Jun

26

Day 6 and 7 at the Dream Center

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 

We’ve been having so much fun that I just didn’t get around to posting my final update on the Dream Center trip!

On Sunday our group did the bus ministry that drives into the various projects and poor neighborhoods in downtown L.A. to pick people up for Church. The service was awesome as usual. Pastor Matthew shared the numbers on his final number of shots made during his 24-hour Dream Shot - 13,107! A few of us got to cheer him on right to the very end which was a lot of fun. Even cooler than how many shots he made was how much money he raised. Their original goal was $1 million dollars but after calculating all the donations that came in from around the world the final amount raised for the Dream Center was just under $2 MILLION!

After Church we drove to Universal Studios where we at lunch at a Texas steakhouse. Before we ate a few of us rode the electric bull out front - trust me there are some great pictures and videos coming from that. On my turn a certain someone whose name I won’t mention (Aaron Foster) tipped the ride operator to rough me up extra good. So I got on the bull and was shocked at how much it was throwing me around. I was thinking to myself, why the heck is this thing so rough?? It was pretty funny.

We then drove through Beverly Hills and cruised Rodeo Drive where we saw plenty of expensive houses and cars. Around 5:30 we checked into our hotel on the Marina Del Ray�near Venice Beach. It was a really nice place. We soaked in the outdoor hot tub and swam in the pool before we had dinner at a neat little diner down the road. The next day we slept in and then had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. Around 11:00 we headed over to the beach where we walked the boardwalk and laid out in the sun. In the afternoon it got hot so we swam in the ocean and jumped the waves. Ryan rented a three-wheel bike that he kept riding into the waves which provided lots of photo opportunities and laughter.

We got mostly packed up Monday night for our flight the next morning. Ryan fell asleep early so we took the opportunity to draw on his face with the permanent marker and take pictures of it. :-) You know me, I never pass up an opportunity for a prank!

By the time we made our flight and bus drive back on Tuesday everybody was pretty tired. Getting over the jet lag will take a few days but the memories from this trip will last a lifetime. Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible and gave of their time and money to get us there.

Jun

23

Day 4 and 5 at the Dream Center

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 

We’ve been busy yesterday and today with the Elevate Conference that is taking place this week at the Dream Center. As part of the short-term missions team we helped out with some of the details and got to sit in on some of the sessions.

David HanleyLast night was the Elevate Worship concert. Prior to the concert David Hanley (left)�lead a session on Elevating your Creativity. He talked about the importance of having a 23.5 hour worship lifestyle (meaning, it’s not what we do with the 30 minutes on stage, it’s how we live the other 23.5 hours of our day). They definitely pulled out all the stops for the concert. The confetti cannons shot off during the first song as we all jumped up and down at the front of the stage. They threw in some guitar riffs from U2 and Coldplay in between songs�and dropped an American flag down to cover the stage as they sang “Sweet Home California.” Acrobats jumping amazingly high off of a trampoline while backflipping over and over and a group of percussionists played on trash cans and plastic drums. Throughout the worship concert various came out of the crowd as they were played their solos. You just didn’t know what to expect next. It was awesome.

After the service we headed back to the Dream Center for the kick-off of the Dream Shot. Pastor Matthew Barnett committed to throw basketball free-throws for 24 hours straight to try and raise 1 million dollars for the Dream Center. At 9:30 PM he threw his first shot and has been steadily throwing free throws since then. He’s only taken two 30 minute breaks and a couple of 15 minutes break in the last 15 hours.�Our group made some banners and has�been popping in throughout the day today to cheer him on. As of a few minutes ago he had made just over 11,000 shots! There have been lots of people who have partnered with the Dream Center already to help reach the 1 million dollar goal. If you’re interested in giving an online donation click here. Pastor Matthew will be concluding his 24 hours of free throws at 9:30 tonight so we’ll all be there to watch the exciting conclusion!

This morning we participated in a huge community-wide “Random Acts of Kindness.” Our group along with about 500 other people dispersed throughout L.A. to give free car washes, pay down people’s gas, give free ice cream, and lots of other cool things. Part of our group washed cars for free for a couple hours while the rest of them paid down people’s gas at a gas station (once people realized what was going on there was quite the traffic jam at the station!).

Tomorrow we’ll be going on the bus ministry pick-up down at Skid Row to pick up homeless people to go to Church with us. I’m looking forward to the service - they are just so much fun! We have a CD of Press Play that we’ve been blaring at full volume in the van while we all sing along. I’m not sure how much of a voice I’ll have left by this weekend!

Thanks for all the awesome comments! The kids love them!

Jun

22

Day 3 at the Dream Center

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 

We’re in the beginning of day 4 of our trip but I’ll add to the rest of my posts about what happened yesterday. After our food truck ministry and various outreach opportunities we had we ate dinner and got ready for the Thursday night service. I knew that those in the group who had never seen Press Play lead worship were in for a treat! As always they did an awesome job and within 10 seconds of the start of the first song our whole group was right up at the front of the stage jumping up and down and worshipping God. It was a ton of fun and very rewarding as a Youth Pastor to worship God with your kids.

Seth Ayers had told me that he was going to be the first one up there, which he was. He was front and center a couple of feet from David Hansley, the worship leader. At one point in the song David pointed the microphone to Sethe and had him sing the last couple of words from part of the chorus. Partway through the first song they fired off confetti cannons and confetti filled the air as everyone was jumping up and down. I wish I could better describe how fun it is to worship with these guys but you’ve really got to be there.

I’m getting ready to head to breakfast and after that we’ve got a work project that will take the rest of the morning so I’ll try to post more this afternoon. Thanks to those of you who have left a comment. The kids love to hear it! If you don’t know how to leave a comment, just click on the link above and below the post that says “Comment on this Post.” If the post already has comments just click where it says how many comments there are.

Thanks for reading! Keep praying for us!

Jun

21

Food Ministry at the Dream Center

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 

This afternoon our group participated in two aspects of the Food Ministry here at the Dream Center. 14 members of our group went out on the food truck to distribute food in poor neighborhoods while the other 6 of us went on the “Under The Bridge” outreach where we prepared and served hot meals to over 250 homeless on Skid Row.

Here are a few interesting facts about the Food Ministry here at the Dream Center:

Dream Center Kitchen

  • Operates from 3:30 AM to 6:30 PM 7 days a week
  • Serves an average of 1,500 meals daily to residents, volunteers and homeless off the streets

Food Bank / Under The Bridge

  • Handles approximately 500 tons of donated food per month
  • 5th largest food bank in the Southern California region
  • Serves over 1,000 hot meals weekly�to the over 100,000 homeless in Metro L.A.

Jun

21

Day 2 at the Dream Center

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 


Good morning. It’s actually 8:00 in the morning here in California - the beginning of our 3rd day here but we were so exhausted when we got back last night that I couldn’t drag myself down to the coffee house to write anything.

We got our group assignments yesterday morning at 8:45. A third of our group went back to Venice Beach with the Help For Homeless Youth while some others helped load the food trucks for the mobile food bank. A few more helped prep the busses for the Metro Kidz that we were going to do later that afternoon. Ryan, Alli & Torrie helped a single mom move baby supplies and got a truck loaded to move to her house.


Steve, Elizabeth, Jessi, Kati, Ashley, Amber & myself stained a new fence for a young family in the Foster ministry. About a�year ago a mother of 6 was diagnosed with cancer and died leaving her 6 children in the L.A. foster care system. They were going to have to separate all of the kids into different homes even though the mom asked before she died that her family stay together if possible.�The Dream Center found out about the situation and purchased a home for the family and helped the oldest girl, who is now 18, get established and raise her siblings. One of the younger children has Downs Syndrome which only made it that much more of a challenge. It was awesome to see how the Dream Center has come along side this young family who would have almost certainly been separated by the foster system. They bought them a very nice house and had to put in a new fence which we were able to stain for her.


In the afternoon we participated in the MetroKidz program. It was so much fun! There are few things as rewarding as working with children - especially in the areas that the MetroKidz minister. We went to a project named Ramona Gardens and split into groups to begin inviting kids to participate in the program.


Within 30 minutes we had around 40 kids. While we waited for the stage and sound system to get set up we played with the kids who were there. They were so cute. Ramon and I did some pretty funny and embarrasing stuff in the name of entertainment that I’m sure will make its way into the video we show when we get back.

Skid Row - L.A.That evening we went to Skid Row in downtown L.A. Wikipedia says this about Skid Row, “Los Angeles’s Skid Row, in an area of downtown Los Angeles also known as Central City East, is home to one of the largest stable populations of transient persons (homeless) in the United States. Informal population estimates range from 7,000 to 8,000. First-time visitors to this area are often shocked by the sight of the cardboard box and camping tents lining the sidewalks; the juxtaposition with the gleaming glass-sheathed skyscrapers on nearby Bunker Hill is quite striking.”

Going to Skid Row is always an eye-opening experience. There is no way you can capture the sights and smells that assault your senses as soon as you get out of the van. As Mike, our leader for this trip said before we left, it is an honor to hang out with the murders, rapists and child molestors that are there because those are just the kind of people Jesus came to save. Mike said that he likes to think that if Jesus were to come to L.A. today that is one of the first areas he would visit. The images you see while you are there sear themselves into your memory and help instill the kind of compassion Jesus felt when he saw the crowds (Matthew 14:14).

We got back to the Dream Center around 10:00 and shared some of our experiences while talking to the people on Skid Row. Even though it was late and we were tired there was a contagious excitement of being involved in such a meaningful ministry. Many of the kids were stretched way beyond their comfort zone but responded with the heart of Christ.

Today we’ve got a variety of projects that I’ll try to post on when I have some time. Take some time to write us a comment and I’ll pass it along to the team.

Jun

20

Day 1 at the Dream Center

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 

Yesterday was a very long and eventful day - which is why I wasn’t able to log on and write a blog post. We woke up at 4:30 AM to catch the shuttle bus to the airport. After the shuttle dropped us off I grabbed my luggage and ran across the street to avoid the oncoming traffic. I heard a crunching sound behind me as I stepped onto the curb and turned around to find out that my PocketPC smart phone had dropped off of my belt and got run over by a bus! Let’s just say for the sake of the story that I said “Crap!” but you can imagine what you would have said if your $400 phone just got ran over by a bus. Oh well, what can you do?

�We had a good flight and arrived in beautiful, sunny Los Angeles at 8:30 in the morning. Steve and I got our rental vans and we navigated through L.A. traffic to get to the Dream Center in time for our tour and orientation.

Our afternoon project was with Hope For Homeless Youth. We took bags of sack lunches down to Venice Beach and handed them out to homless people we met. If you’ve never been to Venice Beach there is no good way to describe it. It’s a boardwalk that is on a beautiful part of the beach just off of Santa Monica. All along the boardwalk there are vendors, artists and musicians that set up along with tons of fortune tellers and tarrot card readers. Even though the real estate along the beach is very expensive the Venice boardwalk is huge hangout for all kinds of homeless people going from one fix or drink to the next. It’s a weird mix of tourists and homelessness; wealth and poverty. Any time you go to Venice Beach you can always count on some interesting conversations and encounters. We met one guy dressed up in who thought he was Shiva, the many-armed Indian diety. He showed Ramon pictures of his son Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of beginnings - not your typical dad, huh? Hey, look at pictures of my kid!

Today we have a full day of ministry opportunities. Part of our group will be prepping for the Adopt-A-Block on Saturday. This afternoon we’ll be participating in Metro Kidz - the inner-city childrens’ program.

I’ll try to post some pictures and more about what we’re doing later on. Feel free to drop me some comments and I’ll pass them along to the rest of group.

Jun

19

Thanks for the Starbucks!

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 

Tom Hinton called me up as we were leaving on Monday and told me to get Starbucks orders from all the kids on the bus and that he would meet us to buy us all coffee before we left! How cool is that? Thanks Tom! You’re awesome!!!

Jun

18

Arrived at the hotel

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 

We arrived safely at our Country Inn hotel tonight after a pretty smooth bus ride (much thanks to our bus driver Pat Bendele). We had a little bit of a scare when they told us that our reservations here at the hotel were actually for tomorrow and that they only had a handfull of rooms left. There must have been some kind of mixup but the gentleman at the desk was able to accomodate our needs for the same price. Thank God!

We just had our little “orientation” meeting where we went over our rules and expectation for the week. Everything went well with that and the kids seem to be getting along pretty good so far. I pray that God spares us from the drama that can flare up so quickly!

We’ll be leaving very early tomorrow in order to catch our 7:00 AM flight to L.A. Our shuttles will be leaving between 5:00 and 5:15 AM so I hope all the kids get lots of rest tonight. Ramon is in my room and he said he snores - I’ll keep a pillow or two handy to throw at him during the night if he gets too lound.

Tomorrow I’ll write from sunny California where the weather looks to be beautiful!!

Jun

17

Going to the Dream Center

Post Category: Blog Posts, Dream Center 

Tomorrow I’ll� be leaving to lead a short-term missions trip at the Dream Center in Los Angeles. While there we will be participating in the Metro Kids program, Food Distribution, Adopt-A-Block and Skid Row outreach. Our group of 20 will be arriving in California early on Tuesday where we’ll spend the week in our various ministry ventures. On Sunday we’ll be going to church at Angeles Temple in the morning and then hitting Hollywood, Universal Studios, and Venice Beach. Sunday evening we’ll head over to one of my favorite churches - Mosaic Church - pastored by Erwin McManus�(their downtown church meets in a nightclub called the Mayan). Then on Monday we’ll spend the day on the beach chilling out and resting from our hard week of service.

The Dream Center has a coffee house with WiFi access so I’ll try to get online to write some updates on what we’re doing so check back next week to see what we’re doing. Be sure to write some comments and I’ll pass them along to the team.

Thanks for reading!

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