Spicy Lips...Roll Out

It never ceases to amaze me how God puts people in your life that undoubtedly will change it forever. 

Last Sunday as me and Hannah (my amazing co host, roomie, and best friend) prepared for the new group of students to arrive we prayed for their hearts to be opened to God's, so that they might see this beautiful city as He sees it. It was similar to prayers we have prayed for groups previous, but this time we asked that God would allow us to move with the group. 

<Our expectations of this new group were low already seeing as they kept us up the night before because they decided to go to In and Out (a burger place for all my southern friends) and didn't arrive at the housing site till nearly 1 am.> :)

Anyway...God not only heard our prayers that afternoon but acted boldly quickly. 

I knew after the first nights dinner that this group was not only special but sent to Hannah I from God himself. They had been to the island of Eluthera where I recently visited, they knew one of my dear sisters from my Africa team, they were SOUTHERN, and one guy had even dated someone one who went to Hannah's high school...which is crazy in itself because she graduated with 43 people. 

The first night was only a small glimpse into how wonderful it would be to work alongside them in LA, being love to the men, women, and children that we served.

 I got to hear genuine prayers of crying out to God on behalf of the people here. I got to see laughter, smiles and joy be exchanged daily at our kids site. I got to witness intentional community happen within their own group, and see them learn to not only love the people of LA more but to love each other more. I got to have late night heart to hearts, hearing peoples stories, finding out their passions, and trying to figure out life's deep questions together. Not only did I get to see so many beautiful God moments, but they took us in and allowed us to be apart of those moments with them.

I also learned several new ummm... I'll call them skills. 

I learned how to properly throw a Frisbee.

I learned to how to make a Frisbee bounce of the ground...sort of.

I learned how to throw a "flick" yeah I'm legit I know the terminology.

I learned the exact population of LA...something I probably should have known before.

I learned what some new buildings were.

I learned the game "what are the odds."

I learned how to dance...on the street in Santa Monica.

I learned a song about a moose...with hand motions.

I learned what contra dancing is.

I learned that you can never play the song "Some Nights" by FUN too many times!

Through all the fun moments God showed me something very special and holy. That I was among people my age who loved Jesus with all they had and were/are going to change this world. I believe they are changing the face of their campus and that the Lord will continue to work through them there. I believe with everything in my heart that where ever Clemson Wesley decides to go, what ever they decide to do, they will make a lasting impression of Gods kingdom on to that place.

Dear Clemson Wesley,

We love you dearly. We miss you equally. And we're praying for you daily.

We can't wait to road trip in May. And were so happy that we can now be Real Life friends!

Thank you all for changing our lives, for loving us, and for being so amazing!

Love Always,

Bailey and Hannah

"SPICY LIPS ROLL OUT!"

Trying to get a friday fist pump from the kids we played with at a Skid Row after school kids program called Las Familias.

Outside the Los Angeles regional Food Bank! A Cold morning spent in the freezer. But rewarded with Capri Sun!

Food for Thought

Internet is back!!! Sometimes working for a non profit means that things break and do not get fixed for a while. So it pleases me to say that after a few hours of working on the internet with my director Bre we at CSMLA now are back in the online world!

It has been a while since my last blog thats been due to lack of internet, as well as the number of groups that have come through. We finished up training and orientation and I have lead five groups so far. Over the next 21 days I will lead four more! Prayers for energy are welcomed!

Groups consist of students middle through college who come to CSM LA where we lead them on short term urban mission trips. Each group is different and stays for around a week. We take them to our various ministry sites through out the city as well as different ethnic restaurants. We believe that it is important to not only give our students opportunities to serve and learn from people of different ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds, and different walks of life, but also give them a chance to experience different cultures. I think that food is a universal thing and in every culture the importance of sharing a meal breaks down all sorts of walls. I have seen that not only do the people who own these fine eating establishments want to share their food with these random groups of mainly white middle/ upperclass students but they also want to share what their culture means to them. We have been invited to dance, sing, and hear beautiful stories from people that our students may never have met outside of their trip. For that I thank God for diversity, for creating us to need food, and for the open heartedness of not only our students but of the people we are so blessed to meet while sharing a meal.

In my free time here in LA I have picked up a new hobby! GARDENING! We had an overgrown small wooden garden box and after working at SIFAT and learning so much about Leaf for Life and the easiness of having your own garden I decided to plant our very own CSM LA urban garden! It was a long process but each morning I enjoy so much getting so see the aw in how God has grown the plants more and more! Here are some pictures of the gardening process! Were hoping to have a great meal with our neighbors when we harvest what grows! (and maybe a little of what we have to buy at the store) 

Much thanks goes to John the amazing gardner at SIFAT who gave me my first sprig of mint and helped inspire me to learn more about plants! He is the greatest, smartest, funniest plant man I have ever met! Thanks John!!!

This is before I went to work. Full of weeds, poison, and undiscovered ANTS!

Before

Before

After I pulled out all the weeds, I soon discovered that my soil was infested with ants. I soon found out the only way to eleminate this problem would be to shovel out all the dirt.  This is a great example of what my afternoon looked like. Scooping dirt out and spraying raid! I have never seen so many ants in my life!

I then found out I only had enough good soil left for half of the container so this is after day one of gardening! I planted chocolate mint, red and green bell peppers and some jalapenos!


  

After about two and half weeks of the first plant! I also added the other side filled with actual seeds not plants that were already started like the fist time! From actual seeds i planted cucumbers, and some mexican Sunflowers!

The mint is growing so much! Its the big cluster in the top left!

You can sort of tell how tall the bell peppers are getting!

These are little mexican sunflower sprouts! They will be beautiful! My favorite flower is a sunflower and I love the Hispanic culture all around me!

A cucumber sprout a week and a half after I planted it! FROM A SEED!!! God is so neat!