A Place of Hope

Hope Gardens is a place for women and children who have been in abusive relationships and have chosen to leave, but needed a safe place to be with their children. Hope Gardens work with helping these women to get jobs and to transition back into society. We went and played games with the kids… something kind of like fugitive where we are all running in the dark, trying to smuggle Bibles to the finish line but if you get caught by the ‘police’ you have to go to ‘jail’. Its pretty much the most fun game ever! I got separated from my team and was wandering around aimlessly when a little girl named Mia asked what we were doing, I told her we were playing a game, did she want to come along. She ran up to me, took my hand and we went to ask her mom. We picked up her sister who was probably 5 and took off running. I guess we weren’t suspects because we made it all the way to the finish line without anyone chasing us! Mia and her sister—whose name I can’t remember—were having such a blast playing with the bigger kids. On our way back down the hill, Mia disappeared. The sister got really nervous, so we went on a search behind the apartments and it was really dark, she was really scared. I told her that this was an adventure and it was fun, she said she didn’t like adventures. Then we started walking through the little opening and the sprinklers came on! I picked her up and ran through them and she was laughing; afterwards, I said, ‘see, adventures are fun!’ and she informed me that that wasn’t fun. What can you say to that?! We gathered with all of the students to pray together and to say goodbye. Mia gave me a big hug and said she was going to miss me, then she took her barrette out of her hair and gave it to me ‘so that you don’t forget me,’ she said.


I wonder how many people come into her life and leave just like we did. But she didn’t hold back, she loved on us, she sang her heart out and even prayed the closing prayer as we left. I hope that I never do forget a little girl name Mia who didn’t assume that we were going to leave, but she maybe knew it, but she loved us anyways.

Two Really Cool Guys

Adrian and Ben work with Mosaic as part of Serve LA. They took time out of their busy schedules to come and hang out with us and share with us their thoughts on loving others and serving God. It was a really wonderful time of hearing them sharing their passions and here are some of my favorite things they said: “God is already having the conversation with the world.” –Ben. We are privileged to jump in and be a part of it. “My filter for the world is really hopeful. The world is full of possibility. Redemption is God’s Idea. Whenever I see anything that is broken being restored-I know that is God.” –Adrian. I loved their thoughts and their humble hearts. They want to serve in whatever way they can and they just love people along the way. I was very inspired by them!

Stop the Busyness and Share a Table

We arrived at LAX on Tuesday, May 18th, jumped on the enterprise shuttle and that was the beginning to an amazing adventure. After we went to Enterprise and got our CIA/Drug-dealer/Cool mom Suburbans(funny how a Suburban can be mistaken for three very different roles, but we got all of those in LA), we went to a California MUST: In-n-Out Burgers. The place was pretty busy and our group of twenty took up every empty table and then some. Brian and I were standing in the opening waiting for a table to open up, just chilling out. A man and woman were dressed business-y in the corner and they cleared their stuff of the space next to them and invited us to sit down with them. We sat down and started chatting; turns out they were from Dallas and had flown in real quick to do some business and were now headed back to the airport to go to the next stop. We shared stories about what we were doing in LA and before we knew it, it was time for them to leave. I smile at this very nice break in a busy day and reflect on their kindness and thoughtfulness to invite us to sit down. We were blessed to join in on their conversation and a few minutes of their lives.