Well, as you can see this is my very first blog, I will try my best to make it some what interesting :) I hope that you enjoy it, and please leave a comment if you wish.
*I am sorry if this blog turns out to be very long, but I hope that you can get a glimpse of what my friends and I had experienced while in San Fran*
About a week before I got packed up and ready for the trip to San Francisco our youth group leader, Josh, asked us to write down changes that we should pray for in the long haul in our journals that he had given us. And I am glad to say that almost everything that I have written down has been accomplished/overcome. For example: I prayed for the people that we would meet by praying that they would accept who I am, and for them to think of me as more than just another person to them. Another example was when I prayed for our group, and how I hoped that we all would be very open minded both there and back at home as well. I feel accomplished, and happy that we got the chance to complete these challenges.
*The Drive in Helen & Henrieta (The Vans)*
Day One: We left on a early Sunday morning (July 16), and it took us about 7 or more hours to get there. Once we got to the city we went right to business, and we took a drive around the city to get a feel for our surroundings. This "prayer drive" showed us how the city really was, apart from the tourist part of town that most people see when they go to San Francisco. Some of the main things that I noticed was ...
1. San Francisco varied from luxurious to poor in the matter of blocks.
2. I was told the average homeless age was 9, which I personally think is very wrong. That 9 year old child does not deserve to be out in the cold, especially because they did not do anything to be in their situation.
3. Another thing that struck me was that many Vietnam Vets lived out in the streets as well, which you think would be the total opposite.
And as we kept driving I just prayed for those out on the streets, and for their safety. I prayed for the organizations and people that were helping those in trouble, and for them to continue to help. While driving I saw something that gave HOPE to me. I saw four men helping this other man out by pushing his broken down car to a gas station. And as we continued to drive away I just thought, "how nice of them," and was happy to see that there was still some hope in the city.
*City View*
Day Two: The next day we had woken up bright and early to take showers. This simple task to most was really hard for me, one because I was not use to getting up as early as we did, and two, we had to take 5 minute showers, which I was not use to as well. But to my surprise I did it, and as the week went on it got a little bit easier to do so. After getting all nice and cleaned up the group and I left to a kids VBS, where we met lots of crazy/cool kids. I later learned that the first VBS (this one) had one of the better group of kids. But while there we did arts and crafts, skits, games, and singing. I met this little guy named, Angel, and he supposedly did not like his name. He was a crazy little trouble maker, but ended up making some things fun. We had also met this girl named, Brooke, she was so God loving. She just wanted everyone, and I mean EVERYONE to know about God. It was amazing to see that such a small child was so open/friendly, and it was crazy to think that she, at such a young age knew so much about how Great God is, and was already ALL for him.
After playing with the kids at the VBS we had driven to a park, and there we were given 10 bucks. With that money we had to go out and find a homeless person and give them either the money, or something that we had bought with that cash. So we walked down the street and we met this guy named, Kevon, his girlfriend, Mary, and their friend Art. After talking to Kevon for a while we found out that he made money by welding/brick work. He was a good guy, he never laid his hands on Mary, ever, and had some great things to say to us. One of which that really stuck out to me was when he said something like this, "It truly is a blessing from God to wake up in the morning everyday." It was especially cool to hear it from him, because as a homeless person it is a different view. Living in the streets isn't fun, and it is almost like you wish you didn't wake up the next day to selfish people, and hunger. So hearing it from him hit me, because I noticed how great it really is to wake up every day. He also pushed the idea of paying it forward, where we should always help out one another continually. I personally did not get to know Mary all that well other than it took her about 15 years to get her apartment, but I did get to talk to Art, or listen to him. He had "coca-cola" cup in his hands that really held Alcohol, and he just cracked jokes to whatever we said. Example: "Where did you grow up?" "I never did." He was hard to get to know though, just because his whole conversation was jokes, but he was a pretty cool. We ended up giving our money to Kevon, and Mary.
One thing that I noticed that was kind of interesting was the homeless "classes," were Kevon & Mary were classified as some of the higher class homeless people, and Art was more of a stereotypical homeless person. No matter how different they were, they were both equal, and had great wisdom.
After chilling with Kevon and the crew we left to eat some Thai food at Naan n' Curry. And it was VERY good. Then after our bellies were filled we had left to go to the church that we had stayed at all week. And that Monday night I had joined one of the other groups (that also stayed at the church) brotherhood. I am really not supposed to tell you the rules, but I am anyways.
*The brotherhood makes you SMARTER & STRONGER. The rule is that you cannot say the word MINE. IF you do, then you have to do 10 push-ups. It makes you smarter, because you have to think before you say something, so that you make sure that you don't say mine, and stronger, because if you say the word "mine," then you have to do push-ups, which will make you stronger if you say MINE a lot :)*
*Me writing in my Journal about the brotherhood*
By the end of the day I was a little bit strong after doing 20 push-ups, and was given a prayer card. On this prayer card was someones fear and dream for the trip in San Fran, where I prayed for them every day of the trip for those two things. And I had also learned to "OPEN MY EYES," so that I was not so blind to those that are worthy of a conversation with you.
*The Fear/Dream Note card*
Day Three: The following day we drove to the Golden Gate Bridge, and there we prayed for the city. We got the chance to see some seals, and drop a few pennies off the top. After enjoying the walk to the middle of the bridge we immediately left to help deliver the "food on wheels" to some of the local residents. While delivering a meal I had helped this one lady named, Lance, tie her shoes. She had a sling on her arm, and I could tell that she needed some help with that. After delivering all the meals on the route we left and had went "city searching" for homeless people, and then gave them some socks and blankets. We all were given 2 dollars, and we had to buy food with that to feed us all. As a group we decided to combine all the money, and to find a grocery shop to buy our food from. So we took one of the local buses to a destination after it took us a while to find the bus station. But all in all after we found a grocery store, we had gotten a loaf of bread, some turkey meat, and a drink to share for lunch. After starting the city search the first person we found surprisingly was, Lance, sitting on the sidewalk (same person that I tied shoes for), and we bought some berries from her. We left there and stood at a corner stuck, not really knowing how to start a new conversation with another person, and it was almost like God's grace. Suddenly a guy named, Jerome, walked up to us and asked us for some socks, and after that we just talked. After talking with Jerome and his friends for a while all of the socks and blankets we had had disappeared, so we left because we had just enough time to walk to the park to meet back up with the group. But as we entered the park we noticed a homeless man begging, and I walked over and introduced myself. His name was Ricky, and Ricky was a amazing poet, and in his poems we learned about his life story. He told us how we were doing such a great thing by saying, "There is no point of seeing if we don't help those who are blind." We found out that he had been stabbed, but sadly we ran out of time and we had left him with a nice conversation, and some food (bread and berries).
We all met up in the park, and left to go eat. It was great to see someone so "GENUINELY GRATEFUL."
We ate some Nicaraguan food I believe, and it was very good. It reminded me of the stuff that I was use to eating back at home. And after eating and while sitting and talking about the day with the group I was reminded that the rest of the days I would have to keep the "RIGHT MINDSET." Which is hard to do, especially when tired.
*The group walking on the Golden Gate Bridge*
*My Bus Ticket*
*The Cathedral We Saw*
Day Four: YAY! Wednesday!! Shower day!!! Yeah, so as you read, we had showered, and were ready to go to the Korean Salvation Army Kids Center. I have to say, Wednesday was probably the hardest yet funnest day of the week. Just because the kids at the Korean Salvation Army were really rude, and it did not help that I was tired already. Although almost all the kids were little brats I did meet this one girl that was 6 named, Katy. I like her because she liked the same things I did, and she was so kind. While sitting with her at the art table I sketched a picture of Nemo, and made a flip book. After playing with her and the rest of the kids all day we left and had the rest of the day to ourselves. We decided on going to the Fisherman's Wharf, so we went. There we saw some awesome seals, and I bought a new beanie. Nathan bought a Confucius says poster, which is pretty funny, and Jon/Adriana/Andrew bought hats as well. Overall the day was great, although I got frustrated at times, but I learned to have patience. I was just happy to end that day on a happy note, because of our free time we received.
*My Nemo drawing, and my Flip Book* *Free Time at the Wharf*
*The Korean VBS*
Day Five: Every day it got harder and harder to wake up in the mornings, but some how I did it. After struggling to wake up, and clearing the fog in my head we headed out to our first place to serve for that day. None of us really knew where we were headed to though, except for John-Mark, our CSM leader. When we arrived I admit I was kind of putting the idea down of a food bank, just because I thought we were just going to be standing behind a table passing people their food for the day. But after we got introduced and got to our working station I got excited. We ended up packing cabbage into boxes, and I really enjoyed that. Mostly because I like manual labor. Our group thought about breaking a world record, but we could not find enough information on it, but in the end we packed enough cabbage to feed 700,000 people all around the world, and I thought that that was quite amazing. After the hard work there we all left for a lunch break by going to a park. There we saw a little black & white cat, and we named it Ki-Ko. Later that day we drove to another day care and helped the people there watch some kids. It was the best kids group that we had had that whole week, although they were making guns with the Legos. In my journal I prayed for them, because I knew the reason why they were making those guns. The same reason I make cars, because they were use to seeing them. I left that school that day enjoying the time I had spent with the kids, especially Yolanda, who always wanted my attention, and Xavier, who was sleep walking during class :)
*Packing Cabbages* *Saint Vincents VBS*
Day Six: Day six was our last day in San Francisco. It was our last day there in the showers, but not our last day to serve. Willing to give our all in our final days in San Fran we went to a recycling medical place. There we boxed unused extra medical supplies, that hospitals/other organizations had donated for the cause. The people there were so kind to us, and they had snacks and drinks for us to consume during our lunch break. While working and boxing the medical supplies I was amazed at how much unused clean stuff there was. It was great to know that the objects we were boxing would be shipped to other countries in need of the supplies, and that it would save a lot of lives. It taught me to not be so wasteful, and to share our leftovers with those that need it, no matter how little it seems to be to us. The final thing that we did for the week was delivering more food to people that had HIV. This job was really fun to me. I got to lead the group to all the destinations throughout the city. I know it sounds silly, but this exercise taught me how to read maps. Before I was really bad with directions and such, but now I am use to it. It taught me to be aware of my surroundings not only for safety, but also for landmarks to make me familiar with where I am. I had to find our way back to the food bank place by memory, and with some help from John-Mark. And the very last meal we all had together was at a Vietnamese place, were I received a fortune cookie that said, "Appreciate the caring people who surround you." And to me this meant a lot, and it was kind of a reminder. It was a great way to end the trip, on a high note. And it was great to know that everyone is always "LEARNING" every moment of the day, even grown ups that seem like they may know everything. Although the week seemed to move by so fast, I am hoping that the group and I continue to do God's work back here in L.A., so that we could learn to be more like God.
*My Fortune Cookie Paper*
This was a little Prayer that I wrote in the van as we left San Fran ....
Dear God,
Thank you Lord for being evident to us throughout the week. I pray for patience and knowledge so that I may keep learning to be more and more like you every day. Everyone is made in you image, and help me to keep my eyes open. I pray for all of this that everyone has learned so far, and for us to be able to reflect on it so that we can keep learning, and grow in our relationship with you. Please have mercy on us. I pray for those on the streets tonight, and every other night, and for them to be kept warm. And for their stomachs to be filled, and their hearts to be filled with joy because of the hope you bring us all. Have mercy on us, help us to reflect, and learn, and to put our faith into action, and for us to keep up the great attitudes, and to continue your work back home. We thank you for everything we have seen on this trip, and for our lives. Amen.
Joyful Jamie <3
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