Wow…I am super-tired. We had a ton of fun today. We headed down to Angelus Temple for church and it was amazing. They seriously know how to have a good time at church. The band ( check out “Press Play” on iTunes)rocked the house…honestly it was the first time I have heard the guitar lines from beat it, walk this way, and back in black used in worship.
They had a guest speaker, Scott Harrison who has an amazing testimony, and now runs Charity:Water (give it a google).
So after lunch we headed down to Long Beach and played at the beach and then had some really good Mexican food for dinner. Here is us at the restaurant ( I took the pic so my face i cut in half). Off to bed…Disneyland tomorrow!

So today was another grea day of outreach. We started out by gathering for prayer with all the Dream Center staff, interns, Master’s Commission, and the other Short Term Missions people–there were a few hundred of US, and it was a really powerful time of seeking God.
After prayer we loaded the busses and vans and spread out across the city for the Adopt-a-Block outreach. Our team went out into one of the projects near Watts. It was an interesting place–a few thousand people live there and since it was Saturday, everyone was home, or sitting out on the front step we went through and picked up trash (which was everywhere), some helped to hand out food, some went and delivered baby diapers, and other needed items. After a while we went to play and hang out with kids. It was a good eye opener, and a glimpse into other people’s lives. I think we did some good things that made Jesus smile.
We ended the day by heading to Santa Monica and playing at the beach and then hanging out on the pier. We are all really sunburnt, especially Tony…oh and Claire got her first ever leg sunburn. What a day! I’m gonna read some Psalms and head of f to bed. I can’t wait to see you all when we get home next week.

What a great day. This morning we loaded busses with food, diapers and other supplies that are going out to different neighborhoods tomorrow for the Adopt-a-Block outreach.
Then we spent the rest of the day until about 9:00 pm helping with a giant outreach at South Park, wich was in a pretty rough neighborhood. Altogether we served over 3000 meals, and put on a fair type outreach for the whole block. There were a ton of people there. We did a free bike fix, where nearly 90 bikes ca through, from little kids to homeless dudes. It was great to see people light up from the simplest help.
The outreach ended with a great altar call where 387 gave their lives to Jesus! In the picture above is me and Todd whom I spent a long time talking to and praying with. It’s exciting to see entire families come to faith.
Well I’m off to bed.

What a great day today was. We started out serving in the Hope for Homeless Teens office sending out fundraising letters, then we spent the afternoon heading to different neighborhoods handing out bags and bags and bags of food.
It’s remarkable how much joy can be brought into other people’s lives (and consequently our own) when we simply serve with no expectation of return. It feels a lot like Jesus to simply change somone’s day.
We ended the night by attending the midweek service at Angelus Temple. Great service! God is certainly doing things everywhere. After church we stopped into Burger King (high class, I know) for some milkshakes. Off to bed!

After 12 hours of driving (just today) we finally arrived at the Dream Center. Everyone is pretty tired so we are going bed.
We start working with the homeless teen outreach in the morning. There are about 200 youth and young adults from around the country serving this week with US…lots of activity around here.
Hopefully we’ll find some free wifi around here and upload a video from our trip so far.

So the day kicked off good.  98 slug bugs, 6 tacos, 3 milkshakes, 2 smoothies, 2 curly fries, 6 screaming girls (go hannah montana), and 438 miles, and a lot to go….

We are spending the first night at the Blue’s house in Grants pass (pastor Peter’s parents).  They are great amazingly fantabulous (that’s a Meghan-ism), and their house is ninja cool.  We got here in time to go hang out at the river for a few minutes, and see Jered do his monkey run into the sticker bushes….(who knows).

Ok….off to bed.  Just one more thing: Mikaela love JUSUS (that’s Jesus for the rest of us who know how to spell).

Look out California, here we come.

I had so much fun last night at CP YOUTH!
Students led worship as well as “brought the word” and it was so inspiring to me!
We sang From the Inside Out during worship and I was struck by the line:

Everlasting, your light will shine when all else fades…

I thought about how I really want God’s light to shine through me but it often doesn’t cause their are too many other things that are in me!

Like not wanting to look like a fool or wanting to be liked by everyone, or just wanting to do my own thing instead of what God might want me to do.
The bottom line for me is I WANT GOD’s light to shine so I’m asking Him to clear out the other things in my life that might crowd out that light.
What needs to fade in your life?
How bright is the Everlasting shining in your life?
If you want Him to shine more JUST ASK him to!! He wants to and He is happy to help you make that happen in your life!

The students at CP Youth ROCK! Truly you are amazing and I thank you for blessing me and so many others last night with your presence and your testimony!

Shine Bright Today!
See you Sunday!

Sandy

Last night was the student takeover at CP Youth, and boy as it awesome. Mikaela, Meghan, and Heather lead in worship (great job girls), and Justin and Tamara brought some fire frm The Word. I mean, it is really impressive when a young person preaches the Word of God with confidence knowing that God is working through them. I am so proud of all of you.

See you on Sunday–remember it’s the first day of our new schedule.