we the people

if you're worried by the title, i'm not going to talk about the election or politics:)

just the people.

so last sunday night, i went to Mosaic, this trendy church in downtown. it was different than any service i've ever been to, but the message spoke to my heart. the sermon was about taking chances and following the dreams the Lord has given us. so i felt very affirmed in that the Lord gave me this intense desire to come and love his people here.....and even though it's so hard to be away from the people that i love, i still want to be here. anyway, i was also inspired because since i've been here, i haven't really done much....i mean, i've been hosting which is incredible. but other than that, i've not really done a lot to get to know the city and the people.

so this week, i've just been trying to love on some people. my new friend alex needed help moving, so i went to Rosemead to help him. i met his cousins Jeremy and Christian, his mom Martha and his aunt Belinda. Christian's 6. not exactly an angel, but he's the cutest thing i've seen in awhile ;)

Vales and I went to see Rachel -the city director who's having a baby soooon, and i got to play with her beautiful daughter Jane. she was perfectly content to twirl around her bedroom and jingle my necklace.

I met some of the people at Project Angel Food, Kris and Vesna. They work every day, supporting the people that make and deliver meals to people suffering from HIV and AIDS.

Today, I got to meet Lauren, who heads up Adventures Ahead, an after school tutoring program that caters to students in the Pico Union area. A little background on Pico....the Pico Union neighborhood is home to more than 120,000 people in a two mile area. That basically breaks down to 550 people per block. If you've seen the area, you know that the area isn't exactly residential....lots of shops, tiny restaurants and tinier houses. The average person in PU makes $4,800/year compared to $16,150 avg. for the rest of LA county. But it's not about stats. :)

so i'm finally meeting people and finally learning what else i can do here....other than hosting on the weekends. even though that's incredible.

i know this post is getting kinda lengthy so i'll try to finish.....with this. my group last weekend was one of my favorite groups ever. we talked a lot about being the body of Christ to our immediate community, then to our neighboring community and eventually the world. they had an opportunity at the end of the weekend to put those ideas into action. one of the guys met this man outside Walgreens and just randomly wanted to buy him some socks and a sweatshirt. which was amazing. he wanted to know the dude's name and then he just bought him stuff that he needed. but the really amazing display of the body was when the students found out that their youth pastor was having an affair. they wanted more than anything to be at home in church when the announcement was made -so that they could support their church family, but especially support him. i wish that we all got life like that.....that we could forgive each other and just love. i know that was an awful, terrible thing to happen and i'm not condoning it at all. but we have to learn to get past that....somehow to get past it and forgive each other. and we just gotta love a little more.