So, I was totally blessed this week. What I was assuming would be a boring conference in beautiful L.A. turned out to be a mini vacation and an answered prayer. First off, the mini vacation part. Although we were stuck in a conference room till 5 almost everyday, we actually got to go out and experience the city every night. We went to Hollywood, Bel Air, and the Santa Monica Beach. I haven't been on a vacation in so long because of Kamp (not complaining though) so it was so great to get to go to the beach. I was like a kid, running around into the water, soaking my pants but loving every second of it. I even called a few people, asking, do you hear the waves (oh yeah, sorry about that if you were one of the unfortunate ones hehe). We also, as part of our training went to "Skid Row" to see the vast homeless people and the poverty and then immediately drove the 2 miles north to Rodeo drive to see the riches of one of the richest streets in America. It was so ironic to see the lavishness of Rodeo drive and the utter destitution of Skid Row. It definitely opened my eyes to the materialism of the United States and the price people have to pay for other's selfishness. Anyways, I don't want to lull on that but it's the reality of our world. Okay, so yeah, it was great seeing all the touristy sights of LA though.
On to the answered prayer...so, i've definitely been praying that God would help me find some friends here because, let's face it, it's an even bigger city when you don't really know anyone. When everyone got to LA we were all talking about our "sites" (where we are stationed at for AmeriCorps) and lo-and-behold, Laura and Jon were from Chicago! Although Jon lives on the southside, Laura lives on the westside, about 5-10 minutes away from me! YAY! I'm very excited because she has lived here since the summer so she knows the city and want to show me around more! Hopefully, we will become good friends! :) It's crazy how God can answer prayers even when I'm in LA! :)
Work is going great. I learn more and more about ministry everyday. I got back from LA at 9 pm on Thursday and was off to work on Friday! I missed some of those rugrats and so I was excited to get back. Fridays are my least favorite day (the Health class ugh) but it wasn't too bad yesterday. The kids were a little out of control like always but I taught a unit on fruit, so we got to eat fruit, which the kids absolutely loved and ate till they were stuffed! haha...I will say there is one kid, a young lady in the 4th grade, who is definitely a piece of work and my goal is to get past her mask and her attitude and see what's underneath. She is just very rude, angry, and harsh and I have yet to understand why. She is just not nice to any adults and so I would appreciate all the prayers I could get as I try to love her unconditonally and really get to a deeper relationship with her. Urban ministry is so hard yet so rewarding.
Cute story of the week, Mykayla, a beautiful and spunky kindergartener looked at me today (we had soccer games this morning) and said, will you go to church with me? I smiled and asked her why she wanted me to go with her...she said, my pastor told everyone to bring a friend this week...and well, you're my friend so I want you to go! Hhaha...how can you pass that up? So cute, so so cute!
BTW, hopefully very soon I will upload some pictures I took of my apartment (i know, i know i've been here for a month) but here are a couple of the latest of Chicago and LA!
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