The Last Week in Pasadena

I can't believe I leave Pasadena tomorrow! Oh how time has just FLOWN by!! 

This past week has been a whirlwind...but let's face it, every week has been a whirlwind! 

Let's see...the last time I left you guys was my birthday...I've got some catching up to do! 

Last Sunday (the day after my birthday) we went to Grace Community Church, the church John MacArthur preaches at...you might know him from the MacArthur study Bible. That church was incredible! It was far more traditional than any of the other churches we've gone to this summer, but it was great! There was a choir of probably 80-100 people and a full orchestra to lead worship! For the offertory a man sang "It Is Well" and oh my gosh I've never heard a song quite as beautiful! It was great! 

Monday we jumped right back into our final culture and religion focuses with a culture focus on China! So we learned all morning about China and then that afternoon we went to Chinatown to practice some evangelism! It was a little different than the other times we've done evangelism because most of the people there were working and not just hanging around. So my partner and I decided to be strategic and go get pedicures and maybe get to talk some to the ladies there! And we did! The pedicure place was super sketchy but the ladies were really sweet and we were able to have some intentional conversations with them! Praise The Lord! 

The entrance to Chinatown.

Tuesday was our Buddhism focus and we learned all about what Buddhists believe and their culture and what not. Then Wednesday we went on our last temple visit. :( We went to the largest Buddhist temple in North America, its on a compound of over 15 acres and we saw only a very small portion of it. 

This is just the front entrance. 

This is called The Room of 10,000 Buddhas because there are over 10,000 mini Buddha statues that were put there in honor of people who donated to the construction of the temple. 

The temple grounds were absolutely stunning! There wasn't a blade of grass out of place!

This was our tour guide, Don. He's been a Buddhist for about 10 years and volunteers at the temple. Doesn't he look just like the guy from UP!?!

Thursday we had a lot of different talks about the practical steps to going overseas like picking an agency, training, etc. 

Friday we loaded up everyone in the vans and headed down to San Diego for the weekend to learn about tribals and animism...and how to surf! 

That's me! I did get up and got to ride a nice long wave! It was awesome! Gidget would be so proud! But the water was SUPER cold and surfing is exhausting, so I didn't end up getting any more waves. 

Yeah I'm in the water somewhere near that board. 

San Diego was so much fun....and SO CHALLENGING! We were all sucker punched by our speaker at least 3 times a day with his sacrifice and commitment to the gospel. He and his wife were absolutely incredible to be around for a few days. We were all so sad to leave. 

The past two days we've been learning all about mobilizing and what it means to share what we've learned back home. So if anyone is curious just let me know and I can show you! 

Now we are on to our last day...everyone ships out tomorrow. Oh that's just so weird.

Birthday Week!

It has been a mighty busy week, but a really great week! 

Let's see...this week we started our religion focuses and temple visits. So it's been a week jam packed with knowledge and learning. 

Monday we did a religion focus on Islam. So a speaker came in and taught us all about Islam. He taught us the history of Islam and how it's evolved over time. He taught us about the practices of the religion, like Ramadan, pilgrimage, prayer, etc. He also taught us a lot about the culture that accompanies Islam. I think I liked that the most! I love learning stuff like that! Then, Friday we got to go and visit a mosque! It was really cool! The mosque was beautiful and the people there were so friendly and welcoming! They were so excited to have us there! The place was PACKED because Ramadan just started a few days ago. 

This was inside the mosque. 

It was really fun getting to wear the hijab while we were there!

Tuesday we learned all about the Hare Krishna Movement. It was started in the 1970s by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...try and say that name at least once! Wednesday we got up BRIGHT and EARLY to go to the Hare Krishna temple to watch a worship service. It was incredibly interesting; there was a lot of diversity. Diversity in the people there worshiping and also in the style of worship. They use all five senses for worship, so theres incense, food, music, dancing and chanting, and much much more!

This is a shrine of A.C. They dress, wash and feed it everyday. 

Wednesday night we went on one of our last Rendezvous. :( We went to Chick-fil-a and then to Runyon Canyon and hiked/walked around.

It was a really pretty view of the city, and the sunset!

Thursday was our day off! So we tackled Echo Mountain once again, and this time we were victorious!! We chose to go at 9:30 a.m. instead of 1:30 p.m., and it was 70 degrees instead of 90. It made a big difference. 

Look at that view! 

This was so cool! You could yell into the megaphone and then like 5 seconds later hear it echoing off the mountains. It was awesome! 

Friday morning we went to the mosque and Friday evening we learned about Hinduism. That was one long day! Hinduism is a very complicated religion, mostly because it's so diverse. So just about every Hindu believes something a little different.

Saturday, MY BIRTHDAY, my quad-mates came and sang me Happy Birthday at midnight, and then the next morning my sweet roommates decorated my bed! 

It was just so sweet! 

Then we all loaded up and went to visit the Hindu temple in Malibu!

This guy is one of the priests at the temple. He was very helpful and welcoming! He showed us around the temple and gave us a lot of information and answered our many questions!

Then we went to THE BEACH! What a great way to spend my birthday!!

It was overcast the whole time we were there, but don't worry we still got PLENTY of sun. 

Rachel, Rebecca, Holly and I. 

Rachel was pretending to be Ariel. The picture looks great but about 3 seconds after this the water was trying to drag her out to sea! Don't worry it didn't succeed. 

After the beach we headed to Santa Monica to have dinner! I was really looking forward to being able to eat at a real, sit-down restaurant, but we didn't have time. So Rachel just treated me to a Pinkberry instead!

Then we came back to campus. A few of us went to H&M later that night in the search of cheap clothes, and we succeeded! And then got some more froyo! I mean it was my birthday! 

All-in-all it was a WONDERFUL birthday! I had such a great day yesterday! 

Today was great too! (Even though the day after your birthday is always so disappointing) This morning we went to Grace Community Church, where John MacArthur is the pastor. Then we came back and chilled out for a while. I got to go grab coffee with my friend Craig who lives in L.A. It was so nice getting to see him again! Very refreshing! 

It's been a very full, but very great week! The Lord has been truly generous! 

Celebration Week.

Geez, I hadn't realized it had been so long since I had posted...sorry guys! It's been a busy week of celebrating, and not just on the Fourth of July! 

Monday was our last day of Perspectives! It was a little bittersweet! I think we all enjoyed what we were learning and reading about, but the 3 hours of class every morning was getting a little old. It has been such a blessing to get to go through Perspectives again. It's really an incredible course that opens your eyes to seeing God and His purpose in a whole new way! 

So Monday we celebrated the fact that everyone survived Perspectives Intensive! Wahoo! But also on Monday we celebrated Canada! For those of you who weren't aware, July 1st is Canada day, and since we have a real live Canadian in our group we just had to celebrate! And what better way to celebrate, than with cake! 

Delicious Canadian Cake!

Tuesday was a day for FUN! We got to sleep in!! Wahoo! A group went to the beach, another group went to a cool bookstore, and another went on a hike. I chose to go on the hike. The hike was supposed to be 3.2 miles and take us up to this old abandoned resort, but it wasn't our best idea to hike up a mountain at 1:30 pm when it's 94 degrees outside. Needless to say, we didn't make it up to that resort. We made it around 2.5 miles and decided that it was in the best interest of everyone if we turned back before we ran out of water and/or died of heat stroke. It was a rough couple of hours but I think we all still had a good time! 

Wednesday was a LONG day! We were up bright and early! We rolled out of the parking lot at 6:45 am and headed down to CBS studios to be on THE PRICE IS RIGHT!! Oh that's right we were in the audience! None of us were actually called down to be contestants, which was a little shocking considering we were about 45% of the audience. But oh well it was still a cool experience and it was really fun watching other people win! The episode airs on October 22, 2013 if you want to watch! We sat right behind contestants row so you should see us a lot! 

That night we had a little birthday party for all the summer birthdays! It was sweet! And cake twice in one week...yes please! 

Thursday was the Fourth of July! Yippee!! It started with a good old fashioned cookout for lunch! Then that afternoon we hit up a few thrift stores, we had to look "white trash chic" for the Monster Truck Rally we went to that evening, KABOOM! (KABOOM was the name of the event, and consequently is my new favorite word) I had never been to a monster truck rally before, and I don't know if I'll ever go again, but it was a fun experience. 

If you look close you can see some blurry spots in mid air over the black ramp, those are men on motocross bikes doing flips and what not. 

Mom sent me some glow bracelets in the mail a few days ago, they were perfect for KABOOM! 

Friday and today we took the Perspectives Coordinator Workshop. It's two days filled with LOTS and LOTS of information! But it did make me excited to go home and hopefully get a class started in Lake Charles. 

Last night we had small group Rendezvous with another girls small group and a guys group. We went to the LA tar pits. So apparently there are these pits that just seep oil and tar like right in the middle of Los Angeles and you can go see and smell them if you so choose. We so chose. 

The tar pits were pretty interesting,but mostly just a little weird. But still cool.

Tonight I believe we're having some ballroom dancing lessons! That should be pretty fun! 

Next week is when we'll really get going on religion and culture focuses, as well as temple visits. It's going to be good!