Day 5: California

Like I said in my earlier post I love Oregon. I am an Oregonian and I have mad mad mad Oregon pride. With that said, California is beyond amazing; no, scratch that. Redwood City is amazing.

Thus far we have spent three days in this city, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I honestly don't even remember when we finally arrived from Salem to Redwood City, but we didn't arrive early enough. Immediately we were greeted by the loving couple of Jeff and Joan Smith and were invited into their home. This pad is sick. Completed with a pool and soccer field within fifty feet away; it's a paradise for kids growing up. I cannot even begin to express how much we have been blessed to spend the last couple of days here, but just so you know it's a lot. Despite how great this house is, we have spent the majority of our waking hours at Sam's home church and the rec center next door called PCC. Sam's church may single handedly make this city awesome (I'll be honest, not a whole lot else is going for the city besides the church). We went to a service this morning and it was awesome. The lead pastor talked about "Soul Stain" and I really really liked the sermon (I've got the notes if anyone wants to look into it deeper). Obviously, as with most healthy churches, it is the community not the preaching that makes the church so attractive, and this is an extremely attractive church. It's downright sexy. Jesus' bride is looking fine over huurrre. Anyways, the point being, the community is great.

It's super late right now and I don't really want to take the time to think of a clever transition, but i'm gonna take some time to talk about Sam's friends here who have been so great to us.

The first person I have to give a shout out to is Graham (I have no idea how to spell his name, but say graham cracker and take off the cracker; that's his name). This kid is awesome. For the few days that we've been here he has been so loving and so encouraging to us. We had the pleasure of going to San Fransisco with him, and he seriously made the trip so great. I can't even tell you exactly why Graham is so rad, but the fact remains that he is. I feel like he should be a prize for the lottery or something. Like if you win the jackpot you either get to keep a couple hundred million dollars or hang out with Graham for a week. Yeah, he's that cool. He also threw a dance party at his house last night. That was also pretty sick. Music was bumping and he had the lights flashing and the banners twirling. Straight clubbing status. But we've spent some good time with him and I can just honestly say that this guy loves the Lord and knows how to serve others, something that I myself need to get better at. He has a deep mind, a loving heart, and he's single for all the girls reading this.

I wish I had time to brag about all of Sam's friends, but I don't. It's almost one in the morning and I'm getting up at 5:30 to go to PCC with Nick and Andrew (which random little fact, Kate wakes up at 5 am, which makes her a werewolf). So because of this shortage I am going to clump all of the girls that we hung out with in one little paragraph. All of these girls were Sam's friends, and Sam just hangs out with a lot of girls here. These ladies include Hannah, Hannah, Hannah (yes absolutely ridiculous), Kelsey, Kate, and Esther. These girls are bonafied ballers. They run this town like an athlete. I honestly can't say enough good things about these ladies. They have a passion for God, easy to get along with, and laugh really easy. They took us slack lining over a pool, took us to Chevy's (Where they lied and claimed it was my birthday), played ultimate Frisbee with us, and so many other events that make them legit girls. This next Friday a few of them are also leaving to Mexico for eight days to serve and love the community. Please keep them in your prayers, and hopefully they will rock and get rocked by this upcoming adventure for them. Like I said before, I have so many good things that I can say about these girls, but for the sake of time i'll stop now.

We met a lot of other people in this city, mostly parents, and they are all super great people. To put it lightly, this town is filled with amazing and loving people, and we have been blessed to have them in our lives even for this brief amount of time (hopefully it won't stay so brief though). Nonetheless, we have much more of California to conquer and we are hopefully leaving bright and early tomorrow morning to Southern California!! Side comment, Kaelyn Handsel is officially labeled as in a relationship. I absolutely am loving this road trip, and we are gonna keep on killing it hopefully.

To end with some poetry by Lupe Fiasco:

Love, got the windy city on my back
So I'm back on my grizzle like a bearskin rug
Put some lain on the floor blame it on the goat
Little rapper turn it out cause I'm very pluh
I convert I can work anywhere any word you can ask my brother huh
He'll concur that I'm sers with the worst with the man up above thank you very much
That I got what I got and I'm at where I'm at like an a in a circle with a pay little erkel
What they say when they see og from the f to the f to the amazing verbals
They race in circles like they raisin a gerbil
I race in a circle like I'm raisin a horse
I'm racin a porsche while they racin in place
They race in a cage I race on a course
COURSE
That case in the court did not defer the dream
I am still a raising man with sun raging against the machine

Peace shawty

Love Jake