for all of your pray and support for this summer. Praise God for the opportunity for us to be able to come to LA this summer and learn what we learned and met who we met.

With love,

Kelsey

Status: 2 air matresses down, 4 to go...

Here is a list of the ill as of this morning - Storm (me), Kelsey, Thomas, Josh, and Danny Canales

Thankfully (we appreciate the love and prayers we have received) only I still felt a little sick tonight, but -yay!- Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup to the rescue! Hopefully I will feel in tip-top shape by the morning.

To escape the threat of disease (okay, so I may be a little dramatic, but bear with me - I slept 18 hours today) Luke and Bruce had some male-bonding time. Kelsey and I debated for an hour over going to A Window Between Worlds today, but decided that we shouldn't risk infecting the women we work for because we are not sure if we are contagious.

However, we are hoping that we can be out and about on the field tomorrow. (The exception to this is me because my parents are visiting out here in California and I am going to take them around LA...I am very excited to see my family!)

Of course on the top of our prayer list there is:
1) Health: pray that Josh, Thomas, Kelsey, Danny, and I can recover quickly. Also pray that Luke and Bruce will be spared the sickness, as well as everyone else around us daily.
2) Wrap-up: We have just discovered that we will have a very early morning on Friday, which is to be followed by all-day meetings.
3) To allow great things to be done in these last few days here!

God bless, and please stay healthy!
Storm

P.S. - I wish Bruce could tell you himself of the joy he had last night, waking up numerous times to find himself in a black hole of deflated air-matress...but we have maneuvered the beds again in hopes that this setup may last for the rest of the trip....we'll see... :.D

Home(Sick)

So, I would just like to start off by telling you all something I have learned about myself since we came out here a month and a half ago. Until this trip, I had never really looked at myself as an "extrovert". Come to find out...I am. I like being around people and doing things. At first glance, this seems like a great quality. But from what I have learned, I am a special kind of extrovert. By special I mean the type that ALWAYS needs to be interacting with the people around me. This doesn't really work well with the rest of the team. You see, most of them absolutely need their alone, "down" time or things aren't that peaceful (haha). And God chose to wire me a bit differently. I understand any normal person would NEED that alone time, especially after being with the same 6 people for 6 straight weeks...24/7...but I just can't do it.

Last night we came in from the Crusades meeting and everyone went into introvert mode...again completely understandable. They had been socially interactive all day and needed to just chill. I of course, decided to annoy the group. Time for an oh-so clever metaphor via Bruce. As I have told my team many times, I often feel like a young puppy dog jumping up and down, running around in circles, wagging its tail while staring at its owner as he reads the newspaper. The rest of the team being the owner of the dog reading the paper. You see, what usually happens is the dog is either ignored by the annoyed owner, locked in its kennel, or taken out for a walk after constant begging. In the case of last night, Josh and Luke took me for a walk...literally. We walked to a near by park where we found some really sketchy people out and about. Thanks to the tacos we had eaten with the Cru folks, we had to cut short our time at the park and make a quick trip back to the church to tend to certain things...

After getting settled again, I decided to annoy the team some more and Josh, along with Kelsey and Storm, joined me for a movie around 11 pm. We watched the latest release of the "Friday the 13th" series. Pretty interesting to say the least. About 20 mins in, Storm cut out because she wasn't feeling well and I was left with the other two. From my observations, Kelsey likes horror movies, as long as there is someone nearby to protect her from whatever is in the movie. Last night, that person was me. To be completely honest, I am fearless. Nothing scares me...except for girls inches beside of me jumping and squealing in consecutive time with the most intense loud jumpy scenes of the movie. The scenes in which unintelligent, young, attractive girls were being chased by Jason were not that bad, but it gets pretty intense when I think Kelsey is being attacked as she gasps loudly and kicks the couch we are sitting on. She was bad enough, but Josh Littlejohn decided he needed protection about halfway through the movie also. I won't go into details, but lets just say that the door to our bungalow needed to be locked as we went to bed.

About 2:30 am, I wake up to furious beating on the door. I slowly open my eyes to see Storm with wide eyes peering into the window looking dead at me. What did I do? Lay my head back down of course, thinking it was just a dream. Thank heavens for Luke, he so graciously got up and opened the door for her so that she may get water for her and Kelsey. You see, they both woke up very sick this morning and didn't sleep any last night. It is either 1) food poisoning or 2) some horrible stomach bug. The diagnosis varies depending on who you ask. But either way, the girls couldn't function today. But being the kind, sweet guys that we are, we took care of them and catered to their every need.

Jonathan Stockstill also came today and we discussed various evangelism and church planting tactics. Our Swedish friend Bennett also joined us unannounced again. Which is perfectly fine. A little distracting, but fine.

After our meeting, us guys grabbed a bite to eat and fetched the girls some Gatorade to rehydrate them. We continued on to Starbucks for Free Pastry Day, but was very disappointed to find the absense of pastries...what a scam. We pretty much took today as our "day off" due to the busy schedule coming up. We have tomorrow on the field, providing the majority stay healthy (Thomas was feeling a bit queezy this evening and went to bed early). And the rest of the week is full of meetings.

So prayer. It works, and we need it.

1) Health. The girls, Thomas, and the rest of us. Pray that takes care of whatever is going on so that we can finish up these 2 weeks like we want.
2) Good spirits. As the title says, we are homesick. I dunno about the rest of the team but I really miss my family and friends back home. I miss Bojangles and mama's country cookin'. It's hard to not look at this as "only 2 weeks left", but instead we should be looking at it as "still 2 weeks left". Just pray that we overcome the homesickness and be in good spirits throughout the remainder of the trip.
3) The current relationships and where it goes from here. Whether it be Jeff and his new age spiritual community, or Tony G and the Chi Kung class. Pray that God opens up more opportunties with them so that we can dig deeper spiritually and leave them with a positive impact on their life. Also pray that the permenant church planters/pastors can take over where we left off and use the information and contacts to continue helping God's Kingdom grow.

I thank you, as always, for the support and prayers. Also thank you for taking the times out of your day to (still) read our blog and care enough about us to do that.

Until Tuesday,
God Bless,
-Bruce

Unexpected Faith

It's been quite the intense past week or so. With the group dynamics constantly shuffling, the ministry getting tougher and more intense and the thoughts of the final two weeks here...it hardly seems like we have time to think about what's been going on out here. 

So, here's my attempt at that. I guess the one big thing that has amazed me out here is how much my FAITH has been tested. I knew coming into this process that this was going to be pretty intense and I would more than likely be stretched out of my comfort zones, but I never expected to find myself questioning my faith, why I believe what I believe and if I even still believe it all.

Bruce and I had coffee with Jeff the other day and it was the most intense two hour conversation I've had in about a year or so. Bruce and I were on the receiving end of about every question you could think of for a Christian. We were asked about Heaven, the sovereignty of Christ, if Christ was the only way, we shared our faith stories...we were grilled. Jeff wanted to know everything he could about our faith stories and why we had faith in them, how we found faith in Christ in them, and how we knew whether or not we were actually believing in something real. It was intense.

Out here in LA most people are pretty self-motivated (motivated for themselves) and it's been difficult starting the spiritual conversations. But, once we've gotten into them, we've found it a lot easier to keep them going. After all, almost everyone we've met (at least for me) believes that any road that makes you happy and leads you to love and being a good person to other people will get you to God. Jeff is the same way. He's a man who goes on spiritual journeys and meditation trips all across the world, just to get in-tune with that 'Oneness' or 'juice' from God. My heart breaks for Jeff, a man who thinks that Christ just isn't enough. Yes, he thinks he's good enough for me and Bruce. But, he also thinks there's tons of other ways to get to God.

In fact, not only does my heart break for the Jeffs of this world, but for everyone who thinks that Christ isn't enough. Words can't express how saddened I am by something like that. The more I think of it, the more I my heart breaks for those that can't get their minds around the fact that faith is as simple as Christ and there's nothing else they need. Just Christ...that's it!

So, I think that's been our job out here as missionaries and as Christians all across this world. Those of you that are reading, its your job too. We're called to preach the gospel of Christ and only Christ. For it alone is all that this world needs. Perhaps we should stop focusing, as a body of Christians, on how best to reach the world with catchy t-shirts, music, books, language, and so on and focus solely on taking the story of Christ to this world. Sure, it'll call for some creativity and ingenuity, but fortunately for us the Creator of the universe is alive in us through the Spirit of Christ!!!

So yeah, that's one way my faith has been tested. I've been pushed to think about over and over again, is Christ really all I need in my life and is He really the ONLY thing I need in life. Each time I question it, I get the same answer. A low, hushed 'yes' that rises to a loud, rejoicing cry of 'YES!'. Indeed, Christ is all we need and all that this world needs.

Secondly, my faith has been tested in ways that God says he's going to move. I've seen God move before, and I've seen Him do some awesome things in the past through people around me and their ministries. What I haven't seen or experienced before is the deafening command I hear each morning I wake up. "Josh, go and I will bless." 

Each day on the field has been yet another reminder of how faithful the Lord is and another example of God blessing the faithful. I've seen some of my teammates stretched beyond their comfort zones and then some, and yet God has yet to withhold his blessings on their efforts. It's simply awesome.

While I know God is faithful in blessing our efforts, still myself and I'm sure others on our team have a hard time going out faithfully. We know the Lord will bless us, but sometimes our heart just isn't in it. And each time I catch myself with my heart and mind in other places than the field, the Lord sends a simple reminder (be it a thought, a conversation, etc.) to encourage me to bring my heart and mind back to the mission field that I'm currently on. 

I am finding myself living more and more by Hebrews 11:1. When Jeff asked Bruce and I the purpose of our faith, stories and what Christianity was to us. We both had few words. All we could say was its our reason for being, our reason for living, and our reason to get up in the morning. No, we can't always see what God's doing and we can't always see what God has done in our lives at the time...but we have faith that God is there. We have faith that Christ is sufficient enough for us. We have faith that Christ is moving and working in the ways we can see and even more so in the ways we cannot see. 

Oops...

So oops... I forgot to write the blog yesterday so this week Saturday is going to come before Friday!!! Anyways...

Thursday our usual day off included helping someone from the Hispanic church move furniture from his old apartment to his new condo most of the day. We were amazed by how sweet one of their new neighbors were when he brought us water because he said we looked like we were working hard. It was extremely nice of him and well appreciated. After a physical draining day so of us had our day off on Friday instead.

After dropping Storm and I off in Venice, Josh and Bruce headed to Starbucks to prepare for their conversation with Jeff. From what I have heard it was an intense conversation in a good way. Keep praying for their connection with Jeff. Pray that they will be able to have church with him and some of his friends before we leave.

In Venice, Storm and I went to Cafe Collage to have some quiet time before volunteering! We walked up to a Window Between Worlds and were bussed in (which is still amusing after a few weeks). We did lots of tasks like sculpting clay into different colors for an art project, sorting through notebooks to make sure all of the papers were there, and making journals. When we made the journals we got to use this super cool machine which was very awesome!!

We have made such good friends working here. It is so cool to know that they respect us so much for all of our hard work after knowing us for such a short amount of time. I don't know how many times they tell us thank you for helping. We couldn't have found a better environment to work in. They are always so encouraging to each other. It is also so awesome to be apart of something so great that uses art as a healing tool for domestic violence victims. I personally have a lot of respect for Cathy, the founder of the non profit, it took a lot to build up this organization and make it successful. She had an idea along with the help of others to incorporate two things that she loved and she did it. She went around the country and started these Windows programs. She learned many stories about victims of domestic violence. I think this is so amazing! I would love to have lunch with her and learn more about her story and life because she has been an inspiration.

While we were working Storm and I were talking to one of the other volunteers. She had grown up in LA her whole life. She went to school at UC Berkley and loved San Francisco. She graduated last May (as in 2008) with a degree in Psychology and then decided to travel for a year. She went to Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. She meet her boyfriend who is from England in Australia. We were able to talk about the differences in growing up in NC compared to California. We were also able to ask her about her experience with religion. She said she had went to youth group when she was in middle school and felt that people were very hypocritical and closed minded about things. We told her that hypocritical Christians also frustrated us and that was not what we were about at all. We said that we thought sharing God's love was what was more important and she agreed. She was interested in learning about different religions and why people believe what they believe (the Psychology aspect). So pray that we will be able to have more conversations with her.

We came back for some of Lupita's amazing food!! Then we decided to go do something fun as a group which means we had to make a decision.... funfun!! We finally decided on putt putt but not your regular putt putt..... GLOW IN THE DARK PUTT PUTT!!! It was so much fun we played three games changing groups every time! It was such a fun place with everything in neon pink, yellow, orange, blue, green, and of course the black light! We even got a glow in the dark glove which was awesome to give high fives with! It was a great time!! Then we decided to go to IHop after that which I am pretty sure you can only go to late at night (lol). We had some yummy food like pancakes!!!! Well I was a good day!!!

So what can you be praying for... well...

boldness... in conversations with people we meet.

connections that we have already meet that these people will become persons of peace and be interested in learning about God and starting a bible study.

community we have formed that it continues to grow and that we will be remain each other's support systems.

as the trip is coming to an end pray for everything to get tied together.

pray for all of LA!

With love,

Kelsey

I do know where you go, is where I want to be

Today was a good day, we had our Chi Kung again. There were three new people today which means that practicing the moves took three times as long, which means...more pain. We were not able to catch the names of the three new faces there today but hopefully we will get to talk to them. It seemed empty today with the absence of Peter, he is in the U.K. till the 29th and we miss him. We were able to stay after and kick the bag and he taught us this new move, he also expanded on the dragon claw teaching. This move scares me cause it is literally something that can kill someone if done right. We stayed over and then finished. I talked with Tony a little bit and mentioned that next week will be our last week doing lessons. We were both sad thinking about it and it makes our time here seem short. We noticed the fruit of our physical labor when we biked up, I did not get too tired biking up the hills.

This past week has been great and God has continued to move in both areas. We are in this crazy stage in our trip where we realize that it is time to get ready to wrap things up. At the same time there are responsibilities that await us back at home, we don't want to be thinking about things there while we are out here but at the same time those things need to start to be addressed. So its super crazy, its hard not to think about the school year that is waiting for us.

I was talking with Luke earlier this week and I was thinking, has this trip been what we were hoping for and can this be a foundation for new parachute projects in the future. After talking to the Campus Crusade people, it has been awesome to hear the things that they have been doing. It was cool to hear about people they have saved and just how they share the Gospel. I felt a little discouraged that our group has not had anyone come to Christ yet and it brings the question, is what we are doing here something that will work? And after thinking about it, we may have not had any conversions yet and no groups have started in the Venice area, but we see the path that is laid if only we had two more months ahead. I do believe with my heart that this process works and can start small evangelically based churches that could change the face of Venice, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles as a whole. So even though we have not had what the common person's requirements for a successful mission trip, I do believe that this trip is a success already and I don't even know what God has in store for us for the last few weeks. I do believe that this new type of church is something that this generation can run with and it has definitely shaped my idea of how a church can look.

Thank you all again for your prayers, here is a list of things to keep in mind when talking to Jesus:

Tony-we are going to get him a Mandarin/English Bible before we leave

Subra-we had a really intense encounter with him lately

Peter-anxiously awaiting his return

Venice Beach

Santa Monica/College

Jeff-Josh and Bruce had intense conversation with him on friday

Window Between Worlds-Kelsey and Storm's volunteer area

Team Unity

Dean-For us to run into him again, we think we could have something good with him

Until next week,

Grace and Peace to you all

Vegetarian Jerky...It Exists....

If you don't already know this about me - I dislike mushrooms...a lot. I go out of my way to avoid them. If I had to pick between eating a mushroom and stuffing my face with habanero peppers like the guys did the other week...I would choose the peppers any day. So imagine my blissful innocence as Thomas begins to pass around a bag of jerky last night. Luke and he discussed the numerous amounts of things they had learned about Tony that day in his shop - one of them being Tony's decision to forego beef for the rest of his life. And because Tony is such a generous guy, he was all excitement to share his love of vegetarian jerky and send them back to the Church on Pearl with their very own bag. So here I am casually chewing on a bite sized piece of what I believe is likely vegetables and tofu...when someone mentions to me that the thing I had just put in my mouth was actually a piece of fungus....*shudder.* I gulped it down out of sheer courtesy for the rest of the group and quickly grabbed some Apple Jacks to mask the flavor. I really can't think of a wonderful moral to this story or an inspiring quote to invoke deep thought - "ugh" is all that comes to mind...and I don't really have a reason for putting this story in the blog, but it seemed interesting, so what could it hurt?

On to the important things:

The past two days have been wonderful! Kelsey and I have had some amazingly fun times, starting with our trip to the beach with Anuhea. As we became closer, we learned so much about her and her hobbies (which are scarily like mine :.D) and found out about her somewhat-negative past experience in a Christian school and her openness to the laid back idea of having deep discussions in a small group, which is an awesome trait to have in our team's opinion. I can already tell she is an amazingly sweet person and I can't wait to hang out with her again. Kelsey, she, and I have already decided that a repeat of the beach trip must occur before we get on a plane back to NC. I can't wait!

And Kelsey had great discussions with several of the leaders at Window, finding out about their lives, their churches, etc. while carrying out tasks on the computer, printing, labeling folders, etc. My jobs didn't allow me as much time to talk as I was crunching numbers, but I definitely feel that the women appreciate us so much for our work ethic - respect goes a long way out here and I am so grateful that the opportunities have been given for us to show others we care because God cares.

Bruce, Josh, Luke, and Thomas all had amazingly encouraging days. I was so enthusiastic to hear about their days at team time tonight because today was Bruce's day to go out to Starbucks with the "God Story" sign. He got some amazing feedback (both positive and negative) from upwards of 5 people if I remember correctly. We have found as a group that people are very receptive here to those that will listen as they remain firm in their beliefs. Luke and Thomas met with Peter again this morning before he heads back to England for a while, discussing future plans (as well as returning with some pretty intense Chi Kung photos).

Tomorrow we are pushing our day off back a little in order to help an elderly gentleman move his belongings into a truck. Then the group will begin a very difficult task: getting everything we still want to do in LA to fit into the next 2 weeks. The group as a whole has been fighting off the conflicting emotions of homesickness and sadness over leaving so soon. However, we know that this will just strengthen us as we go back to our campus ministry this year and we pray for the continuation of what has been started here in LA this summer.

Always,
Storm

Oh, and because I feel so strongly about it - here are:

5 Ways to Dress Like a Tourist in LA...
1) wear hawaiian t-shirts, high-top socks with sandles, camera on back (or more than one, if
preferred...I have seen up to 3 before)
2) put on fanny packs of any kind (but especially the double sided ones with pockets on front
AND back)
3) adorn yourself with 3 screaming kids, colored sunblock smears, and a baby bag the size of
Montana even though you have no baby
4) carry or wear an "I heart LA/Santa Monica/Venice" t-shirt, hat, water bottle, purse,
bracelet, dog collar, refrigerator magnet, hairbrush, knitting needles, garden hose, and
teapot (all at the same time)
5) wear Chaco's (though they are popular at App, here they get you noticed...not in a bad
way, but Kelsey has had many many questions and comments on hers)

I'm feelin' a bit ANTsy

Hi friends, glad to see you could make it back to read about another great experience that I have had here in LA...

It started off just as normal as any other day. The usual: wake up, breakfast, make fun of the way Kelsey looks in the morning, etc. We were expected to have a meeting with Ken and Bob around 10:30 this morning. They had quite the time with LA traffic so they didn't make it to the Church until about 11:30 or so. That was completely fine, because some of the guys that stay here at the church were watching a great "wake up and embrace the day" movie...Death Race. So I of course joined in the viewing party and lounged on the sofa. About 20 minutes in, I started itching in various places of my body. Some on my neck, a few places on my back under my shirt, my upper leg. I didn't think twice about it, just scratching a bit, until I prop my feet up and turn on my side. At this moment, my life flashed before my eyes. As I looked out in front of my face, I saw a winding river of blackness. My body froze as I realized what exactly was going on. The pieces of the puzzle was coming together now. I was itching so much because I was laying upon a sea of little black ants, or as I like to call them, Monomorium minimum.

You see, here in Southern California, these little guys are EVERYWHERE. As a matter of fact, I just now found one crawling on my foot...I dunno what it is about this place. So as I lay there for the eternity of 2 seconds, I wonder where else these little guys are venturing on my body...little did I know what awaited me. I jump up and start brushing my body off in a flailing fit in between the audience of the movie and the television screen. So there, 4 other guys watched in awe with blank stares of confusion on their faces while I ran about convulsing across the room. Eventually Josh cautiously asked "what are you doing" and that is when I explained the situation at hand.

Moving on, I sit here constantly scratching every little itch or tingle that I feel while writing this. I am sure those of you reading find yourself doing the same. Aaanywaaay...Bob and Ken walked through the door and we assembled the team. Today's meeting was a bit different than usual. Not only did we direct the point of conversation towards the biblical evidence of the qualifications needed to enter heaven's gates, but an older Swedish gentleman named Bennett walked into the room yelling something about a bake sale. You see, Bennett has been a member at the Church on Pearl since "ninteen seventy-four". He speaks with a strong Swedish accent and is not the quietest speaker by any means. After a short confusion of the bake sale and his visit, we found out (thanks to Bob who was the only one not shocked enough to speak) that the church had actually posted on bulletin an advertisement for a bake sale this morning. Un-luckily for Bennett and the whole city of Santa Monica, there would be no bake sale taking place this at the Pearl. With some short dialouge with the very social Swed, he asked the question "how does one become a missionary". This is when stuff 'got deep'. He of course was referring to us, a group of missionaries that has traveled across the nation to love the people of LA. But what he soon found out is that one can be a missionary, right in your own community. I know this sounds a little juvenile, but I think we sometimes tend to forget that simple fact. Sometimes we focus too much on the people around the world that need to hear about Christ's love, and we forget and overlook those people with the same need right infront of our very eyes. I'll let you chew on that for a bit.

After the meeting we said goodbye and were off to a late lunch and a couple hours on the field. Thomas and Luke had some good quality conversation with Kung Fu Tony and found out that his son is actually a Christian. Cool huh? We'll be praying that God will show the guys a clear 'next step' with Tony and the many other contacts they've made in Venice Beach.

Josh and I had some quiet time at a local coffee shop and ran into Ian, the guy from the Crusades group out here. It was nice to see him again and I am excited to continue our relationship with him and the many other friendly people we met last night at their meeting. We are supposed to be meeting with Jeff soon for our first church service, but he hasn't returned Josh's email. I think I can speak for Josh and I when I say that we are getting pretty excited about what God has in store for this. I hope he responds soon so that we can further our relationship with him and maybe have something to pass on to the permanent church planters here.

Storm and Kelsey spent the day at the beach with Anuhaya, a girl they were introduced to. I won't go into details about that, but instead leave that for Kelsey and Storm to discuss on the appropriate blog days. I can say though that she was interested in the idea of a bible study sometime in the near future. Just pray that God be will be working in her life and preparing her and the girls for what is to come.

Tonight was capped off with some group bonding time and a little bit more "counseling" as we tried to come up with some solutions to the problems we discussed last night about the team dynamics. So what did we do you ask? A 1 a.m. run to Wendy's to stuff our faces with hundreds of calories before coming back and crawling in bed. What can be more physcially and emotionally healthy than that? I recommend trying that sometime if you don't do that on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure Dr. Phil endorses it.

So as I think about the great sleep I'm gonna get tonight, I want to leave you with a few things to pray for.

1. Tomorrow, Josh and I are going out to the coffee shops and I am going to be manning the sign that Josh handled last week. Pray that God gives me comfort and wisdom during this. I am pretty nervous and I am trying to just rely on Him and trust Him to speak through me. Also just pray for some good opportunities and conversation with the people we come in contact with.
2. Pray for each group's patience and encouragement. As we watch time fly by, we are trying to figure out how to tie the loose ends and have something to pass on once we leave LA. Pray that we can just trust God with this and have faith that he will take care of everything as he always does.
3. Our team dynamics. This is a great team of people that I love very much. I couldn't have picked a better group myself and I know God has put us all together here for a purpose. Just pray that we will embrace these 3 weeks that we have here together and to keep each other in good spirits.

Thank you all ONCE AGAIN for everything. Your prayers and support mean so much to us.

Until next Tuesday, stay safe and keep your bug spray at hand.
God Bless,
Bruce

We Are Family: Lessons from Crusaders.

"We are family, got my brothers and my sisters with me."

The theme of the past couple of days with the 6 of us has been community. Or, should I say the lack there of. I'll just be bluntly honest and say we've all enjoyed one another's company for the past 5.5 weeks, but having spent 24/7 around the same 6 people has gotten to all of us and tonight it boiled over.

Our day started as most others. Breakfast, team time/devo, field time and then we came back to the church. From the church, the 6 of us went to a dinner that the Santa Monica Summer Project Mission Team of 67 Campus Crusade students holds every Monday night. The team and I have met several of their teammates over the past few weeks and we met some more on Sunday. We were invited to go to a dinner with them tonight and to join them for their worship service. So, we did. 

I'll be honest again here and say most of us had preconceived notions of what tonight was going to be like. We, our team, and the Cru team have different ministries here in LA and different ways to go about ministering to the people here, so most of the 6 of us had ideas that were quickly proven wrong. When we arrived it was the awkward "Who are the 6 new kids" stare from 134 eyes. It was a little intimidating, but most of the people quickly introduced themselves and it got a little more bearable to be in a room full of people where it was obvious we were the outsiders.

So we split up and ate with the Crusade team members and then joined them for their worship service. Afterwards, we mingled with some of the Cru team members and made some great personal relationships and connections. 

This all has a point I promise. Actually, it has two. So, let's just jump into those. It's 1:52AM here in LA and I'm tired. 

So:

1 - We realized that the community that these 67 students had was incredible. Living with 67 of the same people for 24/7 seems quite overwhelming. But somehow their group (at least at first glance) seems to be dealing with that in an amazing way. We watched them all get along with one another and know one another, and it was a blessing to see them grow closer to the Lord, the people out here in LA, and to one another all in community. One of the most frequent questions that all 6 of us got was "What's it like living around the same 6 people all day every day?" And while I doubt the Cru people knew what they were REALLY asking, thoughts started racing through most of our team's minds and helped us to realize that when it comes to community in our group of 6, the past couple of weeks has been pretty shiesty. So, when the team got back and had team time, we addressed the concerns, troubles, annoyances and frustrations that each of us were feeling with our community. After almost 3 hours, it seems like we've hashed it out and things are on a much better foot. I know all 6 of us feel like we've made some pretty progressive plans to get better about our community with one another. In fact, Storm said something that touched me more than I expected. She said "Thank you guys and girl for being a part of my first experience with siblings. It's been fun." And then it hit me. We are here as brothers and sisters in Christ and lately we hadn't been acting as a family. After tonight, no longer are we 6 friends, cohorts or anything else...we're brothers and sisters for one another here on the field, in our personal walks with the Lord and in our group times!

2 - The second thing that I personally got excited out of the time with Crusade group is another reminder of the centrality of Christ. What I mean is this: Christ is the single most important common denominator between any two groups or persons of the Christian faith. The group of 67 Crusade students and the 6 of us are here for the same reason: sharing Christ's love. It was a blessing to be reminded that while they may have different ministry views, we're still here with the same passion and heart for the same person: Christ. Being in fellowship, worship and community with them tonight helped our team realize that God is definitely working in big ways, and in ways that we hadn't even seen coming. So tonight, I feel as though I've not only gained 5 brothers and sisters from my team, but also 67 Crusade Team members who have blessed us and encouraged us to live urgently, seizing every opportunity to share the gospel of Christ and to passionately pursue Christ at all times!

So in almost-closing, I want to share this scripture:

Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may share in his glory." Romans 8:14-17

One of biggest blessings of salvation in Christ is an invitation to the membership of the Holy family. We're no longer individuals, but are now a part of God's family. We're together with our fellow brothers and sisters in faith, and with the big-man himself, Christ. However, this membership must, again I say must, come with a cost...ourselves. We're not invited to share in God's glory easily. We're called to intentionally join in his sufferings the same way he intentionally came to earth and lived a life that lead to the cross in order to achieve the glory of God. So, as fellow members of God's family and brothers and sisters in Christ, I leave myself with this thought for myself, my team and you readers...

What are we intentionally doing to put ourselves in harm's way and live a life that leads to the cross?

Uh, Oh! It's Those Crazy Christians Again!

Hey Awesome readers! Has Jesus been good to you today? He's been the Bomb over here in LA! I'm just sayin' that we kinda serve the flippin coolest God EVER!!! Wonders! Why the enthusiasm? CAUSE MY GOD IS MOVING!!!! And it's cool to be apart of that and see it happening.

I wish I could tell you all the sick nasty awesome ways that God it at work here, but in reality I can't. Partly because if I told you all the ways He's been working that we have seen in our 5 weeks here this blog would take 5 weeks to read. AND partly because I really don't know all the ways that He's moving. He's kinda got a better big picture view than I do. Go figure?! Crazy, right?

Today I woke up, looked at my phone, realized we had 11 minutes to be at Tonys for our Chi Kung lesson, jumped out of bed, punched Thomas' hip, ran out the door, knocked on the girls door, said "Storm we gotta go!" and the proceeded to dress as quickly as possible(back in my room of course, not the living room... that'd be awkward.)

Despite the initial rush in the morning, today was great! We had a good lesson, and met knew people! We met this cool guy who does martial arts choreography for movies here in LA. He had a cool name. His name was Luke. =) The other group had great Jesus coffee shop talking/praying action going on. All in all, a good day. Sunday is a day of rest, but for us it's more like half a day. We get Thursdays as an actual day of.... well... not rest, but a day off anyway. =) Today was alot of reflection on the upcoming week. Everyone has alot lined up for the upcoming week of Jesus spreading. I'm PUMPED!!! I think saying any of the names of God is like a super pumpin' pep talk... or something. What if I said like, Lord,... ooooo... goosebumps of Holy Spirit power!

OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FAN-FLIPPIN'-TASTIC NEWS!!!!!!!! So Peter knows that we're Christians now. We told him that love is the greatest thing in life, like livin' by it. He said "It's amazing that at such a young age you all have such an amazing grasp on what life is all about." And then we ended up talking about the idea of house churches, and he wasn't appalled by it! I think we may have some awesomeness of church planting in the works! Peter leaves for jolly ol' England on Wednesday, but we get to have tea with him before that. We get to see him again during our last week here. God has blessed this relationship so far. Pray for more.

OK,
HOW DO WE PRAY? you ask me?
Pray for churches to get started here. Lives to be saved. People to be discipled. Jesus to Move!

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we could ask or imagin, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." - - Ephesians 3:20,21

Happy Birthday Josh!!!!!!!!

This week has been great, it has been one of the quickest here in L.A. I think. Only three weeks left but we are all anxious to see how God will use us in these last few weeks. And to make everything even better, Josh was born today....22 years ago. HOORAY!!!!

So anyways, God has definitely been with our team throughout this week. Friday was great for the Venice team, we ate breakfast with Peter at Gilberts, which is a mexican place. God was with us in the conversation, we talked about lots of things. We found out that Peter is involved with a Daoist community, he considers himself a Daoist but uses the term loosely. He picked us up at the church and upon finding out that Luke's dad was a pastor in the middle east, I think he knows that we are all Christian which was a conversation opener. We talked to him about the state of church today and how there is other forms of church, like house churches, and he seemed to be open to that.

Unfortunately, Peter is leaving for England this Wednesday for two weeks so we will not get time with him as much as we hoped for. On the bright side, we met Ted who is a close friend of Peter. Ted had an accident ten years ago which caused him to be partially paralyzed but he can move for about two hours a day. We caught up with him and Peter on last Wednesday by coincidence (God inspired I think), and he was extremely open to conversation. Supposedly his social circle has diminished due to his disability so he seemed really touched when we talked about talking with him. We talked a little about churches and he seemed extremely receptive to it as well. So the game plan is to keep in touch with Peter as much as possible and while he is away, talk to Ted and maybe we could start some sort of group with them. I am extremely excited about the potential in this situation.

Friday after breakfast was awesome as well, we had tea with Peter and sat out on the grass with him. Storm and I got snagged by Sandra before we were able to join them on the grass. Sandra explained that she has a sister in the hospital, who has cancer and her entire stomach has been removed. The sister's name is Phyllis and we asked if we could pray for her and her sister. Then I explained that I am a Christian and then we ended up having a conversation that lasted over thirty minutes where she basically unloaded her life on me. She attends a gnostic church (I am not aware of what a gnostic church stands for and I should do more research on that) she specified that it was not an agnostic church and that she isnt quite a "believer" but she likes the speaking. She sells water paintings in Venice and is not going to be out there too often this summer but if we see her again hopefully God will bring us some fruitful conversations.

Today we did Chi Kung and it was great. My knuckles got swollen from punching the bag so much. We had tea and conversation but nothing spiritual came up today. And here we are...it is now Sunday and I think our whole team is so ready to see what is ahead of us for the week.

Things to pray for:

+Peter

+Ted

+Venice Beach

+Sandra

+Phyllis

+Jeff (Josh and Bruces connection in Santa Monica for starting a possible new church)

+Santa Monica (and the college)

+Tony

Thank you all the people who have been praying for this trip and the people that we have been talking to, I have truly learned the power of prayer here and we appreciate that you guys are willing to aid us with Jesus power.

Grace and Peace

Dios es increible!

God is amazing! jussayin. I am so excited about the growth that has occured in all of us this trip! For me this week has been really exciting. Boldness is something that I have been reminded constantly of and continuously praying for it this whole trip. I have been frustrated with myself for my lack of boldness when normally I will talk to anyone. I have been excited this week because I was finally able to tell my fears to be quiet and that I was going to go talk to Weihung before I talked myself out of it. This was such an amazing feeling for me and I thank God for that! I still would ask you to pray for boldness for me. The conversations that God has blessed me with have shown me a lot. Yesterday at Six Flags I was able to talk to a Guatemalan woman, Cara and play peek a boo with her baby girl, Megan. We both only spoke a "pequeno" (little) of each other's language but through signs, motions, and the little bit I remembered from taking Spanish in high school we were able to communicate. It was amazing to me how God allowed us to communicate with such a large language barrier. That was such an exciting feeling!!! They were such a sweet family. We had such a great time at Six Flags! On the rides we felt the greatest possibility of death (aka the ride Tatsu) where it was literally like flying through the air we did a lot of praying, screaming, or laughing uncontrollably depending on how we each handled fear. We have strength in knowing that God is always with us whether riding roller coasters or talking to people about our faith.

Storm, Luke, and Thomas had a breakfast date with Peter this morning which I understand was the most amazing conversation they have had since they arrived in LA! They all seemed very excited about the conversation but are disappointed that Peter will be leaving for a little bit. Thankfully he will be back before we leave though!

Storm and I volunteered this afternoon at A Window Between Worlds! We are really enjoying this place! The ladies that work there are so sweet! Tomorrow they are having a big event The Music and Art Festival 2009 so today we were crazy busy preparing. We loaded lot of cars with items for the event, printed out instructions, contemplated throwing a printer out the window, made signs, and tried to lower every one's stress level. They all did such an awesome job of staying stress free and super organized! Tomorrow (Sat.) we are going to be backup volunteers at the event if someone doesn't show up or if they need other help!!! It is going to be a lot of fun!!!

Josh and Bruce hung out at coffee shops this afternoon praying and brainstorming about Monday when they do the sign again! Luke and Thomas hung out with Tony at his shop for the afternoon! I believe they all had a great day!

We came back and hung out until dinner time! We had pupusas in honor of Josh for his birthday tomorrow! I know we have complimented on the food we have ate a lot but it really has been amazing especially tonight!!! Storm and I worked on our Spanish some more which is always a lot of fun and creates a lot of laughs! Then the group went to see Transformers!!! I thought it was good!!

Be praying for...

Pray for the urgency. Time is flying by literally we only have like 3 weeks left which kind of freaks me out to think about. Pray for the relationships that we have built that we will find the connection point so that they can continue when we are back home. Continue to pray for the relationships as they are still growing and that the spiritual conversations will be easy to have.

Pray for boldness as we talk to people. Pray that we will be very intential when starting conversations and when talking about spiritual matters.

Pray for LA that people will be more receptive to converstations about God.

Pray for the conversations that Bruce is going to have on Monday with people at the coffee shops with the sign. Pray for Jeff, Josh's new friend, that those conversations and meetings continue to be well. Pray that they will be able to have church together and lead to other meetings with friends.

Pray for Chi Kung lessons tomorrow as Luke and Thomas talk to Tony and continue to gain his respect and start God conversations.

Pray for the ladies that work at a Window Between Worlds that we will be able to have conversations with them about God. Pray that the event flows well for them and that they raise money for domestic violence shelters.

Pray that we are continually sharing God's love with people we come in contact with to the point that it becomes a way of life for us!!!

Thank you for reading our blogs and supporting us through pray it means so much to all of us!

Love,

Kelsey

1,2,5, no....22 blocks and no Chinese food!

As you may be aware, I am a little...okay, a whole day late on getting my blog up. After 2 meetings, 4 hours of hectic volunteer work, and an intense (but heartfelt, I am sure) team time, I just crashed. How lucky am I then that I blog on Wednesdays so I have our free day to redeem myself?

The past week has been a mass of craziness - it's been a rollercoaster ride getting through it all. Speaking of rollercoasters, those are exactly what Josh, Bruce, Kelsey, and our buddy David went on ALL day today (it is 11:00 pm and they are just getting dinner). They found this amazing sale on tickets for Six Flags and decided to spend their day fighting two-hour-long lines and repeatedly plunging to their death...(sorry, I much prefer waterslides so I am a little biased). Luke, Thomas and I had some chill time at the church until lunch time. Then follows this EPIC adventure to walk around the corner to a Chinese restaurant Luke had seen previously. So we walk......14th street.....and we walk......22th street.......and we walk.....36th street...NO Chinese! Sadly, we trudge back to the Subway we had spotted and discuss Luke's possible delusions as we chomp into the deli goodness. We ate dinner at an Arab restaurant and I experienced my first ever Shawarma wrap. They were tasty - much like the gyros we sometimes get on Venice Beach.

The part of the evening I wasn't expecting was the deep discussion Luke, Thomas and I began to have on open-theism at Starbucks afterward. I can't even explain the jumble of thoughts in my brain right now as I consider for the first time the ideas of "falling from grace" and the quandary of God as an All-Powerful being v. a Merciful being. Interesting concepts that I will now have to ponder for days, weeks, and months to come...

However, conversations on controversial spiritual beliefs are only one of the challenges that have come up this week for the team. After the push and encouragement from Ken and Bob, the team has really risen to the challenge of overcoming the fear of beginning conversations and bringing up spiritual topics. Team time has been especially focused on spiritual growth within the team. Josh, as the leader, has led us in opening up with our testimonies and truly thinking about the way Christ has influenced our lives. Many people when they hear the word "testimony," automatically think of the generic "how old were you when you were saved?" or "tell all of the bad things that have happened in your life" or "give the perfect Christian answer." But in reality, a testimony isn't about telling a story from your perspective or a chronology of your entire life... it's about looking back and figuring out where God was in your story, what he means to you because of that, and deciding where to go next in your walk with Him.

There has been relational growth as well as spiritual growth, too. Last Sunday we each gathered gifts to bring to our "house church" type meeting, and mine was a little out of the ordinary. I challenged every member of the group to spend the days before our next meeting figuring out the ways in which they value and appreciate every other member of the group. Yesterday, we sat in a circle and focused our time on each person individually - telling them things that they may or may not have known about themselves, but that show how much we care for each other throughout all of the busyness and craziness of living together for a whole summer. To be honest, I didn't expect my suggestion to fly, but the team was very willing and had a great time experiencing some time focused solely on them and their merits. I can't think of a better encouragement to others than to be shown that they matter.

Tomorrow (if we can get the three who went to Six Flags out of bed,) will be filled with field and volunteer work. We can only ask you and thank you a million times for the wonderful prayers we have gotten - especially as there are many individual meetings and personal discussions occurring in the next couple of days.

Love to you all - and check maps for existing restaurants before setting out on foot! :.D
~Storm

"She spoke Chinese with a 'Bell-Jing' accent."

Dearest friends,

Today was a pretty good day, I'm not gonna lie. It started off as usual with the most important meal of the day. As we were devouring a plate full of deliciousness, we watched as thousands of people made their way to the Staples Center for MJ's memorial service. I would just like to point out that Lou Ferrigno was interviewed. He was the King of Pop's PERSONAL trainer...how sick-nasty-awesome is THAT?! One would think that with having an ex-Hulk as a trainer, Michael would have been a lot more buff...

Aaaaanyway, after watching a bit more of this spectacle, we made our way to our separate areas. Josh and I took on Montana Ave and the coffee shops. Luke and To-Mas were dropped off in Venice. And Kelsey and Stromboli (Storm) walked over to Santa Monica College.

For Josh and I, today was a pretty much a day of processing. We had to go over what we had learned about yesterday with the sign that we had made, and the people Josh had talked to. Josh had e-mailed Jeff (from Agapa, the spiritual community) and set up a meeting for Friday between 2-4 pm. They should be sitting down for about an hour or so just discussing in more detail about what we are doing here. It'd be really awesome if we could get together with Jeff and some of his friends and just have some good conversations and share our faith with one another. With that said, just continue to pray for this situation and for Josh as he will be meeting with Jeff one-on-one Friday.

Thomas and Luke had a pretty slow day up until about 30 minutes before we picked them up. They stopped by Tony's (Chi Kung master) shop just to say hello. Tony ended up offering them some tea which lead to some good conversation. Soon after Peter and his friend Ted showed up at the shop where they all got to hang out together. This was the guys' first time meeting Ted. Apparently Ted and Peter were martial art buddies until an accident almost paralyzed Ted. Now he spends the largest part of everyday on his back to build up spinal fluid just so he can walk around a few hours a day. The really good news is, he lives pretty close to Santa Monica College, which is right across the street from where we stay (and if you have been keeping up with us then you probably already know that). So hopefully Luke and Thomas will be seeing a lot more of him. Also, Peter is going to have breakfast with Storm, Thomas and Luke Friday morning. So keep them in your prayers and ask that God bless them with good conversation and fellowship.

Finally, Storm and Kelsey had an interesting day over at SMC. Storm was approached by a guy named Moses. He initially asked her if she was interested in coming to a bible study, similar to the guy last week. Come to find out those guys are connected. Storm explained what we are doing and if they find the time they may check that out sometime soon. While this was going on, Kelsey decided to go talk to a girl that was by herself. Her name was Weihung, or Wei. She just graduated from Beverly Hills High School and is taking summer classes at SMC. Her and her family moved to the US from China when she was 8 years old. Kelsey informed us that she spoke Chinese, but that she had an accent from "Bell-Jing"...

Let me take this time to explain. Bell-Jing is the city in which the 2008 Summer Olympics were held. It is the capital of the People's Republic of China and the second largest city in the country, after Shanghai, with a population of about 17 Million people. Some people may pronounce the name as Beijing, but Kelsey's AMAZINGLY accurate pronunciation of "Bell-Jing" was spot on...we think she just got Belgium and Beijing intertwined, which is very understandable.

Back to what's important. Kelsey conversed with Wei for about 2.5 hours and ended up finding out she was Atheist/Agnostic. She had grew up Bhuddist but her family had only practiced it because of tradition. Hopefully they girls will be able to continue to see Wei and build a relationship with her while we are here.

Well, tomorrow we meet with Jonathan Stockstill around 10:30 am and then Kelsey and Storm are taking off to volunteer while us guys go out into the areas a while. Ted Knapp will be meeting with us also in the afternoon/evening for a dinner meeting from 4:30 until 8 pm or so.

Ok ya'll, it's late. I hope this wasn't too unbearable to read. I usually try to throw in more humor but I am per-itty tired. I promise I will make up for it. We definitely appreciate the prayers and encouragement from you all. I will leave you with a few things to continue praying about:

1- Team dynamics. Living with and seeing the same people all day, everyday for a month gets a little tough sometimes. I doubt anyone of the others would say it on the blog, but I pull no punches (that's a lie). But I am sure they all are feeling the strain too. We all love each other but just pray that we continue to show it haha.
2- Opportunities. Opportunities. Opportunities. Whether it be from meeting new people to good discussion with those we have met. We know that God is definitely working and has been. And with faith and prayer He will for sure bring great things out of the next 4 weeks.
3- What happens after we leave. We are half-way finished with this awesome adventure. We still have a lot of time left, but we must start thinking of how to hand this off to the right people once we leave so that they may continue what we have started. We are not sure how that is gonna work yet but we are figuring that out.

I love you all and I thank you once again for everything.
God Bless,
B-Ruce

A Sign.

It never ceases to amaze me just how God works. Sometimes, I expect big things and its in the still, small moments that I hear Him the most and sometimes I expect nothing and God hits me with boulders that I didn't see coming. Well, today, I wasn't sure quite what to expect.

At our first meeting with Ken & Bob a story came up about how Ken sat in a coffee shop one day with a sign that said "Tell me your God story and get a free coffee." When I first heard this story, I was a little skeptical. First I thought to myself "Doesn't that only attract Christians?". Next I thought to myself, "How can he afford that?" and finally, I thought "What a weird way to get people to talk about God." Well, about four days later as I was sitting in a coffee shop and reading Brennan Manning's "Signature of Jesus" (a book on what it means to be a disciple) I was reading  a chapter about 'celebrating the darkness'. The general jist of the chapter was if you find yourself surrounded by darkness, loneliness and a place void of everything comfortable...then you're probably right where God wants you and desires you to be. Manning goes on to talk about how it's only when we use our faith that we have faith and its only when we enter into the 'darkness' that we push back the darkness and how if we're not intentionally putting ourselves in those dark places, and if we don't find ourselves in the 'dark' a lot...then we're probably not committed to the lifestyle of a disciple. 

As I was reading this chapter, I began to think about Ken's story and I was challenged. What was I doing to intentionally put myself in harm's way for the sake of Christ, others and love? The answer was deafening...nothing. I began to think about Ken's story and how it seemed to be a great way to put oneself out in the darkness. So, I shared my thoughts with Bruce and he and I began to pray about it starting last week. Throughout the rest of the week, anticipation and excitement grew about the idea of doing this "God Story" sign, and we knew that it was something that God was calling us to be obedient to. So, we decided that today, Monday, would be the first day we did it. 

So, we did it. I guess the story of today really started last week and picked up intensely yesterday, Sunday. I began to think a lot more and pray a lot more about what this meant for mine and Bruce's faith walks. We were about to put ourselves out there for people to comment one way or the other about our faith, make faces at us, agree, disagree, love and hate us. For me, it was undoubtedly the first time I'd ever done anything like it...which is pretty sad at the age of 22 (Okay, this coming Saturday I'll be 22. I'm rounding!). My whole last year of college was spent trying to pursue holiness, and what this "God Story" sign thing has taught me is that I was only getting half of the picture of holiness. God's greatest commandment to us is "Love God, love your neighbor.'' My senior year at ASU had been all about the first half, and completely missing the last half. Sure, I loved those around me that were easy to love (most of the times) like family and friends, but if I really think about it...I hadn't gone out of my way to love those that didn't deserve it or that I didn't know needed it. I hadn't put myself out there for the sake of love of others and God. So, today was my first step in the second half of God's greatest commandment. At least that's how I'm looking at it. Don't get me wrong, I in no way think I've got all of the first half of it down pat...but the second half of it I haven't really touched at all. Until today, I never realized how much of God's presence I was missing out on by just being obedient to the first half of God's greatest commandment. This past year was the first time that I really felt like I was surrendering my life to be with God and it was a blessing to be in the presence of God in so many ways. But after today, I've learned I was only experiencing a small portion of God. 

So, let's get down to the logistics of what today looked like. It first started with some intense praying as I lay down for sleep last night. Then, I woke up this morning early to have some quiet time, preparation time and more prayer time. I was nervous as all get out when I woke up, so I knew I was going to only be able to go through the day with two things: God working through me and the prayer and accountability of those around me. So, I sent out a mass text to my prayer support group asking for extra prayers today, got a shower and prayed all morning, and wrote out the sign which eventually said "Tell me your God story (good, bad, believer, or non-believer) and get a FREE small coffee of your choice." 

So Bruce, Kelsey, Storm and I piled into the car and went to Montana Street. We dropped the girls off at Peet's coffee to spend the day. We decided it may look a little weird and be awkward for people there if they saw a group of four people walking up, talking and taking up 2-3 tables while one of them put a weird sign asking for God stories. So, we dropped them off and Bruce and I headed to Starbuck's down the road. We got there and in my prayers I'd been praying for the outside table right beside the door going in. Weather isn't ever an issue (it never rains here) and it was a beautiful day for God to do His work. The table is probably the most seen table and probably the best location to bee seen. So, sure as God is God, we walked up and it was open. I put my stuff down and taped the sign on the back of one of the chairs. Bruce took a table inside. You see, Bruce and I had decided that it would be best if we were both at the same coffee shop while one of us did the sign thing and the other one of us prayed all day for the other person and the people they  would be talking to. So, it worked out that I was the guy with the sign and Bruce was the prayer warrior. 

So I sat down and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited. I definitely got some interesting looks. Some people went so far as to laugh out loud at such an 'obsurd' idea I heard it called. Some people gave the friendly smile. Some people saw the sign from their cars at the intersection, slowed down and read it. Some people gave looks of confusion. And still, others read it and kept on as if nothing was out of the ordinary. These looks kept up for about an hour and a half. Then Surinder (pronounced Surrender) sat down beside me. She looked at me and said "Is that yours?" I nodded. "Why?" My response came from nowhere other than Christ. Its weird really. I couldn't have thought of the answer I gave her, but through the prayers of those at home, Bruce, my teammates, and so on...God began to speak through me. I said something along the lines of "Well, I think everyone has a story and someone needs to listen to it. Someone needs to say 'Hey, I love and care about you, but more importantly so does God.'" Again, the response just flew out of my mouth and I was surprised myself. Not at how good of an answer it was, but how I could feel the presence of God settling on this conversation. 

The conversation picked up and Surinder began to tell me about her life. She is of Indian descent, but lived in Canada most of her life. She followed a guy to LA, broke up with him and found another one and got married. She's been in LA for 8 years now and is still loving it. She's a Sikh follower (http://fateh.sikhnet.com/s/SikhIntro) and her husband is a Buddhist. Due to some life difficulties (death of her mother, back surgery) she's had some troubles lately with starting her business. But, she's hopeful and excited about where it's going. That was pretty much the depth of our conversation. She talked in detail some about her Sikh faith, but if I tried to get into those details on here, it wouldn't make sense. So, check out the provided website. Anyways, after she left I was excited. I'd been praying and I know others were too, that God would send at least one person today, and here one person had come and gone. We had some pretty good conversation, it was spiritual, but it wasn't too in-depth. 

I'll admit, at first I was a little discouraged by the lack of depth to the conversation. I guess I had gone into today thinking that God was going to do VISIBLE great things. I expected tears, I expected salvation, I don't really know actually...but I think I was expecting more than what the conversation with Surinder was about. But, after she left and I began to process, here I was and already in a matter of a 20 minute conversation, I knew about this woman's faith, family, business, and recent hardships. God had far exceeded my expectations and there was no way I should have tried to keep Him in such a box. 

So, after Surinder left and I got over the discouragement, I got really excited. I promise, it's hard to explain, but after that on the sidewalk outside of Starbucks, I knew God was there and ready to do some work. So, I sat and waited for the next conversation. It would be another two hours before another one came along.

In that tw0-hour time period though, there were several more questions of why I was doing this, what was the 'catch' or purpose, and so on. One lady thought I was writing a screen play. When I told her what I was really doing, she smiled sweetly and said "Oh that's so cute. You're so sweet." Except, it was kind of like the "Uh, how do I take this. What do I say now?" kind of thing. Either way, I was encouraged because she'd taken the time to ask. 

So, during those two hours I kept praying "Okay God, I've got one under my belt. I feel comfortable talking about it. Now, just send one more. Just send one more..." then my prayer began to repeat itself. In fact, most of my prayers today were all repetitions of one another. I've never prayed the same few prayers for so long, but never once did they seem redundant. Instead, I found myself feeling like I was communicating with a God who was letting me delight in His presence. 

So, after two hours of praying "Just one more. Just one more, God." Two more came along.

Bruce and I had planned to go at 3 o'clock and it was about 2:00 when the second conversation came along. We'd been at it since 11AM, and here it was 3 hours later and starting my second conversation. It started with a "That's different," comment by one man named Adam. He'd seen the table, read the sign and said "I'll think about it. Let me get my coffee and I'll be back." So, while he was getting his coffee, I prayed "Okay God, speak through me and bless Adam!" When Adam came back, he didn't take a seat but wanted to talk. He and I talked for the next 10-15 minutes about his story. Actually, he claimed he didn't have one. He was an athiest/agnostic (he said he was each one, but never made a clear distinction) with one goal in life: rid the world of all organized religion. His first question was, "So, you must be an evangelical Christian with a evangelical goal in mind?" To this I responded yet again in ways that I don't think I could have normally thought of. "No sir. I'm a Christian, yes. But, I have no purpose here other than to listen and hear your story and let you know that God loves you and I care and love you as well." He paused, and stared for a second. "Wow, I've never seen that approach before." He then commended me on being able to be a Christian but not one who was shoving it down anyone's throat. He'd never encountered such a Christian before. Then he said, "You know, I'd love to sit down but all I could offer is a debate and you and I both know we don't want that. I know I'm right and I know you think you're right." So, I agreed. I didn't want a debate. So, I asked him some more about his atheist/agnostic views and why he hated organized religion. Simply put, he thought it was all hypocrisy. When I said I agreed to some extent, again he was stunned. He asked me some more about the whole "love" thing and if it was real. I said yes, I do love the people around me and do want them to know that God loves them too. From there, he told me his 'message' for me: atheists and agnostics love too. They're not people who hate and are angry all the time. In fact, in order to be a true agnostic/atheist, you must adopt a humanist view of loving your neighbor. After his brief message, he again reiterated his disdain for organized religion, and how his main purpose in life was to get people like me to lose their religiosity. Let me say here that never once, again I say, NEVER ONCE, was this an argument or confrontation. It was two people dialoguing in a respectful manner about their beliefs (or lack there of). So, he told me some more about how he wanted to be an agent of change for the Atheist/Agnostic community and to encourage more love and less religion, in fact that's why he was getting his master's in "that stuff". So, I told him that much like him, I wanted to be an agent of change in the name of God and for the sake of love. Just like he wanted to be the 'different' atheist/agnostic, I wanted to be a new face of organized religion and to show that there are people out there that aren't about steeples, money and politics (those were his lists). At this point in the conversation, he was stunned again. I don't think he expected what I said. So, he again commended me on my non-confrontational manner and idea of 'witnessing'. His closing remarks were "You know, if there is a 'God' or a guy who can be so creative, then he must be pretty cool. If you really can create perfectly the eye of a bee to the design of a sunflower, then he's one f*#$ing cool guy!" My response was "Well, I believe in that God and guy, and you're right...he is one f'n cool guy." He smiled and said "Well, that's alright then." We shook hands, and peacefully parted ways. Thank you Adam!

After Adam left, a man sitting next to me looked over and said "You know, you handled that beautifully. I don't think it could have been better to be honest." He left his seat and sat down in front of me in 'the chair'. He asked a little about what the premise of the sign was, then proceeded to tell me his 'God' story. His name is Jeff and he's a writer. He cares a lot about the wellness of people and just published his first book on it with his brother. So, yesterday in a restaurant a woman and he kept locking eyes and he finally approached her. She said he'd looked familiar but didn't know why. Then he asked her if she believed in 'preminitions' and she said yes. Eventually, their conversation ended with her encouraging him in his new journey of writing and he couldn't help but think that was a Divine sign that God wanted him to do what he was doing.

So, Jeff and I began to talk. I asked him about his spirituality/faith and he willingly shared. He's a part of a faith community out here in LA, Agape, that is a spiritually driven community. Most of their texts come from the Bible, but they share some from the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita and other spiritual texts. He began to ask me a lot of questions on why I was out here, what I was doing, what it meant for me to love someone, what I considered a 'successful' day of showing a Divine love, what I wanted this trip to lead to and so on. I was pretty open with all my answers. I told him I'd come out here with a group of college friends in hopes of starting a church. First and foremost, our priority was to love at all costs and our end goal was to get a church going. He seemed very interested in this idea and how it wasn't about being in a building with a steeple, but a faith community that sharpened one another in the presence of God and encouraged one another through the Spirit. He compared what we were trying to do to much of his faith community. I tried to avoid the comparisons, but he took them there sometimes. Fortunately, most of our conversation was on what it meant to love people, how we experienced God (him through wellness {yoga, proper dieting, meditation, etc.} and me through nature), and how LA was a place in need of a lot of love. So, eventually I got his contact information and have some tentative plans to get together with him again. He again encouraged me in how I approached Adam and in what my team and I were doing, then he went back to his table. Once he got there, we just couldn't stop talking. He gave me some GREAT tips on being a writer and I'm excited about where this new friendship may take me. Already, I've been exposed to a new idea of 'spirituality' out here and tons of new spiritual conversations. 

I'm hoping that Jeff and I can get together again (possibly with some of his friends) and really wrestle over the matters of God together. I know it will be difficult (one of the contributors to the book The Secret is one of their leaders) because while he is kind of the 'as long as love and obedience to God is there, you're doing good' mindset (this including all religions), I'm of the 'Christ and His love matters most" mindset. So, I'm hoping for some more conversations and getting to know Jeff some more!

I could definitely talk a lot more about today. But, I'll close with this: for the first time in my life, I knew what God meant by love Him and love my neighbors. You cannot participate or rejoice in the presence of God by only loving Him and not our neighbors. We're missing half of the picture of God if we do that! So, today was my first step in that direction of surrendering myself at all costs to be in the presence of God by loving Him and loving my neighbors. It was an intense couple of days being in constant prayer, spiritual conversation, and participation in a relationship with God...but it has definitely been a blessed couple of days. I feel like I've learned more about God in the past couple of weeks than I did all year trying to read and memorize scripture, pray a lot, meditate a lot, fast, and 'be holy'. So, I challenge you readers to practice all of the Great Commandment. For if you don't, then you're missing out on all that God has to offer!

So thanks for making it this far in reading. Thanks to those of you that prayed all day long. I want to especially thank my prayer group for being faithful prayer warriors and especially Bruce. I believe wholeheartedly if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to say and act the way I did today. Today wasn't about me doing or saying great things, but it was definitely a group effort of practicing boldness and courage to sit in front of a sign all day...asking for a God story. So, thanks team and I love and appreciate you all!

Some things to pray for:

1 - Another day of the sign: Bruce is going to do the same thing this coming Friday at another coffee shop. He'll be doing the talking with people while I pray. Start the prayers now because the more the better! Pray for openness, obedience, words, wisdom and courage!

2 - Jeff: I look forward to more conversations with Jeff and hopefully some of his friends! Pray that God would bless me with more opportunities to talk with him and share with him!

3 - The Adam's of this world: It breaks my heart to know that organized religion has driven people to the point of making their life goal to disband it. Pray that God would forgive those that forced it on Adam and that Adam would one day meet that ''pretty f#*$ing cool God" that created the sunflower and bee!

(Okay, so I know I said I was done but one more 'praise the Lord' thing. One of the things Bruce and I were worried about was financially being able to pay for an infinite amount of coffee if God brought an infinite amount of people our way. Not once did any of the 3 people or any of the other aside conversation people ask for their coffee. They just wanted someone to listen and someone to love them! So, we've been blessed and have the funds to buy a lot of coffee, but today was not the day that we had to use it!)

Today both teams went out into the world and had some good conversations in each of their areas. Three of us went and hung out in coffee shops talking with people and three of us went to chi kung. We're all enjoying our new outlook on our ministry here. Thanks to Ken and Bob we are all getting a huge kick out of working for Jesus. WHOO HOO!!!

We had a wonderful church experience today as well. The team is really coming together as the body and learning how the church according to the gospel should be. I'm enjoying it alot.

So I'm only gonna throw out one prayer request today. Pray that our groups would mobilize the people we are reaching into a church. The best thing for our areas would be active, mobile believers at work there. That requires us to be the ones to do that. Whether finding stale believers or making new ones. I'm hoping for both. Pray for that. Pray hard. Pray with Faith. Pray with Hope.

God's blessings on you all,
Grace and Peace,
Luke =)

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy fourth of July!

We had our Chi Kung lessons today and there was a smaller class size than usual due to the holiday, they turned out good. We learned how to pull someone's trachea out with our hands. We are excited about continuing that relationship and we are getting more and more of Tony's respect. The rest of the day was fun, we had a cookout at Rosita's house. Hispanics are the best cooks ever, just gonna throw that out there. Then we watched fireworks and almost got blown up, i was scared for my life. But it was a great time and it was fun to join in the Hispanic church's community.

Keep praying for our areas and the relationships that we are forging, thank you guys for the support.

Only four weeks left.

When we arrived here we thought eight weeks was going to be a long time and we have been surprised by how fast the weeks have flown by. Now we are down to four weeks and constantly reminded of the urgency of our mission and that we need to be bold about that mission.

Fridays are our days to meet with Ken and Bob, so that is how our day began! We talked about what we had been doing since the last time we talked. I think most of us felt disappointed that we didn't have a ton of exciting stories to tell Ken and Bob. Together we did an exercise where we all split up and brainstormed ideas about what we would do if we had four weeks left to plant a church and to come up with questions to start a conversation. The ideas that we thrown out there were great but Bob said something that made since and that was "Think lean and fast." He was trying to remind us that these spiritual conversations don't have to be well planted out but rather let them happen where they are. We are called to show God's love to people and to intentionally initiate conversations with them. Sometimes I think that we allow fear to get in the way which in reality is ridiculous. I mean what is the worse that could happen to us?? Rejection. I liked Bob's answer to that question which was "death but then we will be in heaven so is it really the worse." In my opinion we know this and we have been told this numerous times but somehow when we are about to start a conversation with people we chicken out. They challenged us not think twice but rather to just go and start a conversation. We are praying that God will give us courage and boldness. They suggested that we set a daily covenant with God to talk to two people before we eat dinner and to make these conversations very intentional about talking about God. I think we felt challenged by this conversation so that we will be more bold about talking to people. It is not about being comfortable but rather about taking that leap of faith and talking to that person God has put in our lives.

After this conversation some were ready to jump out there and get started. Thomas and Luke headed out to Venice on our newly repaired bikes (thanks to Jeff). They decided to talk to the Christian Science people and after learning about their beliefs could be called unsaved. After their conversation today they got an invite to come back and talk. On the boardwalk in Venice they talked with James, the painter, again and got a lunch invite. Success!!!!

Josh and Bruce went to the Starbucks to have God conversations in the coffee shops. Bruce was bold enough to ask a man setting near him if he could pray for anything specific for him. Prayer is such an important part of missions. Storm and I hit up the laundry mat (It is amazing how much laundry there is between six people) and did the group laundry. While Storm and I were having an intense conversation about what we believed with each other we knew that a woman near us was listening. Later she talked to us about laundry and told us a little bit about her children but unfortunately the conversation did not go farther than that. Then the four of us went to Starbucks on Montana. We did a lot of people watching and processing.

We came back and folded laundry....fun fun! Then after dinner, we decided to go to the beach to watch the sunset and play frisbee. Thankfully we had a glow in the dark frisbee!!! This was actually fun as opposed to folding laundry. We decided we wanted some "treats" so we went to McDonalds which turned into an interesting experience. If you ask Josh or Bruce they might say that we dodged a bullet but the rest of us would just say we were a little sketched out by the guys we saw that borrowed Josh's phone. Then we came back and chilaxed (combination of chill and relax)!! Altogether a great day!

So if you could continue to pray for us that would be awesome!!! Specifically for....

boldness.... that we will intentially start spiritual conversations with people that we come in contact with.

courage.... that we will not fear talking to people because we all are completely capable and should have nothing to fear especially with God on our side.

relationships.... the relationships to grow that have already been started and the ones that are still to come. That they will be open to spiritual conversation. Pray for the people we are going to be talking to that God puts in our pathway.

Pray for the people in LA.

With love,

Kelsey

"Life can swallow you whole" - a survivor of domestic violence

Today was a field work day. After our new routine of breakfast, some form of caffeine, and a few pages in our daily packet devotional (compliments of Bob), the group prepared for another day of intense missional experiences. And intense it was...

Luke and Thomas were the first to be dropped off at Venice Beach for the day. Kelsey and I were dropped off a little farther down the strip as well for some quiet time and our new volunteer work at a place called "A Window Between Worlds." Josh and Bruce then headed to a street in Santa Monica where they planned to frequent coffee shops for meaningful conversation.

Kelsey and I were early for our 12pm volunteer appointment, so we had some quiet reflection time in Cafe Collage (to Luke and Thomas: We got there first! :.D hehe). Then we began the walk towards the most peaceful, residential road in the Venice Area. The non-profit organization is located in an apartment/house complex that looks really secretive at first glance. You would honestly never know it was there if not for the small label on the intercom box out front. (Let me just start out by saying that having to use one of those intercom systems to be "buzzed" into a place was a really cool experience and made me feel extra important.) Then began the amazing process of learning all about the place.

We took a tour and met Cathy, the woman who founded A Window Between Worlds, which trains leaders in art therapy to help out women and children who live in shelters because they are or were victims of domestic violence. The place is completely covered in this amazing artwork that inspires everyone, no matter the talent of the person or the materials used. Kelsey and I met the 7 or 8 women who have basically trained over 200 leaders that take the program back to just as many shelters around the United States, "even Alaska and Hawaii" (they were fond of telling us). Our jobs for the day consisted of cutting out paper hands for an event coming up, painting envelopes, addressing and stuffing the most personalized thank-you letters I have ever seen an organization make into beautiful envelopes, cleaning and re-molding colored clay, and carrying art books from the office into the training room.

Because of my love of art and Kelsey's passion for social work, we enjoyed everything about the place and hope to become even more familiar with the people in it. The most outgoing and bubbly of the group, Christy, has already made a special bond with Kelsey over the song "God Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts and showed us her own spiritually-filled artwork, which Kelsey is hoping will lead to more conversations about the subject in the future. I can't even explain how it affected me to hear and read about the stories of women and children survivors of domestic abuse while seeing the artwork they created - basically unearthing their deepest secrets, fears, and hidden lives. It's amazing the blessing that I have in my parents and loving family.

Though our work was simple and repetitive, just doing those easy tasks seemed to be a Godsend to them - they were so sweet, even giving us hugs before we left (something I haven't seen a lot of here when knowing people for such a short time.) I know Kelsey and I both enjoyed the day, finding our niche in different areas of the work we did and interactions we had. We plan to go back every Wednesday and Friday.

Team time tonight unearthed some struggles for all groups, however.
Here are some areas for prayer:
1. Both Josh and Bruce, and Luke and Thomas have dealt with the disappointment of having several of their key people of outreach being strangely absent for the past two days.
2. Schedule frustrations have come up due to lack of our key mode of transportation (aka. our bikes are broken...sad day.)
3. Issues with finding the "right words to say" and ways to broach more spiritual conversation.
4. Distractions of all kinds.

We are doing our best to remain encouraged and energized for each new day. As the team is figuring out how to effectively and purposely "love" as Jesus did, we want to thank everyone again and again for their continued love and support of us.

Blessings, Storm

I don't drink coffee...sort of.

HI!

As you all know, I fell down out of the shower last week. Just a quick update, I am officially NOT sore any more and feel comfortable standing while bathing now (thanks to the shower mat).

This morning started quite early for Josh and I. Around 5:30 this morning we woke up in order to get my new friend Amber back to the airport. Oh yeah and Sara...she was leaving too (thank goodness). No I'm kidding, they are both great people and devoted blog-readers of the LA Parachute Project. I am lucky to have met them and they are certainly part of the team now. I am actually Facebook friends with both of them now, which I take pride in. They'll probably want to hang out with me again once school starts back in the Fall. I could probably spare some time out of my busy schedule to see them again...

Upon our return from LAX Josh and I got about another hour of sleep before waking up to breakfast burritos via Lupita. They were "violently" delicious as Luke would say. After the meal, the team sat down together to do a few pages of the devotion that Bob gave us. Before I go any further I want to give you all something to think about from the packet.

Someone once remarked:
"I was going to ask God why He allows so much suffering and injustice
to continue in the world. But I decided not to because I was afraid He
might ask me the same question"

That was the first thing in the devotion that we read this morning, and it has been running through my mind all day. I won't dive into that right now because of all there is to say about it, but I will say that Bob's devotion is teaching me a lot of things that I thought I knew but is vividly reminding me of. I think that sometimes we forget that we are here on earth to LOVE one another. We often get caught up in satisfying ourselves and our selfish desires. I am definitely guilty of this myself, but Romans 12:10 says "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves."

After our devotion we set out to our first day on the field since last week when we started making the changes to our strategy. Kelsey and Storm walked over and spent the day hanging around Santa Monica College. They told us of some interesting people they saw on campus and the hangouts at which people spend their time in between classes. Tomorrow they are both actually going to do some volunteer work in the inland area of Venice. You will hear more about that in tomorrow's blog.

Luke and Thomas spent the day in Venice Beach. They got to talk to a few people that they were hoping to have conversation with, including the artist that Josh felt pulled towards. Turns out he is a pretty cool guy and is looking forward to seeing Thomas and Luke in the near future. They also had some good conversations including an Egyptian man that was actually a believer and went to a local church. This is definitely some exciting and encouraging news.

Josh and I hung out on Montana Ave here in Santa Monica. This is where a lot of the locals spend their time away from the tourists. We've discovered that coffee shops are THE place to be. We'll be spending a lot of time there for the next couple of weeks, and the funny thing is...I came into this trip hating coffee. I still hate coffee, but I have found ways to get around it. Such as getting a 10,000 calorie frapuccino (for the glory of God of course). I gotta fit in, ya know? We spent the morning in Starbucks and after lunch we walked a couple of blocks up towards Peet's Coffee and Tea Company. But on the way I stopped by the Barber Shop to get a quick haircut. It is there where I met June, a very petite Asian lady who has been cutting hair for fifteen years. I am not sure how long she has been living in the US, but she probably told me and I just couldn't understand. She seems like an awesome old lady, but her accent was pretty bad. You see, she kept asking me how long I have been here in LA and I kept telling her almost a month. I had no idea why she kept asking me the same thing over and over so I also kept replying the same. As she turned me around towards the mirror and yelled a bit louder "do you comb your hair to the side?", I then realized that she really didn't care how long I have been in LA, but only which way I part my hair...

Josh and I left Peet's a bit early because we were both physically drained, and the people there were a bit more interested in their Macbooks and iPods than anything we had to offer. So we came back and took a much needed nap. After an awesome dinner most of us went out to get a few groceries and a little piece of home, Krispy Kreme donuts. The rest of the night included our team time and a game of Spades between Kelsey/Josh and Luke/Myself. Luke and I won of course.

Well it is 1:04 in the am here, and we have another big day tomorrow. The room is lit only by the backlight of my PC and the air conditioning is making its low humming noise that puts me to sleep every night. I need to get up and work some of these donuts off in the morning but before I go, I will leave you with some things to pray about.

1. That God continues to bless our team with excitement and good spirits. I think I speak for the whole team when I say that I look forward to what He has planned for us in the next few weeks.
2. That He provides us with good opportunities to love other people and conversation in the areas that we are working in, and that we have the boldness and wisdom to find and jump on those opportunities.
3. For June, the lady who cut my hair in the barber shop. I know I joked a bit about her, but she really seems to be a kind old lady. I don't know her story or where she stands spiritually. I don't know if I will ever see her again, but I pray that God blesses her in her life.
4. Finally, for us Christians to put other's needs before our own, especially non-believers. And that we show the same love for someone that we do not know, as the love that we would show our own brother.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers.
God Bless,
Bruce