Category Rebekah Around the World

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I can’t believe that it has almost been six months since I can to the Dream Center. It feels like yesterday that I was saying good bye to my dad and getting on a airplane. I have learned so much and I know God has so much more to teach me in my next six months. I know Jesus has a great plan for my life and I can’t wait to use all I have learned in the next place He sends me. Last Friday night after we went out to Skid Row I was able to go out on our prostitute outreach. As we were talking with some street racers about the Lord, a man came up and asked us for some cash. He explained how him and his wife had just come over the boarder and were on there way to San Francisco but they had ran out of gas. On the way to the gas station the man told me that they had not eaten anything for three days. We were able to give them twenty dollars worth of gas and some tacos. I know that man will never forget us.
 Last Monday we want on a one night camping retreat for all the site leaders for our Adopt A Block sites in Joshua Tree park. We had a great time doing some team building exercises, hiking and just sitting around the camp fire sharing stores and eating some good food. Joshua Tree is so beautiful! The mountains look like some one piled up a lot of boulders on top of each other. This Friday we were able to go with our track to our retirement home. I love every time we are able to go and just spend some time with the residents there. There are some ladies that are starting to  remember me, I love to see them start smiling when they see me coming. God is so good to me. I can’t wait to see what He is going to do this week.

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Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt make know to me the path of life; In Thy presence is fullness of joy; In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever. This one versus explains the cry of my heart to really know that in Jesus presence is fullness of joy. All this week God has been showing me how I can enjoy my work more. After you been at the Dream Center for sometime the excitement wears off, but I don’t want that to be true of me I want to have so much joy that everyone around me is effected be my joy.

This week was my big barbeque at Nickerson Gardens. So all week I spent getting every thing organized and making sure that the cook had everything she needed. Saturday was definitely the highlight of my time as site leader of Nickerson. God really blessed us. The out come of the barbeque was much better then I could very have dreamed. We prepared for hundred people and we had at lest a hundred. It was like a mad rush to the food line. I had planned on have Jonathan speak, but it think we blessed everyone a lot by just hangout with then and having a great meal. We usually get back to the dream center a two but on Saturday me and Jonathan didn’t leave Nickerson until almost three. I was very exhausted by the end of the day. It really is a gift being able to serve. Nothing give me as much pleasure as being Jesus hands and feet for a day. Sunday I went hiking again with my friends in the Glendale mountains. My room mate Cat was able to come hiking with us too. We had a great time! I can never explain the feeling of being in awe of God at the top of a mountain looking up in to the sky.  My dad is going to visit me in forty one day! I can’t wait.

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Wow what a amazing two weeks! The Lord has really blessed me in the last two week. For Valentines day we had a eighties dance for all the teens at our Adopt a Block sites. It was a blast! We had disco lights and we all dressed up in eighties cloths. I picked up my girls at my site and we all dance and dance and dance. They had so much fun!  Every year all of us at the Dream Center are bussed to Phoenix to attend a pastors conference at Tommy Barnett’s church. Last Monday at three in the morning we all jumped on the busses for the eight hour trip to Phoenix. We had our first session Monday afternoon were we all participated in our yearly parade for ministers. Tuesday all day we went from one class to the next. I really enjoyed the different speakers but my favorite part was the worship before every talk. Wednesday Pastor Matthew gave a talk and at the end we had an offering for the new home we are going to open for the kids coming out of foster care that are being left on the streets. Wednesday afternoon the Movement represented what they stand for by put on a drama skit. The skit was about one of the girls in the Movement whose brother had die in a car accident and how through what she learned coming to the Dream Center she was able to overcome her depression through worshiping Jesus. It was beautiful! Wednesday night for the closing of the conference we had two hours for just worship. I have never felt the presence of Jesus as I did that night. Standing there with about a thousand people all of us with our hands raised singing Holy Holy Holy is the Lord almighty, there is nothing like it. After the worship time was over Pastor Tommy prayed everyone at the conference that God would expanded their ministers. Then he lead all of us to a pray pavilion they have at the back of the church and everyone who wanted to could pray there could but those who wanted could also climb up the prayer mountain at the back of the pavilion. It was so awesome I didn’t want to leave but we had to get on the bus. We left about nine that night and we got back to the Dream Center about three Thursday morning. I can’t wait to see how God uses what I have learned at the conference but also by just working at the Dream Center. I know my next five years are going to be amazing.

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All week I have wanted have a  intimacy with Jesus that goes beyond the relationship I already have. I want to extend the same compassion and understanding to people He did. I want to love like He did and feel the pain He feel when He see His precious bride living on Skid Row and sleeping on the floor because they don’t have a bed. I want so desperately to show Jesus love in the dark places of LA but how can I when I don’t understand that love and don’t have that love in my heart. I want to see people the way Jesus does and not as the world does. I want to see a woman on Skid Row as my sister and not as a dirty person no one wants to touch. I have been meditating on a verse in Psalms sixty-three, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  I want that kind of desire for God that you feel like you will die if you can’t get more of Him. I have just one story to tell about from this week. On Wednesday afternoon we had nothing to do with our track, so Mindy asked if we could try to get a bed to give to one of her kids at her site that she found out on Saturday was sleeping on the floor. So we got a bed and some hygiene items to give the family. As we were getting loaded up in the van to drive out to Jordan Down Mindy said that it was also Gabriel’s birthday on the nineteenth. So Jonathan bought a birthday cake to give Gabriel as well. It was the best thing ever to see Gabriel come in from school and have a birthday cake and bed waiting for him. God is so good to me! Please continue to pray for me to have to strength and support to walk out this awesome year head of me.

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Monday Vicky my roommate and I spent all day getting ready for our new roommate Cat. We were given a new bunk bed and new mattress because of the bedbugs, which are gone for good Thank God. Cat moved in on Tuesday afternoon and is a very sweet girl. Tuesday instead of going canvassing with our track I went out with the food truck to Nickerson  my site because Cassie the head of the food truck ministry is having trouble with people from Nickerson becoming violent because they think we are being partial to certain  people. She wanted me to going with her to see if I know anyone form Nickerson that could help in organizing everyone in a line and making sure no one jumped in line. I didn’t know anyone in the line but I think we were able to help reassure the people that we are working at giving everyone as much food as possible. Wednesday and Thursday we spent canvassing and preparing for a live concert and recording of Kevin Lavar’s new CD He performed Friday night at the church. The cool thing is we canvassed on Wednesday at Nickerson and Imperial so I was in Nickerson almost everyday this week with picking up for church and on Friday night for the concert. The Concert was beautiful and my kids loved it! Kevin Lavar has a amazing voice and he gave all of the kids that came on the bussing a gift card. He also paid for all of the busses himself.

Saturday Jonathan at the rally gave out the Adopt a Block yearly awards. It was really cool to see everyone so shocked that they were chosen for the awards. My team and I had so much fun at Adopt a Block. We were able to meet a lot of new people and start to build a great friendship with them. After Adopt a Block I was asked to go out to lunch with a out reach pastor and his staff that come down to see how we do Adopt a Block every week. So we went to lunch and I explained as much as I could all about how Adopt a Block works and everything we do through out the week that makes Saturdays a lot more effective. Sunday after church I went hiking with Courtney up to Griffin park so she could see the observatory and the great view of the city. Monday I had the day off so I went to San Monica and just sat on the beach. I enjoyed having some time all by myself. The beach was so beautiful and I really needed some sun.

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Well what a blessed last two weeks! God has really given me a heart for the people here in LA. In the office last week Jonathan told us that he wants each of us to plan one big event this year for the family of our adopt a block site. The event I am planning is a fourth on July party with fireworks, face painting for the kids and a old fashion bucket dunker. I have also been planning a block party at my site for the last Saturday in February. Being a site leader is a lot of work but I love how I can do special thing for my families. Last Saturday at Adopt a Block we were able to give one of our families a bunk bed it was the greatest thing to see the kids go crazy about it. The family has five kids and they only had one bed for the whole family.

Malachi the oldest when we told him we brought him a bed said why I don’t sleep on a bed. I told him he could now. This Saturday we also painted Malachi’s room. It looked so nice with the new paint and a new bunk bed with new sheets. God has really blessed us with the opportunity to reach out to families like Malachi’s and be His hands and feet. I pray everyday that I will never take for granted that He has entrusted me to represent Jesus to my families. What a great and humbling gift. Sunday I hiked with a some friends up a mountain right next to the Hollywood sing. The view  was so beautiful!

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It is impossible to realizes or even think about all of the conveniences you give up when to come to the Dream Center until you  leave for a week or two. All this week I have had to almost relearn how to live at the Dream Center. It’s not all bad because it actually is like a crash course in what it would be like to be a missionary. I believe to really make any difference in someone or somewhere you have to be willing to give up your want for a normal life and some times you have to be willing to give up everything important to you. I always see it as I could never give as much as Jesus did for me but I want to see how close I can get. God has really showed me this week how much I still hold onto that is more important to me then the people He sent me to minister to. I want so much to reach this world for Christ and to show them how life doesn’t need to be lived like they think it have to be but to do that I have give up the life style I have gotten accustomed to. Even having a Bible is a luxury here! I am so ashamed at how much money I have wasted over the years but I trust Jesus’ plan for the rest for my life. On Saturday I was so blessed to spend the day with a great family I have recently met. I am so blessed to be the site leader for Nickerson! One more story I have to tell is every Sunday I have four teenage girls from my site sit with me through the service and every week one girl named Andy asks me if she can look at my Bible. She will sit through the whole service looking at and writing down on a pad different verses. So I really wanted to get her a Bible but I didn’t know how, well I was organizing my room and I found a Bible I thought I left at home. So this Sunday when she asked to see my Bible I gave her one and said you can keep this one I got it for you. She was so exited! The other girl all asked me to get them one to, so I am praying for three Bibles I can give them. God is so good to me! He gave me the perfected job ever! On Sunday after church we went hiking in Glendale mountains again in a park called Eaten park. We had a great time and had a amazing Bible study as well.

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Wow I can’t believe that it has been so long since I have written my blog! Christmas is such a hectic time of the year and especially so for me because I went home for two week but let me start at the beginning of my craziness. So it all started with the Joy of Christmas musical at the church, it was wonderful. All of the cast member were people from the dream center and after ever show we gave a free toy away to all of the kids that came. My job for the play was to ride the buses to and from our sites to help with watching the kids and to make sure everyone got back on the bus before we went back to the site. We had a total of seven show and form my site alone we had on Saturday night seventy people! It was a mad home of trying to get everyone back on the buses and making sure we didn’t leave anyone. But I was blessed to be able to lead the kids through the line to get their present. I almost cried every time. Well right at the end of the Joy of Christmas which went form Wednesday night to Sunday night, we had our yearly Miracle offering at the church that Sunday morning. So every year in December the church has a time where you give to God a offering you know you can’t give but you give anyway in faith because you know He will bless your faithfulness to Him. It was incredible! Instead of passing a bucket around the pastor lad a white sheet on the stage and had everyone come up to the front and lay their offerings on the alter like it says the Israelites did at the dedication of the temple. We had kids from the Movement giving their coats, purses and expenses shoes. What a great way to start the new year renewing your trust in the Lord and not in your bank account. We also had an offering after every Joy of Christmas show for the new family floor we wanted to open before Christmas because the family floor we already have is full and we still have at lest twelve families on a waiting list. On Monday morning when we counted the offering we received for the Miracle offering and the Joy of Christmas, the cash alone was forty thousand dollars. It took me and my team four hours to count it all and there was six of us counting! We were able to open the family floor three days before Christmas! God is so good! Well right in the middle of all that I found out that the lady who was site leader for my site Nickerson Gardens in the Watts was not going to be able to be site leader anymore so Jonathan wanted me to be site leader. I am exited but all so little nerves because this is a big responsibility, but I believe God has  call me to this for a reason. Well if that was not enough me and my roommate got bedbug the Tuesday right before the Joy of Christmas started. Bedbugs are horrid because to get rid of them you have to spray your room and wash or dry all of you cloths, and when they spray your room it leaves a nasty film on everything so you have to clean you entire room. I also had to dry my bag I was taking home and all the cloths I was taking again to keep any of the bedbug from going home with me because if one bedbug is in my bag it will spread to my entire family. But we finally got rid of them the week before I left. So that is all before I went home! I went home a week before Christmas and boy did my sister Brooke have a lot in store for me! We had made a list of all of the things we wanted to do together when I was home. So we jumped right in it starting with going to itz. I put some funny pictures of us at itz on face book.
 I literally think I had one night at home the whole two week I was there. We went ice stating, rollerblading, and watched the new Sherlock Homes movie. I also went shopping for like three days strait with my mom and my sisters. It was so much fun being at home and having your family fight over who gets to hang out with you next. Saturday was my twenty-three birthday and I spent it with my brother and my niece at the state park walking by the lake and just hanging out. God is so good to me I don’t deserver His grace.

Well we jumped back in the grove of work this week. I have really missed our outreaches. Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon we canvassed for the joy of Christmas we are having at the church. The Joy of Christmas is a Broadway style musical and after every show we are giving free toys away to all the kids that come. I am very exited about this show! I watched so of the practices today and they looked very good! Thursday we spent in the office getting ready for Adopt a Block. I had a lot of work to do because for two weeks we weren’t in the office. We had so many messages to listen to and call back! Friday we canvassed again for Joy of Christmas with about ten people from the Movement. We literal walked around for about three hours canvassing one street after the next street. But we gave out about one thousand fliers on Friday. We also canvassed six different school this week. Friday night we finally were able to have our Skid Row outreach. It was awesome! We had about thirty new people go with us and they brought about ten bags of cloths with them to give away. Saturday we jumped right back into Adopt a Block. I was so happy to see my families again. We had a lot of fun playing basketball and tag. Sunday we had a guest speaker John Bevere. He preached a great sermon on never giving up when you have trials or struggles because God designs those trials for your growth and to mature you. Sunday night I went to the mall and the Grove with some friends. We had fun shopping and walking around the mall seeing all the decorations. I can’t wait to go home for Christmas! Twelve days!

I am feeling a little homesick listing to Christmas music but I am praying I will be able to go home for two weeks for Christmas. Wednesday I was asked if I wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my great Aunt, Uncle and my Cousins that live here in LA. I was so excited because not only would I be able to hangout with my family I have not see in along time but I also be able to get away from the Dream Center for almost three day. It is really important to get away from the Dream Center sometimes because you see so much need and hurting families that you some times need to remember what it is like to live with a family. My cousin Shannon and his wife Brandy came down to pick me up Wednesday night and let me stay with them until I had to come back Friday afternoon. I had so much fun playing football, Frisbee, and the Wii with the kids. My Aunt Jan made the best home made roll ever! The kids and I were able to help her roll up the croissants. After Thanksgiving dinner all the men, the kids and I went out side and throwing the football around so more. We were having so much fun until Shannon threw the ball over the wall in their back yard on to the freeway but when he and Uncle Butch went down to get the football the kid had a lot more fun watching them I think. Friday we went to the Grove and shopped at farmers marked. I had so much fun watching the kids get exited about this toy or that doll. We ate lunch at In-and-out just so I could say I have had a In-and-out burger. Friday night Jesse and I went on our weekly prostitute outreach. We weren’t able to talk to very many girls because we went out to early but next week I hope we can help more girls. Saturday we canceled adopt a block so I was planning on just staying in my room most of the day but Greco my friend asked me if I wanted to go hiking with him and a lady from our church, so I went and we had some much fun. We hiked in the Glendale mountains again but this time instead of following the trail we hiked up the stream until it got to dark to go any farther. Sunday after church I went hiking with my life group to Paradise falls. We ended up leaving a little to late so by the time we got to the falls it was to dark to take pictures but I hope we will go back some time soon because it was very beautiful. Today is my last day off for Thanksgiving and I am so ready to get back to work!

It has been so cold this week! In Houston it will get cold one day and the next will be warm but not in LA, every day I wake up thinking maybe it will be warmer, only to find it colder then the day before. I am such a wimp when it comes to cold weather. There is actually snow on some of the mountains around us. Tuesday I helped one of my friends with organizing files and other paper work. So much fun! Wednesday Jonathan had received a call from one of the pastors at our church that an old man named Larry who uses to come to church many years ago, needed help cleaning his house. So nine of us went over there Wednesday afternoon. The house was a one bedroom house and looked like it had not been cleaned in ten years. There were literally cobwebs every were, it looked like the cottage on Snow White. It was all I could do not to throw up when I walked in to the kitchen. I am not kidding, there was thrash on the kitchen floor piled up to my knee. You could not even walk through the living room because there was so many boxes stacked up every where. Mindy and I started on cleaning the kitchen and Dustin started on the bathroom. Everyone else took all the boxes out side and stacked them on pallets in the front yard. We cleaned for two hours then we had to go back to the dream center but we promised to come back on Friday. Thursday I spent all day in the office calling people back that had left messages asking for furniture. We now have about four new people to give furniture to. Friday morning we usually separate the need for our adopt a block sites but we had to cancel adopt a block this week because of a conference they had at the church on Saturday. So we went back to Larry’s house and spent all morning cleaning with a team of people that came to work at the dream center for the week. I have to say I was not sure we were even making a difference but when we left for lunch I felt a lot better about our progress. After lunch we took another team of about ten Movement kids with us and I have to say they did a great job. When we left Friday night you could actually cook in the kitchen and the rest of the house looked like a home you could live in. Saturday after the conference Jonathan, Mindy, and I with some Movement kid canvassed around the dream center for the Joy of Christmas musical we are having at the church. It is going to be great! We are giving out free toys after every performance. Sunday was the turkey give a way at the church, so my families from my site were feed lunch and given thanksgiving dinner. Sunday night I went to a game night with my friends. We had so much fun playing uno and mafia. Monday afternoon I went with my friends to Universal City Walk. We took the subway to get there, I had never ridden on the subway before. It was so much fun to stand on the edge of the platform and watch the train come around the corner and fly past you and the wind almost knock you over. After we walked around the City Walk we decided to go to Hollywood. Hollywood was so much fun. We walked up and down to sidewalk looking at the stars and taking pictures of our favorites. I can’t wait for Thanksgiving!

We didn’t have any furniture to deliver this week so Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we spent in the office doing paper work and making new fliers for the sites, so that the fliers have the name of the streets that we pick up of church on the front of them. Friday we went to a park with our track to just have some fun playing football and eating snacks. It was so much fun just to get away and have a little picnic. Friday night it was not raining so we were able to go to Skid Row. I was really glad we did because it was cool and we gave out about fifty blankets to the homeless there. I also was able to pray with an older woman who really wanted pray to trust in the Lord. I felt really sad for her because she know the truth but still will not do anything to change her circumstances. I had heard about this ministry call Hope for the Homeless that goes out every Friday night from eleven to three to South Central LA to minister to the prostitutes, so after Skid Row my friend Jesse and I went with them to South Central. I could never have imagined how desperate a young lady would have to be to stand out in the freezing rain with nothing on but a very thin t-shirt sweeter thing and try to flag down cars to make money. Most of the girls were not receptive to our pray or food but I was surprised by one girl who after the pastor I was with prayed with one girl asked very desperately for us to pray with her. I just ask you all to keep me in pray as I continual to represent Jesus’ love to these girls. Saturday my site leader was not able to make it to adopt a block so I ended up leading our site. We had to leave earlier then usual because two of the staff members of the Dream Center got married at three on Saturday. But I was able to visit the girl we helped last week. Sunday we had fifty six people on our bus, we never usual have more then forty five! God has blessed our site so much! After church I was just going to hang out in my room and read but Greco my friend asked me if I wanted to go hiking again, so I did. It was so much fun! We hiked almost all the way to the top of the Glendale mountains. Next week we are going to Paradise waterfalls, I can’t wait!

I was feeling a little down on Tuesday about my devotion time and feeling a closeness to Jesus I had. I don’t know if I was tried or if maybe I was not spending enough time in the word and praying. So I decided to just asked Jesus for a sign to encourage me that I was on track. I am reading through a book of the Bible randomly every morning, Tuesday I started Daniel and read the first five chapters. Well Tuesday night I go to the youth group and the youth pastors sermon that night was on Daniel chapter one! God is so good to me and I am so happy to know He loves me that much! Wednesday we delivered furniture to two different families. One was a single mom with five kids living in a house with only one bed a no other furniture. The other was a lady living in a one bedroom house with no furniture and only blankets to sleep on. We gave her a couch, a mattress and a tv. Thursday morning we went back to the single mom’s house to give her to dressers and another mattress because we gave her a queen size mattress but she told us that her kid were sleeping on the floor so we brought her three twin size mattress for her kids. I think this is my favorite part of our job! Thursday afternoon we worked in the office and I called a couple families that had asked for prayer. I prayed with one lady whose daughter is in Mexico and not in a very good place but can’t come here to be with her mom. I really hop I encouraged that lady. Friday was very rainy and cool. We went back to the retirement home to hang out with the residents there. I was very surprised that one of the ladies there remembered me and thanked me for coming back to see them. We sang some songs , colored and just talked with them. I am so glad we do this every other week, I think it really makes a difference. Friday night we had to cancel going to Skid Row because of the rain and Dave and Dustin could not come with us so it would have had to just be Jonathan, Mindy and me. I was sad but I did get to go to a open mice night at the Café here at the Dream Center. Saturday was the best Adopt a Block for me yet. Every Saturday after we give out the food and needs, I take a team with me to knock on some doors to get to know some people and invite them to church. Well for the last six weeks I have each week knock on about thirty doors with no one opening up to us. But this week we were so blessed to have three different people really care what we were doing and to said they would come to church with us. One was a girl how was about sixteen and was at home by herself with some younger siblings to take care of and she was trying to clean up her house by herself, so we helped her with the dishes and cleaned up the trash for her. It was awesome to be able to finally be a blessing the way we want and try to be every week. Sunday after church I was able again to go hiking with some of my friends. This time we went to Malibu Mountains right next to the Malibu beach. It was amazing to be up in the mountains and on one side see the ocean and on the other see part of the city. We did a some rock climbing and had a little devotion after wards. I love how much God has blessed me this week.

Well home sickness kicked in this week but I am really hoping to go home for Christmas. No madder how much fun you have or how many friends you have nothing can replace just sitting on your couch watching a movie with you family. Ok Monday I at our after school program I joined the guitar class. My friend Mindy is the teacher and I have wanted to learn to play for a long time and she said she would teach me! I am so excited! So Tuesday we started our long week of canvassing for Pastor Barnet’s awesome illustrated sermon this Sunday. Tuesday night George Lukas had invited about two hundred people from the dream center to his first viewing of his new movie Red Tails. I was able to go and it was as much fun! We sat in a very comfortable theater and the movie was really good too. Wednesday was the Dream Center’s big annual fundraiser. I didn’t work at the fundraiser but it was fun watching them set up everything. Thursday we spent all day in the office until it was time to ride the busses for church. I love how much time I get to spend with the kids at my site, with Saturday adopt a block and Sunday riding with them on the busses and then again on Thursday. Friday we canvassed again for the illustrated sermon on Sunday but after we were done we still had some time left so Dave decided to take us down to the mall. On the way to the mall we still had some fliers left so my crazy friend and coworker Dustin started throwing the fliers out the car window at cars passing by. I thought I was going to die from laughing so hard! Friday night when we were at Skid Row a fight started out with two homeless people so we had to leave a little earlier then usually do. After adopt a block on Saturday I went down to a costume store to see if I could get a real cheep costume because my friends James and Jesse wanted me to go with them on Monday to trick or treat in Beverly Hills. So I found this great cap and vampire like makeup for really cheep I was so happy. Sunday Jesse, James, and I dressed up in costumes for the bus ride to church with the kids from my site. I was so much fun how at first the kid would not even go to the back of the bus were Jesse was (he looked like scarecrow on Batman Begins) but the longer we were on the bus they started seeing who was brave enough too get close and closer to him. The illustrated sermon was amazing, Pastor Barnet had four rooms on stage that represented four different stages of our lives. The first was our childhood and the second was the compromises we make in our lives because of the things that haunt us from our childhood. The third was the death room and he explained how a lot of us because of our compromises we live as if we were dead but still alive, the living dead. But the final room was the shower room or the room of renewal when God come and revise our hearts. He even had real shower on stage that anyone could come and get in after the service who wanted to as like the alter call. Monday was my first day off since I came here it was nice I went on a long walk and went to the library. Monday night I went with James and Jesse trick or treating in Beverly Hills it was the first time James and I had ever trick or treated. We had to take the bus but that was fun because I had never taken a public bus in my life. We ended up not getting very much candy because we got there kind of late but we had so much fun just dressing up and seeing all the people in Beverly Hills.

Well like always I must say I had another incredible week! Monday I caught up on a lot of my sleep after we counted the offering for the church. Tuesday we canvassed for our His Hands clothing ministry in one of our adopt a block sites that Dave is the site leader for. It was cool to meet some of Dave’s friends and to see how much they love him and he loves them. It inspired me to want that kind of relationship with the people at my site. Wednesday and Thursday we spent most all day in the office, which was good for me because I was able to finish some work that I couldn’t last week. Friday was awesome we went to a retirement home to visit the residents there. We sang some song for them and then I gave a little devotion about having the best day of your life. After our devotion I colored with four ladies and just chatted with them about different things. Some of the boys with us had a guitar and they asked me to sing with them for a lady that asked for them to sing for her again. We had the best time with them. Friday night we again gave out food and water bottles to the homeless on Skid Row. I did not see my friend from last week there but I pray she found a place to stay. Saturday at adopt a block Alicia my friend introduce me to one of her good friends big mama ad they call her. We had a great time talking to big mama about old revival meeting and different experience she has had in her life time. Alicia and I also did some chores around the house. After we got back to the dream center I went with Dave and Dustin to help a family move to our family floor here at the dream center. They are volunteering here in our after school program and just needed a place to stay. Sunday after church I went on a hike with some of my friends up a mountain to a waterfall it was amazingly beautiful. We played in the water and had a little bible study on 2 Corinthians 12:9. We are going to do something like this ever other week. I am so glad that the Lord gave me this year.

This week was my busiest and hardest, but I had so much fun! On Tuesday we canvassed a high school with fliers for a new outreach we are starting for high school kids that want to play basketball. It was fascinating how the kids that were interested were the outcast of the groups. The popular kids didn’t want anything to do with us. I really praying that we are able to influence a lot of kids through this new outreach. Wednesday a family from the church was moving a needed to give a way a lot of their furniture and cloths. So we were able to load up a whole buss load of stuff. It was awesome! They gave us a couch, four TVs, about five chairs and six mattresses. We are all ways in need of mattresses so that was such a gift from God to be given that many mattresses. Thursday morning we delivered some of our furniture to a lady in need. It is a great experience to really be Jesus hand and feet in a persons life. Thursday afternoon we went back to the church family’s house to load up another full buss load of stuff. It was amazing how much one family was able to give us! God is so good that no matter how many families in need we are helping we always have more then we need. Friday we canvassed again at a different school and again the only kids interested were the one all by themselves out side of the groups. Friday night we went to Skid Row for our weekly outreach. I had prayed all week that we could make a difference in someone’s life and we wouldn’t fall into a passionless rhyme. He answered my pray in a mighty way this Friday! We were walking around a corner when this lady came up to us a say we should go and help this other lady put her shoes on because she couldn’t do it by herself. I was like ok that is a little wired of a lady out of no were comes up and says we should go help someone but ok. So me and my friend went to the lady (whose name is Diana) and asked if we could help her. Diana said she needed help up so she could go around the corner and go to sleep. We help her up but she was so drunk that she could not stand up on her own. We asked Diana where she was going but all she would say was that she needed a cover because she didn’t have one. All Diana had with her was a sheet and the clothes she was wearing. I didn’t know were we could get her a cover because we didn’t have any blankets with us or anything like that but we just started walking her to the back of our group were Dustin one of my team was. Dustin asked a ministry we are friends with called the Joan Projects if they had any blankets we could give Diana and by God’s grace they did. So we made a bed for Diana by a church on Skid Row. We Dustin gave Diana his testimony of being an alcoholic and how he meet Jesus at the dream center. I pray we were able to make her see how she can have a different life. Saturday after adopt a block I just rested and watched a movie. Sunday after church Jonathan wanted to have a site leaders meeting to build up the team. It was awesome, we went to a park in the mountains. I rocked climbed for the first time in my life! They made me leave my camera in the van so I couldn’t get any pictures but it was so much fun. Dustin and I jumped of the side of a cliff in to a stream with all of our cloths on. The water was so cooled but I had do it once in a life time moment! Ok I will write again next week! Love you all.

I can’t believe it has only been two weeks since I started at the Dream Center, it feels like it should be a month! This is the first time I have been able to sit down with my computer all week. Well Sunday I road on the Buses again to pick up the families that want to go to church with us but this time I went to my now adopted site Nickerson Gardens the best site ever! The serves at Angeles Temple was amazing! They had a guest worship leader who writes his own songs and one of his songs call The Great I Am was incredible. I can’t remember his name but that song was like hearing The Revelation song for the first time but almost more touching some how. Monday a now very good friend Courtnie Stevenson moved in to my room for the week. We have had a great time together! Wednesday I moved into my permanent room on the intern floor after work but it was a nightmare because I had to wash all of my clothes. The Dream Center has a problem with bed bug, so anytime you move to a different room you have to wash all the clothes you brought with you. I thought I was not going to ever be done wash and folding laundry, but thank God I did! Lol Friday was a great day, we started out separating and bagging up all the needs as we call them for the families at the adopt a block sites and all of the fruit we also bag up. After lunch we were going to go to a retirement home to bless them and I was suppose to give a devotion but our printer was not working on Thursday and we couldn’t finish all of our work for Saturday, Sad but we are going this Friday instead. Friday night we made our weekly trip to Skid Row, Again God worked in amazing ways. One cool story was, at a corner we were talking with a woman, her niece and there friend and after talking with them for about ten minutes they asked the whole team of about ten of us to pray for them it was remarkable. Saturday we visited Nickerson Gardens, it was fun. I already feel like some of the families are my good friend. Sunday after church I went with Courtnie to the beach! Wow we had a fantastic time I posted some pictures on Facebook. Please pray for me to have the strength to not get to tired to see God working through our work. I want enjoy God’s work every day 🙂

Wow I am over whelmed with how blessed I am to just be here and work with this ministry. I am honored to be working with a group of people that are on fire for God and are passionate about helping the needy. I already feel at home and I am in the perfect place for me to do what God has called me to do. I have felt like I really need some alone time with God in the mornings, time to just get closer to Him and to let the fact of the incredible journey I am on sink in. Just to give you all a hint this is a part of what I wrote in my journal this morning. “I am in awe of what Jesus has done and is going to do for thorough me this year. Just to be able to stand and see LA’s sky line is so amazing and I am so full of thanks giving! I stay amazed by You Lord.” I am working with the Adopt a Block Family as they call it, which is one of my favorite program I read about in the book A Cause with in You. Jonathan Martinez my team leader story of how he was a gang leader and found Jesus at the dream center discipleship program is also in the book. When I meet him and found out He was my team leader I was like, wow really God how cool is this to be able to work with one of my heroes and to work at the best job ever! I have so many stories that I can’t share then all but I will give my three favorites. First is my second day here I went with my team to a family’s apartment to give them some furniture. When I walked into there apartment I was shocked to see in a one room apartment a mom and her two kids sleeping on the floor with only blankets and no pillows. They also had no furniture at all not even a chair. We gave them a dresser, a table, some chair and three mattresses. Dave one of my teammates also went to Ross and bought the family three pillows and I got the one year old little girl a teddy bear. J Friday night my team and about 15 people went to Skid Row to give out food and blankets to the homeless. It was heartbreaking to see so many people, it was like literally one after another seeping on the sidewalks in tents and in wheelchairs and just on blankets. Lastly to day I went on my first Adopt a Block it was amazing to see how many people really love to team that visit’s the same site ever week. We even were able to go to a little girls birthday party and jump in the jumper with all the kid. Just to see how two people that would have not even spoken to each other because it is not socially expectable to be best friends is just God. Well I hope to write every week I can’t sooner because of the internet and I am working almost every day.

This song by Casting Crowns so adequately explains what looks like to know Jesus in a special way,

To Know You lyrics

To know You is to never worry for my life

To know You is to never give into compromise and

To know You is to want to tell the world about You

‘Cause I can’t live without You

To know You is to hear Your voice when You are calling

To know You is to catch my brother when he is falling

To know You is to feel the pain of the brokenhearted

‘Cause they can’t live without You

More than my next breath

More than life or death

All I’m reaching for, I live my life to know You more

I leave it all behind, You’re all that satisfies To know You is to want to know You more To know You is to want to know You more

To know You is to ache for more than ordinary

To know You is to look beyond the temporary

To know You is believing that You’ll be enough

‘Cause there’s no life without You

All this life could offer me

Could not compare to You, compare to You

And I count it all as loss

Compared to knowing You, knowing You

All this life could offer me

Could not compare to You, compare to You And I count it all as loss

Compared to knowing You, knowing You And I count it all as loss

Compared to knowing You, knowing You

This is my hearts desire to know my Lord and Savior more every day!

“One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4

Well as you all can see I have made some changes to me blog. 🙂 I am going to LA at the end of September but my sisters are not abel or ready at this time to come with me but I know that God has given me this incredible opportunity to serve Him and share His father’s heart to those that are hurting in Inner-City LA. The passoin of my heart is to know my Savior for who He really is, not who everyone say He is, but that I would know for myself who Jesus is. So that consuming desire sent me on a quest to know Jesus’s heart. To know someone you must find out what they are passionate about and what they spend their time doing. My first glimpse of the true Jesus of the Bible was through missionary biographies and reading the Gospels and Acts. I found that Jesus’s passion was for people. He gave up everything we call dear and spent His hole life serving and loving others. But my first experience of Jesus’s heart was on my first mission trip to Colombia, it was the first time I was abel to know Jesus’s love for the broken hearted and know He was hurting over their pain. I had read about it in those Missionary biographies but now I was the one cry with them and knowing Jesus was crying through me. I am now hook was my Dad would say 🙂 and loving every minute of being Jesus’s hands and feet.

“Lead me with strong hands… Stand up when I can’t… Don’t leave me hungry for love… Chasing dreams, but what about us?”

Ready for another update!? I am… It’s way over due. I’ve been so busy with work and everyday life but anyway we are still moving forward in the application process. We are all waiting for interviews and from there they will tell us what’s next! Still praying for funding… We are still unsure how God is going to meet that need. Please pray 🙂

Commit your works o the LORD And your plans will be established Proverbs 16:3

It’s been an eventful couple days! My family had some very special Colombian women fly in to visit. I was blessed to see a very dear old friend and spend some time with her. These kind of events remind me how sweet it is to be on God’s team and be involved in His work. Which further excites me about this new adventure in L.A. I’ve heard that there may be some interest in others wanting to join in and serve in L.A! I would love that! Please! Anybody who’s heard about our undertaking and may be interested let us know. We need all the help and encouragement we can get. This is still in it’s baby stages… all we know is God put a fire in our hearts and we are doing all we can to answer that call. Join us if you feel that tug as well.

I’d like to give a general idea of where we are at currently. We are in the process of sending in applications and getting a support system going. When we get further along in the application process we will have a better idea about when we will leave. Right now we are hoping and praying it will be early September. So what about needs? 1. The Dream Center asks 1,500$ for each volunteer that comes and stays with them for eight to twelve months. 2. We will need money for plane tickets when it comes time to go. 3. The Dream Center also recommends we have financial support while we are there of 100$ per person a month for basic necessities. These are the major needs that we ask for prayer about. We also have some minor needs such as clothing and possibly a small fridge and microwave for our living arrangements. All together I think we are looking toward raising 8,000$. We don’t know yet how God is going to meet these needs but we are praying and moving ahead one step at a time. We thank everyone for their support and are excited to watch God move!

So as yal can see my dad and I built a blog this weekend for our latest undertaking, ministry in L.A. Prayers are much coveted! I plan on jumping right into updating the blog on needs, prayers, praises and just general information as soon as I can. Anyone interested in keeping up with our progress and needs can follow us on the blog! I am very excited! A big thanks to anyone who jumps on board with this! Yals support is much needed!

We are three sisters with a shared passion to spread God’s heart of love to lost and hurting souls. Our passion was born as we ministered with our dad in the orphanages of Bogota, Colombia and helped found Orphan Hope International. Eventually the three of us with our sister-in-law formed a singing group called Purchased. We love this name because it reminds us that we are not our own we are bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Our work in Colombia is growing but as we move forward God has brought another opportunity to reach out to the lost and serve in an amazing ministry called The Dream Center. We first heard about the Dream Center from Matthew Barnett in his book The Cause Within You and later heard him preach at Lakewood Church in down town Houston. Each of us felt God stir within our hearts a burning desire to get involved in the work this ministry is doing in L.A. We have much ahead of us and we pray God blesses our efforts and that we may bring much glory to Him and much healing to the broken people of L.A. We hope to learn much from the incredible ministry model of the Dream Center and someday bring that vision to the nearly 8 million people of Bogota, Colombia.