Mission Accomplished

Our days of ministry are complete! We spent the morning working at the Los Angeles Food Bank which is an incredible, impressive organization! We learned all about how wide their influence is in the LA area and how effective they are at combating childhood hunger in particular. Our job was to package up fresh produce to be shipped out all over the local area. It was a lot of repetitive work, but good to know we're helping make a difference for others.









It was also sad to say goodbye to so many great kids that we met through the after school program. We spent a few more hours with them today playing everything from freeze tag to rock, paper, scissors, and red light, green light! Our team did a great job loving on these kids and trying to be a bright spot in their day.






















We have lots of other pictures that will be shared when we get back home! Our night was ended worshipping together on the beach and also sharing how we saw God working through each other.





I am so blessed to be with the team this week. Thank your for all of your thoughts and prayers! I am excited to see how members of this team continue to serve when we return home!

Blessings,

Jeff


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Location:California

One more day of ministry!

Hey everyone! Quick update for today as we are getting ready for bed. We spent our morning at a domestic violence shelter. We could not take many pictures or share the name/location of the shelter as this is an unlisted residence for women and children who have been abused. We helped with many projects and also created a project of our own as you can see in the "before" and "after" pictures of the table below!! You won't want to miss that story Saturday night :)








We then went back to help with the after school program today. It is getting very fun to know so many kids by name and will be hard to leave them tomorrow.












Last we went to a karaoke outreach held at a church on skid row. There is some secret video footage of the team singing a classic that may appear somewhere at some point! Leighton Tiegs also took a trip to the stage to help out one of the locals!




That's it for today! We're off to sleep so we can finish our last day of ministry well!
Blessings,
Jeff
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Location:California

A Full, Awesome Day

We rose early this morning to serve breakfast at the Midnight Mission on Skid Row. Many in our group were reflecting on Christ's words regarding serving the "least of these" as we had simple tasks but knew that these seemingly menial acts were making differences to people. After we served breakfast to about 400 people we took a tour of the facility which was facilitated by a former resident of the shelter who has only recently obtained sobriety 9 months ago. His story was powerful and seemed to impact us more than the actual tour. I wish I had more pictures of this experience but we have been trying to focus on serving and respecting others instead of using them for our own memories.




After serving at the Midnight Mission, we went to Grandview Retirement Home to spend some time with the residents there. Our main event there was a rousing, hour-long game of Bingo! This was definitely one of the more amusing places we've served as many of the conversations the residents had with us were not for a family-friendly blog! Our kids did great though and really loved on the people there even when some of the residents couldn't mentally hold a conversation with them.




Next we spent some time prayer-walking in MacArthur Park. It has been really special to be in prayer so often with our students on this trip. As we broke into 3 groups I was incredibly impressed with the group of boys that we're in my group as we walked around the park and were in prayer for 30 minutes straight! High school boys, in prayer, out loud, for 30 minutes! God is good!
We then went back to Las Familias to help with the after school program and continue building our relationships with those kids. Our challenge was to know a total of 10 kids by name by the end of the day and I think our whole team is very close! I know all of them know at least 5 names and I think could get close to 10 if we quizzed them.
Last we had an INCREDIBLE time of worship, discussion, and time in the word together around a campfire on the beach tonight. It has been so humbling to watch our students seek God's will for them this week and also think about what He's
telling them about situations back home. I LOVE our team and have been so blessed by them.
















Thank you again for following our blog and praying for the team! God is alive and working in Los Angeles and in our team!
Blessings,
Jeff
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Location:California

Diving into ministry

Today brought many opportunities to jump into ministry "head first" here in LA. After our morning devotion time and some cleaning at the CSM site, we broke into 3 groups and went on a city search. Each team was given a variety of tasks, including several interviews, and the challenge to take someone to lunch who would otherwise go without. I was very proud of our students as they mustered up the courage to perform these difficult tasks in uncomfortable circumstances. I wish I could share all of the individual stories but you will have to come to the mission celebration at Deer Flat Church, Saturday night, June 9 @ 6pm to hear all about it.

Later this afternoon we went to a charter school called "Las Familias" where we spent a few hours with kids in an after school program. Many of these kids are very underprivileged and need all the love they can get, which also seemed to include a lot of freeze tag!

We concluded our day at The Griffith Observatory to debrief, pray over the ministry of the day, and pray over the city of Los Angeles.





Tomorrow brings us an early morning as we leave the housing site at 530am! Please pray for good rest for the team as we look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead.

Blessings,


Jeff

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Location:Long Beach Ave,Los Angeles,United States

First Day of Ministry

Thank for checking in everyone! The team started the morning by worshipping at Saddleback Church. Rick Warren brought us a message about healthy relationships and gave some biblical advice about "relationship killers". One point was made explaining the foolishness in antagonizing others you are in relationship with. (parents I thought you may want to file that one away for the next sibling argument!!). We also had a great time exploring the church campus and discussing parts of the message. It was awesome to hear the excitement in the voices of the students as they talked about church!





We then joined the CSM (Center for Student Missions) team this evening. We began our time at a Honduran restaurant where Marcus Choate took the first initiative to join the nice lady singing karaoke. In case you are wondering...yes they were singing "My Heart Will Go On" from the Titanic soundtrack! He was quickly followed with serenades by Leighton Tiegs, Katie Brown, and Jeff Maendl.


But the end of the night is what seemed to grip the hearts of the team the most. We spent a couple hours on a prayer tour through the poor and prosperous parts of downtown Los Angeles. The biggest impact didn't seem to be simply witnessing the homeless population of LA as much as it was seeing how close in proximity the wealthy districts of LA are to the districts that are full of desperation and physical need.

We concluded our night in prayer and sharing together. While there were moments of raw emotion, I was very proud of how our team articulated their thoughts and feelings as they shared the insights the Lord was giving them tonight. I can't wait to see how God uses us all tomorrow!

Last note, Emily Taylor made it to LA!!! Despite more delays today, Emily finally made it in just in time to join the team as we arrived at CSM! Thank you for your continued prayers!

Jeff


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Location:California

We have landed...

We arrived safely here in Los Angeles and our first order of service was to get familiar with the beach:). We spent an afternoon in intense games of frisbee and football! It was a great time for the team to play together before we hit the ground running in service tomorrow night. Tomorrow morning we will be at Saddleback Church for worship before we join up with the missions organization we're serving with.

Please pray for Emily Taylor, a member of our team who was going to fly in tonight until her flight was cancelled. She is currently scheduled to touch the ground here in LA tomorrow at 230pm. Pray that all goes well and flights are on time!

Thank you for thinking of us. I'm looking forward to sharing stories of God encounters in the next few days!

Blessings,

Jeff

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Hey everyone!  If you are looking for the Deer Flat LA Mission trip blog... YOU HAVE ARRIVED!  Please check back in during the trip to get updates as we are able to post them.  Feel free to share this blog site with family and friends!  Your prayers are appreciated.

Blessings,

Pastor Jeff & mission team