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