Note: The first two post on this blog are from our current trip. The following posts are from previous year's adventures.
PASADENA MISSION UPDATE #2 – FRIDAY – DECEMBER 30, 2016
Our morning started early.
Ellie said we should be eating breakfast by 6 a.m. Did you know California is still in the dark
at that hour? But we were eating eggs,
bacon, sausage, hash browns and fruit in the dark of the early morning just as
she asked us to. We do listen to our
leader, me especially!! We had coffee
and juice and the pepsi machine was already working at that hour. All was good.
They even had the lights on in the hotel dining area to chase away the
darkness!
After breakfast we got together in the meeting room for a
few minutes and then boarded the three shuttles to take us to the Rose Palace
for our first day of decorating work. To
bring many past Pasadena volunteers up to speed, here is a word about the
shuttles we are using this year. We
decided to see if we could avoid renting eight cars for a week and having eight
people to negotiate the crowded California freeways. This was common practice other years. There didn’t seem to be many people interested
in driving when we had the training meeting in early December. We checked into renting shuttles instead to
see what it would cost. The hotel, also
a new location this year, charges for parking at the rate of $29/day/vehicle. This also was a good reason to think about
using a shuttle service.
God has been watchful for the past fourteen years for there
has not been even a fender bender accident with all those cars on the road each
year. Having shuttles move us around reduces
the risk of an accident and allows eight people to relax instead of fighting
traffic to and from our destinations. As
we headed to Pasadena in three small shuttles this morning, at least eight of
us were grateful for not having to drive in the rain. It could well be that the rest of our group
is also grateful that their lives are not in the hands of inexperienced drivers
on the California freeways!
This evening we were all tired and again we let the shuttle drivers
bring us back to a restaurant and then to the hotel. Having shuttles made it necessary to set
plans of all our comings and goings before we even arrived in California, but
it greatly reduces stress, removes liability and seems to be working well so
far.
For many, today’s work was a new experience for they had not
been on this decorating trip previously.
As soon as we arrived at the Rose Palace in the rain, we were ushered
into a tent attached to the building.
There was a request for people to go onto scaffolding and four ladies from
our group bravely volunteered to work on scaffolding on the Lutheran Hour
float. There were two levels of
scaffolding and they ended up on the top, at least twelve feet in the air. I know Pastor Gene ended up on the
scaffolding as well. They talked about
their experience tonight at our group sharing meeting and from what I heard,
they were glad they had been able to help in that way but it was hard work and
a little scary as well.
There are so many jobs to complete. Some of us pulled button flowers from their
stems and laid them upside down in boxes while others put glue on their
undersides. Runners took the boxes of
glued flowers to the National Hockey League float where they were glued to the
surface. Later the same process was
duplicated, this time with white carnations that were glued onto the same float. Others cut tiny ends from purple statice flowers,
a very tedious job. It will later be glued
on to create purple areas on some floats.
Other people were directed to the flower tent and worked vialing thousands
of roses of all colors.
I spent the afternoon running a large cutter that trimmed bunches
of 24 long rose stems with one hard slice of the blade. The vial crew further shortened the stems and
inserted them into vials of water for sticking into the floats the day before
the parade. Weather has been cool and
rainy so perhaps the roses can be applied a day earlier. That will remove some of the crunch work at
the end. Our scaffold climbing ladies were
gluing blended flower petals onto surfaces on top of the Lutheran float. Their challenge was getting it to stick and
cover the surfaces while avoiding dropping glue and flower powder onto those
working below them. From what I heard,
gravity was a problem at times.
One of the most interesting things about this decorating
activity is meeting people who have come to help decorate. Some of our people worked on a float for the
Sikhs, a Hindu group in their third year for having a float entry. A lot of sharing happened with them during
the day. I personally had interesting
discussions during my stem cutting with an older lady from a group of young
people with Armenian ancestry. I learned
much from her about the history of her country and the injustices done to her
people long ago by Muslims from Turkey.
When I mentioned Turkey, as I was trying to place where in the world
Armenia was, she noticeably bristled and the level of her voice went up a few
notches. Hatred for what they did to her
family lives on inside her. Her family had
been forced to Egypt where she was born.
She shared that she speaks five languages and was proud of the thirty
some Armenian schools in the Los Angeles area.
Who would have guessed?
You learn so much as you rub shoulders with people during
the day. I visited with a young lady who said she lives
in the California high desert. In her
words she lives “just over the hill” from Pasadena. I
smiled and reminded her that in Iowa we would call those mountains. She had come to volunteer for a day of
work. Another lady helping with the rose
project was from Idaho. She is staying
in a B & B for a week and working every day. We
visited during the afternoon and I could write an article about her from all
the interesting information she shared as we worked side by side.
All in all, when the shuttles picked us up at the end of our
shift at four o’clock, we were all very tired and getting hungry. After a trip to the Home Buffet near our
hotel in El Segundo, we took care of the hungry part. At this writing, I am pretty sure most of our
group is now taking care of the tired part as well. I need to join them!
After returning to the hotel, we met at the meeting room and
discussed our impressions and the pows and wows of our day. We began a sorting process of the items we
brought for the homeless at Skid Row so we know what we need to purchase
tomorrow at the 99 cent Store to complete the health kits we brought.
Ellie concluded our time together by showing a video from
Ken Ham, an Australian fellow who has come to the United States to make us
aware of what is happening to Christianity in Western Culture. He presented some sobering and stunning
facts. We will see other segments of his
videos in the coming days. For those not
familiar with Ken Ham, you may have heard about what his projects. He has built The Creation Museum and just
finished building a full-scale model of Noah’s ark. His main focus is for us to learn how to
defend our faith against the onslaught we are facing from all sides today.
I will end for tonight.
Hopefully you are receiving these updates and some photos on this one as
well.
God’s Blessing to each of you.
Lynn Menz – Petal Pusher Boy – YES, I did find those petals
today!!!
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