This weekend my daughter told me that she didn't want to be a Christian. Before I get to that though, let's rewind a bit...

My parents raised us three boys to be independent. This was both intentional and unintentional. Intentional in that they wanted to make us into adults that could think and act on our own. Unintentional in that they both had to work long hours to make ends meet thus leaving us to fend for ourselves a lot of the time, beginning as young as 8-years-old.

Overall I like how my parents did things because I think I turned out okay, eventually. With my own two kids however, I am trying to minimize how often they "fend for themselves" while still empowering them to be free thinkers. My daughter turns seven in a few days and my son just started middle school. He is eleven. To facilitate this free-thinking-ness, I encourage honest conversation about the things we all three do wrong personally, from lusting to lying. On the whole, I am very strict about the movies we watch, but I use any "bad" moment in a movie as a teaching opportunity.

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Death is unfortunately common on the streets of Hollywood, thanks to the proliferation of disease and murder. On Wednesday, a few of us found out that the life of a friend from the street, Andre, was lost to complications from drug use, HIV and pneumonia. The memorial service was held on Thursday, just hours before our team went out on the street. As we received phone calls from some of our friends, and walked the streets on Thursday, we encountered several mourners (please pray for all of them!)


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Last night I went to a church in Watts to deliver a carload of balls and art sets that will be handed out to the children for Christmas.

The first time I ever visited Watts was two years ago as part of a 5-day/4-night mission trip. That's a whole other story. Needless to say, at that time, I was terrified of the idea of going to Watts. Visiting Watts was literally on my Top 10 List of Things I Don't Want to Do. Jumping out of an airplane, being burned to death, and drowning to death were also in that same top 10. On our team's last night in Watts we walked through the neighborhood to get to a local restaurant that had food to die for - pun intended. As our team of mostly white people walked the streets, I felt kind of like we were a militia in a foreign land and the enemy was lurking behind any one of the windows on either side of us. I thought for sure that at any moment we would be fired upon and would have to duck or run for cover.

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This last week on Santa Monica Blvd, our team met at our usual place at the usual time, a Del Taco parking lot at 11:00pm. While we were in the middle of praying as a team before going to the streets, four new friends from the street joined us. After prayer we discussed plans for the night and they said that they wanted to join us for the church service that would be starting at midnight. I was "paired" up with Kayla and Han and we decided that the three of us should walk the street with these four, getting to know them better, until the service started. During introductions, they all four gave us pseudonyms. I forgot one of them (because I forget everything plus they changed names during the night), but the other three were "Steve", "T", and "D". Prior to our team closing our eyes for prayer, I had noticed these four men and a couple other guys whispering in each other's ears and being shifty with their hands. After the seven of us had crossed the street together, two of the men, "D" and the one whose name I can't recall, started making illegal business deals with others at the donut shop. To say that I became nervous was an understatement. I immediately turned to Han to ensure that he was praying and, when everyone else was distracted, I quickly sent the following text message to our remote prayer team: "Our group might be being used as a cover 4 something shady. Pls pray 4 safety and discernment." My text reply was, "Got it." After that, I focused primarily on talking with "Steve" while Kayla spoke with "T", the two guys who were not performing transactions. More details about Steve and T are below suffice to say that these two were the only new friends to join us for the midnight church service.


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Jeremiah shares a sermon about the self-destructive cycles we find ourselves in and how we can break free. [The full version includes an extra four minutes of inaudible dialog plus time spent looking for the right page. Both have been cut out of this version of the video.]

Jeremiah (Jere) and Antquan share a sermon about the loss of innocence and about Jesus' desire and plan to restore our broken lives. [The full version includes an extra minute of dialog between Jeremiah and one of our friends from the street. But since you can't can't hear the dialog on the video, it has been cut out of this version of the video.]

This week I was paired up with Jen (and Han as our prayer support) to go out on the street and share the love of Christ. After a few minutes of walking up and down our stretch of Santa Monica Blvd, we found a prostitute wearing a miniskirt and high heels standing alone in the cold waiting for his next customer to drive up. Jen and her bubbly personality got the conversation rolling quickly and so it took mere moments to learn that his name is "Natasha" and that it was his birthday. We also learned that he is writing an autobiography detailing the various hardships in his life and how he has overcome them. He volunteered to us that he has spent a lot of time alone lately just reflecting on his life and considering ways to improve it. Very early on in the conversation, Jen asked Natasha what he would like prayer for. Natasha quickly suggested that we pray for God to help him with his book. Well... we spoke with Natasha for roughly thirty minutes and most of that time was focused on empathizing with Natasha's pain and frustration with things like the self-perpetuating prison system and parents who abuse and neglect their children instead of loving them. Natasha had lots of things to say and we were there to listen... and agree. At the end of the conversation, we asked again what he would like prayer for. This time, he was too choked up to give a proper answer. With tears in his eyes, he said, "Just that God would give me..." But Natasha couldn't finish his own sentence because even he wasn't sure what it is exactly he is searching for.

As we said our goodbyes, I gave him a hug and wished him a happy birthday. We invited him to the Refuge church service and he said he would join us shortly. Later, he did actually come by for a few minutes but he left shortly after getting a plate of pizza.

Please pray that Natasha keeps searching for and eventually finds God.

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Have you ever been to a party or large gathering where you felt like you knew everyone? You showed up and looked around and realized that you recognized every face? You then made your way around the room getting involved in nearly every conversation? Have you ever experienced all this or something like this and then realized that you didn't really know these people and they didn't really know you? If you were, for example, to tell one of them what you did as a hobby and what you liked about it, would they be totally surprised? Would they be surprised to learn your greatest fear or deepest desire? Would they be surprised to know that you were a Christian who regularly read your Bible and went to church?

I attended a relatively small private Christian high school for four years. By the time I was a senior, I "knew" almost everyone in the school from freshmen to senior and they "knew" me. I could get into a conversation with just about anyone about just about anything: music, sports, teachers, homework, dating, etc. I did all of this without really letting anyone know me. Even my "best friends" in high school didn't know me and I didn't really know them. That would probably explain why, although we haven't completely lost touch, we haven't talked in several years.

I am going to tell you all a little secret about me that almost no one knows. Once this is posted, of course, it won't be a secret anymore, but I think that making my point is worth sharing my secret.

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I have another story to share about my time on the streets of Hollywood last night. To anyone who is thinking, "didn't you just share a story about last night?" the answer is yes. My other story entitled "Enthusiasm for a Parking Lot Church" was about a woman named Essence. If you haven't read that story yet, you should. It's a good one. :)

Well, while our small group which included Essence was having discussions about the sermon last night, I would occasionally look around to see what else was going on around us. (There is always lots of crazy activity going on out there. Last night, some young drunken clubbers who were all friends got in a *fist fight* over who got to sit in the front seat of their car! It all took place just a few feet away from us!) Almost every time I looked up, one of the other ladies from the street was looking at me. This is odd for (at least) two reasons. First, we don't encounter a lot of real women on these streets and last night we had at least four in our church service. Second, it wasn't just one of them. Three ladies were like taking turns. And it wasn't coincidence either. They had to turn their shoulders to see me. So, anyway, after our little discussion group broke up, one of the ladies approached me and I finally got to learn why she kept looking. (The other two will remain a mystery.)


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Last week, while hanging out on the streets of Hollywood with Broken Hearts, I met a real woman who calls herself Essence. (Many of the "women" we meet on the street are actually transgenders and transvestites.) I had just invited Jamal, a very familiar face, to our church service when Essence overheard and, with an attitude, exclaimed "You aren't going to church!" Jamal and a few others from the street walked to the church service with us. Essence stayed behind. Apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, I can't explain why Essence actually came to the parking lot where we meet for church service a few minutes later, on her own. She looked very out of place and bewildered as we passed out pizza and welcomed people into conversation. She reluctantly accepted a slice of pizza and then stayed for the message about "Playing the Victim" (the story of the man healed at the Pool of Bethesda and the story of Paul, Silas and the Jailor in Macedonia).

Last night, I spotted Essence in the Del Taco right after I arrived. When we made eye contact, she didn't recognize me immediately and had a look of disinterest. Then her face exploded into a smile as she figured out who I was and exclaimed, "Is there church tonight?!" When I told her that there was and that I was telling another story, she turned to the four or five friends who were with her and announced with enthusiasm, "I'm going to church tonight!"


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