Grace and Solutions

So its been a very long time since I have done this whole blog thing...but I felt like tonight was a good night for some blogging.

Tonight I attended a forum on campus....its a lecture series that has been going on at my school for a couple years and one my favorite Psychology professors was presenting at the series and her topic tonight was: Spirituality and the Therapeutic Relationship....sounds thrilling huh?

Actually it was.  What she did was essentially combine my 2 majors..Psychology and Theology....into a 1 hour talk.  

As I have been going through my senior year I have been thinking more and more seriously about what the heck I am going to do with my life now that I am graduating from college.  It is exciting and I feel like I am ready to graduate but at the same time I have to begin to make decisions about what is next in my life.  I have been thinking more and more about therapy...even the possibility of becoming Dr. Michelle (which sounds weird)....but the idea of becoming a therapist is becoming more and more appealing to me.

Yet, I have been facing this question of what would therapy look like for me?  Do I want to become a Christian counselor?  Do I want to be a counselor in the secular world?  Do I feel like God is even calling me to be a counselor?

My professor..Dr. Hoffman..was talking about the therapeutic relationship tonight and she really made me think....she said that the research shows that the most important thing in a therapy session is not the type of therapy used...whether the therapist uses the cognitive therapy approach or the humanistic or the behaviorist...no one type of therapy has been proven to be most effective.  But the universal effective measure within a therapy session is the therapeutic relationship.  If there is a good relationship between the client and the therapist, then therapy proves to be most effective.  She then went on to say that she believes that it is through the therapeutic relationship that the therapist becomes an instrument of grace.  Its not the type of therapy..."Christian" or secular...humanistic or behaviorist...but the important thing is the therapuetic relationship....and I am beginning to really understand that it is through this therapeutic relationship I as a Christian and as a therapist am able to become one that can administer God's grace to his people.  She said that as a therapist, she does not sit and listen to people's problems all day long.....she is a solution-maker.  Her job is not just listening to problems but being apart of solutions.  That is what is invigorating about therapy...day after day, she is apart of solutions.

So maybe therapy will someday be my call:

I will be an instrument of God's grace through therapeutic relationships and I will not just be listening to people's problems all day but apart of solutions all day long.

May God guide me to where He wants me to go.

God of Justice

I watched this video and listened to this song for the first time a couple of week ago on Jason's blog...Jason is one of David's really good friends...when i watched the video i immediately feel in love with this song. So now im stealing it from Jason...(hope you dont mind)...because i want others to see it too. I feel like this video and the words of this song really are the message that i have been working towards all summer...we serve a God of Justice..and what He requires us to do is go out and act justly...to love mercy...to touch the broken...to feed the hungry...to truely love His people. The video is powerful also because of the pictures it portrays...this is alot of what i see here in LA. There are homeless people all around that so many just choose to walk by and not even acknowledge...but we must go to these people and love them right where they are at. My prayer is always that God will fill me up so that i can be sent out by Him to be an instrument of his justice in this world. I hope you all enjoy the video...thanks Jason for sharing it with me :)

The Poverty We Don't Always See

My group went to a church a church in Watts this past week to help with food distribution at the church. When we got there a church service was going on and then after the service concluded we were there to help set up tables full of food and then hand out the food to the people that came through the line. There were over 100 people that came through the line most of which were families with multiple children. As they passed through the line we were only allowed to give them one item of food per table. This equated to each person getting on bag of salad...one tomatoes...one apple...a random frozen food item (but not enough of those for everyone)...a whole frozen chicken...2 cans of sweet potatoes...2 bag of crushed walnuts..and 4 bags of dry milk...thats it. Nothing more. It was a sad sad reality to be apart of. These families came in needed food to support their family...and we saw the large families entering into the gate to get food but all we were able to do is give them a small random selection of food that they couldn't even make one meal out of for their whole family.
This is the kind of poverty that i think we often forget about....the kind that we look past because it isn't so blatantly visible...its not looking us in the face as we walk down the streets everyday. This isn't the visible poverty of a homeless person sitting on the streets with no food. This isn't the poverty of family that cant afford the cost of living anymore and is in a shelter on Skid Row getting meals from the shelter. This isn't the poverty of mental illness and drug addiction. This is the poverty of lower class families struggling everyday to make ends meet. The help that they are getting is really doing little to give them any sustainable food. The help that they are getting is doing little to move them up the economic ladder to get out of the trap that they are in...they are stuck...
This is the kind of poverty that i think can be found anywhere. There are people everywhere in our own backyards..down our own streets...that are struggling everyday to make ends meet. That are barely surviving and could use more help. These are the people that with just a little bit of help can be back up on their feet.
Im not at all saying that what Lighthouse is doing is not good enough. The church that we helped at is doing a wonderful thing for the people in this community. The people are in need of this food...they just need more. What Lighthouse is doing is great..they could just use more resources so that they can help more people and help the ones that are already coming in a better way.
It makes me think about the places that are helping people like this across the country. I think what they need is a little more awareness and they can help people better and help more people.
I pray that God continues to open up my eyes to the people that need His help wherever I am..not just here in LA..but as i go home too...how can i continue to love and serve at home? There might not be extreme visible poverty in Sioux Falls like there is here in LA..but there are people struggling to make ends meets everyday...how can i love and serve those people?

Idaho

This is a video from one of my groups this summer that i hosted.  Courtney and I hosted this group together.  They were from Meridian, Idaho and were a wonderful group.  One of my favorite groups from the summer  :)  This may give you more of an idea of what I'm doing with my groups and get to hear about what this week can do for some students.  Enjoy!

Door of Hope

I fell in love with a new ministry sight today...Door of Hope.  It is a transitional home for women and children that are victims of domestic violence.  One of the hosts from last summer works there now so we have started working with this ministry more and today was my first day there.  For the most part my group just sorted through donations but the real joy was helping a woman and her son move into their new home.  One of the leaders in my group and I had to go and pick up this woman and her son on a street corner.  We were given an address and direction how to get there and when we arrived there was a woman and her son standing on this street corner with all of their belongings.  They had just left their house because the woman was being abused by her husband and so they were coming to Door of Hope for a new start...and a safe place to live.  This woman was so excited with everything that she saw in her house.  She loved the TV, the couch, the beds, and even though everything wasn't all set up yet and they didn't have everything they needed she was still so happy with all that she had for herself and for her son.  Her son was very excited to jump off the beds and just run all over his new home.  It was a joy for me to get to be the one to pick these people up on the street corner and welcome them into their new home...help them pick out pillows and sheets...and help them to arrange their apartment.  In the midst of this tough transitions for this woman she was overjoyed by everything that was provided for her.  It was my joy to be a blessing to this woman today as she was moving in and starting fresh...my prayer is that God will continue to provide for Elizabeth and Nicholas and that Door of Hope can guide them into a blessed future.

Pick Up Truck of Pillows

Today was another great day...absolutely wonderful!!  My group got up this morning and we went to work at the Los Angeles Mission in downtown.  This is a mission that is right on Skid Row.  Today we were sorting through donations at the LA Mission and we had box after box of extremely nice throw pillows and designer fabrics and curtains and sheets...like full sets of sheets..with the fitted sheet and top sheet and two pillows cases...and blankets.  All that we were keeping for the LA Mission was the blankets.  We were supposed to throw all the other stuff away....yeah throw it away.  And as my group was going through all the donations..we just could not throw all this really nice fabrics and pillows and sheets away knowing there were so many people that would love these things.  So we decided to pray about what we could do with all of this stuff...and after we got done praying..i said.."hey guys, we are on Skid Row...why don't we just pass it all out."  So we loaded all the pillows into the back of our pick up truck.  The kids were shoving pillows where ever they could fit and the truck was FULL of pillows.  Then we separated all the sheets out so that we had made all the nice sets and filled a huge box and put it in the back of the suburban and then filled another box of curtains and nice fabrics and put that in the suburban.  So we all loaded into the cars and drove down San Julian...a street heavily populated with homeless people.  We pulled over on the side of the road and park and got out.  We were in front of a small park...the park has large iron fences surrounding it and people sitting inside the fence...filling the park...people outside on the streets...filling the sidewalk.  We opened up the back of the people and people flooded to our car.  The kids were handing out pillows left and right and people were so excited to have a nice new pillow.  People were yelling to us from inside the park fence and so i started throwing pillows over the tall fences to the people.  They were so grateful for the pillows.  Seriously in no less than five minutes our truck full of pillows was all gone.  We went from almost throwing these pillows away and not using them at all...to handing out a truck full of pillows to many people.  God is so Good!

So after that we moved on to our afternoon kids site and took out our boxes of sheets and fabric and set them out in front of the Salvation Army Red Shield.  The Salvation Army Red Shield is a community center and after school type program for kids and families.  We thought the women dropping off their kids might like these new sheets and nice fabrics.  If it has been hard to make ends meet in there family a blessing of beautiful bedding would be wonderful...and we were very right.  God had directed our thinking well and these women could not be more happy to get to pick out new bedding for their housing and for the kids and pick out beautiful fabric that they could make curtains out of..or table cloths..or couch covers...the ideas were flowing.  Within 15 minutes in front of Red Shield our two over sized boxes were depleted and many people's spirits filled.

I learned a great lesson today about being obedient to God's Spirit.  I know that God had a plan for all those fabrics and blankets and pillows all along but he just needed people to listen and obey.  I was so proud of my group for taking time to ask God what was His plan here and not just fulfill a task of seperated out blankets and thats all.  

What a joy to bless so many people today with needed gifts!!

Wisdom

Today I was blessed by two wonderful women at The Vernon Convalescent Home.  They both live at this retirement home and have for several years.  They are very different women..but they both hold a special place in my heart.

Claudeen is the first woman i met when i came in Vernon Convalescent Home 3 weeks ago (the bottom picture).  She was a firey little lady from the first moment i met her.  She loves me and hates me all at the same time...but i love her always :)  We play Bingo together and i always hide the good prizes just for her so that when she does win she gets the good stuff...oops i dont think im supposed to play favorites like that but i do...i hope Jesus still loves me for that..hehe.  Anyways we play Bingo and sometimes she says she wants me to be her partner and help her and sit by her and talk to her and then the next moment she is literally hitting me in the face with her Bingo card telling me to go away and shut up.  In the picture i caught her in a moment that she was loving me and she smiled with me.  I love just sitting and talking with her even though she gets a little firey at times.  She tells me to come back everyday to see her and i tell her i will as much as i can.  When i left today she said "i will really miss you...you're my favorite."  She is wonderful!

The second woman i met just today is Mother Barry (the top picture...Mother Barry and her friend Joyce that visits her every day).  She is an AMAZING woman!  She is 108 years old...yes that is not a misprint there...she is 108!  She has been a Christian almost her whole life and she is devoted to the Lord now.  She is wise wise wise wise wise...full of wisdom from the Lord and she was delighted to share her wisdom with me.  We talked about Scripture and i told her what i was doing in LA and she encouraged me more than she even knows.  I only got to talk to her for a short time because we had to leave but the short time was enough to see Christ shining brightly through her.  She told me to come visit and talk to her anytime and she would be a woman i would love to get to just sit with everyday and learn from her years and years of life on this earth.  She was proud to tell me she got to vote for Obama...what an amazing thing for her to get to experience.  As i was leaving she asked if she could pray for me and my ministry this summer.  I was glad to have her pray for me.  Her words were so powerful..i shed a tear as she prayed.  If only i could sit with her and gain wisdom more and more...maybe i will get that opportunity another time this summer...but for today that was enough.

The Lord is Good!!

Entertaining Angels

Another great week finished up here in LA.  Just one story i want to share about the work of God this past week:

On Tuesday my group and i were eating dinner at one of our restaurant and a man that was highly intoxicated and physically injured was walking along the outside of the restaurant.  He was leaning against the building for balance as he walked by and looked like a man in severe need.  As we were loading into our vans to leave the man was walking down the sidewalk.  As the kids were loading i was asking the parking attendant at the restaurant if he knew what was wrong with that man because he was talking to him early and the attendant said the man was very drunk and hostile so i thought it was probably best not to approach the man and my group drove away without saying anything.  That night when i was debriefing with my kids they all kept bringing up this man and how they wish we could have helped him and wish we could have done something.  I then started to realize that we missed an opportunity to minister to someone in great need.  Because i was uncomfortable in the situation i chose not to approach this man and we did not have an opportunity to share the love of God with this person.  We prayed for the man that night and then prayed that we would not pass up others opportunities presented to us to serve God's people.

So...

The next day my group was serving at an after school program and I after they were all settled in and working hard I stepped outside to go get some lunch because i didnt have an opportunity to eat earlier.  I was talking on the phone to David while i was walking down the street and a woman approached me and asked for money.  I said i was sorry, that i didnt have any money and then walked away..like i do often..but then i stopped.  I said to David i would have to call him back later and i turned around to talk to this woman.  I asked her what she needed and she said she wanted some shampoo.  So we went in the store up the street..got some shampoo, conditioner and a toothbrush  (i asked if she needed toothpaste too but all the tubes were too big and she didnt want to carry it).  As we were in the store i learned that her name was Karla and she had been living in the street in LA for 8 years..before that she had been all over the United States...but never to South Dakota.. :)  I told her she wasnt missing out on too much..hehe We chatted a little more and then purchased the items and walked out the door.  I asked her if she had eaten and if she wanted to join me for lunch.  She said she would love to so she showed me a really cheap place to eat with good food.  We went to eat together..she got milk and pastries...i just got some Snapple.  She shared some of here pastry with me and we talked and talked.  I was with her for about 45 minutes.  She told me about life on the streets..we talked about God and the Bible...she told me about her family...we talked about how she didnt like the mission and homeless shelters in LA..she told me there was a really nice bathroom at the police station down the street that let her wash her hair in the sink...she told me that she hasnt left this 6 to 8 block radius since coming to LA...she lives on 7th street...between Maple and the 7-11..i learned alot.  I told her about South Dakota...I told her about college...i told her about what i am doing this summer...i talked about my family.  We shared about our lives.  She wanted me to come with her to the police station but i told her i had to get back to my group.  I told her though if God wanted us to, we would meet again.  I am in her area quite a bit and i said i would watch for her between Maple St. and the 7-11...and then we walked down the street.  We got to the corner that we had to seperate...she shook my hand..i asked her if she needed a hug...and she was thrilled to have a hug...so we hugged..  :)  I walked away and then turned back to look and she said.. "Hebrews 13, entertaining angels." and she walked away.

Hebrew 13:2 reads.. "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware."

All the praise to God..who gives us second chances..who gives us chances to bless and be blessed by others.

I love my job!

The Word of God

What a day!  God was really at work today and is at work this week.  We have a group of about 85 students here this week so a total of about 100 people including leaders from Las Vegas.  They are from a large church and brought a big group of kids with a large variety of spiritual maturity.  I was a little bit discouraged by this group and kind of had a bad attitude earlier this week about this group..mostly because my group last week was so amazing!  Anyways today God made some breakthrough and I am going to share on story...

There is a young girl in my group that is going into her Sophomore year in high school and she came on this trip not really knowing anyone because her family hasn't really been involved and are new to this church.  She doesn't really have much of a spiritual background but came on the trip anyways.  This afternoon during devotion time i gave the kids several verses to look up in the Bible and journal about and just really pray.  So they all spread out across the park we were at and had time with God.  After all the kids spread out this particular girl in my group came up to me and asked if i could help her.  She didn't know how to look up verses in the Bible.  So she spent devotion time with me looking up verses together and talking about what they mean.  It was such a powerful experience for me to see her really light up when reading the Word of God out loud.  In her life she had never really spent any significant amount of time on her own reading the Bible and now for the first time she was reading and understanding right before my own eyes.  It was a true blessing to see God revealing himself to this girl as she read His word. We went through the rest of the day serving and then tonight had a large group session with all 100 people.  After the session she was crying so i pulled her aside and asked her what was wrong and she said she just had this feeling inside of her that she didn't understand....like someone was talking to her but she didnt really know who.  And i said..."Sweetie..that's God!"  What a joy to see a young girl in one day go from never spending much time in the Word of God in her life to hearing his voice in her heart for the first time.  God is so powerful and is moving in miraculous way.  All the glory and praise to Him!

Rich vs. Poor

Each week the last thing that our group is required to do before they leave is to fill out an evaluation of their experience with CSM and then also evaluate their host, so evaluate me.  I had an interesting evaluation last week...to say the least...and it has lead me to quite of bit of reflection this week.  The man in charge of my group last week approached myself and the other hosts i was working with last week to explain what he had written down on his evaluation.  He pointed to me and said that he did not like how i spoke about the rich and the poor.  He believed that i had almost "demonized" the rich and "glorified" the poor.  He felt i didn't accurately represent the rich in this world and point out the many things that rich people have done for the poor or point out how a rich person could use their vast sums of money to give to the poor.  He thought that all i did was point out the negatives and the things that the rich had not done for the poor.  He said that many people have worked very hard for their money and achieved "the American Dream" and should not be made less because they have worked so hard.  I was sad to hear that that is what he heard me saying all week.  I have taken some time to reflect on how i talk about the rich and poor and also thought about where he may have been coming from:

The man himself is rather wealthy and the kids that he brought on this trip all have quite a bit of money and i think some of the things he was saying about my explanations about the rich and poor might have been because at the end of the week he himself felt rather convicted that he was not using his riches in a better way to serve the poor.

Then i began to turn to what the Bible says about the relationship between the rich and the poor:

1 John 3:17-18 "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

James 2:5 "Listen, by beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?"

Proverbs 13:8 "A man's riches may ransom his life, but a poor man hears no threat."

Matthew 19:21-24 "Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."  When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.  Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.   Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

As the rich in this world, we are literally called to sell all we have and give it to the poor.  We are not told to give our leftovers, or just give a little bit, or just give what is comfortable.  We aren't call to work really hard and achieve "the American Dream" and then be proud of ourselves for our own accomplishments.  We are told as the rich to take care of the poor, to love the poor.  I know that that can be a tough commandment to follow and a very hard thing to swallow.  God says that it is hard for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Of course it is hard, when you are rich you can take care of all your own needs and don't depend on others for any help and therefore do not depend on God.  The poor must depend on others for help and must depend on God.  We are blessed to have abundant riches and be able to live a comfortable life but i believe only truly blessed when we turn around and give back to those in need, to use our riches to positively influence others.

I will continue to expose the injustices in our world and in LA even though its not comfortable for everyone to hear.  I will continue to speak the truth in love as it is revealed in the Word of God.

2 Groups

So its been quite awhile since i have posted anything..but now i have been through two week of having groups.  My first group was a group of high school students from Northern California and my second group was a group of high school students from Idaho (the Boise area).  These two groups were extremely different but a lot of fun in their own ways.  My first group was a quite group of Asian students.  They were really chill and went along with what we were doing fairly well but were a little stressed out by not knowing the schedule and were taken out of their comfort zones over and over again.  The whole experience was rather stretching for them.  Now my second group from Idaho was just an overall great group to host.  This group of kids and there interactions with each other and their leaders reminded me so much of my youth group growing up.  They were just a fun group of kids to be around and they were devoted to living their lives for Christ.  From the beginning they were asking how this experience in LA could be taken home with them to bring change to Boise.  This is what we try to stress all the time for our groups but this group came in knowing the importance of making this week impact their whole life and not just for this one week. I was impressed with their spiritual maturity and i was excited to challenge them spiritually.  

As i was leading this group this week i couldn't help but reflect back to my summers in high school and realize how blessed i was to get to experience the opportunities that were placed before me.  I know that my summers in youth group and the mission trips to Canada, to Mexico, to Indian Reservations, to New Orleans, to Romania, to Colorado, each of these trips had a significant impact on my life.  I know that i would not be who i am today without these trips.  There is something amazing that goes on in the life of a teenager when they are taken out of their own selfish living, for even just a week, and go and serve other people.  There is personal growth, spiritual growth, and just an overall understanding that the world is bigger than the place that they have grown up in.  I was blessed to begin to understand others outside of my world at a young age.  I believe God's voice can be heard more clearly when you take a break out of your daily life and don't have all the distractions of cell phones, and TV, and whatever else distracts and can really just pause and think about Him.  I think it was in those summers with my youth group that i really started to understand God's calling on my life and see that he has much more in store for me than i could imagine.  I am excited to follow His calling wherever that may be.

Education

I have surprised myself this week with how much i have enjoyed being a teacher and an educator.  It has really been a joy for me to teach these kids all that i know about LA so far...all the issues, all the injustices, all the wealth, all the poverty, etc.  I get really fired up and passionate as I am sharing the facts, the information, and how this all effects people's lives.  I get most passionate as i move on to the application and the "What now?" for the kids and the adult leaders.  Now that we know about the sweatshops in LA and the vast number of homeless people..."what do we do now??  How should this effect my life?"  I like talking to the kids about how they can be apart of the change that can take place in our world..and how they SHOULD be apart of the change.  

I feel like when i am educating other people about the issues here and showing them how things like this go on all over the world this allows them to then also educate other people.  We have just become blind to injustice across the world.  I feel like when i am educating them i am opening their eyes to the truth and hopefully this truth can bring change....change for the people that are stuck living in poverty working in inhumane conditions, change for the broken, change for the needy, change for those who have no voice unless we give them a voice.

I still am not convinced that i want to be a teacher...sorry mom...but i see the power of education everyday that i am working here.  It is only through education and people being aware of the problems in this world that any change is going to come.  

I thank God that he has given me the ability to articulate my thoughts and emotions clearly to other people and that i can see them become passionate about issues as i am passionate about them as i speak about them.  And i thank God that he has brought me here this summer to educate!  All the praise to Him!

Day at the Beach

These are the wonderful girls that I live with this summer.  I know you cant see them very well right here but from left to right it is Courtney, Alyssa, Me, Jonalisa, McKenzie, and Nikki.  Yesterday we had a pretty easy training day in the morning and then we had a good relaxing evening.  We pick up pizza at then went to the beach!!  Yeah for beautiful beach.  We just hung out and obviously took some pictures...lots of fun jumping pictures and then hung out..played football in the sand and then had a bonfire on the beach!  It was beautiful to be on the beach and having a bonfire.  We hung out had a good time and relaxed before the craziness of having groups here all the time starts.  We will be getting our first groups on Sunday night!  So now we are off to practice our prayer tour tonight...one of the most important things we do with our groups on our first night together...taking them through the city and teaching them all about LA and South LA and praying for the city! 

Sorry i havent written for awhile...been kinda busy..but i will add more about my reflections on life here and what ive been learning hopefully tonight or tomorrow!....and maybe more pictures!

"The Garden"

We watched another documentary tonight called "The Garden"  It was actually nominated for an Academy Award and it is an amazing story...

Visit www.thegardenmovie.com to watch the trailer and see a little bit about the movie.  I would really really encourage you to watch this documentary if at all possible...more than just the trailer.  You might be able to see part on youtube but it is definitely worth renting if possible or even buying..i am planning on purchasing this at some point too!!

This Garden is literally blocks away from where i live this summer and really tells the story of the area i am living and the sad reality that the people in South LA have no voice....what would seem to be clearly the right thing done for the people is not done and this poor community is again left helpless even when they do all they can to band together for justice.

I was again broken tonight as i watched the struggle of these latino people...another sad reminder of our fallen world.

Broken

My heart is just broken...broken for this city, for these people, for the pain that is being experienced by so many.  We have been learning so much while in training this week and my heart is overwhelmed.  We just watched some short clips and talked about human trafficking in the United States.  It breaks my heart to hear the stories of the young girls and boys that are caught in sex trafficking.  Many are apart of the foster care programs and then are bought and are now controlled by a pimp that receives large sums of money as these kids are sexually taken advantage of my men and women that pay to sexually abuse these children.  Others are kidnapped in rural truck stops...others are brought to America from foreign countries...all the for sex trafficking industry.  Only trumped by drugs and weapons, human trafficking is the 3rd largest industry in the United States today.  There is more sex trafficking of children going on in the United States than in any other country.

Then I think about the vast number of homeless people that i have seen laying on the street.... laying on cardboard boxes and tattered blankets..... pushing their cart of belonging or carrying a small backpack....the conversations with men that know they are on the streets because they are alcoholics but can find no relief from their addiction even though they have tried to get help.  

I think about the countless number of women who are caught in the sweatshops of the garment industry forced to work long hours for almost no money.

People trapped..and there seems to be no escape from all the pain.  I look around and i think about the number of people.... the faces i have seen that are in pain and i want to help..i desire to help...but the trap runs so deep...these people are stuck...there are no quick fixes here and it breaks my heart!

Families are hurting, parents cannot provide for their children like they wish they could so children are hurting.  Kids are not receiving the education that they need and because of that have a even less chance of succeeding in their future...trapped.

And i have been so blinded to it all.  I am grateful that God has brought me to this place to learn to be educated so that i can share with others the terrible pain that others go through every day in our country and hopefully i can do whatever i can to promote change...whatever that may mean..but right now all i feel is brokenness...

May God through his community of believers bring justice to our world.

Moldy Grapes - Ice Cream and Cookies

So today our morning was spent with Sister Luz..she is a wonderful Filipino woman that has devoted her life to ministering to the Latino community in LA.  She receives donation of food and clothing and pretty much anything...from nobody knows where...and as volunteer we sort through all of these donations.  The food that she gets is mostly expired so we pick through it to get the good food out and through away the old moldy stuff.  The chosen food of today was grapes and i dont think i have seen more fuzzy moldy grapes in my life...it was nasty!!!..but we do all as service to the Lord without complaining..i can just complain now.  So after sorting food to take with us we went to the park to put on an afternoon church service.  As a group we sang some song and then I and 2 others shared our testimonies.  After sharing a really cute little old latino lady came up to me and said in her broken English "Thank you so much...Jesus love me too"  It was so sweet and a great reminder of the diversity of the body of Christ.

The afternoon was pretty low key..just doing training around the housing site and then we went out for mexican food tonight and then went and had a special dessert treat.  We went to a pretty well know place in LA that is right next to UCLA..so its in a really nice area.  At this place for $1.50 they make you an ice cream sandwich..you pick whatever two cookies you want and whatever ice cream you want for the middle and enjoy!  It was wonderful!

The night ended with some major girl bonding...we are trying to do the 100 push-ups and 200 sit-ups workout routine.  So all six of us were crammed in our room down push-ups together tonight...we were laughing like crazy and sharing about our lives...real good quality girl time...i love it here and i am loving my staff more and more each day.  We are all very diverse coming from very different backgrounds but are coming together beautifully!

"Made in LA"

I know that it might start to sound redundant but today was just another great day.  I am really enjoying my time here in LA and all the new experiences that i get to encounter.  Today we had a little bit of a later start to our day so that was really nice...all morning we just did activities to get to know the city better and then to get to know our team better.

After lunch we watched a very informing documentary called "Made in LA" I would definitely recommend watching it...if possible...it was very eye opening to me.  It is a story documenting the lives of several Latino women that are garment workers in LA.  I was again shocked just to know that there are sweatshops in America and the conditions that these women deal with.  The women work 12 to 13 hours days and then are required to take their work home to continue sewing until 1 to 2 in the morning.  The sad thing to recognize is that for these women there really is no other option..they are not legal immigrants and so they cant get a "normal" job and so if they want money to support their family this is really the only option for these women.  Obviously in these conditions they are being taken advantage of...if they don't have another option, they will be paid the lowest wage possible.  The women are given about 19 cents for a 15 dollar shirt.  The store Forever 21 is one of the worst stores in the area for poor sweatshops and the Latino population tried to sue Forever 21 for the mistreatment of their workers but with little avail...that's another whole story to get into so i will spare you all the details.  I was just shocked by the whole story.

There have been times while I have been here that I have just felt so ignorant.  I feel like I have been so caught up in my own little world that I haven't taken the chance to look around to the injustices that are all around me in the United States.  Obviously i am not going to know all the details about what is going in specifically in LA...but i have been shocked over and over by the number of homeless people on Skid Row, shocked as I understand more and more the trap that the poor are caught in within LA, the presence of sweatshops, the lack of healthy food options and the over abundance of fast food restaurants in South LA...over and over again I see this is the world that I live in and it becomes hard to see these things and not know what i can do to make it any better for anyone.  I know that being here and leading groups into the city doing ministry and making them aware of the injustices going on in our world makes a difference...but the problems seem surmounting and overwhelming...

Just Another Day in Paradise

So the second day of training went well :) even though it started very early.  I got up at 5 30 am...i know shocking that i can even get up that early..and then we were on the road to go to serve breakfast at The Midnight Mission.  We served breakfast to almost 600 people.  I really enjoyed serving at that place...and thats a good thing because i will be going there once a week with my group!  

After serving breakfast we did a "Meet-A-Need"...we went off in groups of two with $5 and found someone to talk to and then met a need that they needed.  Jonalisa and I were paired together and we met a man named Jose and talked with him about his family and his life for about 30 minutes.  He hadn't had anything to eat yet.....so we went and bought him some soup and talked more.  He told us over and over that he was "sick" because he had a severe alcohol problem.  We gave him information about several shelters in the downtown area that help with alcohol and drug addiction and spent time praying with him.  I now hope and pray that he actually will go and get the help that he needs.  I know that in reality one conversation that he had with two girls was not going to change much in his life...but i pray that we planted a seed in his mind pointing him more towards getting the help he needs.  We left him happy and laughing after we had been joking for quite awhile.  When we left he said.."Thanks I'm happy now."  It was a good feeling knowing we had effected his day...making it just a little bit better.

Later in the day we went to The Salvation Army of South LA which i think will become one of my favorite places to minister in the summer.  This is just a place for kids and youth to come and hang out and have activities and tutoring for the summer and during the school year.  Today we just hung out with the kids for awhile...and they were all soooo cute...and in the future we will do craft and gym time and games and tutoring and the best part is...hip hop dance...all these cute cute cute African-American kids were dancing like crazy...they had choreographed dance moves...i cant wait for them to teach me how to dance...cuz i know that i for sure will not be teaching them!!  :)

We ended the day at a restaurant called Rosco's...i guess a infamous place in LA...its fried chicken and waffles..yes fried chicken and waffles together...wierd..i tried them together...waffles, syrup, and fried chicken all together but it was a little too much...so i just ate the chicken and waffles seperate....the waffles were great!

Now i am tired after a long day...all of us hosts are hanging out listening to 90s music...too much fun!!  There is talk of making a music video...we will see i guess....  :)

Temporary Made Permanent

Today we started our first day of training.  All the other hosts arrived..Courtney from Michigan, Billy from Arizona, Jonalisa from South LA, and Alyssa from California.  We just did some simple introductions to begin and then went out to our first ethnic restaurant, a Honduran restaurant.  We then left for our prayer tour.  The prayer tour is the first thing that we will do with every new group that comes...What this entails is driving the groups around south LA and the downtown area explaining everything about the area and the demographics...pretty much everything there is to know about the area.  This gives the group a good base knowledge for understanding the people they will be serving for the week.  It would take me forever to explain the whole prayer tour...the tour itself taking about 2 hours so i am just going to explain one "snapshot" that stood out to me and then hopefully the rest of the info of the prayer tour will come out later in future blogs...

As we were leaving the south LA area and transitioning into downtown we stopped at a school that is called the 9th Avenue School.  This school was founded in the 80s and was going to be a temporary fix to an immediate need.  There was a large population of kids that was beginning to develop in this warehouse district on 9th Avenue as children that were homeless living mostly on Skid Row and children of garment worker (those that work in sweat shops making clothing).  The population of kids in the area was growing as homelessness was growing and the amount of garment worker, working long hours that would bring their kids to work with them.  The school was founded with movable trailer type building to give kids a school but not thinking this would be permanent.  This school obviously has become permanent as it is still in existence.  The school was built to house about 500 kids and there are about 650 in attendance since last year.  Also 99% of the kids are on free and reduced lunches...with the lowest percentile averages on their math and reading scores.  As we stood in this school yard, the poverty trap just really struck me.  This school that was meant to be temporary has now become permanent as there has been no long term fix for these families stuck in homelessness and sweat shops...the problems have only seemed to increase.  The hope seems no better for these children that are receiving a poor education while extremely low math and reading scores.  It saddened me immensely.  We stood and prayed for the kids, the teachers, and hopefully for more programs to be developed to help these kids in need.  Some of the ministries sites we will hopefully be working at this summer, will be working specifically with these type of kids.  As my heart broke for these kids, my love for them already began to grow and i am excited to get to love on them this summer...

Day one of training and i am already amazed at the possibilities that God has in store for me this summer.

New Beginnings

I arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday night the 23rd and now have been here for 2 days.  I haven't really been doing too much but i am very much ready to get started and excited that training starts tomorrow.  I have met three of the seven other hosts and everyone else should be arriving today or early tomorrow morning.  Chris and Nikki have been here as hosts in the Spring since February and McKenzie just got here yesterday.  Chris is from Chicago, Nikki from Arizona, and McKenzie from Oklahoma.

Our housing site for the summer is in South LA...the only other white people around are me and the other hosts for the summer.  We joke that the only window in our whole house is the little tiny peep hole on our front door.....safety is more important than windows i guess....so during the day we sit with our door open just to get some natural light into the building.  In the morning I feel like i live in a cave because its so dark in our room because we have no windows...it makes getting up in the morning very difficult because i have no internal clock in the morning to tell me to get up in the morning.  I think it will be harder and harder to get up as the summer wears on and i am more and more tired...but I'm ready and excited.

As of now i don't know much more than i did when i got here...but by the end of next week...a week full of training...i will be fully equipped to lead a group through a week of ministry...i hope  :)