The City of Angels - The Mini Series (Part 4)

July 13th - July 23rd

Tuesday (July 16th)

I was super excited for this morning. Today was the day we were going to start helping with the Manna Room starting at 5:30AM! I am definitely not a morning person but after being around Hope and all the people working in the Manna Room just for the last 2 days, I was excited to finally dive in. Jed & I got up and got ready to head out. Alice got up with me and she was hoping that Aaron would go along too. After a few failed phone calls & texts, I volunteered Jed to go get him. Let me tell you how thrilled he was to have to do that! Jed really tried to wake Aaron quietly but it clearly startled him and he about jumped out of his sleeping bag from what we heard. We clearly wore him out over the past few days and he just told Jed he would text Alice to let her know. It was pretty funny from our side of the hall.

So at 5:30AM, Jed, Alice and I walked over to the entrance of the courtyard at Hope and the gate was closed! Locked & Closed! We sat around for a few minutes trying to figure out what we had messed up. It was so early we don't want to bang or be loud as we could wake people trying to sleep. So we hung our heads and walked back to our sleeping bags and got a little more sleep before we tried to start the day again a little later.

We started again with breakfast at 7:30 followed by our bible reading at 8:00. After bible reading we met with Pastor Ed. It is truly amazing to hear him talk about the history of this church building. This church has been in existence for a really long time and has a crazy history that I won't go into but the highlights/interesting facts that stuck out to me the most in listening to Pastor Ed were:

1. The original church (where Hope meets now) was pretty much a celebrity status church, movie stars and the upper crust use to be a big part of it. As the neighborhoods changed around the church, so did its members.

2. This old church LOVED its choir and even more then the choir, the choir loft. It was a big deal. For generations, the choir and the choir loft stuck around as the attendance and dynamics of the church body constantly changed. On Pastor Ed's first Sunday as Pastor of the current church, he took a sledge hammer to this old, beautiful, prized possession of a choir loft. He believed that this loft had become an idol and felt that it needed to be destroyed. Any member of the church that still wanted to be a part of where the church was headed, he made them take a swing at the loft, if not, he asked them to leave the church. Tell me that is not crazy!! He talked about how people wanted to keep pieces of it as a "souvenir" or as a reminder and how every piece was destroyed and it was all thrown away. It definitely made me think of some things very differently.

3. Pastor Ed was instrumental in the Kairos teams move out to LA and because of the relationships people had with Pastor Ed, we ended up renting the secondary room from Hope. Instead of investing the money that Kairos had raised to put a down payment on church, Kairos instead invested that money in renovations to a room that they still use today. It is a cool partnership. The most amazing thing about it was when Pastor Ed talked about that from the investment that Kairos had made in renovating that room, that investment has grow SIX fold. Because of that investment, they were able to create the programs they have today. They have created a recovery center, the Manna Room program, a preschool, redone the second floor to the preschool to allow people that have graduated from the recovery program & many others to get on there feet. It has allowed teams like ours to make a trip like ours possible by giving us a free place to stay. It definitely reminded me of how one small decision can impact so much. It reminded me that everything is linked and that we all really are one big team and I felt honored. Honored to have been a part of the team that came to LA with no clue what I was doing but knew that it was the right thing to do.

It was a very memorable time listening to Pastor Ed and I felt that we could have listened for many more hours but we had work to do and we were excited to get started.When we finished talking with Pastor Ed we all headed downstairs to help and the second van of the day had just gotten there. When the van pulled up, most people that are living, hanging out or volunteering at Hope stopped what they were doing and started grabbing bags from the over packed van. So we jumped right in!

All of the bags get brought to one room to be sorted and organized. At first it seems like total chaos. There is literally food flying everywhere. This morning we worked with a very excited lady that taught us the ropes in the room. She continually total us that if we saw something we liked and wanted to eat, to take it. They called it the Boaz Fields. It was hilarious. So we set aside a few things and kept right on going. After about an hour or so it is all put in the areas that it needs to be and there is a small calm before the next van gets there and the process starts again. It was a lot of fun! I had no idea that sorting, unpacking and repacking could be that crazy and enjoyable!

As we finished in the Sorting Room, things were starting to heat up in the kitchens. The first meal is be served at 10AM so it was time to follow Sean's lead in the kitchen. Sean is one of the many people that volunteers his time to cook a few times a week. He was so patient and calm as entirely way too many of us constantly asked, "What could we do?" about 100 times. He had us cooking, chopping, prepping and washing dishes and before we realized it, it was time to start serving our first meal.

I think after the first meal, we were all hooked. We loved it. We loved screwing around in the kitchen laughing and cutting up; we loved being helpful; we loved being about to sit and eat and talk to people that came for the meal. It was all such a fantastic experience. They served the meal from 10AM to 11AM and then it was time to clean up everything before the next van load of food got there.

It was such an amazing process. After the last van of the day came and the room was sorted and put away we grabbed some lunch for all the food that had come in and the Neighborhood Bible Club team at some point in all the crazy fun headed off for there first day with the neighborhood kids. The remaining 8 of us went to met with Greg.

Greg is that Pastor of South LA Christian Life. Greg was a part of the Kairos church plant a while ago and when the time was right, he started a church in downtown Los Angeles with a team in part from Hope and in part from Kairos Hollywood. Jed & I were really looking forward to seeing Greg, Julie and a ton of other old faces we haven't seen in years. But before the festivities, Greg lead the 8 of us on something he called a "missional walk". The intention of a missional walk is to be intentional about checking out your surroundings. It causes you to slow down and see things that you might otherwise walk right by and never know. The goal of this is to understand different neighborhoods better and see ways to meet needs in specific ways. Many times, missional walks can turn into prayer walks as you walk around just praying for the different neighborhoods and having the chance to meet people.

Our first walk was through part of Hollywood right by where the church is located. We walked from the church to the subway station. We had all had an opportunity to walk around this neighborhood but like many areas in cities, it is constantly changing and the people you see and meet can always be an adventure. And that was the case for us this afternoon. As we walked a very unique individual started cozying up to Scott. He kept trying to talk, patting him etc. He started to "act" like Superman because we had just walked by a little boy that had a Superman shirt on, he even took a detour with the random kid but came back to our group. Next, still not making much sense, he approached Greg. He was looking for a sandwich and when Greg let him know that he didn't have one, he grabbed Greg's face, yelled, let go and off he went a different direction. You just never know what you will find.

We made it to the subway station and headed into downtown Los Angeles. I was pretty excited to use the subway system since we hardly used it at all when we lived here. We all rode the subway down to 6th and Figueroa to walk around down there. As we walked out, I thought I had stepped off the subway in NYC, the people, the smells, the tall buildings surrounding you, the restaurants, and shops. It was pretty nice. They have done some major work downtown over the past years and I loved it. Our final stop was the campus of USC. I think the most striking thing for me on campus was USC's the old entrance fountain that read:

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ESTABLISHED HERE JULY 29, 1879.
TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE REPUBLIC
AN INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING
DEDICATED TO THE SEARCH FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF TRUTH
TO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
TO INTELLIGENT, UNBIASED ANALYSIS OF THE FORCES THAT
HAVE SHAPED THE PAST AND WILL MOLD THE FUTURE
TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND
WOMANHOOD FOR CHRISTIAN SERVICE AND FOR LOYAL CITIZENSHIP

It was interesting to think about how things get stated and the foundation they start with. I really liked it. After walking around a bit, we made it to there new prized possession, the USC School of Cinematic Arts...

This place was fantastic. I can't believe we were on a college campus walking through some of the buildings that Spielberg & Lucas helped build here. It was amazing.

After our time at USC, we hopped back on the subway and walked the rest of the way to Greg & Julie's house where we meet us with the rest of our team and a group for South LA Christian Life. Many of the people that were there were friends that had moved out to LA the same time Jed & I moved out. It was so much fun to be able to see and catch up with so many of them.

 Since one team spent the day on the subway there wasn't room for all of us on the 15 passenger van so Scott, Katie, Mengyun, Jed & I got to take the subway back. It was a great chance for Katie to get it give it a go since she was with the other team during the day.

Once we got back, Scott, Katie, Jed & I took a side trip for donuts! There are tons of donut places all over LA. We drive by them all day long, many are even opened 24 hours. Of course the night that we won't donuts, we can't seem to find any opened! The best ones are the mom & pop places but we had to settle for Winchell's.

There is conflicting information as to what happened next so I would like to take this opportunity to my side of the story. The four of us walked into Winchell's with donuts on the brain. Jed and I discussed which we felt would be best and Scott & Katie did the same. Scott inquired about some kind of apple filled donut to which Katie felt that it would be bad. So as the guy was taking our order, Scott switched from the apple filled to the jelly filled donut. I paid for all of the donuts and off we went. We made our way to my absolute favorite chain coffee place, The Coffee Bean to get something warm to drink and enjoy our donuts.  When I opened the bag there were only 3 donuts in there! No jelly donut at all! It is my opinion that it was the guy at Winchell's fault. We all heard Scott order the jelly donut and that guy did not put it in the bag. I would also like to take part blame for this as I did pay for all the donuts and I should have known that I didn't pay enough for 4 donuts.

We all had a great laugh, offered Scott some of our non jelly filled donuts and enjoyed the night.

The City of Angels - The Mini Series (Part 3)

July 13th - July 23rd

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.

The City of Angels - The Mini Series (Part 2)

July 13th - July 23rd

Sunday (July 14th)

Today was a day of getting acquainted with where we were living and heading off to a few church services. We all got up and ready pretty early that morning so we had about an hour or so to explore the neighborhood before our first church service started at 11. Jed & I had the chance to walk around the area and see all of the things that had changed and remember all of the sights, sounds & smells that were the exact same. We found a farmers market on Hillhurst that we stopped at and picked up a box of fresh strawberries for the team. They were fantastic.

I think a lot of the group was especially surprised by our neighborhood  surroundings, mainly the many different types of churches that were so different and so close to Hope. But I think the most surprising for many was the huge Scientology campus just a block away.

Picture courtesy of Terri Dewey

Our first service was at Hope International. I love this church. I love that it is a church full of people that love unconditionally; they love and support each other and are always looking out for each other. Pastor Ed spoke that morning about God's GPS. About the times in life that God is giving us road signs. Some of the road signs he spoke about were, "One Way", "Yield", "Look Out for Falling Rocks" and "Detour". After listening to Pastor Ed, I definitely will look at road signs differently now.

One of the best parts about going to Hope were the old faces. Jed and I recognized quite a few faces from our time in LA and were really excited when we saw an old friend, Richard, come in the door. It was so great to see him and see him looking well and doing very well.

The other face that completely caught us off guard was Ryan. Ryan was one of the kids that was in our Confident Kids class Jed & I taught many years ago. It was so great to see him & his sister and hear how well things were going for him. He has overcome many obstacles to get to where he is now and is studying and working hard in music. He is a singer, plays guitar and piano.

After church, we all walked down to Dave's house. Dave is one of the equippers on the Kairos staff and they were nice enough to host a cookout for us that afternoon. We were able to spend time the afternoon talking and laughing about life and meeting new people.

Kati, Tim, Dave, Terri

Aaron, Meng, Alice, Meg

Lisa, Katie, Tanika

After lunch, we spent time as a big group talking about being intentional in where you live. Greg talked a lot about putting down roots & loving the city you are in. It was particularly hard for me as it reminded me of how much I love LA. We talked about community and what that looks like for different people. I really enjoyed the conversation and listening to what everyone else was thinking and feeling. It reminded me a lot of what "church service" was when we first moved out there. Sitting in a back yard in the beautiful weather, sharing life and life experiences with each other in an effort to grow and challenge all of us.

When the Kairos team needed to leave to go set up and get ready for there evening service, a group of us headed down to Hollywood & Western for some JAMBA JUICE! Jed & I really enjoyed turning a new group of people on to this place and it was great to continue to walk around the neighborhoods and see different areas, faces and life styles. It brought back many memories for me as we walked past the old Hollywood Apartments where it felt like most of the people going to Kairos in the early years lived and where we would have prayer meetings on the roof. We laughed and told people that it is very uncommon to walk everywhere in LA but we were enjoying it since the weather was so great.

Our next stop was the Kairos service. I knew that I wouldn't be able to make it through with dry eyes so I came prepared. Not only was it a Kairos service but Audrey was speaking. I have never been able to hear her speak in person and it meant the world to me to be there. We laughed ahead of time about every time she speaks she almost always cries and that always makes Eric cry so I knew it would be a memorable service. We also learned right before the service that Eric would be playing and singing this week, just one more thing that brought back so many memories and something I was so excited to be a part of. All was going great during the service until it happened, Jed turned around and looked and there they were walking down the steps... David & Amy. We had no idea they were going to be there, they were in San Diego but they were nice enough to come all the way back in order to be at church to see us. It meant so much to me that they were there. They came all the way back knowing that we would have no time to talk or hangout, catch up or do anything but they came anyway.

The four of us sat in the back and listened to Audrey talk about Hope. About how life and life experiences can seem to have no hope or cause us to lose hope but that we all have hope inside us. We can be hope to other people when they feel there is no hope. We all go through highs and lows and we all need people in our lives that can help show us hope in those lows.

Our team had one more stop before we were done for the night and unfortunately we had to leave Karios early in order to make it. Jayson (one of the guys that lives at Hope and works in the Manna Room) came to pick us up to take us down to the Midnight Mission. The drive to downtown from Hollywood was so funny to us. We sat in traffic, drove through different types of neighborhoods and watched Jayson maneuver all types of unique things on the road. I can definitely say that part of that I miss until that is what I would have to do everyday and then I am pretty sure I wouldn't miss it at all.

As we drove towards the Midnight Mission, we entered an area referred to as "Skid Row". The large majority of the Skid Row area is comprised of the homeless. It true was difficult to comprehend one block being super nice and just a few blocks away being complete poverty. Many people on Skid Row live in boxes or nothing. Some have shopping carts with all of there possession in them while others are unfortunate to have tents that they can set up & use on the sidewalks from 8pm to 6am. It truly broke our hearts to see this and very difficult to transition from hearing about hope and seeing this and wondering where the hope for people that are living down here is.

Jayson dropped us off in the garage area of the Midnight Mission so we could quickly make it to the missions church service since we were running late. The service takes place in a big open room. When we got there they had set up a few dozen seats and the band from Hope International was already playing. We quickly & quietly found seat throughout the room and participated in the worship and observed our surroundings. As Jed and I walked in we recognized the lady that was leading worship, Camille. Camille is Ryan's mom and it was so great to see her up there and Ryan was up there singing with the band as well. They did a fantastic job and it the best to be able to experience it.

Pastor Ed had arranged for Joe to speak that night at the Mission. After a little bit of confusion, the acting pastor introduced Joe and he did an outstanding job. One of the many memorable moments from that services was to hear the groups reaction when Joe quoted Abraham Lincoln by saying, "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" It was such a simple statement that made you think of something a very different way. It kind of felt like that the entire day in a way. At the end, we finished with a song and then everyone joined hands and said the Lords Prayer. It was such a powerful moment and service and I was so honored to be a part of it.

As everyone was packing up the band and talking, Jeff (the drummer) tried to take us on a tour of the place and really helped us learn a little bit more about what the Mission does there. The room that we just had church in was being switched over to allow a few hour homeless to come and sleep on the floor in there. The room right off the large main room had a kid's room, with no toys, a barber shop where people volunteer there time to give hair cuts to the homeless, and a "library:", a room that has donated books for people to just take with no expectation of returning. The larger room that Jeff took us to when they wouldn't let him give us the whole tour (the main parts of the building are locked down and access is only really granted to people that have checked in to there recovery program) was the room that they serve 3 meals a day to 500-600 people. You could feel hearts just breaking as we saw tables with signs that read, "table only for parents with children children" and thinking about what it must be like to call the streets your home as a kid.

Jeff was a great "tour guide" and a fantastic person to ask questions too since at one time Jeff lived there. It was truly amazing to hear all the different types of people that had at one time used these facilities.

Once we were packed up, we headed out to dinner at Palermo's just down the street from where we were staying.  Jeff was able to get us a table for 16 (ish) in no time. It was impressive and very good. We sat and talked to Jayson & Camille and just heard so much about there lives, where they have been and what they hoped was ahead. They all truly inspire me and I am so grateful to have met and spent some time with them.