me and melissa ready for our road trip to l.a.!!! :)
trying to get a pic of the HOLLYWOOD sign while driving on the freeway... it's the tiny white thing on the mountain in the upper left corner... :)
johnny depp's hands and feet... (sigh) :) i also got pics of shirley temple, dick van dyke, and other awesome-ly awesome people's handprints...:)
this is my blackmail photo of kim... we are making a throw-up face cuz we ate at Roscoe's... their "specialty" is fried chicken with waffles. weird. ew. the waffles were very delicious, though! :)
alright, so we left on friday and it took about two and a half hours to get there... our group then walked around downtown hollywood area and just hung out for a bit. then we went to Roscoe's for chicken and waffles (yes, i did feel sick afterwards... i don't recommend combining those two yummy foods)... after dinner we headed to the church that we were staying at and put our stuff in our rooms (all the girls--nine of us-- shared a room with no beds, three little couches, and a very cold, hard, tile floor. guess where i got to sleep... nah! it wasn't so bad-- us master's girls are smarties and so we brought air mattresses!!!! yay!!!
we were up until 1 AM planning for the next day (saturday) when we would be doing a kid's camp thing in the park. a core group of ten people (a combo from all the different churches that came) got together and planned the whole thing... the message, the games, the skit, etc. i got to be part of that group!!!! it was a great experience, and everyone was awesome to work with! actually, my main job was filling up water balloons for the games, and so by the time i was done i looked like i had literally peed my pants (one of the balloons attacked me after i filled it up!!! :) )
okay, so saturday we had to be up by 8 for breakfast (no showers for the girls cuz it's a guys rehab center thing...so i was icky) then we left for adopt-a-block. we walked up and down this one neighborhood near the church, the guys mowing lawns and sweeping the streets...and i was with the group that went door to door giving people grocery bags of food and praying for them. that was SO cool!!!!!!!! most of the people spoke only spanish, but it was still powerful being there and hearing the other people pray for them.
after that we had some lunch and then headed off to the park to do the kids' service. that went really well and i made friends with a couple adorable little girls!!!! i love kids!!!!!!! :)
when we finished there it was about 4 and the girls got to take showers!!!!!!! we were all like, "praise the Lord!!!!" it was getting pretty nasty---i think we could all smell ourselves and it was not fresh. :)
after our showers we had dinner and then we went to el paseo...it's like a shopping center/movie theater place where tons of people hang out and we did some street evangelism. i don't know why, but that is SO hard for me!!!! i get so nervous just walking up to people and being like, "hey, i just wanted to let you know that God loves you, and if you need anything, i would love to pray with you." but anyways, we did that and then we went to skid row.
skid row was my favorite and least favorite part of the trip. it was by far the most powerful and eye-opening, realizing the poverty that some people live in, but it was so overwhelmingly sad. some of the girls felt really spiritually oppressed, and i don't know if i am just not as in-tune to spiritual forces, but all i could feel was pity. these people lived in human waste and among rats and garbage with no hope of getting out. where are they supposed to go? i wanted to hug them all and take them somewhere better... the whole situation felt hopeless. but we were able to pray for quite a few people, and we fed a bunch!!!! i never felt "unsafe" and i actually only saw one rat and one piece of poop (gross, i know...) but the entire area we were in smelled like when someone has a pet hamster and they never clean the cage. like rats and urine. there were a few prostitutes and their pimps out, but mostly it was just sleeping hobos in tents or cardboard boxes on the sidewalk. i asked that God would let me see them all the way He does, and it was incredibly overwhelming. i'm amazed at God's love for us. i can't even comprehend how great it is, and something that's kind of cool that i learned this week is that the testimony of God's love has not lost its power through the changing times because God loves us, you and me, as much today, in this moment, as He did on the day He died on the cross for us. FOR REALS!!!! that is so exciting to me!!!
well, i might have more stories to tell tomorrow (i have the morning off!! SLEEP!!!!) but right now i am going to go to bed... goodnight everyone!!! muah! :)
