Pasadena UPDATE #6 1-2-16

Pasadena UPDATE #6   1-2-16

Today was scheduled to be our “free day” and so it was.  Some people drove to Simi Valley to visit the Ronald Reagan Museum and to see the beautiful country in that part of California, north of where we are staying.  I asked a few of them about their day when they returned and I heard how they very much enjoyed the trip and the visit.

Some people drove south to the San Pedro area to the Battleship USS Iowa.  I was in that group.  We had a tour arranged but due to some technical difficulty it didn’t get scheduled.  However, there was a tour guide, a volunteer, who happened to be there on his day off so they asked him to take our group.  We were treated to over a two-hour tour of this magnificent ship even though the tours are slated to be one and a half hours long.  This man had so much information at his disposal, including much technical information about the ship, its armaments, operation, times it saw action and people who had served on this ship.  What a fantastic day we had!

Some people stayed at the hotel to simply take a break and rest from the long hours we have been keeping.  Still others took a shuttle and went shopping on a pier at a nearby beach.  From what I understand, and from a cell phone photo I saw, they ate in a restaurant that is built out over the water.  I also was told they had a delicious meal which included eating shark!  And I am betting they had some great shopping experiences as well.

Most of the people also worked in a trip to the beach.  Our group came back from the battleship and headed for El Segundo Beach.  Heather had never seen the Pacific Ocean but she has now connected with it as a cold ocean wave came rolling in and washed over her bare feet.  Cheryl also immediately had her shoes off and walked on the sand towards the water.  As the next big wave came in, she began rapidly backing up to avoid getting her pant legs wet.  She ended up getting really intimate with the mighty Pacific for she stumbled and ended up sitting in the sand as the wave caught up and sloshed past her.

We posed for photos on an outcrop of rock before returning to the hotel.  We had a nice tour of the town of El Segundo in the process because our fearless leader forgot which street would take us to the ocean and we had to drive around a bit to find it.

At five o’clock we all met in the hotel meeting room, received purchasing instructions, and drove to the 99¢ store to buy the remaining items to fill the towel kits we will be handing out at Skid Row tomorrow.  Back at the hotel, we unloaded everything onto tables and filled the waiting towels with all the personal hygiene items.  All the suitcases we had filled back in Iowa, and all those we just assembled, will be traveling with us to Skid Row tomorrow.  We will also be taking socks, underwear, coloring books for kids and boxes of Bibles for distribution.

Kimberly, a friend and teacher who has an amazing ministry in a very poor section of Los Angeles, met us at the store and we purchased about four hundred dollars worth of school supplies she needed for her classroom.  She is an amazing and dedicated teacher who requests all the middle school students who are problem kids.  She does so because she understands where they come from, why they act the way they do and knows how to deal with them.  They respond to her love and her discipline and dedication to the teaching profession.  She tells them she is praying for each of them and will love them and there is nothing they can do about it.

Kimberly came to the hotel and spoke to us afterwards about her teaching experiences and gave her personal story and testimony in her riveting presentation!  We were spellbound for nearly an hour as she spoke.  She told us about how she pushes her students and requires more of them than other teachers.  Gangs live in her area and she talked about how she deals with members who put graffiti on her property.  This beautiful woman stands upon the word of God and refuses to be fearful.  I am sure it brought a new perspective to all of our lives as we listened to her amazing stories.

She had also brought cupcakes and two cakes  that she had baked.  Amazingly, in this year’s Petal Pusher mission team, there were seven December birthdays so we all got to sit around the cake table while everyone sang Happy Birthday to us.  Then we dug into the cake.  We were not prepared. We were without silverware and plates but the hotel provided plastic plates and spoons from the breakfast area.  We found that cake can be cut with the handle of a spoon but it produces a lot of crumbs.  Eventually someone went to their room and returned with a real knife and all was well.

Today was a free day but it was filled with so much activity that it was exhausting, especially for those who did the driving.  It is past midnight and we are just getting to bed.  Tomorrow will come early as we are scheduled to leave at about 8:30 for our service project at Skid Row in the downtown area of Los Angeles.  That adventure awaits.

Good night!

Lynn Menz – one of the December birthday cake eaters

Pasadena update #6 1-1-16

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Welcome to 2016 and what it will bring into your life!  For me, it started much too early!   Ellie set the alarm for 3:30 a.m. and that just doesn’t seem to be the right way to begin a new year.  But, what do I know?  We needed to be ready to meet our group in the lobby of our hotel to start the day’s adventure at 5:00 a.m. Did you know it’s still really dark at that hour of the morning?  As my two year old grandson would say, “I no yikes it!”

Obviously, there is a reason for such an early start.  We needed to be on California’s numbered cement ribbons, also known as interstates, so we could arrive in Pasadena by 6:00 to claim our seats for the famous Rose Parade.  People had been up all night saving them for us right along Colorado Boulevard.

 Today we had to match up cars and drivers and riders.  After the parade, some were going from there to shuttles that took them to the football game.  Vivian was already on the parade route because she will be riding on the float.  Those who are not attending the game need to have enough cars and the right drivers to get back to our hotel to watch the game on TV.  We finally had it all worked out so everyone was able to get where they needed to be.

The parade was awesome, as it always is, viewed from our spot along Colorado Boulevard, right in the middle of the route.  It began with a fly over of the Stealth Bomber down Colorado Boulevard, truly a sight to behold!  As that plane comes low towards our position nearly everyone gasps and all eyes are looking up, following it as it roars past.   When there is a conflict, I am certainly glad I am on the same side as that bomber!

 I believe there were forty-four floats in the parade this year in addition to all of the marching bands and equestrian units.  I won’t even attempt to explain any details of all the magnificent floats in the parade.  If I use one word to sum it up, it would simply be fantastic!  After decorating so many floats and understanding the work and skill that went into each one, there is an appreciation level greater than what the average person sees.  If I had to pick out one float that topped them all, it would be the Disney entry!  Find it online and see for yourself.  As one person expressed, it almost made me cry when I saw it because it was that beautifully done!

The Lutheran Hour float was near the end of the parade this year and all of the Petal Pushers stood and cheered as it went past.  Vivian, a member of our group, was riding on the float and waving to us and we cheered her on. To be honored in that way no doubt made it a day she will never forget.  Of course we have great pride in our beautiful float, the only Christian float in the parade.  Many in our group worked very hard to decorate it.  We now have those memories and photos of it moving down Colorado Boulevard so we can relive this experience for a lifetime.

As we arrived at our viewing location early this morning in the dark and cold, Eric Hansen from Channel 8 TV, and Glenn his photographer, came to enjoy the parade with us and to do additional interviews.  He generated additional reports and they have already been aired back home in Iowa.  We cannot wait to see what he put together.  We have had quite the coverage from that station.  It would be great if many of you could write and thank them for covering our efforts in Pasadena.

After the parade, we went back to our cars and had a ‘trunk lunch’ of sandwiches, chips, etc. We do this to allow time for many of the million people in Pasadena to leave before we head to the game and back to the hotel.

Then there is the big game.  I hope those who went enjoyed the adventure if not the score! Memories were made even if the ending left so much to be desired.

Our evening ended with devotions at 7:30, sharing pows and wows from the day, and sharing of prayer needs so we can each pray for others in our group over the coming weeks.  Tomorrow is our free day so we discussed tomorrow’s events.  Groups will go to visit the USS Iowa Battleship, the Reagan Museum or go to the beach.  Afterwards we plan to go to the 99¢ store to purchase items to complete our service project items for Skid Row the following day.

Lynn Menz – Exhausted Petal Pusher and Rose Parade watcher

Pasadena Updates 12-31-15

Pasadena UPDATE #5 12-31-15

Greetings once again from sunny California!  A look at the calendar tells you one of two things.  It is December 31^st, New Year’s Eve so it is the last day of the year or it is just one day until we get to begin living a brand new year.  It’s a matter of perspective isn’t it?  I suppose it depends upon how this year has unfolded for you, whether you want it to end and start over or if you are bemoaning the fact that it is already over and you are not ready to move on.

We Petal Pushers are ready to move on I believe.  We have had a tough three days of decorating and navigating California seven lane highways and traffic jams.  This time out here I have seen more traffic than any of the other years I have joined Ellie on her Petal Pusher adventures.  The only thing I can figure out is that everyone from Iowa must be here and on the highways!  We certainly have seen an army of Iowa people with their black and yellow shirts. 

There was a wide line of people waiting to get into the Rose Palace when we arrived this morning, far greater than any time I can remember.  The line stretched at least two long city blocks and they were all waiting to pay a price to climb the stairs up to the catwalk so they could see the finished floats in our building.  And the line didn’t shorten for over an hour.  We did not need to stand in line because with our Petal Pusher shirts, we walk right in and work on the floats instead of only looking at them from far above.

So, the decorating has come to an end and it is late afternoon as I am beginning to type this update.  We had told everyone goodbye last night when we left very late thinking we would not be returning today because everything would be done.  Our shift ended at four o’clock but most of us stayed until Steve Karlin and Glen, his photographer, came to do a story on our group for KCCI TV, channel 8 in Des Moines.  This was explained in my last update so I won’t bother with the details here.

When we headed back to our hotel, the uppermost thing of my mind was that we could sleep in with nothing scheduled until noon when the group was to meet again.  It was a well-deserved rest that I was looking forward to.  In the course of the night things changed, imagine that, and it didn’t work out the way I had pictured it.  Sandy, Heather and Staci returned last night to continue work while the rest of us went back to our beds.  They, overachievers that they are, didn’t stop working because they were needed and didn’t return to the hotel until five this morning. 

Ellie’s phone began ringing early this morning asking if we were coming back because, contrary to what we were told last night, much work still needed to be finished on some of the floats.  Everyone was roused and ate breakfast and we were back on the road to work again.  Many of our group were enlisted to put more finishing touches on the City of Glendale float.  The huge South Dakota float was pulled half way out of the building and a great many people were working on it, including many of our group.  Judging had been completed even with some floats not finished.  The Lutheran Hour float was done and looked stunning, especially since so many of us did so much work on it.  We are sure that is why it is so awesome!

Ellie and I were ‘runners’ a few times helping by getting materials to complete decorating.  I was asked to get half  a bucket of light lettuce seed.  Later I was asked to get two containers of white glue but since the crew manning the glue table had gone home, you had to pour your own out of a five gallon bucket.  Then I ran to the seed tent and got four containers of black seaweed to put on the outside of some tires on the Glendale float.  Before long our feet were aching so much that we looked for chairs and found two of them outside the building in the Lutheran Laymen’s booth.  Before we knew it, we were manning the booth, talking to people and giving away free material.  Can you imagine that, Ellie actually visiting with people!!

By one o’clock we were pretty much done and exhausted.  The three who stayed all night had also come back with us after having an hour nap.  It’s that old Iowa work ethic in action.  They are superstars, or crazy, depending upon your perspective I suppose.  It was time to head back to our hotel home and rest.  Vivian Ernst, former pastor’s wife from Iowa, now lives in Indiana and she and her husband, Gene, are part of the group.  She has been honored, because of her work in LWML, to ride the float tomorrow.  She will do us proud as she rides down Colorado Boulevard and waves to a million people!  Her night was very short as well for she had to be there at seven this morning for the judging because everyone riding the float must be in their position on the float for that event.

Ellie tried to organize the group as we left the Rose Palace, but there were so many variables that had come up and she finally just gave everyone options and each car decided what they were going to do.  Our car went past the Rose Bowl Stadium, drove on Orange Grove Boulevard and down Colorado Boulevard to see all the crazy people already camping out to hold spots for the big parade tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be a big party with a million people attending!

We returned to El Segundo and found a burger place to eat.  Our next event is a meeting tonight to get set for tomorrow and have devotions after another long day.  Let me be the first to wish you HAPPY NEW YEAR!  May God grant to each of us a wonderful new year full of His grace, protection and love.  We, the IOWAY Petal Pushers, are going to begin the new year as part of the big party out here in Pasadena.  Our feet will be on the curb along Colorado Boulevard as all the colorful and intricately designed and decorated floats make their way past our cheering group.  Many of us will be attending the game later in the day and the rest of us will watch it on TV from the comfort of our hotel.  GO HAWKS!

PS:  Update on Sandy’s elbow.  The x-ray showed that nothing was broken but it is painful.  We are thanking God for that.

Exhausted Petal Pusher, Lynn Menz