A Word from One of the Drivers

Here's my chance to post something on the blog. It was a real blessing to be on this trip. A student asked me why I'm an adviser and I told her that I do it for the trips! The truth is I love being with high school students - even my own children when they were/are in high school. They make me feel old and young at the same time. The best part is being there to see when students "get it." This week was no exception.

Besides visiting different churches, we also did a study on the Church. In one of the exercises the students were split up into groups and had to come up with a mission statement for the Church. Every group had a very thoughtful mission statement and if they were all combined, the composite mission statement would be one worthy to follow.

I've already written my thoughts down in my own blog so if you want to see them, you'll have to go there. It was an amazing week for me and I look forward to see how God uses this past week to mold us into his image (2 Corinthians 3:18).

~ Scott

On the road again

Hi everyone this is molly fink. Currently I am sitting next to kaylene norvell and emma steel on our way back to fresno! last night we joined the homless people of skid row to sing some karoke! At first the neighborhood was intimidating but once we were inside everyone had fun! you would be suprised on how many hidden talents there were. It was amazimg seeing every one get so into the song "dont believing" that emma, lindsay, annie, and kelsey sang. It was also cool seeing sarah g rock out to "proud mary". This morning we packed, cleaned, and talked about our trip. There isnt much more to say, but I hope everyone who followed us enjoyed hearing about our trip:)

random fact of the day:
Cat urine glows under a black light.



Editor: emma steele

Lindsay Walsh gives an awesome Blog post

Hey everyone its Lindsay Walsh here. Today we all went to the Dream Center and helped Craig Blodgett realize his seceet dream to become a farmer. Also, we took a tour of the Dream Center and learned about its history. The Dream Center has over 10 large outreach ministries. One of their ministries "Adopt-A-Block" covers 500 blocks to see how they can help and are willing to do whatever the neighborhood needs. After the Dream Center and teaching Lucas how to play Slide Slide Slippery Slide we came back to home base and learned about the body of Chirst with a fun skit. After quiet time, lots of people played Apple to Apples. Mr. Josh Martin won. Then almost everyone joined in for a great game of four square. Brad successfully failed. We had enchiladas for dinner thanks to Joanie Martin. They were delicious. Everyone got to eat all the yummy d esserts except for me. Now we are off to go sing karoke with the homeless people of Skid Row. I'm excited to hear the golden pipes of Emma Steele. Maybe we can get Brad sing Justin Bieber. Keep praying for us! And have fun on your spring break!

A much needed update

Well this is the first update of the whole day and we have lots of pictures from the past couple days to share with you. First, Brad talked about Mosaic, which we attended at the Mayan Theater downtown. Here are some pictures:

Here is the Mayan Theater from the outside

 Here is the theater from the inside. This is also used for a night club

This is a prayer room that they set up for people to go through

Yesterday we went to the Crystal Cathedral to get a tour. Our tour guide's name was Karl and he was probably in his mid-80s. We would ask him questions about the Cathedral and he would usually not end up answering and go off on a tangent about his life. The Cathedral was really beautiful, but that seemed to be a main focus. Here are some pictures:

 The outside of Crystal Cathedral

 The inside of the sanctuary. Here is their organ, which is one of the biggest organs ever. There were also pipes and trumpets at each side and in the back. They told us they spend 20 million dollars on this building... crazy!

This was Karl

In the afternoon we got a tour of the church we are staying at, Bel Air Pres, and this was obviously the most familiar church we've been to. It was nice to see their facilities and hear about their ministries. While they are similar to our church, some of their ministries were different since they are reaching out to a different city, so it was great to learn about those. I really liked their emphasis on small groups at people's homes throughout the week. At night we went to the Dodger game, which the students updated about. Here are a few pictures:

The boys were very happy to get Dodger Dogs

Our name made it onto the big screen! We always cheered when it come on.

Today we did part 2 of our Bible study on the church in the morning and in the afternoon we worked at the Dream Center with their food truck ministry. We went to two different projects. We were split into two groups, one of which distributed the food to the adults and the other of which played with the kids. The kids were so excited to hangout with us and just wanted to be loved on... and since Easter is coming up we prepared an Easter egg hunt for them! While we couldn't take pictures while working (a rule they had), here is a picture of the Dream Center's main building:

Tomorrow we will do the food truck ministry again in the morning. We will also get a tour to learn more about their ministry in the city. Afterward, we went to Hollywood to see the theater (below) and the side walk stars. This was pretty cool, especially for those (like myself) who have never been there before. Then we went to the Griffin Observatory that overlooks the city before heading back to home base to debrief for the night. We have an early morning tomorrow (we're leaving at 7am because we know we'll be in LA traffic), so please pray for energy and a great last day of serving! Thanks for checking in :)

Meis

Dodgers Game vs. Atlanta Braves

This is Juliana Rush y'all!!! We just got back from the Dodgers game (baseball for those of you who aren't sport savvy) The end score was 4-2, Dodgers taking the win. I am personally a Giants fan, but was forced to keep my comments to my self in order to safely make it to living to see the next morning, being that the Giants and Dodgers are renown rival teams. I confess... I wore Kaylene's Dodgers hat, just to be in spirit. Those of you who are Giants fans don't shun me when I get home... Its still Buster Posey all the way for me. Great shades of Elvis!!! That game had no action! There were quite a lot of zeros on that scoreboard! But all in all it was a great game and I think I lost my voice (and my mind) since Kaylene and I were screaming and lauging the whole game! By the way FPC's name was on the big screen and we yelled whenever it came up! We also got videoed on the big screen again for excessive dancing! It was pretty amazing! Well, it's late and I am tired so good night Fresno!!! Love y'all very much! [PS Craig found a huge bug with horns in his pants and screamed like a schoolgirl...] THE END

Doherty stadium

We ate dinner and got our dodger gear on.Now we are on our way to Doger stadium.GO DOGERS!!!!

LA Mission Trip Day 2

Hey this Brad Andrew Alkire! Last night our church attended the Mosaic Church and were introduced to a very new and foreign church environment. The Mosaic Church is held in the neon lit Mayan Night Club filled with fog machines and booming stereo systems. Durring the service many teens gave their testimonies, both orally and through dance and song, on how they were once broken and how God put them back together, just like a mosaic art piece. This church showed me and many others different ways to bring praise to God. Mosaic reassured me that no matter how broken and beat up I am, God will always live me and want my love back no matter what earthly condition I'm in. It is now Monday morning and we are on our way to the Crystal Cathedral for a tour! Please keep praying for us and we will update again soon!