UPDATE 9/17/12

A lot of time has past since my last post.

I need prayer over communications.

        Soon after my last post I took a trip over to Long Beach from where I was living in Anaheim. This is certainly not a recommendation, but I did this trip on skateboard and on foot. Why Long Beach? There was a possibility that I had a job opportunity at the Long Beach Rescue Mission through a friend. So I went and checked out this place first hand. I found that Jesus very much is preached there, and the Holy Spirit was strong there. I found God is honored here. The men who stay here off the streets are also honored. They weren't just given the left overs, it was a beautiful facility.

        The next day I met with my friend Steve who is committed to reaching out helping hands and helping those who are rejected on the streets of Long Beach. God has set Steve very strategically in place between needs and resources, the broken and healing, hopeless hearted ones and hope. God literally gave him experience and preparation, then added divine strategies, and told him "do this". God also told him "I'm gonna bless you," and He has.

         So I met up with Steve and his family and friends. When I arrived I was very warmly welcomed. And I saw very quickly in action the work God is doing among them. God is bringing the hurting and the homeless to them, and they are going out to as many of them as they can find to declare God's hope and befriend the most rejected and hated people in Long Beach. We went to a site familiar now to Steve and the people he runs with. The homeless in Long Beach are pushed out of sight. The city just wants them to disappear, but God is not ashamed of these people. They are friends that he desires and he is not ashamed of. There is more to what is going on than I saw down there. But they are befriending these people, loving on them, sharing the gospel with them, and feeding them. This was a really rich experience. The key that I saw them was they wanted to actually help them, from grassroots levels of basics, to helping them actually get off the streets, to looking to take on their cause and fight a system that has is writing ordinances specifically to make their lives more difficult and push them out.

         Steve is very busy, but still I was very welcomed by him and his family and friends, and they took some of their time later after the outreach to spend with me and get to know me better. They gave me a ride home, and when I thought our time was up, they spent more time with me and had a meal with me.  This is one of my precious memories along the way. They are genuine, and welcoming. They are the bride of Christ moving the way she was meant to. And I love them, as you can see in the time I have spent to expound on how awesome they are. They love like Jesus and with Jesus.

         After I was in Long Beach I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out my communications- specifically my PO Box. Turns out I needed to send myself mail to prove I have an address down here in order to get a PO Box. Also there was some time spent with the friends I had made in Anaheim. My friends Jordan and Ashley took me to the coast to see the sunset it was beautiful. I so needed rest during this time, but the rest I was getting didn't seem to be enough. My friend who I had been staying with in Anaheim, Brandon spent some time with me on my last night in Anaheim we talked for quite a while, and then the next morning we loaded up some fire wood in the trunk of his car for a young adults thing at the beach that he was helping put on. Brandon prayed for me before he left. He is a man deeply committed to the word of God and the spirit, I am so blessed to have been able to stay with Him and his housemates.

         When I came down on the train my first weeks housing which I thought would work out and was almost tied up fell through the day before I was to leave. It was through this situation that I was put in contact with my first 2 weeks housing. My train ride was 30 hours long. 11 hours before my arrival I received 2 texts letting me know that I had two separate options. Staying in Anaheim was the first one. The second one my friend Andrea connected me with her friend Jonny Liu an Resident Director on the APU campus. I didn't know anything about him, and he didn't know that our mutual friend Andrea was truly only a friend of a friend I had only just met. I met Andrea several months before via contact information being passed to me through a guy named Mark from Tennessee who happened to be passing through on tour and stopped in at my friend Joey's home group which happened to be meeting on an irregular night because a friend of his from Africa was coming to speak. [That's even more wild than I thought, Jesus!]
     
        So on Saturday exactly 1 week after my arrival in LA, I was picked up in Anaheim and taken to Azusa by my next host Jonny Liu and his 2 friends. They were a bit shocked by how much stuff I had with me, but we fit it in his sedan. I remember my arrival at Jonny's home being such a blessing. I found Jonny very much has a heart for people and helping them. I did hear a lot of "What are you doing here?" And I wanted them to know, but meeting so many people was wearing on me. When I arrived in Azusa I was still very much exhausted from constant transition and the physical heat of the days; which I am told was above average, and everything around me and everyone being new and unfamiliar. Jonny helped explain me quite a few times to his friends who seem to ever flow into his house. Hospitality is part of his job as an RD so. His house by the way was beautiful, and I let him know how relieved I was and how much that added to my rest being a very visual person. I was challenged here by Jonny and his friends. During this week in Azusa I started facing the challenges of work, thanks in part to challenge put to me by Jonny. He really helped pull the best out of me. God really broke through some barriers in this area of my life. And I really think I am going to experience the reality of this breakthrough even more as I go.

           A big part of my stay last week at Jonny's was meeting people. Besides the numerous people coming into Jonny's apartment, I met a ton of people at APU. About the 3rd day I was at Jonny's when I went out to find work, God lined up an interview. The next day I went to a chapel on campus with a ton of students and a guy named Aaron that I had met already and his girlfriend Lexi prayed for me. It turns out that Aaron grew up in Salem. And then as they asked me what kind of work I was looking for, I told them what kind of job I would take, and what I would ideally move into. I didn't know it but from her texting me earlier, at that point Lexi heard God just shouting into her spirit for her to connect me with her parents business in Brea, CA. So she did. God's leadership is so perfect. I sent in a Resume that night, I thought, but the email didn't go through. Last night I discovered that and I remedied that, but there is no worry. He is taking care of me, because of His love for me.

          A few other people I met; Michael is a graduate of APU, but God returned him to work on the APU campus to be a catalyst for revival there. God literally handed him the job that He is working there to  set him in place. When I first met him I saw Jesus all over this guy, he spoke truth right into my heart. Someone else I met Bre: When I met her the first time, I was sitting there talking with her I was struck at first by her directness. She got right to the point, asking very direct questions. Later she told me, "I don't know if I will ever see you again, why would I not want to get to the point of what God wants to say, I would rather let my communications be in heaven than on the earth." As her surprising direct questions struck my heart she was listening to Jesus, and then she started to speak what she was hearing. The truth she was speaking struck my heart full on like arrows. And the short time that this went on the fear of the Lord came upon me. I don't think I have ever experienced anything like that. I knew it was Jesus so I didn't, but I literally wanted to jump up and run away the intensity of his burning eyes and his gaze that was coming through her. That was so strange I was speechless, she gave me Isaiah 43: also she said don't live in shame, and you need to rest more in Jesus. Very simple truth that was breathed on by the fire of God. I was reeling from that for several hours and into the night. I didn't understand it, but Jesus was scary in how Holy He is. After she got up and I was just sitting there, I was left just wondering what had she seen as she gazed upon the Holy One.

        Towards the end of my stay at Jonny's I climbed Garcia Trail, it was a short, but intense climb. On the way down there was a girl who had sprained her ankle badly, I came back up to her and her friend as I was praying,  I gave her some Tylenol. And after I walked with them for a small distance I decided to run down and let the fire department know what had happened. The fire department sits at the bottom of the trail. They helped her out more and got her off the hill. On I went to go see my friend Andrea. She helped me find housing with Jonny originally. I had got to meet her at Jonny's in person finally after talking with her before leaving Oregon for a while. We got to worship together with her friend and Jonny. But this time she was speaking at APU. She is both a worship leader and recording artist and APU alumni. She had invited me to come sit in on the class she was sharing in. It was a small class and I got to hear about how she operates in many aspects of her work in her passion for Jesus and writing music and recording and cowriting, ect. That was really cool. I was really honored to be invited by her as a friend. That was richness. I pushed into finding my next place to stay later that day; Asking. Also during this week I was encouraged to look into APU as  a possible direction; going to school there. So I explored that option. Met with an admissions counselor, and took a campus tour. I took a nap somewhere in here, visited Azusa House of Prayer several times.

       On one particular day, God really stirred me about APU and some of what is going on there. It wasn't all flattering to APU, I won't share it, but He also started to share with me His heart and original intent, and then I got distracted while He was talking to me. But when He stirred my heart it was Saturday morning and I was up early. I couldn't help it His burden was so intense, I felt like He might have me go preach it. But I got up and I was just there with Him. That morning I also ran into my friend Michael. We had found out earlier last week when we first met that another mutual friend and leader out of AZHOP while he had been trying to hook me up with housing. That housing possibility had fallen through. Mike had been trying to connect me with Michael and his housemates. It turns out that Michael's house was the one that had originally fallen through and that had produced 2 weeks stay in Anaheim and Azusa. I ran into Michael that Saturday morning when I was burdened and He told me that He was going to be out of town this next week, and I could stay on his bed during this week. I was desiring a place in Azusa. and that is where I am. In a house that I would have been staying the first week of my stay, but God had in mind more than I did or any of my contacts. Saturday evening around sunrise one of Michael's roomies, Sam picked me up and all my stuff. Before he took me to the apartment he took me for a drive up the canyon declaring the fullness and perfection we have in Christ that he accomplished at the cross. I was getting wrecked in the first 5 minutes of getting to know Sam, but I was also cautiously weighing out all his words.

           So Saturday, I moved in with Sam and Edson and the not present Michael. All of them amazing brothers in Christ. We live in the projects, the poorest part of Azusa. They live here simply to be a light in the darkness. Bre the crazy fear of the Lord person lives in one of the apartments downstairs. My phone communications have been cut off since Saturday.

         Saturday night I went to Bob McCorkle's house. It was a big Holy Spirit party. Bob is a spiritual father to a good amount of people connected with APU. I leaned on him some in the process of finding housing. And he prayed with me and like Mike Wilday when I was on the train didn't full on rescue, but left room for God to work and prayed with me. His support in faith was invaluable. Going to him and gaining that support and accountability and welcome before the breakthrough really increased the praise Jesus gets in the breakthrough. I highly value this man and His family here. God has placed them here as an outpost of breakthrough. When I went to his house Saturday night, I saw people who had just recently been introduced to the Spirit absolutely exhilerated by Him and rescued from oppression and depression and in a very short time. Bob spoke out of the Lord's prayer

       Sunday I skated off to church at AZHOP and for the 2nd week we prayed for the election. Rick the director spoke out of the Lord's prayer. We also interceded for Pakistan. I was so very blessed to see a familiar face from Oregon; Crystal Hammerson my friend is here in Azusa with her family and friends and leaders. Also I found out that Jim and Linda the directors of SHOP are in Azusa. I'm so excited about that, I can't wait to see what God has been doing with them on their journey. I can't wait to give them big hugs. After church I was invited to lunch by Dave and Joni from AZHOP. That was awesome. I also got to meet Crystal's best friend. Later that night I went to Rick and Janet's house with Edson and Darrel housemate and friend. We had a meal and fellowshipped for a long time and then moved into prayer. That was intense. I love this new piece of my family so much. Thank you Rick and Janet for opening your home and your lives to us. Thank you for your vulnerability. When we got back, Edson whom I had been getting to know throughout the day briefed me on food possibilities, and house rules which included get more full of the Holy Spirit, and Love on someone, and we will challenge you in this area and this area, and rest; so good. I got beautifully interrupted from writing this blog blasted with God's grace while talking with Sam until 3 in the morning last night, So amazing!

           Since I have been here in this camp of cities I have experienced so much of the broad spectrum of Christ's beautiful bride. So many who are at times are offended and seem opposed to each other, but Jesus and His bride together are beautiful and powerful. I am so blessed to have been in each of the places I have been with the people I have spent time with. The bride can only be unified by Jesus. He will accomplish it. I am in awe of Jesus even more than ever! I love you all in Oregon and those of you spread to the four corners of the globe. And I miss you all greatly. In Christ dwells all the fullness, walk in the fullness of Christ.     
           

TO BE CONTINUED... :)