the sun exists in Los Angeles

I hear the east has been covered in rain. My dad told me on the phone yesterday that the weatherman said the only place with nice weather in the whole country, right now, is Los Angeles. Good thing i came here.

This place is different than New England. I live in an area dominated by minorities (which makes me want to re-define the term). I went into a restaurant today and had to strain my eyes to find the english names of the food. It was fun but intimidating. I don't speak Spanish and being the only white guy walking into "Taco King" is a strange feeling...but i enjoy it.

I have only been here 2 weeks, but i have a major observation to make: There are ALOT of people. The roads are packed at all times. Rush hour is impossible to deal with, and even at 2 am there are more people on the road than there are at rush hour in CT or MA. Everyone has cars and everyone drives everywhere they go be it to work in Downtown or to the market 3 blocks down the road. I have taken up walking - to class, to 7-11, even to the movie theater, but we will see how long that lasts. Also, people drive fast and aggressive here. it's crazy, traffic flows at 80 mph - speeding must be 100mph. I don't know, it's crazy.

I went to Chris' church last week. They are an Evangelical Free church in a town called Diamond Bar (Snoop Dogg lives in Diamond Bar). The church is about 300 people and very wealthy. Their facilities are very nice and their pastor seems to be a solid fellow. I chatted with him briefly. He is quite conservative, as is the congregation. They support a fair amount of missionaries overseas. Chris says this is one of their big things - missionaries. Evangelical Free, for those of you wondering, is a form of governance NOT theology. They have a certain way they govern the congregation and church which is considered E-free. I don't know more about it than that.

I went camping this last weekend up in the mountains - 7,000ft or so up in the sky. Amy, one of Chris' friends, was having a birthday celebration. It was fun. We found a Dog wandering the streets so we walked down the street into the local town to try and return the dog (there was a phone # and address on the collar). We eventually returned it to a crazy dog-sitter woman. She was nuts. That is all i will say about that. Amy is one of Chris' friends from church. She loves people and life - i called her a "philanthropist" and she agreed with that.

Another of Chris' friends, Zack, who works at a church as a video/tech guy, and i had a conversation about ministry and life and whatnot. He believes we, as Christians, are called OUTSIDE of the church to help the world and that we should spend less time in the church body. I agree with him, but i would hold that we need to be a part of the body to be refreshed and filled with the Spirit in order to share the Gospel to the world. I also believe there are those of us who are called to lead Christians in their life of service to the Lord - but i agree with Zack...we spend too much time in our church buildings and in our meetings...we need to be outwardly focused as a church. Coming together as a body of believers should not be our main concern...it should be the world.
More on this in a later blog - after i have time to process it.

I hung out in Hollywood/Santa Monica with Dan Lee this week. He is out visiting friends and we had a chance to connect. It was great...i think Hollywood disappointed him...probably because it is disappointing.

I saw MeWithoutYou last night. they were incredible. I want to have fun like they do when they play music. They have so much joy from being able to share their music with us. It's something to strive for.

I am hoping to visit Saddleback next weekend.

nothing profound this week, sorry. More to come