By Jena Nahnsen, Immanuel, Schleswig July 14, 2013
We’ve been busy at work preparing for VBS at our four churches. Our days have been filled with decorating, canvassing and making crafts. VBS starts Monday and ends Friday.
On Saturday we had our eyes opened to a side people don’t usually associate with California. We spent our day serving the homeless people living on Skid Row. Skid Row is an area where 7-8 thousand people are homeless. Just imagine yourself living on the street with little food, no bed, and all your possessions fitting into a bag. It’s hard to wrap our brains around that. At Skid Row, we worked with Kimberley and Gerald from New Salvation Ministry, four different church groups, and some other volunteers. We handed out health kits, clothing, toys, and a meal. The meal consisted of two pieces of chicken, banana, beans, roll, piece of bread, and cupcake. Serving was very humbling and made us realize how blessed we really are.
Then, after sitting down to a meal with all the volunteers we headed back to the hotel. We had a little break to reflect, go swimming, or do whatever we wanted before we went out to eat at Panera Bread. In our devotions, we talked about what Skid Row meant to us that day. Some said it was humbling and others said they realized we don’t need all the new, name-brand things.
Now, we do have time for fun too. On Sunday, we split into groups and half of us went to worship at Christ Lutheran Church while the other half went to Hope Lutheran Church.. After that we hopped into the vehicles and drove to Santa Monica Pier for some shopping! There were painters, performers, and lots of people. On the beach there was a memorial set up for fallen soldiers who served in Iraq. It’s definitely a change going from Skid Row the day before to Santa Monica Pier.
Our team has fun working together. We are so excited for VBS to start and to continue to see what God has planned for us.
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