Brotherly Love

One thing I forgot to tell you about while we were in San Francisco:
While out praying for people in the city a man asked one of our male students to pray for "Brotherly Love"- During our debrief the student explained that he was really unsure as to whether he should pray for it or not because it didn't sound appropriate, and he was rather uncomfortable that the man would ask that of him...we had to explain to him that "brotherly love" is more like peace and everyone getting along...not men loving men....this was a great relief to the student who wanted to make sure he didn't ask for anything he wasn't suppose to!

Oh how I love Junior High innocence...
You take students to work in San Francisco and this happens!

Volunteers are sexy

That's right, I said it, volunteers are sexy...actually, I can't take credit for this amazing quote...I stole it from a homeless lady in San Francisco...well let's say borrowed, I don't want to come off a total jerk, stealing from a homeless lady....
I just spent the weekend in San Francisco working with YWAM to serve the homeless and to share Christ's love with them. This is my 4th year going and every year I come away learning new lessons and seeing God work in incredible ways. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Friday night:

• Arrive at YWAM around 6:30
• Begin orientation
• Brackney sets his eyes on one of the YWAM leaders, Amanda...now becoming a missions trip tradition
• Head out for hot chocolate ministry where I see the homeless man that we (Matt and I) had purchased a "bed in a bag" for (from Ross Dress For Less) a few months earlier...he no longer had the blankets :-(
• Met some incredible people: Joey who has been homeless since 14, got hit by a car at 19 and his dad is now dying from cancer but won't talk to his son-a really neat guy who simply had a terrible childhood and is still struggling from it and another man who I could not understand but provided us with a little giggle...we thought he fell asleep while we were talking with him, turns out he was just preparing to pray, for about 2 minutes....
• Went to bed late and got no sleep...

Saturday:

• Woke up at 5...thanks to some lovely girls from another church....
• Went on a prayer walk around the city...prayed for strip clubs and "massage" parlors
• A student realized why the city smells so bad when he saw a man peeing on a wall...
• Met a beautiful lady named Grace-we bought her some yogurt and cranberry juice and prayed with her, we prayed that her family would come back together and as soon as we finished praying her grandchildren walked up to her...what an incredible answer to prayer right in front of us!! Oh, she also called one of our chubbier students "a chunk"...she really meant it in a nice way....
• Went to lunch on Hippie Hill on Haight...always walk away with the stench of pot stuck in your nose but this activity always leads to great conversations
• Set up a prayer station where Aaron had to pray without using pronouns because he didn't know if Billie was a male or female...he said it was the most difficult prayer he ever had to pray
• Students bought homeless people lunch...an incredible selfless act who spoke volumes to other people who witnessed the actions
• Went to Blondies for lunch....greatest place for pizza by the slice...especially when you had breakfast at 7 and no lunch till 4....
• Corporate worship time when I really got to see how mature our jr. high students are....the other group at YWAM had high school students who were goofing around, writing on each other and even sleeping on the floor...did I mention even their pastor was sleeping on the floor....ugh! Our students did great and were very respectful
• Walk to Grace Cathedral where we had team worship time...Aaron Wolfe did great leading us in worship...he is such a stud and I think all the ladies should take notice of him....
• On the walk to Grace a student asked me what "exotic nudge shows" are...I had to correct him because the sign said "exotic nude shows"....awkward!
• Another student saw a corner store in which she thought she had been to before where she had the best hot chocolate...turns out it was a pretty wild bar....I hope she was mistaken
• Late night walk to Burger King...yum!
• Finally got a few hours of sleep

Sunday:

• Doughnuts/donuts...both spelling are correct by the way....from Happy Donuts....best donuts in Northern California!
• Church at PromiseLand...a Charismatic church
• Service started at 10:30...pastor started speaking at 11:40....they did some healings and claimed prophecies....interesting cross-cultural experience!
• Got home at 3:00

Had an amazing time and the junior high students did an incredible job of stepping out of their comfort zones and showing people the love of Christ in practical ways. I encourage you to drop any stereotypes of homeless people because they are not all lazy drug addicts and alcoholics. You can learn a lot from homeless people too as most of them are more appreciative of what they have, as little as it may be, compared to those of us who can have pretty much anything we want. Take 20 minutes this month and chat it up with someone living on the streets, you may be surprised by what you learn....and remember volunteers are sexy!

How much?!

With Christmas just around the corner...and already in all the stores...I feel the need to give a plug for the less fortunate in our world...someone needs to! It is estimated that last year Americans spent around 450 BILLION dollars on Christmas. Let me repeat this...450 BILLION DOLLARS only on Christmas. Now, what tugs on my heart is that it would take just 2% of that amount to provide fresh water for every people group that needs it...so, I'm not that great at math but I believe that is just under 10 Billion dollars...to provide every people group that needs fresh water with a fresh water source. I'm not talking one bottle of fresh water but a long term source such as a fresh water well. This really just tugs on my heart and makes me ask how can we help, how can we change this because this is not okay. One of my professors said something that really stuck out to me (finally! Boy, does he stretch my patience!) Because there are so many needs in the world we can often get overwhelmed with where to start and what cause to support but that the most important thing to do is to educate and instill compassion into younger generations. Hopefully, by doing this each generation will become more and more compassionate and thus, in theory, the poverty of the world will decrease accordingly. So, in an effort to educate and instill compassion I want to point you to a wonderful organization-world vision. World Vision provides child sponsorships but at Christmas they provide opportunities for people to purchase gifts for needy families, in the US and across the globe. You can purchase animals for families that can use the eggs or milk as well as sell any extra items for a profit. And, to tie it all in with the fresh water problem...you can also help purchase a well for a needy community. Worldvision.org- check it out and spread the word! And, with the economy in the shape that it is I'll add that these gifts are really affordable. I hear sad statistics and this happens...I need to share them...

Palmdale

Whenever we go down to Southern California to visit Matt's parents I am reminded of what a sheltered community I live in. Palmdale really is a different world compared to El Dorado Hills/Folsom. One time Matt, Jenna and I went and as we drove around we played a game to see who could spot things that you don't see at home....we usually get to about 10-15 things on a ten minute drive. For instance, the first time I went there to visit we were driving on the freeway when a van flew pass us in the fast lane. What was interesting about this van was that it did not have its headlight on...and it was about 9:00 at night. But don't worry, it did have a small flashlight taped to the dashboard on this inside of the van...so obviously they could totally see where they were going! This last time we were down visiting there was an ice cream truck driving around the neighborhood. At first there was nothing special about this ice cream truck until we all stopped to listen to the familiar song it was playing...nope not the normal "do your ears hang low" song but "jingle bells", yup "jingle bells" in early October. Well, that's one way to get people's attention! Oh how I love Palmdale!

Recap of meeting my India Team!

Sunday, October 19:
Matt and I drove to Citrus Junior College in southern California where we were holding a rummage sale at a swap meet. They all met at 5:00 am but because of where we stayed I got there at 8:00, so as I walked up to the group everyone was busy selling items and getting people to look at our "goods". Doug, our leader, starting introducing me to everyone right away and everyone was very welcoming. There are 9 of us total and only one person that was not there. I was a little overwhelmed meeting everyone at first because it was a bit chaotic and a lot of names being thrown at me...not to mention not everyone I met is part of our team so I was trying to remember who was who! I stayed close to Kelly, our co-leader and I think her and I are going to get along very well. She has been to Kenya and Peru as well and worked with the same ministries I worked with when I was there...so we hit it off right away! Because we are staying in a hotel we already have our room assignments so I got to meet my roommate, Sylvia. I was also excited to see that I am not the youngest member of the team-there is a 22 year old guy who has actually never been out of the country before. With the exception of Matt, the 22 year old, everyone on the team is married and will be going on the trip without their spouse. It will be neat that we will be able to help each other and relate to each other throughout our stay in Calcutta.

Meeting everyone has gotten me so much more excited and has also relieved some anxieties that I had. I ask that you will continue to pray for me and our trip and that you will be asking God to prepare my nerves and my patience with the living situations I will encounter.

One last thing...I also found out that we are leaving two days earlier for our trip, December 28 at 1:30pm from LAX.

Thanks again for all your support and love. It has been incredible to see all the support. As of today I only need $60 until my trip is paid for...thank you!

PS to Prop 8 post...

I'm not saying one should vote yes or no on prop 8...I'm simply wondering why we, myself included, spend more time making known what we stand against rather than what we stand for. I think it is a problem with Christianity as a whole...we are known more for what we stand against rather than what we believe in and stand for. Just don't take this as a political statement on how to vote one way or another! Okay, now I'm done!

Prop 8

On my way to school this morning, around 7:30 am, I drove past a busy intersection to see two people holding signs to vote "yes" on Prop 8. This got me thinking about how much time we spend making it clear about what we stand against rather than what we stand for. I would venture to guess that the majority of the people who are rallying people to vote yes on prop 8 are Christians which begs me to ask if they are spending even half as much time loving others (homosexuals) as they are making their stance known? Jesus simply calls us to Love God and to Love Others and if we did this simple command...oh how different the world would be!
On another note, why are Christians so focused on homosexuality? Do we see it as a sin? Yes...but why are we so focused on this sin compared to other sins? I haven't heard much talk about prop 4 which deals with abortion. The truth is that homosexuality is happening...and it didn't just start in 2008...it was in the Bible and whether there is a law against homosexual marriage or not same sex couples will be together and a law is not going to stop it. Whether they can marry or not really has no effect on my marriage, my marriage is still valid and will be great regardless of who else is allowed to marry. Youth are still going to grow up knowing homosexual relationships happen but I really don't think it will have an effect on the path they choose...in the past it wasn't talked about nearly as much as it is talked about now yet homosexuality didn't die out...it still happened. As a youth leader I say we should focus more on teaching youth to value themselves and to guard their body against premarital sex or drug use or underage drinking rather than trying to protect them from the talk of homosexuality. Let's teach the youth to love God and love others regardless of the life they choose just as Jesus did. Okay...that's all on that. This is what happens when I have an hour drive to school early in the morning! :-)