Day 4

This morning our group started early, waking up at about 6. We each had a small breakfast of cereal or a bagel before heading out into the city. We went to the St. Francis Center, where we served 224 homeless people breakfast, and a sack lunch to-go. While we were there, we saw only some of the many faces from the streets. About 9:30, we finished up serving and cleaning the building, and since we had some extra time, we went to The Coffee Bean for a quick drink. When it came time to go, we all got out of the cool shade and drove just down the street to the Vernon Health Care Center and played some Bingo! Jill called for us, but we had only enough prizes for a couple rounds, and suspiciously the same people kept winning… As we were leaving though we saw one of the women who had played with us wearing the slippers that she had won, which made us feel good that she appreciated her prize. For lunch, we came back to the CSM warehouse, and ate some fruit and a sandwich, or in some cases two or three. At this point, we had devotions and each shared a meaningful verse and why we liked it or how it applied to our trip. At 2:30, we headed out to the Salvation Army Red Shield, where we went yesterday too. We had a LOT of fun there playing with the kids: Jesse and Andrew played basketball and other games in the gym, Dan and Jill were helping in the crafts room, Molly and I were playing around with a 7 year old set of twin girls named Luz and Marisol. And Jordan was helping in the computer lab. We dropped off our host Alisha at the warehouse and then had a free night to do what we pleased. As a group, we decided to go to the Santa Monica Pier, and enjoy the setting sun on the beach. We ate dinner at a burger place called Pier Burgers. The water and sand were great, but Jesse was grossed out by the bugs in the ground J After that, we walked out onto the pier and most of us experienced that for the first time. It was a lot of fun and we all got wet, Jordan trying to avoid the water by hiking the hems of his pants to mid-thigh. This was a wonderful conclusion to a great day in Los Angeles. ~Mindy