Wednesday (July 17th)
This morning we tried again to work in the Manna Room bright and early. After talking to Ben & Chris, they let others know we would be there and to make sure we could get in. The good news was they didn't need us there until 6am! So a little before 6 Jed, Dave & I got up and headed over to the Manna Room. On our way over we noticed our friend Richard, that lives down the hall from where we are staying, hanging out beside his awesome white Fiat. As we walked by we all noticed why he was standing there on the phone staring at it. Something or someone had shattered the front windshield and dented the hood. We also noticed that the railing of the side steps to the church had been destroyed as well. We all felt so bad for him but thankfully he was able to get it fixed.
We spent the morning with Karen in the Manna Room. I am not sure that he has ever had help before so it took him a while to figure out what to do with us. He runs a tight ship and we had a great time getting to know him. I think by far the funniest thing that happened this morning was as the 4 of us were working, Joe came in to get some food for the groups breakfast. He must have been tired or just really focused because he didn't say a word. Just walked in and started going for the food. Karen tried to speak with him but Joe was "working" we all started laughing when Karen's response to Joe was, "Look at this guy. Always going straight to the business."
After working with Karen, we headed up to breakfast and bible reading before meeting with Bob & Janet Logan. The Logan are friends that we all met while in LA through Pastor Ed. They have been church planters for years and they have a business of consulting with churches through Logan Leadership. It was really insightful to listen to both of them. Some of the highlights from this talk were hearing them talk about what "church" was to them and their community and what community looks like to them. It was a refreshing way to think of it, church being about people, not a building and not what day of the week you meet. The two things that stood out to me the most about this time was
1.) The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) was to "Go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" and he said to Peter (Matthew 16:18) "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Bob Logan talked about how it is not our responsibility to build churches but to make disciples of people. It is about people not churches.
2.) At the end of our time, they took out this little frog stuffed animal and had everyone stand up. No one could sit down until the frog had been passed to them and they talked about one thing that stood out to them or something they would do different from our talk. It was so great to hear from others.
After everyone had time to share, it was time to get back to work in the Manna Room again. So we all headed back down stairs and started sorting, organizing & cooking again. We are all really enjoying our time in the Manna Room and had started to get into our rhythm.
Everyday we are getting to meet new people that are a part of the prep teams as well as new names & faces of people coming to eat. Everyone has a unique story and it has been so great to hear so many different stories.
Today as the Neighborhood Bible Club team headed off to meet the neighborhood kids, 8 of us stayed back to cook, prep and serve the 4PM meal.
When the Neighborhood Bible Club team returned and we finished cleaning up, we headed out to an authentic Chinese Restaurant, Seafood Village, in Temple City. Prior to our trip, we had asked Mengyun if you could talk to her friends in LA and recommend a place. Not only did Mengyun pick a fantastic place, she also did all of the ordering to ensure an authentic experience. She did not disappoint.
My favorite two memories from dinner were:
1. The tables were set for two tables of 8 and the servers have there system for these large round tables. We really messed them up when we slid one more people into our table with out them knowing it. As they dished out the first meal, soup, we were one short. In most places, you alert the waiter and they bring out another cup of soup, but not here. You could clearly tell he was not happy with how it played out and instead of bring out another cup of soup, he grabbed another bowl and scooped soup from other cups to fill the extra cup. I wish I could have snapped a picture of Lisa's face when it all happened. It was priceless and we all got a huge laugh out of it.
2. The soup was full of different kinds of meat and thankfully our friend Rudy was there to help us tell them apart. He reassured some that the meat was chicken as he pulled a piece out of his cup. Our friend Dave pulled out a piece of meat from his cup and Rudy let him know that it was pork. Jed followed suit and pulled out a piece of meat from his cup to ask Rudy what it was and Rudy's response was priceless, "That is .... that is something you don't want to eat." We all got a laugh out of Rudy's response but Jed was not going to let that be his final answer. He learned that it was chicken stomach and that he was going to go for it. So he and Dave were going to count to 3 and both eat the meat they had fished out of there bowls. "1 - 2 - 3" Dave says as he still has his pork firmly between his chop sticks. Then he turns to Jed as he is chewing on chicken stomach and says, "I can't believe you just ate that."
We had so much fun and we all tried food that was pretty new to all of us. It was a fantastic experience. After dinner, all of us headed to the Americana, to hang out and get some dessert. Jed & I loved being in our old stomping grounds and loved seeing how things had changed since we left.
A group of us hung out there with our cupcakes and frozen yogurt until just about everything had closed up. It was a fun evening of being silly, serious conversations and continuing to build tight relationships with each other.
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