WIR 20- LA Trip

Sarah Wennersten

February 28-March 1 , 2011

Week in Review 20- LA Trip

I don’t know how I am going to write down everything that happened this week...

Monday began the drive down to LA. I road in the back seat with Jarod and Grant again. When we got to LA our first stop was a Buddhist temple. I felt like I was in China. We got to tour the temple and hear a little about what they believed. At the gift store there was a tiny little white puff ball dog. When I picked it up I hardly knew I was holding anything. After that we got to the church where we would be staying. It was an older building and kinda creaky. The girls stayed upstairs in two very small rooms. After we were settled in at the church we loaded up and went to eat dinner. We ate at a Nicaraguan restaurant. The food was very similar to what we had in the Dominican. I ended up sitting with a bunch of boys so the evening was not short many jokes and laughs. After a fun dinner filled with many laughs we drove through skid row. Skid row is the section of LA where the majority of the homeless population are pushed for the night. There were tons of tents lining the streets and even more people just lying on the ground with their grocery cart beside them. It was a sad sight to see. (lady in window on way to dinner, bubble gum at dinner, creep statue at dinner)

Tuesday: Tuesday we jumped right in to some ministry. We went to the LA county food bank and did work. I was on the job of sorting food. We had to look at expiration dates and the condition of the donation. Anything not up to standard had to be thrown out. It was hard to throw so much stuff out, especially when it was stuff I would have used. But the state has certain regulations. Then we got to go and take our first shower. A lot of girls didn’t actually shower because we felt so clean. I just washed my hair in the sink. Plus the showers we kinda community style. After that we went to the Self Realization Fellowship. We sat in their sanctuary and talked with one of their ministers for a long long time. They are kinda a shoot off from Buddhism, their main leader having claimed to bring Buddhism to the western world. After that came dinner at a pizza place. I ate a lot since it was all-you-can-eat. Actually this whole week I ate a lot, we just had good food. After that we went off to our first night of evangelism on the Hollywood boulevard. Kyle McCuely was my partner. When we went to give each other a handshake/high five we overshot and hit each others forearms, them we undershot and just barely hit finger tips, then we landed the handshake. So from that time on we had a handshake that we did every time before we went out and evangelized. We were walking around feeling kinda awkward because of how unnatural it was to try and strike up a conversation when everyone was so busy. We decided it was best to find someone already sitting down, instead of trying to stop someone on the street because that is just socially weird. So we went to Starbucks and scooped it out. We went in and got coffee then I went to the bar and asked if I could sit by this one Korean lady. She said yes and then I started talking to her about the book she was reading. Then I was just honest and said “hey I was going around tonight wanting to ask people and get their opinions on what they think about God”. I found that that was the best way, be honest. So we talked for a quite a while until her friend came. Turns out the daughter of a Korean diplomat and has lived all over the world including Sadi Arabia. I thought that was so cool. Then Kyle and I both went out and began a search... a search for a particular persons star...and after asking a few people and staring at our feet for awhile we found it. There he was... just sitting there... Chuck Norris! I mean, it is still on my bucket list to actually meet him, but seeing his star on Hollywood boulevard is still pretty cool. After walking around a little more looking around we went to the main mall area to try and find someone else to talk to. We went up a few floors and then I saw a guy sitting by himself looking out over all the activity below. So I sad “that guy” and we walked up and asked if we could sit down. That turned out to be a great conversation. We was from Puerto Rico and had an interesting theology. We didn’t actually get to talk too much but it was still very interesting to hear his story. Basically he believed the Bible was not complete. He heard a theory of how there was actually 17 years between the time Jesus started his ministry and was crucified. He drew our attention to the two Egyptian gods on the wall and told how they created humans. It’s hard to explain how this guy worked. He seemed very set in his beliefs, and yet very easily swayed. He has traveled all over the world and has been searching for answers. I hope we were able to give him some of those answers. That night after debriefing I did the audio blog which was kinda cool.

Wednesday: Wednesday our van group (Rich, Kelsey, and Karrissa) got to sleep in a little bit. Then we got up, had breakfast, and were put into groups of four and given some money. Then we went out into the surrounding community to do some service-evangelizing. Basically we walked around, talked to a fisherman who was a Christian and had a cool dog who helped him with his wife and mothers death and asked people if we could help them with anything. We didn’t get to help anyone but had some good conversations. We went into a little bookstore which of course I loved. I got a couple books and the boys to talked to one employee and then I and the boys talked to another right before we left. She has fallen away from the faith. Since we had one chunk of money for all of us we tried to go to the same place. BUt Josh ended up getting food at a little Asian place which was nice cause he got to talk to the lady and then we all went to Little Caesars and got two pizzas. We then walked over to a little donut shop and got drinks and ate there,  finishing off the meal with the best old fashion donut I have had in forever. We had one full pizza left over so with a few minutes left on the clock before we had to be back we went on a search for homeless guy. We made it to Echo Park and saw a dude. So we went up gave him the pizza and had a great conversation. He was a believer and “didn’t have anything if it wasn’t for God”. He was cool. After that we all loaded up and went to the Dream Center, a giant church. It’s purpose was the be the way a cross-cultural church should be. They ministered to so many people and did so much community service. THe fisherman we talked to earlier in the day was actually helped out a ton by the Dream Center. With the Center we went out  following big trucks to different neighborhoods. Then we unloaded tons of food and handed it out to the big crowd of people. It was so cool to hand out bags of food to the line of people filing by. During that a lady passed out and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  After that Rich took us on a little adventure. We got to go to a little Latino shopping area with lots of little shops. I got a cool headband things and a bracelet. Then he bought us chips and salsa and then we went and got coffee. It was great. After that we had about an hour of time at the church in which I had a good Bible study time. Then we all loaded up the vans again and went to Tommy’s, an outdoor burger joint. The chili was disgustingly oily. Then we went to the Griffith Observatory which overlooked LA. It was so cool to see LA at night like that. Inside was a bunch of displays about the solar system. I really enjoyed it.

Thursday: Thursday morning we got our second shower of the week. And thus, this was my first ever community shower. It really wasn’t very bad at all. It felt so good to be clean. Then we went to I-Hop and had a great breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns, and pancakes. I love breakfast so much. Then we went to the Museum of Tolerance. It was a powerful place focusing on the Holocaust but also hitting on other abused people groups like women, African Americans, and others. At the beginning you got a little card with child on it. Throughout the Holocaust experience you followed what this kids life looked like. The Holocaust display was set up to where you walked through and stopped at different TV’s in little sets and listened to an audio recording. The sets were very real. At the end you came to a dark room with barb wire and gates leading to the concentration camp. As you entered in you came upon two hallways, one said “women and children” the other “able-bodied”. As you walked down the concrete hallway you came to a “gas chamber”. We all went inside the concrete block room and sat down. Here we witnessed on the TV’s more the atrocities which happened during this horrible event in history. After the museum we went to have dinner at an Indian food place. Oh man did we ever eat. The food was soooo good. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet of goodness. We were in a high-rolling place in LA and the restaurant was one of the best. The thing I ate the most of was probably the fresh mango. It was cut in chunks and the flavor was amazing. The curry was good too but not spicy at all. We all ate so much. After that we went to the UCLA campus. The place was amazingly large, I could hardly believe it. First we went on a search for a bathroom and ended up at the basketball arena. Funny enough the UCLA women were playing the Washington Husky’s. The bouncer dude was kind enough to let us in to use the bathroom but then we had to leave. Kyle and I ended up walking so much. We found a map right was we were about to leave and discovered how big of a loop we had made. We ended up going way out of the way into where the fraternities and stuff were. It was a good night. Then we all met a little shop where we got legit ice cream sandwich for $1.50. They make the cookies themselves and put a ton of ice cream on. I couldn’t fit my mouth around the thing. I got chocolate chip cooky with mint chip ice cream. So good.  After that it was back to church for another night of limited sleep.

Friday: Friday morning our group rose at 5:00am and left at 5:15 for the Midnight Mission. This was a soup kitchen which served hundreds of people. I was really wanting to serve food to people on the line but was put on another task and soon all the spots were taken. I was really sad but then God in His way gave me something better. I just wanted to interact with people and I got that, even bigger than standing behind the counter serving food. My job was to stand on the same side of the counter as the homeless and hand them a fork and napkin and drink. I got to be right up with them. I’m not sure what it was but I think God was able to bless some people through my smile. I greeted each person with a “good morning”and just smiled. It seemed to bless some of these people, maybe because they are not used to be treated like real people. I just had a great time talking with them and serving them. After breakfast was over I got to help with food prep a little for lunch and then we all went on a tour. All the guys who work at the mission are in the year long alcoholics program. Our tour guide took us on a thorough tour of the whole place. We got to see the upper stories where a little over a hundred men live as they go through the alcohol and drug addiction program. He even took us the roof where no other group has gotten to go. We saw some little apartments where men can choose to live for one year after the program to help get them on their feet. We looked out over a street filled with the homeless and looked up at the skyrises and rich part of town. All in the same view, amazing. When we finished there we went to downtown LA among the big skyscrapers. Since we were in Rich’s van we got to go have some fun while we waited for the other groups. Some people stayed in the vans to sleep but a small group of us went with Rich to get coffee. It was so nice to sit in the sun, drink a coffee, and watch the water fountain thing. When the other groups got there we were sent on another evangelism assignment. We got with our group of four again and were given 40$. We had to go out and find a homeless person to take to lunch with us. The first guy we asked said no but then a dude who overheard us asking came up and asked if he could come with us. He was not all there. He wanted to go to this little Chinese place. It was super creepy and awkward because Cheryl and me were with him alone for a few second and he said “ I don’t usually talk to girls, I sure like to look at them though”. And he was just super...bleh. He talked the entire time... about himself. Soon Josh tried to turn the conversation to God but he just went on. Then Josh decided it was time to leave. As we were trying to leave he just got louder and louder. Soon we were out. Cheryl and I just walked out and then Josh and Jon left. We were discouraged because we had just wasted 30$ on a completely fruitless conversation and bad encounter. We walked around again with our 10$ trying to find someone else. After quite a long time we came upon a man and asked him if he would like some food. So we went to Subway and got him a sandwich. This time was much, much better. He said he was a Muslim but in talking to him we decided his beliefs more coincided with a Jew. We had a really good, long conversation with this guy. We then started heading back to the vans but then a hazardous materials fire truck started honking at us. We looked and saw Mr. DeLaRosa waving from behind the wheel. He pulled over right across the street from us and we got to go and see him and see the truck. It was so cool to see my Pause dad in his element like that. We then headed back to the vans and drove to a farmers market at the Grove. We were each given 9$ for dinner. I went with a couple guys walking around looking at stuff and enjoying the market. Soon I found Eric and Andrew M sitting at a little shop getting food. I sat with them and then decided to piece together my meal. So I went to one of the larger fruit stands and got an avocado, giant mango, flat of blueberries, and container of almonds all for $9.68  I went back and sat with the boys and was given a glass of water by the shop owner. This lady was so cool and really knew how to take care of a customer. She took such good care of the boys, and me. Her name was Willow, which is what I want to name my first daughter. I was full on the avocado and mango and blueberries. I couldn’t finish all the mango. Soon we all met back together and were sent out for more evangeism. Kyle and I walked around a bit and then spotted an older couple and went and did the same “can we sit with you, can we ask you a few questions” drill. But this one didn’t turn out so great. The man replied very quickly “I’m not religious” and then the lady snapped “ thats a very personal questions”. Basically we told to beat it, that people don’t like being asked about God. Oh well. So we walked a little more and then stopped and talked to a young kiosk owner. He was Hindu. We didn’t talk for very long. Then we went to a three-story Barns and Noble but didn’t talk to anyone. Soon we back out on the street in the outdoor mall. As we were walking we came across a kiosk selling hair straighteners. One of them was super tiny and I jokingly talked about how it would be perfect for my hair. Then kiosk dude came over and boy did he try to sell me that. I turned the conversation to him and where he was from because he sounded Israeli.  And sure enough he was from Israel. I tried to talk to him about Judaism but all he wanted to do was flirt and sell me the straightener even though I didn’t want it. The asking price was $175. It was on sale of $80. But my mother taught me well and soon the price was down to $40 with me even really trying. He was such a big flirt, even with Kyle right there, “How old are you? Do you have a boyfriend?” Ugh. As he was showing me something he saw my ring and asked with a surprised look if I was married. I explained to him how I was going to remain pure until my wedding night. He said “well I am not a virgin. I can’t be with this job”. I really wasn’t going to buy the thing even after he gave me that amazing deal. Then I said “I’ll make you a deal. I will buy this straightener if you will talk to me about Judaism”. He said yes. So I bought it and then we spent a few minutes shy of two hours talking. It was insane. By the end of it he was full on trying to convert us to Judaism. He said that Jews call us “mistakers” he said we are fooled and mislead. He didn’t get how just because one man came and did some magic tricks that we throw all the Old Testament laws out the door. He even said we did not follow the same God because we did not follow the law. It was strange because he was so hypocritical. He bugged us about changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday when he himself worked Friday night and Saturday because it was the time he could earn the most money. He talked a lot about the food laws and about eating milk and meat together and eating pork. We tried to talk about how it is impossible to follow all the rules but he said it is just about trying your best to follow those you can. That God understands your lifestyle and what you follow is kind of up to you. He got very passionate at the end even though he said himself he wasn’t really religious. He would get super passionate and then say “thats what Jews in general believe...”. It was so interesting and hard to hear. He was 19 but looked way older and his family had only been in the US for a year and half  so we did talk about Israel some. Soon it was time to leave so we had to break off conversation. He asked us multiple times “so what are you going to do now after this conversation? Are you still going to eat milk and meat together?” It was intense but really good.

Saturday: Saturday we went around the church and picked up trash all around. Then went to Dream Center again. Every Saturday the Dream Center does their “Adopt a Block”. Basically they go out to different communities and hand out food and go door to door telling people about the food and the bus that will pick them up for church on Sunday. I was with Josh and Kyle as we went door to door. Our first encounter was not so positive. We were in the projects in the hood. We talked to three guys who sitting outside one of the houses. We asked if they needed anything done around their house of if we could help them out. The one guy who did the talking was going “weed, weed, weed. How bout some weed? Can I have that?” We said no and then he looked at me and went “How bout her? Can I have her? Look sit right here I have so much to say.” My stomach started to make it’s way into my throat. But the boys were awesome. I saw them both tense up and take a step forward and say “no”. We ended the conversation and moved on. We continued knocking on doors in the very poor housing situation. We got to talk to a few people but only one or two really responded positively. We didn’t get to help anyone with anything around their house but did get to invite them to church. After that we got to take our last shower and then went to the Santa Monica Pier from 4-8pm. This was our most unsuccessful evangelism night. Everybody was tired and worn out. We went a hundred miles per hour all week with no rest or personal time. We walked around, talked, and just kinda looked at stuff. I guess one positive thing was that we had some good Christian fellowship  and built each other up. We hooked up with one other group and went to Bippo di Beppo, an Italian restaurant. We were all ready to eat some good food not with 60 other people. Not that eating with the whole group is bad but it does get old after a while when that is all you ever do wherever you go. So the four of us got full on pasta and lasagna and garlic bread. I needed that. We went to McDonald’s to get some ice cream and decided to talk to a guy at the bar and approached him how we had been. But it was a fail. Turned out he was on the phone and speaking another language. Soon he got and left and we were left sitting there. Around 8 we left for the church, debriefed the week, and then Tyler and I wrote the blog for the day.

Sunday: Saturday morning we packed up and left the church by 7am. We then drove to a huge African American church. We all had such a good time at this place. It a bumpin‘ celebration of God’s blessings. The singing was awesome with lots of clapping. The preacher was all pumped up and talked up about rejoincing and celebrating in the hardest of times just to prove to the Devil that he has no power over you. The sermon was delivered with much passion and the dude would randomly start singing. The piano would land on some notes after each sentance he said towards the end. Soon he was shouting to everyone who had pain or trouble to get up and celebrate. The band broke out in this sweet jam. People were clapping and dancing. There were these cute little old ladies dancing in the front. There was giant camera that went around showing different people in the crowd all during the service. The choir was huge. I really enjoyed the service. It was hours long, but we left early, right before communion. I was so sad. I wanted to celebrate the Lord’s Table. We had to get going though. We were supposed to eat a big brunch at Hometown buffet but they kinda messed so we were given 20$ per four people to get food. I went with Kyle, Richi, and Joe to target and we got breakfast burritos and a small pizza. Then with 15 minutes before I had to be back at the vans I went to the bathroom, hurried to the shoes department, picked our shoes, tried them on, found my size, got shoes laces, bought the shoes (for 9$. Yeah!), found the boys waiting for me which I did not expect, and then had 5 minutes to make it back to the vans. I felt very accomplished for having bought new shoes in less than ten minutes. I needed them badly because my other pair was falling apart and the sole was mostly separated from the shoe. Then we loaded in the vans and drove back to Hume where we ate an amazing breakfast for dinner meal, cleaned the vans, took a very long showers, and went to bed. 

All in all a very good, but very tiring week. The only thing that could have made it better would have been some time to be in the Word. We spent the week telling others about God but not getting time with Him ourselves.

This week I am going to pray for Puerto Rico. Since we met the guy who was from there it is on my heart. It seems to be a country that is sliding downward like every other country. I don’t think Christianity has a big influence there. I will pray for those who live there that their eyes will be opened and that they will experience God’s love.