Friday, June 29

We started our day early in order to beat the rush of the other groups all trying to pack, eat breakfast, clean, and meet with their host before leaving the sight. Two groups were going to stay one more night at the site. I know that one of the groups was from Hawaii and I am not sure which other group was staying another night. Although we had packed our things the night before, it was still hard gathering our clothes and personal items in the dark without disturbing the other groups sleeping on the bunk beds around us. In one of the guy's dorms there were around 20 bunk beds all filled with guys from the various groups. As you can imagine the room was crowed, warm, and cluttered with all kinds of luggage and personal items.

After gathering our stuff we packed up the van and then grabbed some breakfast. Our host gathered us for another time to debrief and pray, which really helped us grasp everything that we had heard and seen throughout the mission experience. Everyone shared and prayed and then we took some photos of our group with our host. We loved our host and enjoyed getting to know her.

We loaded the van and our host opened the gates for us so we could depart. We headed to Disneyland and noticed the difference between the South Central area, which we had been living, and Orange County. The highway looked new and clean and the sides of the highway were decorated with cool etchings, which were photo worthy to me.

We dropped our van off at the hotel and entered Disneyland. None of the students have ever been there but Andrew and Jill were experts. We quickly learned about the Disney's fast pass system, the different things that have changed over the years, and other unusual facts about the park. I don't know whose eyes were open bigger, mine, or the students. Disneyland is an incredible place filled with science, technology, and evidence of man's achievements. I was just happy to be there, it had been a long time since I visited as a kid and I think that I appreciate the workmanship and skill that it took to create this wonderland as an adult than I did before. We finished the night by watching the fireworks and enjoying one last ride. It was a good day.

Daniel

Oasis

Oasis crew join us this Wed. July 11 at 5:15 at Bethel’s youth house as we head for the Birch Bay water slides. Bring $15.00 which pays for admission and pizza. Please let Dan know today if you can come.

Thursday-Day 6

First we woke up around 6 am so that the guys could take a shower, since it was our shower morning. Jill also sneaked in and took a shower! We ate breakfast the normal cereal or bagels. We got in the car at 8 am and went to a Mexican bakery to pick up pastries to bring to Pershing Square. We were divided into two groups to distribute pastries to un-housed people (Jordan‘s term). Our group met a couple from Florida that moved to LA last August. They told us a bit about themselves, other people in Pershing Square and the different homeless areas in the city and how they work. We were also able to have one of the pastries they were very good. We met up with the other group and shared our stories about the people that we met. We then walked to City Hall and went up to the top floor. We took time and prayed for the city from the 26^th floor. When we left City Hall we went to a Farmer’s Market and enjoyed some fresh fruit! We then walked back to the car and headed back to CSM. We had lunch at the site, a little down time and devotions before leaving for our last time at Red Shield. Jordan played some pool, chess, air hockey and bumper pool. Dan played Dominos. Molly and Jill traced more craft projects. Jesse and Andrew played with kids in the game room. After Red Shield we went to an Armenian Restaurant and had chicken or beef, pita bread, hummus and salad. We drove to Santa Monica Beach. We spent time on the beach doing affirmations to each other, talking about our trip and what we have learned from each other this trip. Once we were done the kids ran down to the water for one last time. On our way home we stopped at Target for some summer wardrobe clothing for me, since it is quite warm here and Disney is going to be hotter. After Jill went and picked out cloths for me, she then made me try them on and show her. I ended up with two pairs of shorts, swim trunks and three clean new t-shirt…all of which I don’t need. To ease the pain of shopping we stopped at McDonald’s for ice cream before heading back to CSM for one last night.
Tomorrow we are leaving early tomorrow morning and heading for Disneyland!
~Jordan (added to and typed by Jill)
　

Wednesday Workday

It was another beautiful Southern California day to serve and love others.  We woke at 7:30 and cleaned the CSM kitchen/lunchroom then we headed out the door to Faith In Christ Ministries.  After Andrew reparked the van on the correct side of the street we dug in to four hours of various work projects around the community center, playground, and garden.  Half the team cleaned the community center bathrooms floors and part of the kitchen (Jesse, Molly, Jill, Dan).  The other half weeded the raised bed gardens (Mindy, Andrew, Jordan).  After we got done early, even the sidewalks were swept and weeded.  It's a good thing too, because four large vans rolled up on the urban playground and a legitimate Nike shoe commercial started filming scenes right where we were working.  After our chance encounter with the "film industry" of California we went back again to Red Shield.  The students were expecting us and we had a great time playing all sorts of games with them.  Dinner was at a nice little Thai food restaurant on Sunset Blvd.  Everyone on the team really enjoyed this meal (and some used chopsticks more successfully than others).  We came back to our South LA housing early and had time to relax and play card games.

-Andrew

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

Day 3

Our first thing on the schedule today was the clean up the site, it was just our team so we split up the list and worked together as a team and got it done. After we were finished cleaning we had our devotions and talked about Job. Once we finished up devotions we packed up our stuff for the day and headed downtown with our host Alisha. Once we parked our van we were split into two groups, it was decided girls and boys. We were handed a sheet of paper of task that we had to accomplish, we had a 16 square blocks that we had to stay within and four hours to complete it. We split up and started checking the things off the list. Some of the things on the list were: finding out how much a loft apartment was, how much to stay at the Biltmore for two nights, how much to call El Salvador, where the red line metro goes and how much is cost to ride, interview a police officer, symbol of the city, find out about Bitty Mason and the park, interview a homeless person, tourist and resident of LA, feed someone lunch, fill up our water bottles and only spend $4 each on lunch…these were just some of the main tasks. This was a very challenging task and an eye opening task. Both groups finished most of the tasks and along the way had some interesting interactions and thoughts. The girls group at lunch at McDonalds when we realized that we were the only white people in the entire place. The guys experience with lunch was that the first person that they asked for lunch didn’t want to eat with them and had a few choice words to say. We met up and shared our experiences and thoughts and then prayed for the interactions that we had.
After leaving the downtown high rises we went to the Salvation Army Red Shield, we had a chance to play with lots of kids. It was hard to find exactly how to serve or what to do but once we all kind of found something that interested us and looking forward to serving there all week. Jordan ended up in the computer lab and helped a kid with his typing. Molly and Mindy listened to kids read books to them. Jesse had a great time playing basketball and soccer. Dan loved playing jump rope with a group of kids. Andrew played some sports and then played some games with the kids.
For dinner we got to go to a Caribbean restaurant, La Cha Cha Cha. We had Caribbean Jerk Chicken Pizza, it was good and we were hungry! We were able to hang out and catch up with each other during the dinner and learn more about our host. Following dinner we drove up the Griffith Observatory, we were able to walk around and see the city from a completely different view than earlier in the day.. It was amazing to take it all in and see the city from far away and the skyline. We then had our debrief for the day on the lawn. We shared our Pows and Wows (Highs and Lows) and spent time praying for each other.
On our way back to the site we stopped at Walgreens to restock on snacks, since the bag that I brought was gone…don’t worry we bought three bags of snacks plus a case of water! We also got prizes for Bingo tomorrow at the nursing home. When we got back to the site we were one of the first groups so it was nice and quiet, we played cards together and ate some of our snacks. But with more groups coming back the volume just getting higher. Tomorrow we have to be out the door at 6:45 am, there is a full day planned and then in the evening it is free night.
Thank you all for your prayers. None of the kids are homesick and they are all doing great!
~Jill

Day 2

Today we started the day out by having devotions in the hotel room and talked about what to expect with our mission trip after our continental breakfast.  From there we went to the Getty Museum of Art and experienced more fine art than I have ever seen.  We saw art that was old, modern, painted, sculpted, built, and grown (in the gardens).  After the absolutely wonderful time seeing some of the most beautiful things that God has given us, we spent some time driving through some of the rich districts of LA, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive.  And sadly we saw no celebrities (sorry Dan L).  Once we got to the CSM Warehouse where we are staying this week we unpacked, had orientation, and dinner.  The cultural food of the night was Indian food, tonight we ate at CSM.  We then had a few minutes to play a fun game of Catch Phrase before we left for our Prayer Walk.  Jordan even started to make some new friends during a game of Clue.  The Prayer Walk was VERY informative and interesting and we all learned a lot about LA and what life is like for all of the people that live here.  We saw the very stark difference between Skid Row and the wealthier districts. We stopped at one of the charter schools and learned about the education system in LASD.  As we went through all of these places we prayed for all of the people in the area.  We also had a chance to go lay on the ground and get into the mindset of having to sleep outside. Its lights out at CSM, we are tired and excited to see what God has planned for us this week.

~Molly