Monday (July 15th)
This morning we started off with an early breakfast followed by a morning bible reading group. It sounds pretty simple and easy to just glaze over but both of these things are rather amazing in my opinion. First, breakfast: why is breakfast so amazing? Every morning before this morning, I pretty much knew was in my kitchen and what I would eat for breakfast. Or if I wanted something for breakfast one morning, I would run to the store the night before and purchase what I wanted for breakfast. Well, none of those things happen here. Every morning around 5:30am a 15 passenger van shows up with a literal ton of food, flowers, and drinks in it. Every morning we are here, we go into the room that all of this is sorted and distributed and pick out breakfast from what comes in that morning. (More on the details of this process in a later post.) We never know what shows up: muffins, fruit, eggs, bagels, juice etc. I love the idea that every morning & afternoon our team and many other people trust and rely on the unknown of what, if and when that truck comes. It is so simple but since we have a safety net of, "If we are hungry and want breakfast, we just go buy it". This week that isn't an option. It is about trusting and seeing God provide for all our needs.
After breakfast, Lenny, Julio & Guillermo came in for their daily bible reading that they have faithfully done every morning for years. All are welcome to come so we joined in as we read through the bible chronologically & prayed. It was so great to see and hear about these guys (and many others that have made their way though the program) so faithfully come together.
Another fantastic gift we received while being out here is the use of Hope International's 15 passenger van (not the one that gets food). The great part is that we don't have to rent one or worry about how to get 19 people around, the bad part is that it is known to stall out anytime, anywhere.
But we loaded everyone in the 15 passenger van & the rented SUV and took everyone to Griffith Observatory for the rest of the morning. The Observatory itself is closed on Mondays but the views and the building itself is always worth the trip.
We spent the morning as a team just looking over this huge city and exploring the grounds of the Observatory. It wasn't super clear but you definitely got the idea of how large the city was. I think one of the favorite things around the Observatory were the Solar System Lawn Model & the Sundial.
After we wandered around taking in all the sights, we all took some time to reflect on the past day. We have only been here less then 48 hours and the team has seen, heard, smelled & experienced a lot in a short period of time. I think it was really good to take some time to digest all of that. At the end of our time, we spent a while talking about everything.
It was really great to hear what others were thinking and feeling and I definitely think it was a time that brought our team closer together.
When we left the Observatory, we headed back to Hope to see what the last van brought in so we could grab some lunch before we headed out to House of Blessing. This is an organization that helps ladies and their children get back on their feet. This week part of our team is going to lead a Neighborhood Bible Club with any and all the neighborhood children. We all headed over to the house to meet the ladies that work there and get things set up for kids to start coming on Tuesday.
The group that is leading the kids stayed there for the afternoon going over plans, organizing and getting ready while the other team headed out to get all the supplies they would need for that team. We were also planning on flyering the neighborhood to promote the event but the ladies at the house had already done that for us.
When all was at a good place, it was time to start making our way to our Group Dinner at Miceli's in Hollywood. A group of us headed straight down to Hollywood & Highland so people could have time to explore the area a little before dinner.
Eric, Audrey, Dave & Amy joined us for dinner that night and we had a great time just laughing and enjoying good food. Our waiter was amazing and he even sang for us a few times all while juggling a table of 22! That takes a lot of talent if you as me. At the end of the meal, we had to get a group picture with our waiter.
After dinner most of the team was ready to call it a night but Scott, Katie, Dave, Amy, Terri, Aaron, Alice, Meg, Mengyun, Jed & I decided to explore a little more before heading home. Dave, Audrey & Eric came along with us. Our first stop, dessert at Beard Papa's. We all loved them and decided that Dave looked liked the guy on there logo so we started calling him "Beard Papa". Mengyun said they were just like something they would normally have in China. They were good enough that we brought back some for the rest of the team to eat later.
Thanks to Dave, Audrey & Eric's knowledge of the area, when we were done with dessert they took us on an adventure. We walked up to Yamashiro Restaurant for some spectacular evening views.
By the time we got back to Hollywood & Highland, we had to pick up our van before the garage closed for the night. But instead of going straight back to Hope, we took the long way home and drove the van down the Sunset Strip and back up through West Hollywood. Two very different areas that are known for nightlife. The strip was pretty quiet (it is a Monday night) but there looked to be plenty going on in West Hollywood. Maybe next time we will stop for a bit.
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