The team woke up refreshed this morning, had breakfast, orientation, a group devotional & prayer before we split into 3 teams and hit the streets of San Diego. The teams were armed with water and food to hand out to the homeless, in hopes of getting the chance to talk, relate, & share the love of Jesus. There were some real good conversations that happened with the kids & some folks that really needed someone to listen, care and hang with them. One group went to Balboa Park (which is right across the street from the church) and participated in "Church without Walls". This church has been meeting every Saturday for years in the Park. Many homeless people attend. After their service, they serve food & water, give out clothing and other necessities, & fellowship. The kids, although apprehensive at first, really did a great job and touched some lives and were touched themselves.
After lunch, the 3 teams headed out again and did "renewal" where they go into the different parts of the city where the homeless sleep, and clean it up of trash, debris & dirt. It was a messy job, but we did it!
Then after dinner, we headed on a good walk up to Hillcrest where a large population of gays live & hang out. This was a very busy weekend in the Hillcrest community as it was "Pride" weekend and there were just thousands of people around. There were festivities and a parade. We went to help hand out waters and let the people know that Jesus loves them... no strings attached. There was a young woman, her fiance and her uncle who do this every Saturday as a ministry to the gay community. She remarked how she had prayed that the Lord would bring people to help this weekend, as this was "Pride" weekend and she knew there would be many, many people. She was in awe when she found out that 34 of us were showing up to help.... what an answer to prayer! I think everyone was a little nervous about this adventure, but it went really well. One student remarked.... "That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be." Some kids even got into conversations with people of the community.

Debriefing was a sharing of our "Highs & Lows". There were just so many things to be thankful for.... and there is so much more to come! What a great day to begin our journey here in San Diego!