Baseball, Sunsets, and San Marino

I spent from 2pm Thursday till 12pm Saturday with the fabulous junior highers of San Marino Community Church. Becca, her boyfriend Gavin and I went with 6 junior high kids on a local mission trip around Pasadena. We slept at the church. Durin the day, we did services around Pasadena including running sports and arts for 60 inner city kids (by far the hardest part of the trip--whew paper mache is not a smart craft to lead for that many kids!), yardwork and hanging out at a retirement community/nursing home, and gardening at a homeless shelter for new moms. We also sent the kids on a scavenger hunt around Target with a strict budget to buy various items along with dinner for themselves and a homeless person. The point of the trip was to show the kids that missions doesn't have to be done in some far away place, we did it 10 minutes down the road. It was a great a time of hanging out and getting to know the kids. On another note--I officially became a member of San Marino Community Church today. In many ways Third Pres in Richmond is still my church home but I needed to join a church out here in order to start the ordination process for the Presbyterian church. I'm excited to get to know the community at San Marino even more. Below is a picture of our group at the Montavista Grove retirement community.

My very first sunset!! After getting back from the junior high mission trip I went to Malibu for th evening with Sarah and her friend from home. We bought food and watched the sunset over the Pacific. I've seen the sun rise on the East Coast numerous times but this was the first time I had seen the sun set over the ocean on the West Coast. It was gorgeous!
The first weekend of the Spring quarter the Presbys went to a Dodgers vs. Angels game. It was part of their exhibition. It was a ton of fun being with the Presbys but perhaps one of the most boring baseball games I've ever seen. Not a single run was made by either team! We entertained ourselves in many ways but one was with a digital camera. Here are Sarah, Paul, Emily, Reese, and Sophie.