Six friends of mine and I had the wonderful opportunity to serve in LA a couple of weeks ago. We headed down to Cali super early in the morning on a Tuesday and came back the next Sunday with an incredible experience. Our week started out on Skid Row. If you are unfamiliar with the area, it is a few block radius filled with over 7,000 homeless people. After 10pm everynight, the people down there line up their tents and blankets side by side filling the street's sidewalks. (If you would like a good picture of it, watch "The Soloist"). There are several missions on Skid Row. Many of them, like the two we served at, provided more than just food and shelter, but also life-skills classes, parenting classes, transitional housing, GED courses, and all sorts of other parts that make up a beautiful program of restoration. My favorite part of these organizations is that the men and women they are providing services for usually help out/run the jobs in the program. We had the opportunity to work with some of these people in the kitchen and were therefore able to hear some amazing stories!
If I could summarize what this trip was to me in one word it would be "overwhelming". There was so much to be broken over. The people we encountered had so many needs of all different natures... emotional, physical, spiritual... and everyone was at different places in their lives but in need of healing in all of those areas. I have never felt so helpless. This incredibly emotional realization reminded me just how great and lifechanging and beautiful the hope is that I have in Jesus and that people truly do need hope.
We had Starbucks like six times on this trip.. always a good thing!
Made some new friends and served with these cool kids from Pismo.
Heard some amazing stories about God's redemption in peoples lives.
Left for LA at 3:30am and Left for home around 5:00am.. totally worth the lack of sleep!