Face in the Crowd- Superman inspired

"Lois Lane: There are three million people living in Metropolis. They are background players in your life, keeping your "set" alive with noise and bodies and smells and traffic and yells. If one day, one of the regulars simply wasn't there, you probably wouldn't notice. Who would? There are three million people living in Metropolis, and YOU are a background player in THEIR lives. If one day, you simply weren't there...Who could notice?
As the emergency personnel and squad cars descended on Pier Three that bitter afternoon, the same question bounced from radio to radio. "What is Superman doing here?" Why had the Man of Steel taken time to recover the body of a fifty-year-old Costa Rican Newspaper Man who had never been anywhere or done anything important? 
Because not a single one of us is background noise. Because when one of us disappears...someone should notice. Every person is star. A life. A heart. A voice. And when a voice is silenced in the darkness...another must rise to see that justice is done."
~Action Comics #792


I love Superman. Most of you already are aware of this but just in case you didn't, I love Superman. I was reading this and loved it so much. I always grew up in pretty small towns. I could walk anywhere and it was pretty much a guarantee that I would bump into someone I know. Since I've been in L.A., it's crazy to me how lost in the crowd and busyness you can get. Within the day you can cross paths with thousands of people yet still feel completely alone. I love that even though I am just a random background person... I'm not. 
There is value in my life. Although Lois Lane talks about Superman placing value on each life he saves, Jesus gives me that value. 
Thats my goal as I begin working with the youth down here. I want to speak value into people lives, inspire them, tell them that each one of them is a star, a life, a heart, a voice, they don't have to feel lonely. That's what Jesus can do for them. I love that this is what I get to do. I love encouraging people. And I love that Lois Lane gets it. hahaha


Anyways, just wanted to share.
Happy Friday everyone!!!!

The Church Body

Many of you guys are aware of Morning Star Valley, the church I am a part of here in L.A. but not a few of you may not know about Living Hope Church. Living Hope was a church that I was a part of back in WA. God has been doing some crazy things and really has impacted thousands of lives through this church. Although, I haven't been a part of it for a couple of years now, my heart will still always be in the Washington Oregon area. Well recently, Living Hope moved into an abandoned Kmart building located in one of the worst areas of Vancouver. I believe it has one of the highest homeless and crime rates in town. I truly believe God is going to use them to make a greater impact in the area. I wanted to attach a link for a 40 day challenge they are doing. They are still in need of money and are hoping that people can partner with them in support. I know many of you are prayer and financial partners with me but I just wanted to share this with you, if any of you would be willing to pray for Living Hope and be a unified Body of Christ and support each other. Also, to pass this along to other people you may know.
Love you all and I love seeing everyone come together to support a greater need.
http://fortyfirstday.com/

Great Week

This week started off with an amazing day at the beach. Our church had our annual Labor Day picnic at Zuma Beach over in Malibu and we had about 11 people get baptized in the ocean.
It was fun hanging out with my church family and just relaxing.
This week has also been crazy in the car hunting department. I got pretty close to buying a car Wednesday night, but it ended up not working out. I know God has that perfect car out there. Hopefully I find it sooner than later.
Well tonight we are starting a new series at our ONE student service called Engage. It will be focused on discipleship and what a disciple truly is. Im pretty excited to start this series.

Here I go Again...

So after several suggestions of a blog, I have decided to officially start blogging again. I can't promise the frequency of these blogs but it will be more frequent than my monthly newsletters. I figured this will also be a great way for you to get more updates on me personally as well as updates on everything going on here in L.A. or wherever I might be.

These past couple of months have been interesting ones. Its been a season of waiting and truly choosing to hold onto God. I don't know if you have ever experience a season like this but in my life I have always been in stormy seasons or awesome seasons but never in this flat season. God has definitely been teaching me a lot. I spent a while struggling with feeling like a failure and focusing on things I should have been doing. It wasn't fun. haha. Anyways, in FL a speaker said something that spoke so deeply to me I have been sharing it with everyone. He talked about how the 3 things American's want to hear the most are: I forgive you, I love you, and Dinner is ready. Then, he said how that is pretty much the gospel. Jesus forgives us, loves us, and just wants to eat with us and have a relationship with us. He doesn't care about mistakes we have done. I LOVE THAT!

Then I started to really think about failure. Its viewed as such a negative thing. Really, it's not the failure thats bad, it's the way we respond from it. If you know me you know that Jesus speaks to me through Disney references 95% of the time. He reminded me of the movie Meet the Robinsons. He uses this movie a lot with me. haha. Basically, in the movie, Lewis gives himself a hard time for his failures but is reminded by everyone to keep moving forward. The line that I was reminded of was from aunt Billie. I don't remember the exact words but she said "from failure you learn from success no so much."
I just wanted to encourage everyone by letting you all know that we are all bound to make mistakes, but try not to get so caught up on them. Keep Moving Forward!

Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. - Walt Disney