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!