Hey everyone!
Today has been a quite a day. This morning, I woke up to Pastor Andrew saying "Wake up, Davy! It's 6:15... The showers are warm too!". So, groggily, I got up, grabbed some clothes, and managed to find my way to the bathroom. I undressed and got in the shower, turned on the water, and was instantly awakened by a shock. The Dream Center must have their own personal glacier that fills their water pipes, because that water was so COLD!
After my arctic shower, we went to breakfast... Breakfast today was oatmeal, orange juice, toast, and doughnuts. It was pretty good. Later, we went to the gym (aka our room), and got a chance to meet The Movement (a group of students age 18 to 25 who are doing a ten month internship here at the Dream Center). They led worship with their band (which was so stellar I bought their demo). After that, they gave us a brief break and introduced themselves through a series of human videos, songs, dancing, and a "Stomp" style song. After that meeting came to a close, we got a tour of the Dream Center. I know that I promised pictures (and rest assured, I have a bunch), but the Internet here is slow which makes uploading pictures a near painful process. We learned a lot of really cool stuff about the Dream Center, and after the tour was done, we went to lunch. Lunch today consisted of a pretty good chili, some corn bread, diet Pepsi, along with a salad. Pretty standard.
Next, we went off to our missions activity for the day; Food Truck. This was a lot of fun. For those of you who don't know, this ministry is a truck loaded with food (hence the name) and then that food is distributed to a bunch of people who might have a tight budget, or no money for food all together. I can honestly say that this was truly an eye opening experience for every member of the team. Quite a few members of the team had never gotten the opportunity to experience poverty at this level. While we were bagging food for the recipients, we got a chance to meet some of the people that we were handing it out to, as well as sing, take pictures, and joke around with them. We made two stops with the truck... The first one was in a Asian/Mexican community. The language barrier was a little rough, but it was easy to connect with these people through the simple act of giving them food. It was so inspiring to see the look of happiness and relief on their faces.
After that, we made our second stop in a predominately Mexican neighborhood. The communication there was a little easier, since I've had two years of Spanish. It was totally awesome and gratifying to see that you were making a difference. We got a lot of pictures, and made quite a few new friends. Then, we went back to the Dream Center and re-capped todays events. It was here when I realize that at home we see poverty in a whole different light. Sure, we see it on TV, but then we relate those images of real people to just images, and strip them of their humanity. We forget to realize that those people are still people in need, or change the channel because we feel bad. But here in LA, as a lot of students are figuring out, there is no changing the channel. This is life. And there are people in need who will remain so until someone steps up and makes a difference. I'm ready to step up. Are you?
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