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!

Picture update

Hello Everyone! Thanks for checking out the blog to see what we are doing and supporting us through prayer. We wanted to share a few pictures from the day.

This is pic 1 of our view from the church... yes that is the sun rising (not setting). We got up at 5:30am to get ready to leave for church.

And view number 2

Here is Bel Air Presbyterian Church where we are sleeping. The girls are staying in Evans Chapel :)

 This was the outside of Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels... We walking in waving real palm branches, which reminded us of being at home on Palm Sunday

 This was inside the Faithful Central service. They  had a huge choir and if you look right in the center you will see a gold flag... they used color guard as worship which was awesome.

Faithful Central was extremely welcoming. Not only did they hear we were attending the service and had us stand up to be welcomed, but afterward their Bishop, Kenneth Ulmer, wanted to meet us. We had a great time of learning more about their church and asking questions.

Cathedral of Our Lady of Angles/Faithful Central Bible Church

Hello everyone! This is Madisen Kopfman checking in for the First Pres High Schoolers. So far today we've been to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels and Faithful Central Bible Church. These two churches are as different as can be, but were both very unique experiences for us. The service at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angles was a contemporary Catholic service. The general attitude in the church was very respectful towards God, which we appreciated. It was really cool to be able to be apart if a very traditional service. Faithful Central Bible Church had a very lively service (and that's putting it lightly). The majority of FCBC is black. This church has been the most welcoming church by far (the bishop even wanted to meet us!) FCBC really focuses on praising God and the Holy Spirit working through us. Worship at this church was awesome; the people there are so passionate and have a huge love for Jesus and people in general. From this service, I learned that we must praise God for the good and bad in our lives, and that God is not going to leave us in whatever hard place we are at. One of my favorite quotes said was, "If hope and joy is coming in the morning, then we must learn how to praise Jesus in the dark." Another quote a lot of the group liked was, "If your problems are smaller than a dead Jesus, then it can be handled between you and God." I now realize this post is huge, but in just a short time we have learned so much about God's church. Thank you for your continued prayers and we will see you all again soon!

Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels

We are up bright and early to see a catholic church and how their church is different from ours.I hope the youth group grows close to god on this trip.

Saddleback Church

Hey guys it's Morgan McGuire! We just went to Saddleback church and it was HUGE!!! Doug Fields was the speaker. Who would've guessed the guy who's been teaching us through DVD would teach us in person a week later. He talked about God and the Samaritan woman. He also stressed that God is AMAZING! One quote that stuck out to me. "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by GOD." doug's challenge for us was to ask ourselves "where are you in your relationship with the amazing Jesus?" keep praying for us this week!!!

Here is the youth building at Saddleback... yes that is a beach volleyball court out in front. Let's just say the students thought we were making a stop at Disneyland.

 We couple weeks ago we finished "The Truth About Sex" series with Doug Fields, so we were pleasantly surprised when he was the speaker during the youth service. Here is us getting a picture with him after the service.

the quest has begun

We awoke when the rooster crowed ready to spring into the world shown before us. Our fellow companions packed our satchels and headed on a quest to observe and learn from the christians of the city of angeles. With the our fellow brothers sisters and christ growing together in the holy bible we are ready to learn these new cultures that have been placed on our horizon. With that being said we are on our way to Saddleback Church to go to their youth service.

On the road/random facts

This is emma molly and kaylene reporting from the silver bullet (the awesome car).
Random fact for the day:
Elephants purr when they eat.

 

 Molly, Emma, and Kaylene along for the ride

5 Days and Counting

Welcome to the First Pres. Fresno High School blog for our mission trip to LA. In five days, 21 students and 5 adults will journey to LA for a 6 day exposure trip. We are very excited because this trip is like none that we have ever done before. While the majority of our past trips have been work project-oriented, this trip will be focusing on the study of the Church. During this trip we will be visiting a variety of churches and ministries to learn how they function and reach out to people. We will be doing a Bible study on the Church throughout the week to observe what the Bible says the Church should look like and to compare that to what we are encountering today. We will also have some opportunities to serve with the Dream Center and participate in homeless ministry with Central City Community Outreach.

We look forward to using this blog to communicate with you throughout our trip. We hope to update it with what we are experiencing and learning, along with some pictures. Throughout the trip, please be praying for:

• Safety (especially with LA traffic)
• Health
• Open eyes and ears, that we may learn and absorb all that the Lord has for us
• Great fellowship with God, each other, and the people we come in contact with
• That we may reflect Christ in all that we do
• That we will come home with tangible ways to live more for Christ and his Kingdom

Thank you so much for your support! While we have not taken a team picture yet, below is a picture from Winter Camp and many of the same students will be on this trip. Thanks for your prayers and support!