Thursday, August 06
Today we have a very pack schedule for group one. Going to SASLA for 3 hours, then head straight to Vernon Retirement House, then go to SA Harbor Light to lead worship for the homeless. Go to the Art class at SASLA, today we're making a key chain with a cross and colored beads on it. Actually this art project is the best one to share the Gospel to the kids. I remember at least the beads have these colors: black, red, white, green, and purple. A kid asks me, "What does purple mean?". Hmmm...what does the color purple mean?. I remember that on the crucifixion the soldiers mock Jesus by putting Him on a purple robe. On that time purple cloth is very expensive and usually is worn by kings. Yeah...purple means King Jesus, the great Lord that offers us a free gift of eternal life. Then starts explaining the other colors; black is we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God; red is by the blood of Jesus Christ our sins are redeemed when He died on the cross; white is that His blood cleanses our sins and we become white as snow. I just remember this part of the song:
"Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe,
Sin has left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow"
Thanks be to God for art-crafting-people who organize this art project...=), although somehow it's hard to put the string through the cross (oh yeah...a lot of kids at that time raising their hands and yelling, "Please helppp meeee...I can't put the string..."). This is the highlight on SASLA for today; other than that, just play soccer with the kids and have some conversations with them.
Go to Vernon Retirement House, we start by singing worship by the awesome program that Jen has come up with...in details...in careful planning...and a lot of thoughts and consideration. She is just awesome. Then Jen, Kev, and Yusuf are playing the SinBox skit (youtube it); and it's awesome too. After that we serve the elders by doing hand massage and nail polishing (for women of course). I think the team has a great time with their new friends, having lovely conversation while doing the massage and nail polishing. I talk with a man on his wheelchair, but it seems that he is very agile, he just move around the place on his wheelchair. We talk about music, family, and basketball. He asks me to say and to do the "Aloha" and "Mahalo" gestures over and over again. That make him laugh and happy, I don't really know how to describe the gestures here...yeahh...but it makes him happy...=). Kev is playing chess with an elder man, and I think he lost, but he still says that he lost in dignity. Feel very exhausted now, very tired, and energy is gone...with the thought that we still have to lead worship and deliver sermon on the next schedule. After distributing the gifts to the elders, we are about to depart, and someone ask our group to go inside a room. That's where we meet mother Ethel Berry, a 108 years old woman, who's the oldest resident on the house. Yesss...108 years old...this is the first time I meet a person so old. Apparently she listen to the songs that we sang when we are worshipping, but she can't get out from her room. She makes a request that we sing some songs. I've already pack my guitar and put it on the van. So we decide that we sing "Amazing Grace" in acapella way. After we sing, she sings a song for us!!! In clear and strong voice...so amazing. Then she prays for us...for the next ministries...a wonderful prayer that really strengthen us. Fina says that it is the gift of the day, and I indeed agree...I feel that I just regain the strength. Praise to God for giving us mother Ethel Berry...such a wonderful blessing and helper.
We go to SA Harbor Light to lead worship and sermon. As usual there always be distraction. The mixed and speaker are not working, my tuner is dead, and so on. We start the service few minutes late and actually my guitar tune and Aini's piano tune are not in synch...but we still move on to lead the worship. Sing "Mighty to Save" and "You Never Let Go" as the opening, and then Jen, Kev, and Yusuf do the SinBox skit again. Again, it's awesome skit. At the end of the skit when Yusuf acts as crucified Jesus, I heard some of the attendees are moved with what He has done. On the act when Jesus is risen, beat up the devil, and frees us from sin, the attendees just clap with joy...praise to Him...=). Dan then delivers a wonderful, meaningful, and powerful sermon taken from Psalms. The words are related to the situation that the homeless people are facing now. Praying that the Word of God will touch, strengthen, and encourage their lives. We close the sermon by singing "Amazing Grace" and "How Great is Our God". Yes indeed He is our great God who will never let us go on every situation, high and low. He is the great God whose His Name should be lifted up and is worthy to be praised. He is the One great God who shows no distinction in loving peoples from different tribes, races, tongues, status, levels, and everything. The experience of worshipping God with these brothers and sisters is just awesome. How great You are oh my God...
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
DAY 3
Wednesday, August 05
The ministry started by having breakfast with day workers (mostly from Mexico and South America) at nearby Home Depot. We split into three groups and Dan becomes the person to initiate conversation with them as his Spanish is a lot better than Aini and me (I only know Como Estas...=) ). We give out some donuts and start conversation with them, listen to them as they pour out the story about their families, work, and the hardship to find a job. Some of them have been waiting for a job since 6 AM. Dan talks about if they go to church and have a relationship with Jesus, and how they cast all of their burdens and frustation. We pray together with some of them. We meet a day worker from Guatemala who is also a guitar player in a church. Aini sings a song in Spanish that talks about "a mustard seed can move the mountain" or something like that. This brother from Guatemala also sing along with us. Just praise God that we're all can encourage and strengthen each other. The singing is remarklable Aini, and for sure it becomes a blessing and a source of hope to them while they are waiting that something good will happen on their lives.
We head to SASLA, and I go to the Art room. We guide the kids on how to make a bookmark today. The bookmark has a printing of the Lord's Prayer on it. When I help one girl to glue the craft, she tells me, "Oh, isn't this from the Bible? From Matthew 6:9-13?" And she grabs her tiny Bible from her bag and shows me the verses about the Lord's Prayer. I just feel amazed and wowed with her saying. A joy just like flowing on my heart knowing that this kid really love the Lord and His love is in her. We talk about Jesus a bit and continue to do the craft. Another girl that sits next to her doesn't want to continue the craft as it has messed up. This girl asks her friend if she can have and fix it so that she can give it to her brother. A very mature girl, praise the Lord for that. I just see God's abundant love and blessing through her. The craft is done, now is the time to get to the gym. Kevin is making a breakthrough here, he is playing dodgeball with the kids. If you don't know what dodgeball is, wiki or google it...=). Thanks to Kevin for showing me on how to come out from the comfort zone. I join him to play dodgeball and we have a fun time with the kids. Lunch with the kids is also a good time to know them, and sharing your chip is a very effective way to start a conversation with them (although don't give it too much, their parents will be mad at you for their kids consume too much sodium...=P). It's also a good time to show them that we ought to share food with their friends.
We then go to the Food Bank, a big facility like Costco that distribute the food to many missions, shelters, and agencies. What we do overthere is soring pear and pear and pear...and tomatoes...for like one and a half hours.
We have a free time today, we go to downtown LA and eat Mexican Food. Kind of disappointed with the Mexican restaurant that I choose as it's not that authentic. Next time if you don't see chicarron, lengua, and carnitas on a Mexican restaurant's menu, don't really bother to enter it. Actually the restaurant a few stalls away is a lot better and more authentic. I decide to buy goat meat tacos from here. I think it's called "Biarra". The meat is tender and juicy...so good.
Then we decide to go to Skid Row to visit the Homeless Karaoke. It's a church or mission that provides a Karaoke night on every Wednesday night for the homeless. They have to sign up their name if they want to sing. Almost all of them sing very very good and amazing. At 9 pm, it's a dance time. People (homeless and non-homeless) just stand up and start dancing along with the song. This is the first time that I go to a karaoke place in the US and it's so memorable. All of the group members dance with the homeless and it's so fun, they just let it out...out of the comfort zone. It's a reminder for me that someday we are all from every level will dance, sing, and worship God together in heaven, there is no disctinction...what a fun, humbling, and blessed night...keep praying for this church and the pastor who really have a big heart and tremendous ministry to the homeless. May God always and always bless them to touch, to strengthen, and to encourage the people around them.
The ministry started by having breakfast with day workers (mostly from Mexico and South America) at nearby Home Depot. We split into three groups and Dan becomes the person to initiate conversation with them as his Spanish is a lot better than Aini and me (I only know Como Estas...=) ). We give out some donuts and start conversation with them, listen to them as they pour out the story about their families, work, and the hardship to find a job. Some of them have been waiting for a job since 6 AM. Dan talks about if they go to church and have a relationship with Jesus, and how they cast all of their burdens and frustation. We pray together with some of them. We meet a day worker from Guatemala who is also a guitar player in a church. Aini sings a song in Spanish that talks about "a mustard seed can move the mountain" or something like that. This brother from Guatemala also sing along with us. Just praise God that we're all can encourage and strengthen each other. The singing is remarklable Aini, and for sure it becomes a blessing and a source of hope to them while they are waiting that something good will happen on their lives.
We head to SASLA, and I go to the Art room. We guide the kids on how to make a bookmark today. The bookmark has a printing of the Lord's Prayer on it. When I help one girl to glue the craft, she tells me, "Oh, isn't this from the Bible? From Matthew 6:9-13?" And she grabs her tiny Bible from her bag and shows me the verses about the Lord's Prayer. I just feel amazed and wowed with her saying. A joy just like flowing on my heart knowing that this kid really love the Lord and His love is in her. We talk about Jesus a bit and continue to do the craft. Another girl that sits next to her doesn't want to continue the craft as it has messed up. This girl asks her friend if she can have and fix it so that she can give it to her brother. A very mature girl, praise the Lord for that. I just see God's abundant love and blessing through her. The craft is done, now is the time to get to the gym. Kevin is making a breakthrough here, he is playing dodgeball with the kids. If you don't know what dodgeball is, wiki or google it...=). Thanks to Kevin for showing me on how to come out from the comfort zone. I join him to play dodgeball and we have a fun time with the kids. Lunch with the kids is also a good time to know them, and sharing your chip is a very effective way to start a conversation with them (although don't give it too much, their parents will be mad at you for their kids consume too much sodium...=P). It's also a good time to show them that we ought to share food with their friends.
We then go to the Food Bank, a big facility like Costco that distribute the food to many missions, shelters, and agencies. What we do overthere is soring pear and pear and pear...and tomatoes...for like one and a half hours.
We have a free time today, we go to downtown LA and eat Mexican Food. Kind of disappointed with the Mexican restaurant that I choose as it's not that authentic. Next time if you don't see chicarron, lengua, and carnitas on a Mexican restaurant's menu, don't really bother to enter it. Actually the restaurant a few stalls away is a lot better and more authentic. I decide to buy goat meat tacos from here. I think it's called "Biarra". The meat is tender and juicy...so good.
Then we decide to go to Skid Row to visit the Homeless Karaoke. It's a church or mission that provides a Karaoke night on every Wednesday night for the homeless. They have to sign up their name if they want to sing. Almost all of them sing very very good and amazing. At 9 pm, it's a dance time. People (homeless and non-homeless) just stand up and start dancing along with the song. This is the first time that I go to a karaoke place in the US and it's so memorable. All of the group members dance with the homeless and it's so fun, they just let it out...out of the comfort zone. It's a reminder for me that someday we are all from every level will dance, sing, and worship God together in heaven, there is no disctinction...what a fun, humbling, and blessed night...keep praying for this church and the pastor who really have a big heart and tremendous ministry to the homeless. May God always and always bless them to touch, to strengthen, and to encourage the people around them.
DAY 2
Tuesday, August 4th
Start our day by going to SASLA (Salvation Army South Los Angeles). They are having a summer camp program for kids. The center is great, it has an indoor basketball gym (yuppp...my basketball buddies here will envy the indoor facility...hehehe), art room, computer lab, and game room (xbox, foosball, pool tables, and air hockey...great huh?).
I think Ocep, Kevin, and I are first assigned to the gym. Meet a couple of staffs there, and there is no instruction what to do or what to help. We just sitting out on the bench do nothing...staring on each other, and watch the kids play basketball, they are great...maybe some of them will be the next NBA stars. I just find out that Baron Davis (ex Golden State Warriors who goes back to Clippers) and Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons) grew up in this neighborhood. And also Venus and Serena Williams, for your information. 45 minutes after watching their games, we just go to the court and shoot around the ball with the kids, try to have some conversation with them...not much
Then we are rotated, went to the computer lab. Helping kids to fix those freeze computers when they try to login to the web and play online games. Most of them are playing games, and some of the kids are really into the game like "dressuplikemichaeljackson" (huh????). We spend the time talking with the kids while they are playing games and teach them to be patient when the web page is loading....
Go back to the gym, now it's filled with younger kids. Can connect with them better...do some piggy back ride to a couple of them, and later I find out that piggy back is not allowed on Salvation Army, so I stop the game. Spend the rest of the time talking with the kids and get to know them while playing some simple games.
The next activity....Serving Group 1 is doing City Search at downtown LA. The purpose is to get to know the downtown life and people on the street. We are split into two groups. Some of the things that we learn is that it's hard to live in downtown. The rent is expensive, to open up a small business is expensive (a monthly rent for a small store on Broadway can cost up to $9,000!!!), restaurants are not giving free water, and it's even hard to find a public restroom. We think that it's almost impossible for people with low salary to live in downtown. The environment is just so harsh.
One of the given tasks is to invite someone for lunch. After looking around the metro station, we found one homeless man and ask him to go to lunch, and he reject the offer. Then we find a man sitting on a wheeled-walking-device (I don't know the name of this device). We say greeting to him, introduce ourselves, and ask him to join our lunch. He accept that, but it's hard for him to walk around. We decided to buy the food, come back to his spot, and have a lunch on the street (that person suggests us to buy chinese food, I think because he sees that we are all Asians =P). We have the lunch and have some conversation. He used to be living on the street (on Skid Row), and eventually get out from the street because his family puts him into a retirement home in which we praise God for his family that cares for him. This person is so wise as he gives us some advices about life and how tough is the life on the street, and how we should take care on each other. He used to be a king of Mardi Gras, but he later mentions that there's only one King above all kings, Jesus Christ...praise God for hearing such wonderful testimony. When he talks, almost all of the time he praised God...we're kind of get such a blessing from this person, also praise God for that. We finish our conversation and end it up by praying for him. We give out another box of chinese food to a homeless on a bike that comes by and ask us for food. I think brother Dan has some conversation with him.
We go around the park and we are supposed to talk and pray for a businessperson. We find a well suited Indian man and ask him if we can sit and talk. He says that he can't speak English...but say it in good English. Dan says that his English is just perfect and he says, "Do you know how to speak in Gujarati? I can only speak that language"...of course in English. Sensing that he doesn't want to have a conversation, we just move on...We meet a person sitting down on the bench near the grass, ask him if we can talk, and he says yes. He is used to be a teacher in Puerto Rico, now working as salesperson (correct me if I'm wrong), just broke up with his girlfriend, and is studying to take a test to be a teacher in the US. He lost all of his original diploma and certificate as someone stole his bag. It seems that he needs friends and so lonely. We have a conversation with him to strengthen and to keep his hope on God amidst of the struggles in his life. From the conversation we observe that he believes on God but there are many ways to come to salvation. We pray for him for his struggles that God will strengthen him and pray that Jesus has died on the cross to redeem his sins, and there is only one way to salvation which is through believing on Jesus Christ only. We talk for some more about stuffs, I think we have more than one hour conversation with this person until the rest of our group members are getting worried and think that we are lost, and they start praying for us. Thank you...thank you guys...we are not lost =)
We complete this 4 hours walking around the city, talking, and praying for the people. It's exhausting but it's an eye opening experience. We go back to have some fried chicken and waffle (no it's not KFC nor Popeye)...it's the home made one, kind of like soul food...so good...I never eat chicken and waffle before. Go home to the housing site and get ready for tomorrow...
Start our day by going to SASLA (Salvation Army South Los Angeles). They are having a summer camp program for kids. The center is great, it has an indoor basketball gym (yuppp...my basketball buddies here will envy the indoor facility...hehehe), art room, computer lab, and game room (xbox, foosball, pool tables, and air hockey...great huh?).
I think Ocep, Kevin, and I are first assigned to the gym. Meet a couple of staffs there, and there is no instruction what to do or what to help. We just sitting out on the bench do nothing...staring on each other, and watch the kids play basketball, they are great...maybe some of them will be the next NBA stars. I just find out that Baron Davis (ex Golden State Warriors who goes back to Clippers) and Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons) grew up in this neighborhood. And also Venus and Serena Williams, for your information. 45 minutes after watching their games, we just go to the court and shoot around the ball with the kids, try to have some conversation with them...not much
Then we are rotated, went to the computer lab. Helping kids to fix those freeze computers when they try to login to the web and play online games. Most of them are playing games, and some of the kids are really into the game like "dressuplikemichaeljackson" (huh????). We spend the time talking with the kids while they are playing games and teach them to be patient when the web page is loading....
Go back to the gym, now it's filled with younger kids. Can connect with them better...do some piggy back ride to a couple of them, and later I find out that piggy back is not allowed on Salvation Army, so I stop the game. Spend the rest of the time talking with the kids and get to know them while playing some simple games.
The next activity....Serving Group 1 is doing City Search at downtown LA. The purpose is to get to know the downtown life and people on the street. We are split into two groups. Some of the things that we learn is that it's hard to live in downtown. The rent is expensive, to open up a small business is expensive (a monthly rent for a small store on Broadway can cost up to $9,000!!!), restaurants are not giving free water, and it's even hard to find a public restroom. We think that it's almost impossible for people with low salary to live in downtown. The environment is just so harsh.
One of the given tasks is to invite someone for lunch. After looking around the metro station, we found one homeless man and ask him to go to lunch, and he reject the offer. Then we find a man sitting on a wheeled-walking-device (I don't know the name of this device). We say greeting to him, introduce ourselves, and ask him to join our lunch. He accept that, but it's hard for him to walk around. We decided to buy the food, come back to his spot, and have a lunch on the street (that person suggests us to buy chinese food, I think because he sees that we are all Asians =P). We have the lunch and have some conversation. He used to be living on the street (on Skid Row), and eventually get out from the street because his family puts him into a retirement home in which we praise God for his family that cares for him. This person is so wise as he gives us some advices about life and how tough is the life on the street, and how we should take care on each other. He used to be a king of Mardi Gras, but he later mentions that there's only one King above all kings, Jesus Christ...praise God for hearing such wonderful testimony. When he talks, almost all of the time he praised God...we're kind of get such a blessing from this person, also praise God for that. We finish our conversation and end it up by praying for him. We give out another box of chinese food to a homeless on a bike that comes by and ask us for food. I think brother Dan has some conversation with him.
We go around the park and we are supposed to talk and pray for a businessperson. We find a well suited Indian man and ask him if we can sit and talk. He says that he can't speak English...but say it in good English. Dan says that his English is just perfect and he says, "Do you know how to speak in Gujarati? I can only speak that language"...of course in English. Sensing that he doesn't want to have a conversation, we just move on...We meet a person sitting down on the bench near the grass, ask him if we can talk, and he says yes. He is used to be a teacher in Puerto Rico, now working as salesperson (correct me if I'm wrong), just broke up with his girlfriend, and is studying to take a test to be a teacher in the US. He lost all of his original diploma and certificate as someone stole his bag. It seems that he needs friends and so lonely. We have a conversation with him to strengthen and to keep his hope on God amidst of the struggles in his life. From the conversation we observe that he believes on God but there are many ways to come to salvation. We pray for him for his struggles that God will strengthen him and pray that Jesus has died on the cross to redeem his sins, and there is only one way to salvation which is through believing on Jesus Christ only. We talk for some more about stuffs, I think we have more than one hour conversation with this person until the rest of our group members are getting worried and think that we are lost, and they start praying for us. Thank you...thank you guys...we are not lost =)
We complete this 4 hours walking around the city, talking, and praying for the people. It's exhausting but it's an eye opening experience. We go back to have some fried chicken and waffle (no it's not KFC nor Popeye)...it's the home made one, kind of like soul food...so good...I never eat chicken and waffle before. Go home to the housing site and get ready for tomorrow...
DAY 1
Monday, August 3rd
We arrived at CSM Housing at around 5 pm, have some briefing from our hosts, and go have a dinner at a Honduras restaurant. I ordered pork chop glazed with special Honduran sauce on top of rice and salad on the side. It's a good meal, the first time I eat a Honduran cuisine.
After the dinner both groups have a prayer tour around south LA and downtown LA:
We arrived at CSM Housing at around 5 pm, have some briefing from our hosts, and go have a dinner at a Honduras restaurant. I ordered pork chop glazed with special Honduran sauce on top of rice and salad on the side. It's a good meal, the first time I eat a Honduran cuisine.
After the dinner both groups have a prayer tour around south LA and downtown LA:
- Stop no. 1: We stop on a corner of a street where fast food restaurants surrounds us, where rarely supermarkets are available (it's hard for the people here to prepare a good and healthy meal). A church that has a ministry to serve breakfast to the poor and the homeless is on the other corner. We pray for the church so that they can be a blessing for the community and the peoples around them through their ministry. We pray that there will be improvement for the health status for the community
- Stop no.2: We arrive in front of a school (I think it's an elementary school). The school area is surrounded by fences, it's kind of weird as I feel that this school is like a prison. Our host points to a three or four stories building across the street from the school. This building is used to be a prostitution house. Just imagine a prostitution house in front of an elementary school filled with children. Our host tells us that the teachers in this school used to go to work earlier to clean up the street from condoms and needles because they don't want the students to see these things. I praise God for these teachers and praying that God will always give them wisdom, endurance, and strength on their occupation. At that moment I just grab the fences and pray that someday these fences will be removed and the children will have a sense of freedom while they are studying
- Stop no. 3: We drive through Skid Row. It's part of downtown LA where at night it's filled with homeless people. Imagine this, have you ever played "Resident Evil" on your Playstation? It's a game where you are alone in a city and all other inhabitants are zombies. On Skid Row at night, the residents are homeless people and there is rarely a car passing by. It's just crazy to see this
- Stop no. 4: We drive by buildings that are used for sweat shops. Isn't it amazing that the sweat shop system is exist in the United States of America? in the middle of Los Angeles? I just thought that the sweat shop system is only exist on third world countries and so. The workers from these sweat shops are paid very little. As little as $3 for an hour, and they have to work for 60 hours a week, with no benefits at all. Pray for these sweat shop workers so that they can have strength and justice, pray that the industry owners that implement this system can repent, and pray for anti-sweat-shop organizations in their battles against this issue
- Stop no. 5: We stop at a plaza surrounded by government buildings. We literally lay down (face down or face up) on the ground of a parking lot and pray to God for this city and the peoples on the Skid Row; and also pray that we have humble hearts that are ready to serve...simply serve them...
Updates or sharing or thoughts...
This blog is for sharing the experience on walking with Him throughout the week in LA. To show how great is His love toward the peoples and the city. Thank you for:
- God for his tremendous love and guidance for us
- Brothers and sisters who prays vigilantly for the groups
- Brothers and sisters who made us the packages so that everyday during the week we can remember your support
- Brothers and sisters who pick us up on the airport
- Group members who really love Him so much, it's an honor to work with you...=)
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