Scavenger Hunt

We woke up excited for what was in store today!

For the most part, what we are doing everyday is a surprise to the students. They do not know where we are going, what we will be doing, or how long it’s going to take. They’re going along for the ride! It’s been fun to see them get excited, and I think there just now getting the hint that I’m not going to tell them!.

After breakfast, we drove into downtown L.A. were we did our team “city search”. We split off into smaller teams and did a scavenger hunt in the city so that we could become familiar with it. Every team was given a map/guide through the city with specific instructions with where to go, and what to do. The students were left to ask people directions, talk to police officers, talk to the homeless, find specific locations, take someone out to lunch they just met, and find out from the people of L.A. what it was like to live in the streets.

The stories that came out of the scavenger hunt it were amazing!

Paul Green, Derek Moon, Jeff Sipple, and Kevin Sykes’ group were on the task of talking to a homeless person and the next task was taking someone out to lunch... they chose to do both! They met a elderly man named Roberto (Picture above) who had been living on the streets for years. From their conversation with Roberto, they learned that he was from Guadalajara and came to the states when he was 21, straight out of the army. Roberto was very funny, warm, and witty. He kept us laughing all throughout lunch! After lunch, he took us and showed us the architecture of the Bradbury building, which is in many hollywood movies like “Blade Runner” and “500 days of summer”. After his tour we asked why he was living on the streets. Roberto shared that he struggled with alcohol and right there, in the streets, he asked the boys to pray for him. They can’t stop talking about Roberto.

In the afternoon we all headed over to Wyvenwood Garden near downtown L.A. Wyvenwood Gardens’s is a huge apartment complex where hundreds of young families live. We will be going this ministry site every afternoon this week to run a VBS type program for the kids who live in the apartments. We started out today playing soccer in the grass fields of the apartment complex, and instantly the kids came out to play! Sophie Basalone brought some soccer balls and goals so it is literally non stop soccer. After the games, we invited the kids over to the shade of a tree and shared a bible story with them. We’ll be going over the story of Jonah for the next 4 days. Most of the kids, when asked if they knew about the story of Jonah just shrugged their heads and said, “No”. Many had no idea what a bible was. So our students are very excited about sharing Jesus with them!

Tonight we’re eating Peruvian food!! We’ll see how it goes.