That's all it takes...

Today started off at 7:00 AM for Bruce, Josh, and me. After Bruce washed his hair "for the ladies" (that he might see at 7 AM) we started on a morning bike ride down the the beach and back. This time we found a route that consist of minimal hills which made me very happy. We were all a lot less sore today. When we came back from our bike ride we all had an amazing breakfast consisting of potatoes, eggs, quesadillas, and amazing fruit salad prepared by the wonderful Lupita.

Then Bruce, Josh, and Thomas went on a Target run (because if you ask where to find a Walmart you will be laughed at) to pick up some supplies. The rest of us stayed at the church and did more people research. Storm research volunteer possiblities with art and dance. Luke decided to do more research on Taoism, Kung Fu, Chi Kung, and Feng Shui to be more effective in talking to the people he had meet yesterday. Taoism focuses on finding inter peace and connecting with the universe. I researched and called the community center to find out more details about volunteering there. We played volleyball because some of us needed some practice before we hit the beach to use it as a ministry. Then we left for an Italian lunch in town.

After lunch, Bruce, Josh, and I dropped Thomas, Luke, and Storm off in Venice and drove back to Santa Monica. Today both groups felt Satan imposing on our day. Being one of the first days of the weekend there were a lot more people out. It made it harder to talk to vendors when they were busy with customers. Both groups discovered that it will be easier to talk with vendors during the week when they are less busy and that we were going to have to get creative on the weekends. Thomas, Luke, and Storm talked with the two Tonys again but had a hard time because of the busyness of the vendors. One of the Tonys, a Tao master, invited them to take Kung Fu classes tomorrow which will be a great way to connect and sounds like fun. Sadly, they were even unable to walk in their usual line formation, or "boy band walk" (copyrighted by Storm) because of all of the people.

At the Promenade, Bruce, Josh, and I were a little intimated by the large amounts of people that all seemed to be in a hurry. The original plan of hanging out in the coffee shops soon failed because of the lack of space. We sat outside for a little while and watched the people as they walked by. Then Bruce and I decided to walk down to the pier to check it out. As we were talking on the way down there we sat the goal of talking to a homeless person sometime on the route. So as we got closer to the beach we saw a man who was living on the beach and went to the pier to get him a sandwich and water. When we returned we met the man named Willy but he did not want the sandwich or really to talk to us so we kept walking. Then we saw a man digging through the trashcan nearby so we decided to talk to him. We offered him the sandwich and water and began to talk to him. His name was Jason and he was from Asheville, NC (ironically) and had road a bus out here about 4 weeks ago. He was living on the beach and playing his guitar. We had a good conversation and he told us we could come back anytime.

Back at the church we had a spagetti dinner (my favorite!). We ate dinner with the Hispanic church members and were able to talk to them. Then we decided it was time for some group reflection time so we headed out to the Promenade. Satan continued to impose on our day. When walking down the Promenade we saw a group gathering and went to check it out. Here we found a very frustrating situation and a reason why so many people are turned off by Christians. A man who tried to defend Christianity by bashing other religions, who was opposed to listening to the other side, and who was so incredibly fake. He was very illogical and rude. As Josh noted he didn't even mention God's love the whole time we were standing there. We are trying to tell others about God's love and it baffles me to see someone who doesn't even understand God's love for all people. He gives people the negetive view toward Christians. I did find it to be ironic that the man happened to be standing under a poster with the word "DARKNESS" on it.

While standing there Luke meet a man named Manny, who he began to speak to in Arabic. Luke explained that what the man was saying was ridiculous and that Luke was a Christian. He was a Muslim from Egypt but had many Christian friends and was turned off by these fake Christians. Thomas was also bold to talk to other people standing there and see what they thought about what was being said. Our group talked about how in the future it is a good idea to stand on the outskirts of the crowd and talk to the people about how we believe that what the man was saying was ridiculous and we were Christians, so we could help people to see God's love.

Obviously our group had a lot to talk about during our reflection time. Everyone seemed discouraged by the things we had experienced today. We talked through what we had just saw and what had happened today. We talked about how we needed to keep each other encouraged because we are each others support system. The group decided we needed to have a day where we prayer walk the areas all together every week to push the darkness out. Also that we need to make sure we pray every time we leave to go out into the darkness. We know that Satan is pushing so hard because God is doing something amazing or is about to do something amazing and we were encouraged by this thought. We realize the huge impact prayer has on what we are doing.

So continue to be praying for us as we are going into the darkness.

I am very thankful for this group of real believers and encouraged to see what God is going to do. The ride back to the church from the Promenade brought us back into an encouraged mood after the intense laughter always present in the group.

Kelsey