vacation highlights-- it's long...

wow has it really been like three weeks since i posted?? i started this while i was still in california, but i didn't finish it for some reason. so let me catch you up a little bit.

three sundays ago we went to church with Chrissy's family and then we went to lunch at her pastor's house. it was a very beautiful house with a speaker on the outside, delicious lunch, and a fun time of fellowship. then we went back to Chrissy's house for like an hour, got all packed up, said goodbye to her family, and went to the house of two of our other friends, Josh and Maggie. Josh and Maggie have a ton of siblings from other countries. their house and family is an awesome picture of diversity and equality and love. it was awesome to experience such a family. After hanging out with their family for the night, we got up and went to the airport on Monday to leave for California!!

We (Joe, Chrissy, Moses, and I) all flew out of Spokane and into Seattle where we had a layover for about three hours. We left Seattle and flew into LA. in LA we had to wait for about 2 hours in the baggage claim area to get Moses and Chrissy's checked luggage and Moses's guitar. Julissa was there to pick us up and we were so excited to see her. it has been a long time since we saw her and we got to meet her boyfriend Landon!! that night we (Joe, Chrissy, Julissa, Landon, and I) stayed at Julissa's granparent's house in Anaheim so that we could get up and go back to LA in the morning.

we went to Los Angeles on Tuesday after a wonderful breakfast prepared by Julissa's grandma. we got to walk down Hollywood Blvd and do the walk of stars. we also got to go to Grauman's Chinese Theater where there are the footprints and handprints of many celebrities. i was so excited to go there. when we saw the Chinese Theater though, we were across the street and the first thing that caught our eye were three guys. these three guys had signs and were screaming at the people walking down the sidewalk. these guys were yelling at everyone saying we are all going to hell, and we need to repent now!!! Joe was getting frustrated pretty much the instant we saw them. So we went across the street, getting stopped for a picture that scammed $10 out of Chrissy. When we got across the street we could hear these men more clearly and they were just angry and full of hate. When Landon came to join us, he decided that he was going to go speak to them. After a few minutes Joe went with him. If you have never been to that part of Hollywood Blvd. something you need to know is that there are people dressed as celebrities everywhere you go, trying to scam you out of money to get a picture with them... (This is how Chrissy got scammed out of $10... so we could get a picture with Dorothy and Catwoman) anyways... one of the men began yelling at a woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe. He was calling her names and pinning all of these "sins" on her because of the way she was dressed and who she was dressed like. He was not treating her in love, but judging her. Eventually Joe and Landon decided that they were just going to agree to disagree on the way to share the gospel and we walked away. We went down the road a little bit more, then crossed the street and turned around to go back on the opposite side of the street. Once we passed the Chinese Theater we wanted to go back to that side of the street to see the stars on that side... while we were walking Landon was talking about how he wanted to find "Marilyn Monroe" and apologize to her for what the man had said to her. When we got to the point where we were going to cross back to the same side as the theater, as we were waiting to cross the street I saw "Marilyn Monroe" directly where we were going. As soon as we got to that side of the street we all went up to her and began talking to her. Her name was Melissa and she claimed to be a Christian, but she had a TON of spiritual warfare going on in her life, we could just sense it and feel it. I know that my own heart was breaking for this woman... She was broken. She has known pain. Looking in her eyes hurt... I think of Emery lyrics "People want the truth, but never want the scars." We were able to pray with this woman right there on Hollywood Boulevard. We were a light in that dark place. As you walk down that street, it is so full of so many other idols and things that are put before God... sex, drugs, fame, people, shopping, coffee. It was a little reality check, making me thankful that I am able to go to a school where Christ is the center and be able to be encouraged by other believers almost 24 hours a day.

After that spiritually tiring experience on Hollywood Blvd, we went to Santa Monica beach, where there is like a gym for adults, complete with gymnastics rings like swingsets, climbing ropes, chin-up bars, a triangle of grass for yoga, a path for, walkers, runners, rollerbladers, and bikers. Beyond that, it opens up to a beautiful beach where we watched the sunset. I am going to write about the sunset and the ocean in my next post. So i won't get too carried away now, i will just say it is beautiful. After the sunset we drove back to Julissa's house in Temecula.

Wednesday we just hung out at Julissa's house for a while, enjoying the sun and the mountains playing with her crazy dog Louie. A little later in the afternoon we went into Temecula and got to be tourists in her little town. We rented some movies and that night Moses came over and we watched the movies and just hung out.

Thursday was another fun and busy day. We went back to the Anaheim area where we spent some time at Chrissy's grandpa's house. Then we decided we were going to go out to dinner with Moses that night so while we waited to meet up with him we went and saw the Crystal Cathedral. This is the church that my mom watches on TV and it is actually like a legit church, not just some televangelist that just wants people's money. Their grounds are beautiful and their buildings are very intricate and beautiful as well. That was something cool for me to do. After that we went to Downtown Disney and just walked around for a while. Eventually we met up with Moses and went to this delicious Korean BBQ Buffet, where you go up to the buffet and get raw meat and come back to your table where there is a grill in the middle and then you cook it all yourself. Once we were all absolutely stuffed we went to Moses' house where we met some of his family and ate a little more delicious asain food. Before it got too late we left and went back to Julissa's house.

Friday again was fun and packed. We went to Coronado Beach all day. We were there from about 11:30 a.m. until sunset, so we got a good amount of sunshine and I think Joe, Chrissy, and I all ended the day with at least a little bit of a sunburn. It was a great day of just hanging out on the beach with friends... it reminded me of the summer going to the beach a lot with Melissa and Deanna. The waves that we saw were just beautiful, especially in the sunset. After sunset, we left and went to eat at an In and Out (a gift from God... sooo yummy). Then we were able to go see my cousin Dana who I visted on my last trip to California last spring. It was good to see her. Finally after that long day, we made it back to Julissa's.

Saturday was another fun day, not quite as busy, but definitely tons of fun. We were able to serve this single mom and her two daughters by painting some rooms in her house. We were able to paint her dining room, the hallway, and a great room that is a little smaller than the size of my apartment. She was telling us that they have lived in this house for 9 years and for the last 6 years she has painted a little bit of thier house at a time, but still without much progress. So being able to do this for her was such a blessing for her and for us. She repayed us in delicious pizza, so it was a fabulous trade i think. Later that day we went to a community pool and hot tub in the little subdivision area that Julissa babysits in. First of all the water was weird because they use salt water. Second, the pool was SOOO cold it made like every joint in your body stop and it made my skin want to turn inside out to get warm. But we had fun going in the hot tub, then jumping into the pool. When we left to pool we went and got some ice cream and rented another movie.

Sunday was more of a super chill day. We went to church in the morning, and when we got back from church we began preparing for a big lunch that we were going to have. The grill was out of gas and Julissa's dad wasn't home, so Joe and I got to go on an adventure. We got to drive to Martin's General Store in the foothills of these mountains in rural Temecula. It was quite an interesting experience. First we got lost, so we had to turn around. Then when we got there it is this dinky little country market with a horse and a billy goat in the front yard. Joe finally saw his billy goat. Then the gas thing wasnt working, then it did finally. Then we were a dollar short and the lady working just told us to bring it back after our lunch. So we went back to the house and finished making lunch, ate lunch, then Joe, Chrissy, and I went back to take the lady the dollar we owed her. That night we went to the college ministry at Rancho Community Church, where I got to hear Julianna sing again!! Oh how I have missed her. There was an amazing message and it gave me a lot that I needed to think about. When we were done there, we went to Julianna and Tyson's house for a little birthday celebration for Tyson. Then we went back to Julissa's house where Joe, Chrissy, and I stayed up laughing longer than we should have, but it was super fun.

Monday morning we got up early and Julissa and Landon drove us to LAX so that we could catch our flight to Houston. On that flight, we had an international plane so we had an in flight movie and lunch and everything. I ended up watching a movie the whole time pretty much while Chrissy and Joe slept. The Houston airport was interesting... first we had to find our gate... B84-3. This is the gate that they don't care about in Houston. The people down in this gate can joke around a little bit and have some fun because all the people that are flying down there are going to little baby airports that nobody really cares about... Anyways after a slight delay because of flight attendant issues, we finally made it back to Grand Rapids and finally back to Grace at about midnight.

Now for the last week I have just been relaxing and hanging out watching movies in my apartment. I feel like this vacation was so much fun and so needed. I am excited to see what God has in store for me this semester. =]