Finalized

So, clearly an update has yet to happen since July 20. If I were to begin writing to even give you a general understanding of what happened, it could 1. take me a two days to write and 2. a day to read (hoping my typing is really that fast). With that in mind... LA was a good time, what I got out of it has been more than I could have asked for. As reality sinks, I'm realizing that LA has changed me for at least a long long long time, if not a lifetime. A new mindset has been put in place. If you want to hear about it. I'd love to talk, but I warn you be prepared to listen for hours.

Saying just that,

Nathan

My past two weeks

Very quickly... some highlights over the past TWO weeks.

I finished house sitting for Eric and his family.

I stayed home by myself

I hung out people

I made some new friends

I got addicted to FourSquare

I had some great Conversations

I had some difficult conversations

I have been preparing for the Origins Event

I have been watching LOST

I got my first sunburn

I watched Inception

I went to Beverly's Best Bakery in Fullerton

I talked to some famous people

I got many badges from FourSquare

I went to the Grove

I spent 10 hours facing a computer

I got to wish Trevor Stehouwer a Happy 19th Birthday

I have been left out

I have been let in

I have seen the good

I have seen the bad

I have been forgiven

I have been forgiving

I have slept

I have woken up

I have drank various fluids

I have eaten various foods

I have been stubborn

I have had my eyes opened

I have been hurt

I have been healed

I have had a cause

I have had an effect

I have been apathetic

I have been affected

I have lost my mind

I have gained weight

I HAVE NOT EXERCISED!!!!

Housesitting with the Dog

I'm housesitting. I'm dog sitting. It's been an interesting week so far since Sunday. I've been at the house quite a bit. Netherlands won yesterday! It made me SO happy! And today I went to the Office and started the process of getting The Origins event out to the city of LA to the different churches. Not much to say!

Climbing a Mountain to an American Celebration

Friday began a weekend adventure that I will never forget. One because it is in my memory and two because it will typed out on here on record. There were two adventurers alongside with me. We got up and started the journey to the Hike Trail. We began our scale of the Mountain called Wilson. The first stretch was a great start, we had a great pace. The sun and heat were making it slightly unbearable, but we persevered. We past first water.

We began to start escalating the major part of the mountain. I began to feel the hike! Absolutely exhilarating!!! We took a few stops along the way and got to Orchard Camp. The next stretch was the most difficult and most strenuous. It is a constant climb up to the top to reach Manzanita Ridge. After an hour we climb 1 and a bit miles. It slightly painful, but we made it! It was liberating. Cate, Chad, and my trek back down the mountain was a breeze... we were practically running down the mountain, but we had a great conversation... YEY for team building experiences. Sad moment... my running shoes were destroyed!

Saturday, the three of us went to Huntington Beach to go to Chad's friend's softball game. So, we went and met Derek... after that we went to eat sushi. Chad was a sushi virgin... Cate and I were shocked. But I will say that Chad is an absolute trooper! He is SO willing to try new things and experience life. It is very encouraging to be around people who are capable of doing things they have never done before! Then after lunch, we hung out at Sunset Beach. It was wonderful!

It was Independence day on Sunday. What a crazy and amazing day! Got up early to head to Pasadena to WCIU. We threw a traditional Picnic Party. It is so much fun and a lot of work. The turn out... was Great! People stayed until 3 and then clean up happened! After that I had a house sitting run through with Eric Bryant as I have been house and dog sitting for the past week here. I then went to a friend's house for a pool party and BBQ. We walked from the house to San Marino to watch the fireworks. Walked back and then I just went home after that!

A great weekend to say the least!

An American Canada Day

So, last Thursday was Canada. And what an interesting way to spend it...

I got up and looked at my closet. I decided at that moment, since it was Canada Day, I would purposefully wear something patriotic to my nation. I put on my Red Canada Roots T-shirt and left the house (with shorts on too). I went to Phillipe's in downtown LA and had a meeting with the rest of interns and our supervisors (Sueann and Jason). After that Chad and I went to the Office to cut and fold the programs.

After that... we were lucky enough to be invited to a Pool Party/BBQ at Erwin McManus' house. So, we drove there and ended up hanging out with Erwin's family and other Mosaic paid staff members and families. It was great talking with all of these people who are close with this man who is highly respected and shunned in the Christian community. It was great. It was also very humbling to be in his presence and to realize that Erwin (this multi-published author, entrepreneur and influential person in our generation) was bbqing my lunch. It was a great night. What a way to spend my Canada Day.

OH, and when we were about to pray for the meal... they announced "Happy 4th of July" and I retorted "Actually, it's Happy Canada Day... It's Canada Day today!" They weren't impressed! OH WELL! okay peace!

A busy Sunday

This post shall be a short one!

Sunday morning the team was at Inland. This is the gathering in Chino. We got to meet Nathan Neighbor and Scott Burbank. It was great to meet them. There was this immediate connection and relationship that was instantly built. We had a great talk about Mosaic and what is going on within this church. This community is going through a transitional stage and how each of these sites deal with it is interesting to see and experience. They are looking to us interns as fresh eyes and they ask us what we think they should do. It's an amazing feeling to be asked what we think. We are essentially new to this type of ministry and for them to want our opinion is encouraging.

After lunch we went to South Bay... an evening gathering a couple of roads away from the beach. It's inside a Community Centre and to just see the transformation from community center to intimate gathering setting... was remarkable. They part that surprised me was that they set up and tear down that room every week. They were happy about doing it too. They didn't complain once about the fact that they had to do it AGAIN. Goodie is the site pastor of this location and after we all went out for coffee. He told us his story of being born in Compton and becoming a national speaker to living off food stamps and getting welfare to working with Erwin McManus and Mosaic. He brought up the mentality of progression and the story always continues. It just matters if we acknowledge it or not. God gives us many opportunities to understand what he has planned, but sometimes we are so fixated on the one mind stream that we have. If it doesn't focus on that, then God isn't speaking to me, but He speaks in a round-a-bout way. Absolutely inspiring and refreshing!

After that Chad and I went to hang out with Mayan folk and hung out at Spitz. I got home late and slept! It was a great day of learning, experiencing and growing! 4 weeks and 4 days left! YIKES!

The Battle at Skid Row

So here is my delayed installment from my day on Saturday!

I don't know what to say exactly about this war. As I got my stuff ready to leave, the nerves began to hit me. I was a mess. I didn't know what to expect. I've had these feelings before, but it wasn't the same. Would we win? Would the people appreciate what we were doing for them? Would there be screams? Yelling? Would they be nonchalant? Would they attack us? Would they be violent? Or retaliate? Would they try to spite us? Would they think we thought it was a charity outreach? Would they see that we were fighting for them out of love? These were the questions running through my mind. These were my worries about how the people on the streets were going to react.

There were three teams... the squads split up. One went straight, another went right and my squad went left. As we started, we tried to keep a low key profile. We snuck around stealthily picking up the scraps that were lying around everywhere. I found that we were quiet. We didn't want to make a lot of noise and disrupt the environment that we were in. The people began to take notice of us, but we were too fast for their howling and we ignored them blurting out rude comments. Our path made us turn right. We continued.

We looked around the corner and saw the battlefield. The war zone. Every where we looked there were remnants of discarded waste. We opened our bags, put our gloves on and prepared ourselves for what was about to happen. Garbage bags in our left hand and our right was ready for action. Kayla with the "bazooka" (an extended grabber). She was ready to destroy something. We got in the zone... we were ready to take on this area and become victorious. We turned the corner and began are journey. The battle had begun. We dodged people and quickly picked up as much as we could while still going forward. Like a bunch of children on caffeine pills we took to the street and picked up trash like we had never done before. Looking in crevices for the remains, down the gutters slots, or in and around trees and fences. We were being successful. We were enjoying the thrill.

We were stopped. There was garbage all around. We trotted through the trenches on our right. Picking everything we saw with the naked eye. Step by step we were conquering this land and as we looked back they looked clean. My OCD started to kick in... but my squad encouraged me to fight the urge because I was slowing them down. If we stopped this rush we would be caught and be defeated. We moved forward and took over another street.

We were getting tired by this time and we needed some energy, something to keep us going. And then all of a sudden, we were being shot at with words of positivity. The natives to this land were thanking us? Could it be that what we were doing was being well received? Love was shining through? It kept us going. Bit by bit we were heading in the direction to a tiny crowd. They encouraged us for what we were doing. They offered us lemonade and we were on our way. It didn't seem so scary anymore. The residents were nice. They were pleasant. They blessed us. We hit another street and had to decide which way to go.

As we turned right, people were talking to us from across the road. We decided at that moment that we should not be SO focussed. Get to know the locals to give more of a purpose to be here fighting this war. So we did...

We met a man named Anthony Paul Fleming. We was a man who lives on Skid Row. He graduated in Fashion design. He knows about God and Jesus, but he doesn't understand the relationship that he needs to have. He mentioned many biblical references and understood the context and what they were talking about. It was absolutely intriguing to meet someone in this type of setting. Amongst the debris of the tenants in this area during our battle. He brought up Galatians 5:25-26, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." It is a great verse to put into perspective within the homeless community. They could have been so envious and angry about what everyone else has in their life. They don't dwell on the worldly gains.

As we continued down our path we would ask people how they were doing. Their response was a simple and yet so powerful "I am blessed!" It struck the heart strings of every member in my squad. Blown away that even through these terrible times of war, they were so filled with positivity. As a group we discussed how if it was us in that position we would just complain about it all. Ha... we still do. A woman nicknamed "Baby Girl" came up to two of our soldiers (Cate and Curstin) and said that she was so thankful for what we were doing. She was shocked when she found out that we volunteered to be a part of this war. Uncle Sam didn't have to convince us or even force us into battle. We willingly showed up and wanted to fight for what we thought was a right cause. She told us about her life. She was doing well in life. She had an apartment, a job, and money and then quite quickly everything began to fall apart. The apartment fell through, the job was non-existent, which in turn made the money leave even faster. She now lives out of her car and yet knows that God will bring her out of this. She is so content with life and even though bad things occur she knows that if she depends on God, she'll overcome it all.

We moved on... and man by the name of Chris came to talk to us. He asked if we were scared to be out here fighting this battle. We were originally, but through our interactions with those that came in our path we realized there was more of a purpose. It drove us to be excited for what we have done and what we will do in the future. He asked us if Justin was our leader and we all agreed. Chris saw strength in us. He was also shocked that we were fighting for him and those in his community willingly. We weren't forced or pushed into it. We just cared enough to make the difference or at least attempt. It was an encouraging adventure. The results were better than expected and so we discussed that we would go out again and FIGHT.

This land will be conquered soon, we just need to get our energy back up until the next battle. I've learned a lot and gained so many valuable experiences in my life, but this one changed some perspective. Not because of people being blessed and them blessing us, but that there was a passion amongst our group to see change. There was a desire to start the change. We just couldn't wait... so we acted! And through the fears that we had, God took them all and helped us push passed them and start our victorious journey. A lot of contemplating about life and reasons as to why we do things... And that right there was the Battle at Skid Row. It will go down as one of the most important battles ever because it was all a part of starting the change in this world.