So this blog post signifies the end of our first full week in LA. Wow. We all started off thinking that 8 weeks was a long time, and now we only have 7 left... the urgency of the gospel now has a new meaning to us all.
We were told before we got here that the expectations were low. "This is a pilot project. We don't know how well this will work. It may not work. It might work really well. We don't know." And when told about the areas we were given it was said "These are the darkest areas in LA. We haven't been able to get a church started in any of them. Several experienced church planters have come and spent lots of time and money into these areas with no success. A few salvations would be considered a huge success. A church plant...miraculous." They were right.
I read Ephesians 3:20 a week or two before we got here and it reads "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us..." hmm.... might we be having low expectations here?
The first time we walked through the Venice Beach area, Thomas asked me "So what do you think?" I believe my initial response still stands true, "I see a collage of paths, all of which lead to hell." I've been in some spiritually dark situations and places, but Venice takes the cake. Muslim mosques, Hindu temples, Pagan rituals, Satanists.... Venice still takes it. There is a half to 3/4 of a mile stretch that is only about fifty feet wide, and it is owned by Satan. I mean owned. Darkness abounds there. Drugs are openly sold, tarot card and palm readers everywhere, cosmic humanists, jews, muslims, hindus, crystal ball readers, sex addicts, drunks, disfigured, mentally insane, homeless, artists, dancers, poets, drummers, atheists, taoist, buddhist, native americans, shop keepers, wiccans.... need I go on? It's not that some of those couldn't be Believers, it's that none of them are. The other day Storm, Thomas and I started walking after a quick group prayer and within fifty steps I said "Should we prayer walk this area first? I feel some serious oppression right now." Both Storm and Thomas exhaled, almost gasp-like, saying "Yes, please!" It wasn't because we just really wanted to pray, we HAD to.
Josh, Kelsey and Bruce have targeted Santa Monica. Though they don't have the same number of crazy religions or druggies and stuff, their area is harder to get conversations going because people aren't open to talking with anyone. Both areas have serious amounts of very blatant spiritual activity going on. Both teams have had to adapt, attempt and re-adapt their strategies in order to see what works best, with who, and where when it comes to evangelism there.
So I guess now the question running through your mind is "Luke started this blog hinting at optimism. Why, then, did he start talking about darkness and difficulties? How is a church, or even a new believer, going to come out of those situations?" And the answer is simple: Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. You know the cliche bible verse "If God is for us, who can stand against us?" (It's the one people say all the time but they never genuinely believe or live out) Well this group genuinely believes it. Thomas read a verse to me the other day (it was the one particular day that Satan was just ticked off at us and didn't want anything we did to work or give us hope). The verse comes from Romans 5:3-5. It says "...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
Now for your part. I've been reading in 1 Samuel lately. Lots of battle scenes there. I've read about people fighting with swords, spears, battle-axes, pitch forks, hoes, and even ox goads. Well, we don't really do that anymore, as believers. Instead, we pray. Yup, spiritual weapon numero uno is prayer. When people pray for us, we can tell. We people pray for those that we're going to encounter, we notice even more. God is going to work wonders in LA. Sick nasty awesomeness is coming, we just have to be faithful to pray.
Thank you all so much for your prayers. I encourage you to continue to be faithful warriors for Christ.
The three things that are most needed to be prayed for are:
1) Protection
2) Opportunities
3) Guidance
(Jonathan Stocksill suggested it all start with the same letter, to prove that I'm Baptist. So if you prefer, it can also be stated as Protection, Possibilities, and Providence)
May there be great victory in the name of the King,
Luke =)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Perseverance brings Hope
So, today was a good day. Lupita, who is the greatest cook ever cooked us breakfast again, prepared it early because Saturday's is the day that she works. We all proceeded back to bed after breakfast and then had our quiet time.
Tony who is a Taoist, is one of our connections that we made walking through the Venice strip. Our group decided that learning Kung Fu would be a great in to getting to know Tony and possibly the people in the class. We prepared ourselves spiritually prior to the lesson for a potential dark situation because he seems to hardcore believe in his Taoist ways. We learned that we are actually going to learn Chi Kung which is more about accessing your inner "Chi" or life-force. I was glad to see that we were three of the only four students there. We met Peter who is a middle-aged British man and is a photographer for celebrities. Hopefully there can be some development with him while we take lessons.
We started the lessons and he explained to us the power that can be drawn from the "Chi." The lesson was probably one of the hardest workouts I have done in a while. All the moves require deep concentration and muscle control. As the lesson continued, I realized that this Chi is actually more like a superstition. He kept asking us if we felt a tingling in our fingers, which was simply the blood rushing back into our fingers. The movements are based on fluid motions and a good balance that originates from the gut area, which is where ones Chi comes from. We learned a little more about Tony after the lesson finished. We still have thirteen lessons left and we all see those as thirteen more opportunities to talk to him about Jesus.
Hunger was setting in after the lesson so we went to subway. After that we went prayer walking down the venice strip. We saw the other Tony who was busy singing or rapping or whatever. We made eye contact with us and I commented on his funky top hat thingi that he was wearing. When we turned to walk back through the strip, Luke talked to a Tarot-Card reader named Shelly and that was good. Storm and I engaged in conversation with these rock collectors whose names I cannot remember. They weren't interested in our conversation so we walked on.
Josh's group picked us up and we headed back to the church. Apparently, the other group is not having luck with the approach that our group is taking. Today they decided that a new strategy needs to implemented for their area. They are not discouraged at all in fact they are quite enthusiastic about being creative and finding new ways to get connected. We came back and got some more Z's in.
Essau's family has been asking us to go do something with them since we arrived here so we went to the beach and played volleyball. We had a lot of fun messing around and spending some time in the sun. We had papusas for dinner, I probably completely misspelled that. They are a Salvadorian dish and they kinda taste like tamales.
Tonight we all went to Santa Monica to the promenade. The Jesus argument people were their again but a smaller crowd was around them this time. After looking around and analyzing the situation we continued on. We went to Barnes & Nobles to get Luke a Taoism book so he can connect with Tony. I looked at some of the books about the law of attraction because we heard the other Tony talking about it and I learned more about the subject.
We headed back to the car and listened to the same guys arguing with the non-believers. They definitely come off as closed minded and ignorant. They use non-sensible logic to explain God. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 1, Paul writes about how the Lord put the wisdom of the world to foolishness. It astounds me that these Christians want to use the same logic as these non-believers to try to argue people to heaven. I have more to say on the matter but I do not want to rant.
All in all we had a pretty God-filled day. Here are some things that would be good to pray for over the next couple days:
Josh's team finding new ways to connect to people in Santa Monica
The two Tonys
Santa Monica
Venice Beach
UCLA
Peter (the British photographer)
Bruce
Shelly
Grace and Peace
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
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
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Getting our feet wet...
Simply put, today was awesome. After a rough day yesterday, hearing tons of new information and taking in tons of new sites and scenes, and being completely overwhelmed by what's been happening, today was a great kickoff to the next 7.5 weeks!
We woke up, ate breakfast as usual then had an early team time. We talked about what volunteer opportunities and people groups we found while we did research yesterday. From there, we finally got to get to work...real work.
Most of our time here so far has been traveling around, checking out the areas, being told about the areas and people, being told where to go and what to do, being asked tons of questions, and being trained for what the next 8 weeks would look like. So, this morning was a huge relief and new source of excitement as it was finally time for the team to get to work!
Like Storm told you guys yesterday, we had quite the long bike ride yesterday afternoon and Bruce and I had gone earlier in the day...sooooo, all of our legs, buns, and arms were sore to the max today. So, we decided to let our bodies recoop and drove. Bruce, Kelsey and I dropped Thomas, Luke, and Storm off in the Venice beach area this morning then we headed to the Santa Monica area. What the next two and a half hours held for us was amazing. We finally got our feet wet in the ministry we were going to be doing around here for the next 7.5 weeks!
I'll start off with the Venice area. Thomas, Luke and Storm all felt drawn to that area yesterday. I'll admit, when we got there and I sensed the weirdness/darkness there I thought to myself "Luke will do great here!" Not that Luke's weird, dark or anything like that...he's just amazingly gifted at working in those kinds of areas. What he's been able to do with the PSA at ASU is absolutely amazing, so I knew he'd be great to work in Venice area and so did he. Thomas and Storm were with him as well. Thomas has been discipled by Luke for the past year, so he's had some great training in being open and witnessing boldly and without fear. Storm was the girl with Thomas and Luke. I have been so impressed with her so far on this trip! From the get go, she knew that evangelism was a weakness and not a spiritual gift of hers (which she openly admitted), but I've already seen so much growth in her it's awesome! Anyways, as you can tell from the blog yesterday Storm was quite taken by the Venice area. I think she was full of fear and excitement, comfort and discomfort all at the same time! So, when she went with Luke and Thomas, I was excited to see how she would do. I knew she'd be in great hands with Luke and Thomas and sure enough, the three of them already accomplished great things!
First, they met two guys, both named Tony. One Tony teaches karate, is always ecstatic, happy, personable and is the guy that seems to know everyone in the area. The other Tony was a into the Law of Attraction, had some pretty neat beliefs, was pretty nice to the three of them. He said they must be attracted to him for his positive aura he was admitting. He also worked on the Obama campaign and traveled around the country quite a bit. The three of them had great conversations and left with an invite to join a karate class and an invite to come hang out with both of them anytime. They also found out about a spiritual community Agape, where people go and discuss their views on life. So, needless to say...two hours after just being up and down the strip once proved to be awesomely blessed! Luke and Thomas took turns with Storm talking to the two guys while the other one prayed. So, I think the Lord was definitely at work and getting things started off on a great foot!
So, while all of this awesome stuff was happening in Venice area, Kelsey, Bruce and I were in Santa Monica. We walked up 4th Street then headed to the Promenade. (INSERT SIDENOTE...the six of us were also prayer walking at the same time when we weren't talking with people or anything) At the Promenade, I decided it'd be a great place to shop for a bathing suit. I'd come all the way to the West Coast of 8 weeks and forgotten one. So, we went into the Quicksilver store where I bought two bathing suits and shirts. When we walked in, a girl told us about their sale of buy 3 get 1 free on anything. So, I lucked up and got a great deal on all those clothes. Anyways, while I tried on bathing suits, Kelsey and Bruce took charge. The same girl that told us about the sale going on started talking to Bruce. So, Bruce opened up conversation and found a lot of interesting things out. For instance, Debbie (the girl's name) lived in NC, went to UNCG for 3 months, knew where ASU was, and loved to hike and camp. She moved out to LA with her boyfriend so that they could get closer to the beach and be able to surf. From there, Debbie introduced Kelsey and Bruce to Charlie at the counter. He was born and raised in the LA area, went to San Diego for college and knew a lot about the area. We stayed and talked to them for about 10 minutes and left with an invite to come hang out with them while the worked during the week (they're apparently not too busy), Charlie briefly saying something about hiking with us, and some great ideas on hang out spots for people our age around here in LA. Apparently, most of the people in LA are younger adults and are always out and about. So, that was exciting. Who knew Jesus could use bathing suit shopping right!?!
From Quicksilver we went to eat at Barney's Beanery, a cafe/bar in the Promenade. Here, we met our waitress Tracy who told us about some more hang out spots and the cool stuff they did at their restaurant. They have Pool Night, Wii Sports Night, Guitar Hero Night and Rock Band Night. It's apparently a great place to come hang out, play games and meet people. So, we're pretty pumped about that possibility!
After lunch, we picked the other three up and headed back to the church where we met up with Emily, a church planter out here. She drove us around the West LA area, Westwood (which is where UCLA is), Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and back to Santa Monica. We got to drive up the famed Rodeo Dr. and eventually parked in West LA and did some prayerwalking. One of the things we noticed in the West LA area is that it was incredibly residential with a lot of housing in it. So, the team was kind of iffy on what kind of impact and opportunities we would get. Luke made a great point, stating that the best ministry would come through living among them and working with them. Anyways, on a much brighter and exciting note, the team was jazzed about UCLA.
We all feel pretty drawn to UCLA and are looking forward to working up there a couple of days a week. Speaking of the days of the week, we came up with some sweet loosely organized scheduling in the days to come. First, let's talk about team time.
We drove down to the Santa Monica strip area, parked in a parking deck and walked to the beach. From the beach, we did some reflecting/prayer-walking to the Santa Monica Pier. Here, we had team time and did some processing on what we'd seen in the day. A lot of us felt like reality was continuing to set in as today was the first day we got our feet wet with the ministry we'll be doing. We were pretty pumped after leaving team time, knowing that when you guys and we pray for opportunities, the Lord has opened the flood gates!!! Also, a two hour nap this afternoon after riding around in West LA seemed to do a lot for the group morale. That's probably the hardest I've slept in a looooong time!
So back to the sweet schedule/opportunities that the Lord is already at work in. We decided (very loosely by the way, we're pretty flexible haha) that we'd spend 3-4 days in our areas (Venice/Santa Monica), a day volunteering, 1-2 days at UCLA, and having a day off a week, which NAMB has so graciously given us. Some of us were concerned that by putting a schedule, even loosely, on the ministry days here may limit us. But, ultimately we decided to give it a try because of the urgency to be here.
It's a funny thing, the whole urgency to get ministry done thing. When we got here Monday, our mindset was "Oh man, 8 weeks! That's SO much time to get work done and be out of NC! We've got tons of time!" Then, today we all caught ourselves having this sense of urgency and excitement as we were talking and saying things like "We've only got 7.5 weeks left now," "We've got to get started since we only have 7.5 weeks left!" It's funny, we were all excited earlier about seeing the areas, but now we're ready to get going with the ministry. After seeing what today was like and how blessed it was, we're all jumping at the bit to get going.
In fact, here it is midnight in LA and we're all up and still on this excited high on what the next weeks hold for us! We're done with the learning the areas and now in 'go' mode. It's going to be awesome!
As I close this reflection time up, I am amazed at the power of prayer. I hope you guys realize that what you're doing at home or wherever you are is helping us out here! If it weren't for you supporters pouring over the Spirit in prayer, asking for opportunities and blessings, today wouldn't have been possible. Today, our team saw and tasted the the Lord was good. Now, we're ready to jump in and take in as much as possible. We're ready to be used in whatever ways the Lord needs. We're recognizing more and more the power of prayer and what it can do. In fact, the association here has had about 85 people prayer walking the area for us for about the past month before we got here. Then, they set up a prayer time (10:02AM in LA) for us and the ministry that the Lord would have us blessed with. Prayer...it's leaving me speechless now. All I can think of is John 14:12-13, yet again. In the name of Christ, through His Spirit and ya'lls prayers...I KNOW deep down that the next weeks will continue to unfold as blessed as can be!
Thank you so much for your prayers and support! Through them, you are partnering and joining us in this war against Hell that the Lord is waging through and in us. We are literally knocking at the gates of Hell, letting them know we're here to stay and here to do some awesome work...and through your prayers we stand strong, supported, encouraged, and enabled...so thanks again!
Things to pray for:
1 - People we met today: Charlie & Debbie from Quicksilver; Tracy from Barney's Beanery; the two Tonys from Venice; and the spiritual community, Agape!
2 - Continued opportunities: That the Lord would continue to provide us with open doors with the people we met today and people we will meet.
3 - UCLA: For some reason, all of us have a special interest and pull towards this campus. So, pray that the Lord would bless that, the campus of UCLA, the students, soften hearts and open minds! Summer session for them starts June 22nd, so pray for the professors and students as well!
4 - We all realized today how beneficial a rejuvenating nap could be. So, pray that the Lord would continue to provide rest for us through and in Him!
Thanks again and know that we love and appreciate you all!
in Him,
Josh
Please pass the fruit salad....again and again...
The guys on the trip (minus Thomas who wanted to sleep in) had decided last night that they were going to bike to Venice Beach this morning. I decided to get my "I am woman hear me roar" attitude and go with them. FAIL #1...Kelsey and I woke up to her ringtone (Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts for all of you country fans out there), took one look at each other and hit the pillows hard - thus sleeping in and unleashing all-male havoc on LA at 6:30am Pacific Standard Time. Only God and those guys know what occurred without the presence of the women. I have learned not to ask. :.D
After receiving the hospitality of the Canales family's shower, I was inducted into the long journey of learning how to cook from Lapita this summer (I already have my first recipe, watch out Appalachian State). I cut up the fruit for the amazing fruit salad that was served this morning...along with pancakes, omelettes, cereal, toast, and of course, the ever-present Salsa! As you can tell, food is going to be a regular discussion at the beginning of this blog. And guess what is coming next? Lunch! Ted, Karrie, and Jonathan introduced several of the local pastors and those involved with the ministry around western LA by taking us to the restaurant closest to the heart of Forrest Gump, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. After being served by the friendliest and bubbliest waitresses this side of the Mississippi, we had some serious discussion about the goals and plans for the summer. Relational ministry seemed to be the topic of choice due to the unfamiliarity of ASU BCM's type of outreach programs in this area.
Interlude of FAIL #2: In attempting to tell Esau that I did indeed enjoy the food but was not very hungry (Si, pero no tengo hambre) it came out as (Si, pero no tengo hombre). Yes, instead of telling him that "I have no hunger" I told him "I have no man." Note to self: work on pronounciation....
After lunch, a local pastor, Jimmy, was nice enough to sit down with the group and give us an amazing Biblical explanation and visual diagram of the religious backgrounds of California and the issues which arise from that. I was shocked to hear that 80% of people in some areas have never heard the story of Jesus. To me that sounds like a scenario one would find in a foreign country, not in America which was founded "under God." I realized how much our approach to discussion and even political correctness would have to change in order to affect change in this area and incite interest in the local population.
Our last goal of the day, to travel back to Venice Beach and get to know the area blossomed into a complete tour by bike, complements of our gracious guide Billy. Little did we know that this trip into Los Angeles' hippie version of Chinatown and travelling the beautiful coast would turn into a 3 hour excursion. I told the guys, who had not been expecting to be back on a bike again today, that I have never been so grateful to be a woman before (The amount of soreness incurred on the trip had the guys calling each other their "butt buddies"). However this is where FAIL #3 comes in for me. The Sparknotes version of the story goes as follows: Storm had not ridden a bike since she was 12. Storm thought that the saying "Once you ride a bike, you never forget how" was true. Storm was wrong. Therefore for a time, Thomas, out of the kindness of his heart, was forced to ride a pink bike complete with a green frog on the handlebars and squeaky breaks while Storm re-learned the skills of steering and pedaling. Okay, end of third person speech and humiliating story.
Our team time was by far the most significant for me yet. I feel as though things are coming together as we learn about our spiritual gifts, which areas of ministry we each struggle in, and how these aspects relate to the work we are choosing for the summer. It is helping me narrow down a field of work from a broad topic such as art to a more defined summer volunteer job. Even though I am worn out, sore, and tired, I feel like the progress we are making and the excitement I am feeling at the end of this day requires me to finish this post with a word that is the opposite of FAIL. I'm thinking maybe ANTI-FAIL, UNFAIL, or maybe even SUCCESS!
God Bless, Storm
After receiving the hospitality of the Canales family's shower, I was inducted into the long journey of learning how to cook from Lapita this summer (I already have my first recipe, watch out Appalachian State). I cut up the fruit for the amazing fruit salad that was served this morning...along with pancakes, omelettes, cereal, toast, and of course, the ever-present Salsa! As you can tell, food is going to be a regular discussion at the beginning of this blog. And guess what is coming next? Lunch! Ted, Karrie, and Jonathan introduced several of the local pastors and those involved with the ministry around western LA by taking us to the restaurant closest to the heart of Forrest Gump, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. After being served by the friendliest and bubbliest waitresses this side of the Mississippi, we had some serious discussion about the goals and plans for the summer. Relational ministry seemed to be the topic of choice due to the unfamiliarity of ASU BCM's type of outreach programs in this area.
Interlude of FAIL #2: In attempting to tell Esau that I did indeed enjoy the food but was not very hungry (Si, pero no tengo hambre) it came out as (Si, pero no tengo hombre). Yes, instead of telling him that "I have no hunger" I told him "I have no man." Note to self: work on pronounciation....
After lunch, a local pastor, Jimmy, was nice enough to sit down with the group and give us an amazing Biblical explanation and visual diagram of the religious backgrounds of California and the issues which arise from that. I was shocked to hear that 80% of people in some areas have never heard the story of Jesus. To me that sounds like a scenario one would find in a foreign country, not in America which was founded "under God." I realized how much our approach to discussion and even political correctness would have to change in order to affect change in this area and incite interest in the local population.
Our last goal of the day, to travel back to Venice Beach and get to know the area blossomed into a complete tour by bike, complements of our gracious guide Billy. Little did we know that this trip into Los Angeles' hippie version of Chinatown and travelling the beautiful coast would turn into a 3 hour excursion. I told the guys, who had not been expecting to be back on a bike again today, that I have never been so grateful to be a woman before (The amount of soreness incurred on the trip had the guys calling each other their "butt buddies"). However this is where FAIL #3 comes in for me. The Sparknotes version of the story goes as follows: Storm had not ridden a bike since she was 12. Storm thought that the saying "Once you ride a bike, you never forget how" was true. Storm was wrong. Therefore for a time, Thomas, out of the kindness of his heart, was forced to ride a pink bike complete with a green frog on the handlebars and squeaky breaks while Storm re-learned the skills of steering and pedaling. Okay, end of third person speech and humiliating story.
Our team time was by far the most significant for me yet. I feel as though things are coming together as we learn about our spiritual gifts, which areas of ministry we each struggle in, and how these aspects relate to the work we are choosing for the summer. It is helping me narrow down a field of work from a broad topic such as art to a more defined summer volunteer job. Even though I am worn out, sore, and tired, I feel like the progress we are making and the excitement I am feeling at the end of this day requires me to finish this post with a word that is the opposite of FAIL. I'm thinking maybe ANTI-FAIL, UNFAIL, or maybe even SUCCESS!
God Bless, Storm
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
"Team, I have a feeling we're not in Boone anymore..."
Wow, today has been a long yet exciting day. We definitely started off on the right foot. I'd like to just say that Lupita (the hispanic minister's wife) is one amazing cook. And the best part is, she LOVES to cook for people. I hope no one takes this the wrong way, but the woman I marry one day will love to cook for me...I'm jussayin.
Even though the eggs, sausage, diced potatoes, homemade salsa, and endless fruit filled my life with sunshine on a gloomy overcast morning, BUT the team also witnessed an endless slap war between Thomas and Josh, a bamboo sword fight, and the voting off and dramatic return of our fearless leader. By the way, I am offically co-cheif. Josh said so.
We were blessed with a visit from our supervisor and new found friend Jonathan Stockstill. Thanks to the o-so-wonderful LA traffic he was about 45 minutes late, so he wasted no time getting to work as soon as he arrived. Jonathan is a really cool guy. He is passionate about what he does and he honestly looks like he should be on television. Maybe not a hit series on a large network, but at least a TNT drama series or an infomercial host.
So the team along with Esau and our neighbor Stephen sat down with Jonathan and answered a few personality/character questions. He wanted to know what our dreams were and what we were passionate about. We also had to describe ourselves with ONE word. Thomas of course stole my word, "approachable", so I had to come up with something really quick and couldn't quite make sense with it. I actually don't even know if I gave him one word, but instead a few babbling sentences which in turn lead to the team and Jonathan (whom I had just met) making jokes at my expense. No worries though, I am used to it.
After about 2 hours of housekeeping discussions and getting to know Jonathan, the team went to lunch at Pancho's Tacos. I got the Loco Burrito...it was crazy! After our delicioso lunch we ventured off to the area of Santa Monica we will be working to scope out the people there. We walked through "The Promenade", an upscale shopping area. There we found many street performers and the team was introduced to a man from Oklahoma who started a "Jesus Booth" ministry back in the 90's. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is a small booth with signs reading "information about Jesus Christ". I was a bit skeptical about it, but it was pretty legit. After the promenade we visited the pier down at beach. Again many street performers which included a disco dancing old man who had limited dance moves...and limited skill, but Jesus loves him just the same.
The people in Santa Monica were a lot different than the type of people I am used to. They didn't really smile, nor did they seem very approachable. It was as if they were on a mission. They had to get somewhere, and get something done...fast. I am used to the more laid back attitude of the south. This came as a concern for the whole team. We fear we will struggle with approaching and maintaining a relationship with the people in that area.
Upon returning to the church, we were feeling even more overwhelmed than we had been, so Josh and I took a bike ride around the area. I hadn't riden a bicycle since I was probably 12 or 13 so it was nice to get back on and see my ability to balance and pedal was still there. The highlight of my night was mine and Josh's personal martial arts lesson by an awesome guy named Sean. He is one of Stephen's friends and I hope to get to know him more. I may even use martial arts as a way to build some good relationships for ministry, who knows.
Some things we will be praying for, and things you can pray for us too are:
1-Continued prayers for the people in the areas we will be working in: Venice, Santa Monica, and West LA. Pray that God will be working in their hearts while we prepare to get out there amongst them and spread the gospel.
2-That as we explore those areas, we discover opportunities that we can use to build solid relationships with. This is probably going to include volunteering our time with some point of interest to each of us. For me, I am going to be looking for an organization helping the homeless. Not only would I be meeting the homeless and sharing God's love with them, but also the people that are already giving up their time to help those in need.
3-That God will give us the wisdom and confidence we need to approach the people of the region. They are a lot different than what we are used to, and this is definitely out of our comfort zone.
4-That we get enough down time to relax and recharge. The last two days have been really overwhelming. There is a lot of information to take in, and we have realized the task at hand. This along with the jet lag has been a draining effect on our day-to-day. I just don't want this to continue as our time here is short and our work is long.
By the way, I am very thankful for the awesome people God has us working with. From Ted Knapp, to Jonathan, to Esau and his family. They are definitely some of the nicest and compassionate people I have ever met. I also wanna thank you all for your continued support and prayers. Until next Tuesday, take care and God Bless!
-Bruce
Even though the eggs, sausage, diced potatoes, homemade salsa, and endless fruit filled my life with sunshine on a gloomy overcast morning, BUT the team also witnessed an endless slap war between Thomas and Josh, a bamboo sword fight, and the voting off and dramatic return of our fearless leader. By the way, I am offically co-cheif. Josh said so.
We were blessed with a visit from our supervisor and new found friend Jonathan Stockstill. Thanks to the o-so-wonderful LA traffic he was about 45 minutes late, so he wasted no time getting to work as soon as he arrived. Jonathan is a really cool guy. He is passionate about what he does and he honestly looks like he should be on television. Maybe not a hit series on a large network, but at least a TNT drama series or an infomercial host.
So the team along with Esau and our neighbor Stephen sat down with Jonathan and answered a few personality/character questions. He wanted to know what our dreams were and what we were passionate about. We also had to describe ourselves with ONE word. Thomas of course stole my word, "approachable", so I had to come up with something really quick and couldn't quite make sense with it. I actually don't even know if I gave him one word, but instead a few babbling sentences which in turn lead to the team and Jonathan (whom I had just met) making jokes at my expense. No worries though, I am used to it.
After about 2 hours of housekeeping discussions and getting to know Jonathan, the team went to lunch at Pancho's Tacos. I got the Loco Burrito...it was crazy! After our delicioso lunch we ventured off to the area of Santa Monica we will be working to scope out the people there. We walked through "The Promenade", an upscale shopping area. There we found many street performers and the team was introduced to a man from Oklahoma who started a "Jesus Booth" ministry back in the 90's. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is a small booth with signs reading "information about Jesus Christ". I was a bit skeptical about it, but it was pretty legit. After the promenade we visited the pier down at beach. Again many street performers which included a disco dancing old man who had limited dance moves...and limited skill, but Jesus loves him just the same.
The people in Santa Monica were a lot different than the type of people I am used to. They didn't really smile, nor did they seem very approachable. It was as if they were on a mission. They had to get somewhere, and get something done...fast. I am used to the more laid back attitude of the south. This came as a concern for the whole team. We fear we will struggle with approaching and maintaining a relationship with the people in that area.
Upon returning to the church, we were feeling even more overwhelmed than we had been, so Josh and I took a bike ride around the area. I hadn't riden a bicycle since I was probably 12 or 13 so it was nice to get back on and see my ability to balance and pedal was still there. The highlight of my night was mine and Josh's personal martial arts lesson by an awesome guy named Sean. He is one of Stephen's friends and I hope to get to know him more. I may even use martial arts as a way to build some good relationships for ministry, who knows.
Some things we will be praying for, and things you can pray for us too are:
1-Continued prayers for the people in the areas we will be working in: Venice, Santa Monica, and West LA. Pray that God will be working in their hearts while we prepare to get out there amongst them and spread the gospel.
2-That as we explore those areas, we discover opportunities that we can use to build solid relationships with. This is probably going to include volunteering our time with some point of interest to each of us. For me, I am going to be looking for an organization helping the homeless. Not only would I be meeting the homeless and sharing God's love with them, but also the people that are already giving up their time to help those in need.
3-That God will give us the wisdom and confidence we need to approach the people of the region. They are a lot different than what we are used to, and this is definitely out of our comfort zone.
4-That we get enough down time to relax and recharge. The last two days have been really overwhelming. There is a lot of information to take in, and we have realized the task at hand. This along with the jet lag has been a draining effect on our day-to-day. I just don't want this to continue as our time here is short and our work is long.
By the way, I am very thankful for the awesome people God has us working with. From Ted Knapp, to Jonathan, to Esau and his family. They are definitely some of the nicest and compassionate people I have ever met. I also wanna thank you all for your continued support and prayers. Until next Tuesday, take care and God Bless!
-Bruce
Monday, June 8, 2009
A Little Southern in LA...
Well, we got into LA today and I cannot express in words how amazing it has been already. Most of our team has been quite anxious and nervous about what we're actually going to be doing, but truth be told...it's all up in the air. We were set at ease when we were told we could do no wrong and that any efforts here would be appreciated at all. More on that later...but for now, let's update ya'll on the people here.
We're definitely in LA haha! I got on the plane from Ohio to here, and every single person in First Class was on their blackberry, doing last minute emails and talking. They ALL had blackberries too by the way. It makes my flip phone look pretty retro! When we landed in LA we were greeted by the Director of Missions, Ted Knapp, his wife Kerrie, and a pastor D.D. They may be some of the nicest people I've ever met. In talking with them, they feel like we're truly a God-send and have made us feel like we've been a part of their ministry for years. It's been completely welcoming!!
I did however make my first Southerner mistake already at dinner...I said "sir." Apparently in LA, no one ever responds with a "yes sir/mam" "no sir/mam." Instead, it is always a ''uh huh'' or "yeah" or "no". While I was sure that my mother would hate Ted for telling me to drop those habits of southern politeness, deep down I was excited because I felt like a rebel!! When I was just losing my southern roots and politeness I was comforted by D.D. For the first time on our trip and in thinking about this trip, I realized I'm out of the south, which means no more sweet tea. Our team began to discuss this when the waiter mentioned we could add fruit flavors to the tea, but still...we knew it wouldn't suffice for some good 'ole sweet tea. But, I'm guessing D.D. could pick up on this. He said "Oh no. I make the best sweet tea ever. Come on out to the hood, we'll treat ya right. Black eyed peas, barbeque ribs. We'll do it up for you!" So, it's comforting...I'm still not too far from some good country cooking and a big glass of sweet tea. I just have to go to the 'ghetto' to get it haha!
After being picked up at LAX and eating dinner at California Pizza, we then headed to the church we're staying at here in LA. We were greeted by more warm faces and friendly people. The Hispanic Church Planter, Esau and his family were here to greet us. They're our neighbors here on the church grounds. It's Esau, his wife and three boys. They'll be the ones providing our food in the morning and at night, and from what we were...it is going to be some delish food! On the other side of our building is a couple of young guys who live on the grounds and help out around the church in any way possible!
Its been amazing so far and the team has definitely felt welcomed. It's been awesome to see how the Lord is already at work too!
Let me explain. We'll be working in Santa Monica, Venice, and West LA areas. These three areas of LA will be where we put all of our ministry efforts. When Luke and I asked the Director of Missions with the association we're working with about the previous efforts we got this: failure. So far, to our understanding, any church planting efforts that have been started here in these three areas have all failed. One of the biggest issues for this area is money. One of the churches that is on their feet in this area pays $16,000 a month to rent their building, and have to pay $6 a car that parks there for parking! Apparently, all sorts of experts and church planting pros from across the country have been in these areas to do work, and all of them have brought hundreds of thousands of dollars, and still...nothing has worked.
When Luke and I shared our conversation about this area with the team, a sense of peace came on us. It may be weird, but for some reason we're all relieved in knowing that they don't really expect anything other than that we do what the Lord puts before us. I say 'anything other than' as if it were a small task, but it is comforting knowing that our focus and the people out here and their focus is solely doing what the Lord puts before us. The Director of Missions, Ted, proceeded to tell us that he really truly felt like our team of 6 college students was a God-send and that we were what they've been waiting and praying for. They've been doing prayer walking for the past couple of weeks in the 3 areas we'll be working with. It's so awesome to see that the Lord is blessing this trip already. Again, I see an importance of prayer. A team of about 30 people have already been cultivating the grounds out here with their prayers, and praying that the Spirit would do awesome things.
It's midnight here in LA, 3 am in NC and I cannot express how excited I am...at least not in words that would make sense at this hour of the night. But, know this fellow readers of the blog...our team greatly appreciates what the Lord is doing and what He is using you, our supporters, for. Please continue to be in prayer for us as we continue to see how the Lord is working.
Here's a list off the top of my head of stuff to start praying for:
1 - Humility: If even the professional church planters can throw thousands of dollars and tons of time in this area, and not accomplish much...how can we, 6 ASU college students, do much? May the Lord bless us with His Spirit in ways that only HE can!
2 - Santa Monica/West LA/Venice: These are the three areas we'll be working in. Pray that the Lord would spread His Spirit and begin to open up opportunities for us!
3 - Strength: We got in LA and were immediately overwhelmed with info, excitement, the Lord, and so many other things. These next few days will be about training, adjusting to LA and the surrounding areas, and getting ready to start going out. So, pray that we'll have continued strength to make it through the next 8 weeks without being too overwhelmed mentally, spiritually, physically or emotionally.
Thanks again to you reading and supporting our team through updates. As another BLOG update for ya'll (I had to throw something Southern in there!) each of the teammates will be alternating days to write here. So, the schedule looks like this
Mondays - Josh Littlejohn
Tuesdays - Bruce Bentley
Wednesdays - Storm Stuart
Thursdays - OFF DAY
Fridays - Kelsey Morris
Saturdays - Thomas Chavez
Sundays - Luke Summey
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