After a wonderful breakfast, we waited on Ken and Bob, two house church planter specialist in LA. I believe it is safe to say that the group felt unanimously encouraged after the meeting this morning.
We started out talking about how the church is not a building but rather it is a body of believers. The church planting they do is based out of the book of Acts. The churches they have planted are in homes. Everyone in the church participates in every service by bringing something to talk about with them. They have interactive discussions so that everyone is involved and learning. Rather than telling someone what to believe they talk it out and it is all about the interaction.
Bob told us a story about a weekend retreat he went on to learn about sharing his faith. After showing up on the second day they were given an assignment. The assignment was for the participants in groups of two to go take a car drive 150 miles away where they knew no one in the area, take no money or means with them, and to bless at least one person in this area, spend the night and drive back the next day. The idea was for them to go up to people they meet and show them they cared by asking them about their stories. By showing God’s love to people and investing time in people’s lives spiritual conversations were started and people were blessed. When we first came to LA we knew that we were here to share God’s love with the people here but sometime in the midst of all the different expectations we lost sight of that. It was freeing to be reminded that we are here to love on people, something we can all do. God is love and we have been called to share his love. I think that we all needed to hear this. It is so great to know that we all have strengths that God has given us to be used by him.
After the past few days we all needed some processing time. We went to different places coffee shops, parks, etc. to think about what we had just talked about. Storm and I took a tour of Santa Monica College with Anuhea, our new friend, to see the opportunities in this area that is right across the street from the church we are staying at. After dinner, it was cool to come back together at team time and talk about how we felt about today to find out that we all felt encouraged by today.
We finished off the night having some group bonding time watching a movie called “Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus” which some might say it was "epic" if they made it until the end without crashing (You would have to ask someone else).
So please be praying for us…
1) Pray for us as we share God’s love with the people of LA.
2) Pray for opportunities as they continue to come about and that God will lead us where he wants us to be.
3) Pray for Anahea as we continue to build that relationship.
4) For the Celebrate America event tomorrow where we will be helping out the Church on Pearl but also hanging out with people in the community.
With love,
Kelsey
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