Desktop

So my laptop was making this weird noise, like it was going to take off and explode, every time I opened it. I backed up all my information made an appointment at the apple store and went to get my mac working perfectly again.

While at the store, and since it was going to take them 30 minutes to change my fan, or something like that, I decided to take a look at the desktops; bad idea! I really really want to have a desktop and be able to make graphics and work on pictures on a real size screen. Right now it is not really on our budget, but why not dream and why not put it on our wish list, right?

Borders

We walked downtown with our friends Kevin & Tanya (who are engaged and it's so exciting!!) last Thursday night and had to go into the huge Borders on 5th and G that is closing. I am so sad the Borders won't be there, I love going and sitting on the floor in between the many shelves to read pieces of books and look at beautiful pictures of places I have never been too.

We got a couple gifts since everything was discounted and left sad knowing it might be the last time we hang out at Borders, I am hoping a Barnes & Noble rents the place ha.

Happy Birthday Tiana

Tiana is a 14 year old girl that goes to our church with her family, we love them all dearly so when we found out she was celebrating her birthday and they wanted us to be there we jumped in the car without hesitation.

They are Cambodian, Vietnamese, Filipino, and a bit Chinese so the food was beyond amazing, but more than that we loved the company, they are a beautiful family and we are so happy we know them.

A little snow

This is Debra, remember we talked about her yesterday?

When you live in SoCal a little snow is incredibly exciting. We could see the snowy mountains from Pool Poppa & Pool Momma's house, but when we were driving back to San Diego there was a little bit of snow on the roads and we just had to stop, touch it, play with it, freeze our hands, snap pictures and keep on going. I mean we haven't seen snow in too long to let this opportunity pass. 

I am sure our reaction would be different if we lived further north.

Snowy Mountains and family

We drove to Palm Sprigs to see Pool Momma, Pool Poppa, Grandma and Deb (Deb is Caleb's sister for Blogging purposes, so she is my sister too now =D). We had such a relaxing nice time, it was beautiful. The sky was blue, the mountains white and the pool was heated which was wonderful. Some of Deb's family came to have lunch with us; Jeff, Summer and their two boys have a beautiful family and we had fun with them, the boys love the pool and we all skyped with Victoria, Deb's daughter, and laughed at each other.

We really love going to Palm Springs, it's always so relaxing and fun, we are so grateful Pool Momma and Pool Poppa leave so close to us... they can never ever move away!

Dancing at the Dream Center

So when someone meets Caleb they remember him for a long time, and that was not good sometimes.

Friday night we met Jonathan while at Skid Row, he was one of the Dream Center leaders and he was really nice. Well he was also the mc Saturday morning after prayer and he asked someone from San Diego to come up and dance, I asked Caleb to go ha. It was so funny to see him there hoping he really wasn't. We had a great time cheering for him though and he just laughed the whole time so it was ok. Next time I won't push him to go though.

Isn't it crazy how many people came for prayer, most of them youth too; I love it!

Leaving the Dream Center

Before leaving the Dream Center we had lunch with my friend Aaron who is currently working at the Dream Center. We went to Malibu and he shared his testimony with us and told us about all the thins he does at the Dream Center. I hadn't seen Aaron in about 3 years so it was nice to see him and see what God is doing in his life and through him. Hopefully we'll get to see each other again soon!

Boxed Water

We went to Malibu for Lunch on Saturday and saw the coolest water, boxed water that is. I want to find it and see what the difference in price is and why it is not everywhere; I love it!

Adopt-a-Block

Saturday Morning we woke up early, had breakfast and headed towards the gym at the Dream Center for a big prayer meeting; it was great and after Caleb was asked to dance which was actually pretty funny but I'll show that video later. After the meeting everyone divided into teams and we headed out to different areas in LA to bless the community. 

The outreach is called adopt-a-block and every week hundreds of people go out and knock on people's doors asking them if there is a way they can bless them. It's amazing. There is a variation of it which consists of putting all the things they have been donated in groups (food, medicine, toiletries, household items, etc) and giving it to people as they come and go through the different sections.

We were a part of the second type of adopt-a-block. Caleb was organizing the lines of people waiting to go through, Jennifer and Marissa were helping in the food areas, Tranica helped with the toilettries and I was helping with the medicine since the vast majority doesn't speak English and we wanted to make sure they got the medicine they needed and they knew how to take it.

We were there for about 4 hours and handed out hundreds and hundreds of different goods; it was a great experience. We learned a lot for our First Sunday Ministry, so we'll see some modifications to First Sunday this year.

We were honored we got to be a part of adopt-a-block and learn so much from it, we are now excited to see how First Sunday becomes so much better from what we learned in LA

Westwood

I loved walking around Westwood, I know I keep talking about it but the place was beautiful, I want to go back and figure out were these signs lead to.

The Golden Monte Cristo

When we got to Westwood for Diddy Riese we parked right across the street from Jerry's Famous Deli and my husband almost died; he was so excited he could go and get a Monte Cristo which is a ham, turkey, bacon, swiss Cheese, deep fried egg bread sandwich with preserves and fruit or apple sauce.

Yeah, the thing is a heart attack in sandwich form, but I must admit it is incredibly good, it's breakfast and lunch in a delicious deep friend bread awesomeness. If you are ever by a Jerry's Famous Deli my Husband won't forgive you if you don't go in to try the Sandwich.

Diddy Riese

After getting back from our second trip to the communities to hand out food we rested for about an hour, had dinner and then got ready to head out to Skid Row around 7pm to talk to people, invite them to church, pray for them and give them a snack. It was pouring rain so that added an interesting twist to our night. 


We had a chance to meet a lot of wonderful people at Skid Row, some of them people that live there and some of them people that like us were volunteering their time to bless the community. We were all riding in a small bus getting off and on in every block dropping teams of 7 or 8 people and picking them up in the next block. It was great and a great way to see how people live and get a more accurate idea of what it is that people need and how we can help. 


After evangelizing on Skid Row for a few hours we were soaked and completely awake. The ladies and Caleb wanted to go to Diddy Riese and have some ice cream sandwiches; I don't like Ice Cream but I came along and just enjoyed Westwood; it's beautiful there, I want to go back with more time and explore further!

Food trucks

Friday morning we spent loading trucks of food and right after we headed to communities in need and handed out the food after sorting through it and putting it in bags to make sure everyone was getting the basics. We couldn't take pictures at the sites so I snapped a few while loading the food and left my camera and phone behind. 

We did it twice so we ended up doing this all day Friday since loading takes a few hours and taking it to the sites, organizing it and handing it out takes quite a while too. It was a great experience.

The people at the sites were so grateful they were receiving food, at the end of the line there were a few of us that spoke Spanish (a lot f the people were Hispanic) and we were able to talk with the people, offer prayer to them and invite them to church. I was surprised to see most people were not only open to the idea of church but they wanted to be prayed for and were comfortable sharing some of the struggles they are currently facing. It breaks your heart to hear what they are going through and not be able to do much more than pray for them; but it helps to see their local church is doing a great job at caring for them and showing them God's love. 

Church at Angelus Temple

After Skid Row we went back to our room at the Dream Center to rest for a little bit and then head out to service. 

I had been to the church at the Dream Center before and every time I've been amazed at their passionate worship; I am also secretly wanting to steal their screens and amazing projectors all the time I am there but let's not share that with them. 

We had a great service and we headed back to the rooms to sleep after a long day. It was the first night Caleb and I had slept in different beds and even though we were sad and wanted to sneak into each others rooms we just texted until we fell asleep and woke up early to say good morning with a kiss.

Serving food at the Jonah Project

We arrived at the Dream Center Thursday morning and after orientation and lunch we started serving at a ministry called Under The Bridge. We went to Skid Row where most of the homeless people in Los Angeles gather to offer a meal and prayer to everybody there. 

 The Dream Center partners with the Jonah Project, a church located right in the heart of Skid Row. They opne up their facilities to everyone in the community and they allow for the Dream Center to come and serve a hot meal to hundreds of people on a weekly basis. 

We were asked to actually serve the food, Caleb had to hand it out. So we put our aprons on, our fish nets and gloves and we started serving mac and cheese, veggies and beef stroganoff while Caleb added a piece of bread and handed the people their plate.

When we got done serving we went out and talked to a few people, we had a chance to pray for them and we invited them to church. So many of them are in such a dark place in life right now, our prayer is that they will find the Light and follow it for the rest of their lives.

The Dream Center

We spent the last few days at the Dream Center in LA with the most wonderful group of ladies. For those of you that are not familiar with these wonderful place, the Dream Center is a non-profit outreach dedicated to serving the needs of inner cities. They not only work hard to meet their physical needs by providing food, furniture, clothing and other basic essentials; but they work hard at meeting their spiritual needs by having a discipleship program designated for those in the community who desire to make a radical transformation in their life. They also have church services on Thursdays and Sundays and they take buses all over the city to pick up people to their services. 

We went to the Dream Center to learn from them, Urban is in San Diego and we see many of the same needs the city of LA sees represented in our community, so we decided to serve alongside the people of the Dream Center taking notes so we can have a better grasp at how to effectively reach our city. 

Community Group

As you may or may not know from our 2011 plans, K and I started a community group for married and engaged couples at church. The Community Group has been going great and we are really enjoying sharing with the couples and hearing from them. Duing our Connection Weekend 6 couples signed up and we were beyond stoked.

Three weeks have gone by since we started the community group and we've had 10 couples join, some have missed a week but in general it's been great to see people come and share. Every week we've seen growth and we have had a chance to really get to know some of the couples that have been coming to the group, it's wonderful being able to share your life with others and knowing that you have a support system in place that prays for you and keeps you accountable. 

Every week we share a chapter of the book After you say I do by H. Norman Wright, we discuss some of the things in the book and let the couples answer the questions in the book in a discussion and then expand on them at home with their spouse/fiancee. We also have a weekly love challenge which has sparked great conversation between couples, inside marriages and with the entire group. And obviously we always have munchies because where there is food people are happy!

We feel truly blessed people have had a chance to join us in this journey and we are excited for what is to come.

Single's Dinner

The servers and our pastors

Johnny & Maria

The "photo booth"

The amazing Beth, our first supporter

Cathy in the middle is an amazing woman who ministers to the other ladies in this picture on a weekly basis, it's truly inspiring.

The ladies I work alongside every week.

Johnny and Maria are a wonderful couple that has been going to Urban for quite a while. Their whole entire family is amazing, I love them all and I am so blessed to get to sere alongside them.

Well they decided to throw a formal dinner for the single people of our church last Saturday and asked me to be one of the servers, being married an all it was the only way I'd be able to come. I accepted gladly and I had a wonderful time serving the single people of our church and making them feel appreciated and special.

K was working so he couldn't make it, but he loved the pictures and the good news is that it was his last day at his job; we are officially working together now!