Leaving LA.

All seasons come to a close. And August was the close of my time spent in Los Angeles. I've put off writing this post for an entire month because as much as I am excited for my next adventure in life (which I'll explain soon) I grew to love that crazy city.

Summer at CSM in any city I believe looks very different from the spring season. Summer is filled with group after group after group, early mornings, and late nights. My schedule was Sunday afternoon through Saturday at noonish and then wake up Sunday and do it again. Needless to say time for blogging was limited.

I am going to attempt to use words and pictures to give a "snapshot" of my summer, hopefully grace can be given in places I fall short and where my lack of ability to describe my adventure comes in, it can be made up in conversation that will be had. Enjoy!        

The greatest hope was to show these students that all the ways we gave them to serve were able to be recreated in the communities they were from.

 Below are just a few of the ways and places that the student groups got their hands dirty in the city.

Bingo was played at recovery homes for the elderly and disabled , prayers were prayed for hurting hearts , and laughs were exchanged while dancing.

Food was sorted for the Hungry at the Los Angeles 

Regional Food Bank

These brothers and sisters were served hot meals and big smiles here --->

Going: into an unfamiliar community to have conversation become learners, and hear truth spoken by unexpected voices from people who have put their whole life into the cart you see below...

                                   Sharing Bible stories under a tree, 

playing endless games of capture the flag, duck duck goose, red light green light, tag, hop-scotch, and kick ball,

giving away all your hugs, and finding strength to give two more piggy back rides, falling down in the grass after spinning in a million circles, and breaking down stereo types with soccer balls. 

And at the end of a long day….

these students dug deep to find energy to lift their voices with strength to praise a God they found was much bigger then even this City...

Bye for now L.A.

and Nashville see you soon!

" Love has a hem to her garment that reaches the very dust. It sweeps the stains from the streets and lanes, and because it can, it must."

- Mother Teresa

Climbing With Hands Wide Open

Seeking.

Looking.
Searching.
Learning. The joy of surrender. The beauty in unfamiliar places. The satisfaction in calloused souls. The excitement in discovering the adventure in the in-between. The rest in restoration.


The God we love, the God we serve is faithful. Not just now, not just sometimes but forever. He is teaching me to walk through life with open palms, something that can be hard and sometimes painful to do. The desire to have immediate gratification in a society flowing with instant gratification is often the greatest struggle. Learning to trust God in a world that teaches lessons of "you control your destiny" is burdensome in lonely times. But remembering His faithfulness has become my refuge. Leaning on the truth that if I give it all to Him, He will make it brand new.


Im trying daily to climb my mountain with hands wide open. And pray for the day that this will become easier. For now I am learning to be filled, to be satisfied, to be made whole in Jesus…alone. He knows the desires of my heart, and holds them in the palm of his hand. He longs to continue bestowing His deep redemption in my heart, letting me seek for my identity in His precious name. The path of healing is often bumpy but seeking His face, His presence is the small gift I receive daily.


Thank you Lord for being a King who loves, and cares deeply about his daughters & sons. Let us learn to walk in ways of surrender for all of our days. You are every good thing. Thank you.

The Last Month in Pictures!

After a Spring away from home, getting back to the south for a week was much needed! My little brother  (Brandon) graduated from high school and will be attending Samford University in the fall on a track scholarship! I was greatly inspired by how much of an impact he made at his high school, on his track team, and in his youth group… Can't wait to see the mark he leaves on the rest of the world!!! So proud of this little…Now big guy! 

In the middle of family time so great friends came to visit and we began our road trip (Topher's 1st road trip ever!) to Clemson South Carolina! These are two of the greatest/ most influential people I have ever gotten the pleasure of knowing! (Hannah & Topher)

Pit stop in the ATL to watch the Braves play and meet up with the best Southern college group we had!!! What a good time of reuniting and tomahawk chopping! 

So we may have failed epically at documenting our tip actually at Clemson. But it was full of frisbee playing, contra dancing, playing cards, catching up and lots of laughing! Over all very successful trip!

Back to La! After a quick trip home I got back on a plane to go back to LA! We got brand new summer staff who are amazing, silly, and love Jesus with all their hearts! The new faces are Chris from Texas, Alisha from Cali, Desera from Virginia, and Chelsea from Florida! 

Summer started really fast and has been super busy! We have groups every week who come Sunday and leave Saturday. Doesn't leave much room for sleep but its all worth it to see these younger students getting to know God more through serving his City!
(Above is a few of my girls from Menlo Park((home of Google!!!)) Making mustaches with me at dinner! Thank you all for introducing me to Call Me Maybe!)

These are some of the greatest high school students I have ever met!  They came all the way from Ohio! Despite a few road blocks in our trip they overcame and inspired me in ways they will never know! I miss them already! 

Not only were they great on their mission trip but they took me to Warner Brothers Studios where we saw the set of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Pretty Little Liars, and tons of Harry Potter stuff!!! Thank you again for blessing me so much!

The day after Warner Brothers the girls decided to take a random trip to DinseyLand!!!!!! WAHOOooo!!! Such a great day celebrating first time visits, my birthday, and the magic of Disney!!! 

I have the greatest staff ever! They threw me a surprise birthday party on our night off! Catch Phrase and Taboo! 

God is teaching more then I could ever expect through the kids I get to play with here in LA.  God really does use the small, the weak, the poor, the lowly to bring glory to his kingdom! I love these kids so much it will be super tough to leave them in August!

Just some other things God has been teaching me :) Im excited for the fall, for the future, and just for life! So much joy in my soul!

Last but not least! This place has been on my mind more then ever . Looking forward to the day that God tells me its time!

"The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."
Psalm 19:1

Bare Feet

Im reading a little book right now called "An Altar in the World" which by the way is bomb and you should for sure read! Any who... The chapter i read this morning was called The Practice of Walking on the Earth...It was very focused on what we do with our feet, and legs while on this earth and I just wanted to share a little snip from the chapter because it made me think!

So the things in quotes are from the book and if its not in quotes its my words, I hope it makes you smile as much as it made me smile!

"If you get down on your knees, however, you are likely to become exquisitely aware of what you are doing. You will not miss much on your knees. Every seed sized piece of gravel will announce itself to you. Every pound you weigh will impress itself on you. The body is a great focuser, whether the means is pain or pleasure. The body is a great reminder of where we come from and where we are going, on the one sacred journey that we will make whether we mean to or not."

This inspired me to get on my knees and read the rest of this chapter on my knees and its true on your knees you miss nothing, from what i was reading to the ache that my shins felt from sitting in one position so long. But it also heightened my senses to every word i was reading and because of this awareness to the words on the page i think God spoke to me more on the subject of intentionality.

" Jesus walked a lot, and not only during the last week of his life. The four gospels are peppered with accounts of him walking in the countryside, walking by the sea of Galilee, walking in the temple, and even walking on water. If Jesus had driven a car instead, it is difficult to imagine how that might have changed his impact. Surely someone could have loaned him a fast horse. Instead he Walked everywhere he went, except for the short stint on a donkey at the end. This gave him time to see things, like the milky eyes of the beggar sitting by the side of the road, or the round black eyes of sparrows sitting in their cages at the market. For many who followed him around, he was the destination. Whether he was going somewhere or no where at all, going with him was the point. Food tasted better at the pace he set. Stories lasted longer. Talk went deeper. While many of his present-day admirers pay close attention to what he said and did, they pay less attention to the pace at which he did it. Jesus was a walker not a rider."

I have never stopped to think about the intentionality of Jesus. How in everything he did he was intentional. In every conversation, in every person he did or did not heal, in every meal he shared, in every house he visited, and now I see even at the pace at which he walked. If he had been moving more quickly he may have missed the things that he took the time to see, but being perfect and all he let them become a focus for him, just as he came into focus for them. Then that made me think of not just walking intentionally but the spiritual practice of going barefoot... that even with my hatred for feet going bare foot has always been something that brings me great joy! So that made me think what if I walked intentionally barefoot, what then would God reveal to my soul! But then i thought I would look like a nut walking around LA barefoot..not to mention that would be nasty. But because I was on my knees and more aware of my thoughts and Gods soft voice in my heart he said to me Why are you so afraid of what people may think of you? he  took my mind of this quickly by reminding me of the thought that there are people who go barefoot in this world because they have no shoes. What would it be like to walk through the world with so little cushion, what nasty things would i walk through if I hunted for my lunch like my brothers and sisters in this world have to do. I think if done properly the spiritual act of going barefoot can take you halfway around the world and wake you up to your own place in the world all at the same time. 

He then pointed me to scripture in Exodus, that reminds us to "remove the sandals form your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." 

God allows me each day to walk on holy ground, especially at Wyvernwood, where kids take refuge, where they seek innocences, where they come for a few hours of intentional joy that is given by God through our groups. Today at Wyvernwood a group of kids played capture the flag not to win but to play. Big kids helped little kids, little kids smiled bigger at the big kids, older kids chose younger ones as MVPS and gave them the teams flags. 

As I stepped back tears filled my eyes as I was overcome with the presence of the kingdom and I heard a small voice whisper "remove your sandals for the place on which you stand is holy ground."

 And then I could not think of a more worthy place to be considered Holy ground! The thought of bare feet on holy ground instead of grossing me out filled me with joy and i had an over whelming feeling of desiring to fall on my knees and wash the feet of Jesus...I think i want that to be the first thing i do when i get to heaven!

A Different Kind of Church

For a while now God has opened my eyes to the idea that The Church doesn't mean a building. I don't think I really grasped that concept until moving to LA, because when you grow up in the bible belt its hard not to relate The Church with a building...seeing as on every street there is at least one church building.
Because LA has very few buildings that are only churches (even the super fast growing church we go to here called RealityLA meets in the auditorium of a high school), God has been teaching me to be intentional about looking for The Church in places I may have never thought to look. This thought challenged me to find "church" in three places out side of the regular building and this is what I've found.


1. An organization called Central City Community Outreach every Wednesday gives the residents of Skid Row their moment to shine. Skid Row contains the largest population of homeless people in the United States, up to nearly 7,000 people in a five block by five block radius are literally homeless, and each Wednesday a handful of these folks get to drink coffee, dance till they cant dance any more, and sing their hearts out. As you could imagine there are not many forms of entertainment for our homeless brothers and sisters so Tony and his wife decided to open up the doors to the community to give people a moment to be a star. Music varies from old crowd favorites, R&B, and even Coldplay. Not only are these people having a blast but there are so many phenomenal voices! American Idol should think about doing a round of auditions here next year! In a place like skid row its easy to only see the dark, to walk through and never see a glimpse of good, but  every Wednesday night God is bursting out of this place, showing Himself in the form of beautiful voices, genuine joy, and real fellowship. Praise goes out to intentional community, smiles reflecting the heart of Jesus, and getting to be a star!

2. The second place God has showed me Church has been for sure where I least expected it. For the past three weeks I have had the privilege of taking students to an elderly rehabilitation center called Vernon Convalescent Home. Vernon is a place where the elderly who have had some sort of medical problem can go live and recover, or receive the proper care that is needed for them to heal. 

I have always been super nervous when it comes to spending time with the elderly...I'm aware that this probably makes me a bad person, but I'm just being honest. I get scared and just feel uncomfortable. But God is so much bigger then my fears and rose to my challenge for Him to present himself in this place. Each time I have gone I have gotten to sit in on a worship service that is done every Monday at 11. A wonderful lady named Ms. Pattie comes and places the piano and leads a group of about ten women in old hymns. Not only do I get to be blessed by their genuine worship lifting of their voices in strength before our Lord, but there is also a testimony time where they all share how God has loved them that week. This past week a lady named Mattie shared that she was born in 1912 (which makes her 100 for all you math stars out there) and that she was so thankful to wake up, but that she can not wait to meet Jesus face to face and bow at his feet. Praise goes out to getting wisdom from new sisters, overcoming fear, and authentic worship. 

                                          

3. I have gotten the awesome opportunity to work at a not so official ministry site with my past few CSM groups. Each afternoon we go to a large community called Wyvernwood in East LA. It is a neighborhood that is in an area of LA that has more gang activity then your typical community. Not only do they have more gang activity but they also have more kids then they average neighborhood. Up to 2,000 Latino kids live in this community of small town house style apartments, with up to four families living together in some cases. The best way kids stay out of getting involved with gangs is after school activities and so its a great way for us to plug into this community by having something for the children here to do when they get off the bus. We play soccer, duck duck goose, color with chalk, do arts and crafts, teach bible stories, and be kids! Most of these kids will be forced to grow up pretty fast, I hang out with a group of 9 to 11 year old boys who use the F word like its their job, so we try and offer them a two to three hour period of their day where they can just be kids. Each time we close our time in the afternoons we all join hands and make a circle and kids share what they are thankful for. (thanks Sifat for this great idea) At the beginning of my time with these kids they told me they were thankful for things like toilets, food, soccer, and underwear...which yes, are all great things to be thankful for... However. yesterday a small boy raised his hand and said he was thankful for his generation... Praise goes out to having log roll races down a hill, laying in the grass looking at the sky talking about air planes, and hearing the thankful hearts of a generation that will undoubtedly change our world.

"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

Ephesians 2:19-22

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!