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