Into Redemption: 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

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!