Tales from the inner city - the FINALE

Day 3 - Wednesday - DEMOLITION DAY!!!

“Sunshine Thrift Store”

Our task for the day: to demolish an old storage room to expand their new storage room. Let me just tell you, that was the best day ever! We had too much fun demolishing the room and hacking away at the walls to get rid of the old plaster and the wood panels underneath. Now, I know how they demolish houses like in the show, Extreme Makeover – Home Edition! Cat, Nathan, and I dismantled this huge dresser that they had in there with our hammers. I never realized how much fun construction (well, in this case, deconstruction) could be. We were sweating! I’ve never perspired like that in my entire life, even when I go to the gym to work out – that does not even compare to the amount of sweating I did on demolition day. My jeans were soaked. You could have wringed it and come up with a bucket-full of sweat. Okay, so maybe that was an exaggeration, but it’s pretty close. There were plaster dust flying all over and place, and so much hammering and hacking away on the walls. Some people were dismantling the ceiling. It was great! That was pretty much what we did the whole morning, and we nearly finished clearing up that old storage room so they could knock down the walls for expansion.

“Tour of South Central Los Angeles”

We drove around South Central L.A. to see how things are in that community. It wasn’t quite as desolate as I had imagined it would be. You didn’t see too many people outside walking around however. And you can just sense that there is still fear lingering around, what with all the drive-by shooting and just random acts of violence happening there pretty much on a daily-basis. What struck most of us was that, just a few minutes down the street, you’ll see the skyline of downtown Los Angeles, where the businesses, the financial centre of the city, are located. Nice, shiny buildings not too far from South Central L.A. The poor side and the thriving side all down one street. Makes one wonder why that is. I prayed as we were driving through the streets. Couldn’t help but pray for the people in that community.

Amidst the demolition and the desolation of South Central, we could see God’s glory, definitely in the fun that we had during demolition, and feeling God’s love for the people of L.A. as we drove through South Central. They are in deep need of Jesus. We need to let them know about the love of God, and that it is easily available to them, all they have to do is accept that gift.

That was my last day in Hollywood. I didn’t want to leave but I had to because of a prior obligation. But I will never forget my experience serving God in that area in Hollywood, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to serve with. Everyone stepped up and used the different gifts that God has given them.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

- Some of the girls swinging like monkeys on the ropes that they had in the gym adjacent to the rooms where we stayed in. Ooooh, the burn! But the gals had fun.

- Scrabble time! Haha I kicked butt! Right Jer? Hehehe

- Katzy and Norlyn’s crazy-awesome experience during Thursday’s Prayer walk. They have to tell you that story one of these days, with the Palm Reader place and the hair salon guy. You can totally tell God’s hand all over that piece! Jesus loves His people!!!

- April and Jeremy’s experience when they went to feed the homeless on 3rd Street (the Promenade) in Santa Monica. They’re not so scary, as Nate had simply put it.

- Cooking for the team. I was blessed by the fact that I was able to serve the team in this way. I had no idea that I was going to be able to wake up at 5:30 in the morning daily to cook for these guys. But I was very glad to do it, and was glad that April and Cat were there with me. We ruled in the kitchen! Cat even ate my spaghetti, and this girl doesn’t eat red (marinara) sauce with her spaghetti! (Yeah, I have to brag about that one, just this once – hehe).

Soli Deo Gloria!

Tales from the Inner-city - Part deux

Read away…

Day 2 - Manual Labour and Lots of Walking

“New Hope Ministries”

Our task for the day is to help build a computer room for this women’s shelter (which is located on Western Avenue). Simple enough right? We arrived at the shelter, and there was already another mission team from Arizona working at the shelter. They had already been working there for a couple of days. Needless to say, it was crowded.

They had split us up into the boys and the girls. The boys (and April) ended up doing roofing and pouring tar on the balcony. The girls were downstairs, staining 12-foot, 2×4 wood panels. We probably stained about 30 panels. Messy, but fun! The guys and Ap also applied plaster to the walls of the computer room, and the girls scrubbed rust off of steel bars as well with steel brushes and painted. It was quite an exhausting day, very trying, especially for the guys (and April) upstairs. By the end of the day, we were drained, physically, and emotionally as well. It was quite a tense situation, and people were hurting physically. Nathan, whose knees were already hurting from the day before because of the 2-hour scavenger hunt, added a strained lower back to his list of ailments. Poor guy. He was getting discouraged. Well, that would really start to discourage me as well.

“Shopping at the 99 Cents Store”

One of our plans was to feed the homeless on Thursday evening on 3rd Street in Santa Monica. So after our work at New Hope Ministries, we went to the 99 Cents Store down the street and shopped for the homeless. We were all given a $20 allowance, $10 was allotted for non-perishable food items and $10 for clothing and similar items. The idea was to put ourselves in a homeless person’s shoes. If I was homeless, and someone had given me $20, what would I buy with it? Didn’t realize how hard that would be. Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, and a homeless person’s at that. Would I buy something I want? Or something I need? In the end, I was pretty satisfied with what I got and was happy that I was going to be able to help someone out.

“Prayer Walk”

After 99 Cents Store, we headed over to Bryan’s house to meet with his fellow World Impact Hollywood team members, Mondo and Marcia and talk to us about the Prayer Walk that we would be doing that afternoon. Practically all of us in the team hadn’t done prayer walking before, so they talked about how one would go about doing a prayer walk. Basically, you walk around a specific area in the community and pray (to yourself or out-loud) as you are walking, asking God to lead you to someone or something that might need praying for. EDIT: Prayer walking can also be just trying to listen to God’s voice, maybe through a verse or a hymn/worship song that might pop up in your head. You can say the verse or sing the hymn/worship song out-loud as you walk as well. After Mondo and Marcia had prayed for us, we all paired up and proceeded to do our prayer walk. I paired up with Michael, our youngest team member (he’s 17), and when he asked me where we should go, I told him that we should just pick a direction and then let the Holy Spirit lead us the rest of the way.

Convalescent home: I saw an elderly lady in an opened window as we were passing a convalescent home. I was just going to let it go, but somehow as we were about to pass the place, I stopped in my tracks and I asked Michael if we could just stop and pray for the place.

Tropicana Motel: Bryan told us about this place the day before (Monday) as we were cleaning up the old Tropicana night club. He mentioned that it’s “the place” where prostitutes bring their clients. We didn’t realize that we were passing that place, and got distracted because we ran into Jeremy, April and Cat (our other team members), but Michael asked me to stop and said that he wanted to pray for that place without even realizing that it was the motel that Bryan had told us about the day before.

House of Prayer: We ended up at the House of Prayer without even realizing we were headed in that direction. I just felt a tug at my heart that God wanted me to pray for this place. So, Michael and I spent time outside of the House of Prayer (the former Tropicana club) praying and lifting the place up to God, so that He would use it for His glory especially for that community that clearly needs Jesus Christ. We also prayed for the salvation of the owner.

Adult Video Store on the corner of Western and Fountain (?): While we were walking, Michael asked to stop and asked me if I could pray for that Adult Video Store right across the street from where we were walking. I got a little bit confused because I didn’t really realize what he was talking about until I looked up and saw the huge sign that says, “XXX Adult Video”. How could I have missed it?! It so huge, practically took up the whole block. I started praying for the place, and then I felt my chest tightening. It felt really heavy; I thought I was having a heart-attack. Next thing I knew, my prayer got louder and louder and my hand started to rise, well, involuntarily. I asked God to just flush out that place and get rid of the immorality and the fornication that the place fosters.

Debriefing at Bryan’s: After our prayer walk, we all headed back to Bryan’s to debrief and just talk about what we witnessed and what how God spoke to us during our prayer walk. Sharing our experiences was such a blessing and we realize that there is an intense spiritual warfare going on, particularly in that place. People need the Lord, not just in Hollywood, but all over the place, and the Enemy is working overtime to bring people down. It was quite eye-opening for all of us. After a very frustrating start for us, the day ended with such joy and rejuvenation. We completely forgot about how exhausted we were at the women’s shelter, and how frustrating it was. We realized that we really needed to be prepared spiritually especially for that week, because we knew that the Enemy and his minions ain’t gonna back down without a fight, y’know what I’m sayin’?

All our experiences seemed fantastical, but man, spiritual warfare is real and it’s happening around us. I think that experience made me aware of it so much more than I did before. This is really going waayyy beyond my comfort zone. Talk about bursting the proverbial “bubble”.

“Worship time”

After dinner, we just spent time worshipping God. Jer and I led praise and worship. We sang, we lifted our hands up, we knelt before the throne of God. It was the most amazing time! God is working in us and is using us.

Tales from my mission trip.

As promised, here are the highlights of our week-long mission trip in South Los Angeles, working with World Impact. I’ll start with Day 1, and then I’ll post about Day 2 tomorrow, and so on…

For 5 weeks prior to going out on the mission field, the 10 members of our team regularly met to train and prepare for the task at hand. On Sunday night, June 26th, we headed over to World Impact’s Los Angeles office where we would be staying. We arrived and met with Dave and Laura, and they showed us around and directed us to our rooms. The guys ended up taking the nursery and the girls took the art room. (We were staying at their school facility). After setting our sleeping bags down and unpacking, we had a brief Bible study to encourage us and remind us on why we were there. After having Bible study, we debriefed ourselves on our schedule for the week, and we also assigned kitchen duties, which mostly landed on me, April and Cat. So, we were the cooks for the whole week. (Yup! Kiss me, I’m the cook! hehe). I had no idea that I can cook! And they pretty much enjoyed every meal that was prepared! Praise God! We didn’t starve, and we needed good meals throughout the week because of the amount of manual labour that we had to do.

Day 1: Monday

“Scavenger hunt”

The idea was to get ourselves familiar with the area that we would be working in. 2 hours of walking around, within a square-mile perimeter of 4 street-boundaries (Western, Vermont, Melrose and Normandy). We were given a list of items to look out for as we walked around. It was pretty eye-opening for us, since we had no idea that the area was really poor and desolate. And most of us had lived in Los Angeles for years!

“House of Prayer”

We were to help clean out what used to be the old Tropicana Night Club. Yes, you read that right. If you had been driving on the 101 Fwy for years, you would’ve seen that establishment from the freeway. We had no idea that the place closed down for years now, and it is now a “House of Prayer”. The story of how World Impact got a hold of that place is astounding, and makes you believe even more in the power of prayer (of the faithful). Bryan and the rest of the WI Hollywood team prayed for that place after it had closed down. Walked around it 7 times (like the Walls of Jericho), and on the 7th day, they raised their voices in song and praise. A couple of years after that, they found themselves using it as a worship centre! And the owner isn”t even a Christian! God truly works wonders. They are using that facility for free, and they can do pretty much whatever they want with the place.

Our task: To clean up the 2nd floor, which they call “The Upper Room”. It was formerly a private V.I.P. room, complete with a stripper pole, a stage, a mud-pit and vanity dressers all over. When we walked up the stairs and got to the 2nd floor, an eerie feeling came over us. The place seemed dark, and heavy, completely different from the 1st floor, which they had since cleaned up and used for service and prayer vigils.

Before we started cleaning, we all prayed for the place. I started praying and as I was praying, I felt the back of my neck warm up. It was uncomfortable heat. And I felt like someone was hovering over me. I thought I was going to start crying right there. My prayer got a little more intense as I realized that there’s going to be a spiritual battle for that place. This is spiritual warfare! After we prayed, we were ready to go at it and clean the place up. Bryan brought his CD player, and we were blasting worship music, singing along to the music, and praying while we worked. April verbalized what all of us were feeling at that moment. She said that not only were we cleaning out the place, physically, we felt like we were being cleansed spiritually as well. We kept cleaning and cleaning until we couldn’t go on anymore. After a few hours, the 2nd floor felt very different. It wasn’t as dark and dreary as before. Praise God! We were exhausted, but we were joyful because we felt like we did our part in preparing that place for what God has purposed it. We felt an ownership of that place, especially the 2nd floor, “The Upper Room”. We couldn’t wait to go back and finish cleaning it up.

Rockstar: INXS

The show premiered tonight, and I totally missed it. Former Dakota Moon guitarist and lead singer, Ty Taylor (www.tytaylor.net) is one of the 15 vying to become the new frontman of '90s rock group, INXS. Dakota Moon's one of my favourite music groups, seen them quite a few times live here in Los Angeles, and I was definitely excited to find out that Ty's competing in this show. The man sings like his life depended on it. I caught a part of the show tonight, the tail-end of his performance (literally, his last note), and it seemed like he did really well. The judges seemed very impressed, talked about how "on" his tone and pitch were, and how he can be modern, and classic, (and something else) all at the same time. Now, if only I saw the whole show…

Post 4th of July update.

Wow, it’s been a while since I last posted. I feel like I’ve been away for so long, in some far-off place. There are so many things I need to share about the missions project that I went to this past week. I promise, I will share all the experiences that we had during those 5 days that we spent out in South L.A. once I’ve gathered my thoughts together and read up on my journal. haha, I’m talking about it like it’s some distant, foreign place - but in a way, it seemed like a different world altogether, especially with all the things that we saw and experienced over there. So, stayed tuned for that.

Anyway, last night, I went to see Batman Begins, and I have to say, it made me a fan again. George Clooney killed the Batman franchise for me, but Christian Bale did such an awesome job as the Caped Crusader (and boy, does he look good in a suit as Bruce Wayne!) that it made me excited for the next installment. I could cross that off of my summer-must-see-movie list. Up next, Fantastic Four!!! Keep an eye out for Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards. This guy’s a brilliant actor, Ioan Gruffudd. I’m going out on a limb to say that this film (FF) will NOT be his best work, but I’ve seen his other movies, most notably A&E’s Hornblower, and Masterpiece Theatre’s Great Expectations, and he’s a wonderful actor. OK. that’s my movie-actor recommendation for the day.

So, yesterday was the 4th of July holiday, although I didn’t do anything spectacular, it was still quite nice. Spent it with the fam. Did the karaoke thing and hung out with the babies. Tristen is a crack-up! I love that kid. So chubby. Love it! Lo-ove it! At night, went with Jeremy, April, Tine and Nevaeh to Cerritos Park East to see some fireworks and then, April, Jer and I went to go see Batman Begins. That was pretty much what went on for the 4th of July for me. And today was my first day back at work. *groan* It was a nice day out too, could’ve gone to the beach. Maybe I’ll do that next week.