Hannah's JWI Journal: Week 23: Street Lights, People, Looking Just to Find Emotion

The LA trip was probably the best, yet most frustrating trip I’ve been on. Going into it, I absolutely hated the idea of being forced to evangelize. I mean, why would I want to do something to someone else that I hate when people do it to me? I had pre conceptions of how it was going to be; that it would be like standing on the sidewalk trying to hand out flyers to people and getting shut down constantly. But what I found was that it’s just talking to people. That’s it. Just having conversations. “Seriously? It’s that easy? Am I being punked right now? All I have to do is talk about adoption with this lady? Or books with this man?” It came ridiculously easy once I was out there. I actually met a guy the first night after we had gone to the Buddhist temple (I’ll get to that in a minute). His name was Erik, and it started out with him asking us to buy a piece of our pizza. It was me, Bella, Tim, and Dylan. We just gave him some pizza and breadsticks too, and it just opened up a conversation. He told us about how he had been in the foster care system his whole life and was on the streets, looking for a job to make ends meet. He and I talk about our birth dads. We told him about Joshua and he told us about his studies on ancient African religions. It was really awesome.

Back to the Buddhist temple. So cool! It had been the last day of Chinese New Year, so it was all decorated with paper lanterns and snakes for the year of the snake. We took a tour of the temple and learned about the culture and the different figures in Buddhism, since they don’t have a “god.” One of the frustrating things, though, was our tour guide, Don. He was an older white man. He told us a bit of his testimony, which consisted of him being a pastor when he was 16 and converting to a Buddhist later in life. But what bothered me was that when he talked about Christianity and why it wasn’t right for him, he used a ton on verses out of context and it honestly didn’t sound like he knew a lot about the gospel for being a pastor. A lot of what he said sounded a lot like some of the things I read in the book Love Wins. But it definitely was not my place to argue faith in a Buddhist temple.

Buddhist Temple

Midnight Mission

Cracking eggs, 3600 of them!

On Tuesday, half of us got up at 4am to go and help out and Midnight Mission. We served breakfast there to people who are homeless. About 900 people were served which is awesome and saddening at the same time. Great that they got fed but sad that there are so many of them. Afterwards, we walked through Skid Row to downtown LA. It’s crazy to go from hundreds of homeless people lining the streets, to skyscrapers and business suits in less than 10 blocks. When we got to downtown, our mission was to get with our evangelism partners and team up with one other group, get $10 each, and bless someone in need with a meal. Logan was my partner and we teamed up with Sara and Brandon. We walked around for a while before coming across a couple. They asked for spare change and we too them out to eat instead. Their names were Lorenzo and Nay-Nay. We bought them a meal at McDonald’s and I got the opportunity to talk to Nay-Nay about her life. She talked to me about how she got on the streets and what she wants to do with her life. They had just lost their apartment a few months before. She told me about her kids, how she adopted some of them and how one of her daughters is going to play for the Sparks next year. It was awesome to hear her story and talk about God a little bit. She said she was a Christian but I hope I opened the door for her to seek a deeper relationship with Christ. Later in the day, we met up with the other half of the class and went to the Self Realization temple. Self Realization is basically a western version of Hinduism. To me it seemed exactly like Buddhism, but with a “god.” They believe that everyone can achieve a sort of “deity” when they become enlightened after reincarnation through karma. Once you are enlightened, you become a saint and therefore “one with God.” There was a lot of theology I did not understand, like the guy said that there is absolute truth, but you have to find it for yourself (hence enlightenment), but once you find it, it’s the same as everyone else. So it’s personal but it’s not at the same time. Confusing.

Eating at an Indian restaurant.

That night we did street evangelism at night on Hollywood Boulevard. I did not enjoy that. I was feeling off all day. I really didn’t want to talk to anyone at that point. Also, it was dark and there were a bunch of sketchy people out. At one point, we were talking to a girl handing out flyers for the Church of Scientology, and I witnessed a guy try to mug a lady. He was on a skateboard and tried to take her purse. She held on, screaming bloody murder while he dragged her across the ground. He ended up making a run for it when people started rushing over. It put me on edge all night, paranoid that I was going to get mugged or stabbed or something. We didn’t really have any goo conversations besides with the Scientology lady who didn’t really seem like she knew what she was talking about even after claiming she’d been a member for 8 years. It was really frustrating and scary, just being out there at night.

On Hollywood Boulevard.

Wednesday, we went to the Museum of Tolerance, which is mainly about the Holocaust. I had been there before of a field trip, but it was cool to go again with more knowledge about the Jewish culture. That night we went out to evangelize near the UCLA campus. That night was hard trying to find someone willing to talk. A lot of the students were in the gyms or in big groups or had earbuds in to tune everyone out. It wasn’t an easy night.

Later we headed for Santa Monica to do some evangelism there. Logan and I walk out to the Santa Monica pier which was fun. When walking around the city, we stopped at the Coffee Bean to take a break. Logan and I were feeling kind of spiritually down so we had some Jesus time which really helped. I found some awesome encouraging quotes, like one from C.S. Lewis that said “Jesus Christ did not say, ‘Go into the world and tell the world that it is quite right.’” And Leonard who said “Any method of evangelism will work if God is in it.” That made me feel a lot better about knowing I’m doing the right thing and that as long as God is with me, I can do this. Just as we were about to leave, and older man sits next to Logan. Logan asked him about his book and that sparked one of the best conversations we had all week. His name is Jack, and we talked a lot about great books and traveling. We had the awesome opportunity to share with him about Joshua and how we are using our studies at Joshua in our lives. We also got to talk about kids with special needs, which allowed me to share with him my God moment in the Dominican at Genesis and all about finding how to trust God with my future. It was an amazing conversation that came from God’s awesome timing.

The Grove

Friday we got to go to the Getty Museum. We walked around for a while and looked at everything from paintings, to sculptures, to historic French décor. I bought like $10 worth of postcards! That evening we drove to The Grove where we did some more evangelism. Logan and I had a great talk with a couple from Montreal. They were super interested in what Joshua was and why 56 college kids would want to live on a mountain for a year. It was a lot of fun. Later, I totally saw Rebecca Black, and on a Friday of all days! We ended our night with a freeze mob, where we all froze around the fountain. It was a lot of fun!

Painting a school in Compton.

Sunday we got up and went to church, but not just any church. We went to a black church! Amen, Halleluiah! It was so exciting! I wish church was like that every Sunday. Gospel music is so great, and all the people were so nice and friendly. I found it a lot easier to focus too, compared to a normal church service. After church, we ate at Souplantation before heading back up the hill. The LA trip was great. It gave me a lot more confidence in sharing my faith and being a light unto others. I’m still trying to figure my faith out but talking it out helps. God calls all of us to go out and evangelize, even if we don’t want to or if it puts us out of our comfort zone. I realized this week that my life should be evangelism. All day, every day. Even when I’m exhausted. Lee Strobel said, “Let me be the first to confess: there are times when I suffer from evangelism fatigue. I know I should care, I know I should reach out to them, I know I should talk to them about Jesus – but my motivation meter is hovering at low voltage.” I definitely felt that this week, but I realized sometimes all I need is a little Jesus time to recharge me and get out ther again.