Tuesday, March 22nd
Today, we started off our day at Bread and Roses. We had to leave at 7 to get there by 8:30 because the traffic is so horrible. But, we got there and they soon put us to work. Bread and Roses is a café built to serve the homeless. It was started by a nun who believed that just because you’re homeless doesn’t mean you don’t want beauty surrounding you. Apparently Martin Sheen was a huge volunteer back in the day. Now, it currently has four people on staff: the manager, two executives, and a gourmet chef. The chef went to culinary school and now has a partnership with the school to bring interns to the café and train them.
We soon got put to work making coffee, garlic bread, placing silverware and that kind of stuff. They have three shifts for them to come eat at- 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30. They have an office down the street that people must go to to make reservations. This allows them to not only keep the place from getting crazy full, but also allows them to keep track of these people and better help them.
It was quite an experience serving them. They were so genuinely thankful and happy. They were also quite the characters. The guy who worked security that day was convinced that Emily and I were movie stars. We teased him at the end telling him that we are going to need a better cover next time. One homeless man decided to start calling me Sue, as a nickname for my Sioux Falls shirt. Another man actually had an iguana on top of his hat. He fed it a strawberry. Yes, we got a picture. One lady told us that she was going to cast us all in the musical she had written. Another took pictures of us and the food and said she was going to post them on her blog. I wonder where those actually ended up. It was so much fun; the time went by way too quickly.
We headed down the street. (There is so much walking in LA!) We found a sandwich shop and ordered some paninis and bottles of Coke. Kimberly got her food first and headed outside. We waited until our food came and went outside to join her. She was sitting on a bench outside talking to one of the homeless men we’d just served. (God really gave us a ministry with the homeless on this trip. The others haven’t really been mentioned much, but this was the third one-on-one we had on the street.) As we talked to him, we asked if there was anything we could pray for him about. He said his aunt had just died and as he started talking about her, he started bawling. We started praying for him and Kim said something about God helping him break his addiction. (He had asked her earlier for beer money.) He quickly turned to her and laughed. “Don’t pray for that! I like my addiction!” Kim told him that God wouldn’t take it away until he was ready to let it go. Later, I wondered how many things God wants to rid us of that He can’t because we are still clinging on to them.
Since Venice beach was only a few blocks away, we decided to drive by it. There was no place to park because the weather was so nice. We headed back to the apartment. We spent some time in prayer and then headed out to Hollywood. They let us go out on our own and check out Hollywood Blvd. We were right by the Kodak Theater where they have a lot of red carpets. It was cool to check out some of the different stores along the way. We went in a couple vintage shops but the prices were way out of our range. The second one we went to seemed like it was a bunch of donated costumes, or they were mass produced because there was a lot of identical clothing. But I got some key chains for my family and some postcards to put on my wall. I was also feeling super tourist-y and bought myself an I heart LA t-shirt. :)
We met up with Kim and Annie and told them about our sightseeing. We enjoyed delicious burgers and malts at Mel’s Diner. We headed out after that to check out Kim and Annie’s church. The whole way there, we were in a super giggly mood and everything was hilariously funny. I realize it was probably one of those “you had to be there” moments, so I won’t go into it. But we got to the church. One of the things I thought was really cool about this church was that after the service, they met in groups and prayed.
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