We came to serve but today we were surprised by the lack of relational serving that happened. We headed to our first site, The Los Angeles Mission, expecting to serve in various capacities, including serving lunch. We soon discovered that we would be served lunch and not serving. Allowing the people in the mission to serve us was a good lesson. We also learned that at times there is an expectation (especially of a group of nine suburban people walking in Skid Row) that we serve and bring things to give.

Skid Row became even more real as we experienced the smells and life of Skid Row on our way to serve in an after-school program in Skid Row. We saw people sitting in the same place when we walked from the car and when we returned to the car. People noticed us and expected us to have brought something for them. There were others sitting on the sidewalk playing chess. As we were about to enter the after-school program in Skid Row, one man point-blank asked us, “What are we here for?” in response to us not having anything on us to give him.

We began to feel like we were supposed to bring things to give, but we came to give more than a quick handout. We came to give of ourselves and our time more than we came to give people stuff. Today we gave of ourselves and our time in many ways, choosing to serve and allowing others to serve us.

The difficult moments for today included feeling rejected by people we walked by and by the people we were serving. Please continue to pray that God would protect us from those difficult and discouraging moments. Praise God for the growth of our team, that we are enjoying serving others and that God is opening our hearts to the people we meet.

Stay tuned for a video update tomorrow (and maybe a few pictures). Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.