The episode is pretty hilarious, with the basic premise being that the students get lost in the rain forrest on a trip to save the rain forrest, and because of their close brush with death in this ordeal, they all decide that the rain forrest actually sucks, and we would all be better off with out it.  So with this hilarious new point of view I decided to have a little fun with this lady.

So, as this lady tried to tell me how we were down to the last 20% of rain forrest in the world, I responded by saying, “Thats good cause that place is deadly.”

“What?!” She said.

“Yea, there is something like over 3,000 deaths per year in the rain forrest”  I am pretty sure this is an accurate number, it may actually be much higher but in reality the rain forrest is actually a really dangerous place for humans.

She laughed and said, “I thought you were saying that we should get rid of the rain forrest because so many people die in it.”

“Yea, That is exactly what I am saying.”

She was laughing, and then quickly stopped.  I don’t think she knew what to say in response to this.  At this point her green peace boy friend chimed in and said something like, “I think there are lot more people dyeing from having their villages burnt down from the destruction of the rainforrest, because it is such a cheap source for paper, and the tigers are going instinct.  Plus one third of all cures for illnesses comes from the rain forrest”

Now after hearing this my thoughts were, “Why would people who want to cut down the rain forrest for paper, burn it?”  But I decided not to mention that little point, simply because I did not want his head to explode, instead I kept on with my playful attack against the rain forrest and said, “Yea, but I bet two thirds of all the diseases come from there.”  In reality there are actually several hundreds of things in the rain forrest that cause cancer, I didn’t just make that up either.

The guy just shook his head, and the girl said, “Well if you guys aren’t really interested then you should probably just go.”

Andrew stopped laughing enough to say, “Well what do you actually want from us?  Do you want money, or a signature, or what?”

“We are looking for people to become members.”

“Oh well I am not going to be a member, but maybe he is interested,” as I pointed to Andrew.

“No I don’t think I want to be a member either” Andrew told them.

Her face was priceless, I don’t think she ever expected anyone to respond by saying the rain forrest should be destroyed.  It was pretty hilarious, and Andrew and I walked away cracking up.  I was pretty harsh, but I have little sympathy for solicitors, so I get a slight sick pleasure by messing with them.

Monday, I went over to the Ellingsen house in Henderson and celebrated Memorial day by having a bunch of great food, way more than I can handle, and just hanging out by their pool for several hours. In fact I slept out by the pool on one of their lawn chairs because the weather was so beautiful. The next morning I went for a jog through a desert trail and it was all just beautiful.

Afterwards, Ty came and picked me up from the Ellingsens, then we picked up Matt, Ty’s work associate, from the airport. We all went out to In n out, and then checked into the the Signature, the luxury hotel somewhat attached to the MGM. Ty had a friend who got us a couple free nights there, it was awesome.

Tuesday I played a lot of poker, did pretty well, and went out to eat for Sushi, and then came back and played more poker. I was up enough money that I could just relax and do pretty much whatever I wanted, its a perfect way to start a Vegas trip.

After poker, Ty’s same friend that hooked us up with the hotel room, got us tickets to see David Copperfield. So we went, and to my surprise we did not just get regular tickets, we got touching the stage, dead center tickets! It was awesome. No one was closer to the show than us. So 5 of us were sitting at this table, Greg, Ty, Frank, Matt, and myself when the waiter came up and asked what we wanted. As I started to order, she told us that we should get whatever we wanted because our tab had already been picked up. So we of course ordered a couple drinks each, and big thing of popcorn.

Right after we ordered, a security guy came up to us and told us that we were only allowed to have 4 seats to that table, and one of us would have to leave. Our server interrupted him to tell him, “Sir, these are David’s guests.” Thats right as in David Copperfield’s guests. He immediately started apologizing over and over again, to which Matt replied, “It’s cool man, just don’t let it happen again.” I don’t think the guy even heard him, but we all started cracking up.

The show was phenomenal, Copperfield made things appear right in front of our face and I didn’t have a clue how it happened. I think I was most shocked by the car that appeared just 10 feet in front of us in only about 1 second.

After the show, a PA came and took us back stage to meet Copperfield himself. He chatted with us for a few moments, and then signed all of our complimentary books about him. After that we went out and met Chris Kenner the Executive Producer of the show. He was a really nice guy, and we talked to him about the show for a few minutes, and then let him go back to work.

We were all a little shocked by the whole night, except Greg and Ty who had both done this all before. We then hung out on the balcony of our 29th floor hotel room for a while, and later went down to the strip to film Ty and Greg do some magic tricks.

The next day, Wednesday was a lot simpler, I just hung out by the pool, met up with Sean, Jamie and Raven, and then walked up the strip with Ty and Matt. We ate at the Mirage Buffet and enjoyed a lot of crab legs and prime rib. It was all delicious. Ty and I played some more poker that night but neither did as well. Then Thursday we all just relaxed until it was time to fly home. What an awesome experience.

A man came to the church asking for “El padre de la iglesia.” I am not fluent in Spanish, so it took me a while to understand what he was saying, but I caught on when I heard him say, “confesión.” He was asking for the pastor, so that he could say confession, a practice we are not very familiar with in the Christian Church. None the less, I pointed him to Sean, and he went on in to his office for confession.

Then Prophet Alonzo came in, and started sharing with me what God had been telling him through his word that day, and if you have not gotten a chance to hear the Prophet speak about God, then you are missing out. Anyway, he shared with me some stories from his life some failures of the flesh, and some conquering moments of the spirit. And how God has raised him up to be the man he is today. His story was impactful to me, and very inspiring.

While in the midst of the Prophet telling me a story about how he found himself ministering in an underground gambling club, Sean walked in. And we all started talking about what we see God doing in our lives and at the church.

Before I knew it, it was time to start setting up for Skateside, but before I did that, a guy a know from Skateside, who is 20 years old told me about how his girlfriend is four months pregnant, and was just sharing with me the burden he feels to now provide for his coming child, and hopefully his future wife. So I tried to counsel him on that a bit, but I really don’t know what to say to someone going through something I have never been through.

Then I went to set up Skateside, and Mike Donnelon and Daniel Timtim showed up.  These are some really cool guys that are responsible for building skateparks all over Long Beach.  In fact Mike had a lot to do with the Silverado park being put in just up the street from our church, and Daniel is helping run skate contest and put in some new skate parks near Poly High School. They came to give me a deck signed by Tony Hawk and Chad TimTim (Two Professional Skaters) as well as some other BMX riders.

While I was talking with Mike and Daniel, a guy came in to the church office and ended up talking with Alonzo and Sean. I was not there for this, but apparently they both started just praying over the man who was struggling with alcohol, and what seemed like some blatant evil spirits in his life.

As halftime approached I met a friend of Robert’s named Mark, who has been saved and clean for 8 years now, but had a crazy testimony about being in gangs and in and out of prison that he wanted to share with the Skatesiders some day. So I started chatting with him, about talking with the students in the next couple weeks.

Joe told me he wanted to do halftime, which I was planning on doing, but he just kind of felt the Lord telling him something, so we let him do it.  He ended up sharing this really intense story about how he got arrested just for hanging out with two guys who had sold some weed, and he ended up spending a week in jail. It was crazy, but I think the kids really connected with what he was saying.

Some of the Skatesiders did this.

As I was taking Joe to the metro, we decided to stop and get some food. He started telling me all about his family, and the gang violence in his neighborhood and the abuse he and his mom went through from her last boyfriend. How he had to watch this guy put a gun to his mom’s head, and a whole bunch of other violent crazy stuff. So then I started sharing with him about how it is hard to see while we walk through it, but God uses our pain to help mold us into the exact thing person he is calling us to be.

It was a great day, and I pretty sure I left 50% of it out.

ate the smallest one and I was down to 6.  Shortly after I lost number 7, I walked by my tank only to see 5 piranhas.  I had walked by the tank just minutes before and could have sworn I saw 6, so I didn’t think they ate another one so quickly, especially since I had fed them recently.  So I started thinking, where could this piranha have gone?  I started to look around the tank to see if maybe it had jumped out on accident, and sure enough one of the guys was laying on the dusty carpet behind the tank stand.

I picked it up with my net, and placed him back in the water in hopes that was all he needed to be resuscitated.  However he just sat there floating at the top of the tank sideways with all the dust and hair still stuck to his half dry body.  So I pushed him under water a little in hopes that some fresh water in his system would help rejuvenate him, but that seemed futile as well.

Then I started thinking about the TV shows and movies I had seen where someone is near death, and the hero starts pounding on the victims chest in an effort to beat them back to life.  I thought, if they can do this for people, maybe I can do this for my piranha.  So I took my little wire net, and I whipped the metal part into the side of the fish, near his gills.  Nothing happened, but then I remembered that these heroes in the film always pound on the chest a few times before they start coughing up water or gasping for air.  So I hit the fish a second time.  This was immediately followed by a slight twitch in the tail fin of the fish.  I had done it!  I had brought my piranha back to life!  I pushed him under the water to get some water flowing through his gills again, and sure enough he was back to swimming like normal in just a couple minutes.

I know that sounds unbelievable, but the whole story is true.  I think some of my old roommates might have been around to verify it.

I didn’t know what he meant, but I said, “Sure, what do you want to do?”

“Anything man, I just don’t want to go home yet.”

“OK, man let me think about that.”

Shortly after I was putting something away in the kitchen, and I saw a bunch of left over popcorm, and it hit me, we can have a movie and popcorn night!  So I went and got Marquise and his friend Robert and asked them if they wanted to watch a movie.  They both emphatically said “Yea.”

So we walked next door to the local movie store, (Yea, we still have those on the Westside) and started looking for movies.  It was hard to find something that we all wanted to watch and that would be appropriate, until finally I realized and said out loud, “It is good

Friday, we should watch The Passion.”

As soon as I said this, Marquise said, “Yea, that movie is scary!”

So we grabbed the movie, put the ramps away, and about 10 kids stayed back to start watching the film, while I popped popcorn.  I came in about 15 minutes after it started, and they were all pretty into it.  These guys are rarely quiet for 5 minutes straight, so to see them so engaged was awesome, and to be honest I did not expect it.  I thought they would get over it quickly and have me turn it off, but instead they just sat and watched the whole thing, asking me questions through out.

Afterwards their attitude was very solemn.  One student told me, “Man Kozmo, I was praying throughout the whole movie.”  Remember these are not church kids, these are neighborhood kids who may or may not have a church background.  I have to be honest, I am normally a skeptic of emotionally pulling movies, especially like “The Passion”, but I was very impressed by the way the story of our messiah pulled these guys in.  I think part of what happened that night was that God showed these guys truth, he showed them just how much He really loves them, and that spoke to them.  Many of them told me afterwards that they felt sad and kind of guilty, one skatesider even said that he couldn’t help feeling like he was somehow responsible for His suffering.

Thank you Lord for always planting seeds in these young men’s hearts, and for letting this curmudgeon of a kingdom worker be a witness to Your amazing grace.

Tonight we had our first community dinner put on by the youth.  It was actually pretty awesome.  We had a lot of people from all different places come and eat dinner with us.  We made some pretty simple, yet delicious spaghetti, and just hung out and ate with people.  The plan is to do that the first Wednesday of every month.

We had a few folks show up after we had already put some of the food away, one of which was of course Peter.  So we microwaved him up a couple of burritos, and gave him a plate of food too.  After we gave him some food, Matt one of my favorite skatesiders was telling me about Peter and how we shouldn’t help him cause he is mean and he will just waste what we give him anyway.  It was a great opportunity to sit Matt down and tell him what I believe to be one of the most important stories Jesus ever told.  I told him the story of the Sheep and the Goats found in Matthew 25, and then I asked him, “Matt, who do you think is the least of these in this neighborhood?”

He didn’t have to waste a second to answer, “Peter” he said.

“I think you are right Matt, and I think at the end of our lives Jesus is going to judge us on how we treated Peter.” I told him.

“But I’m nice to people who smell good, Peter is just messed up and he says crazy things about hurting people, and he is just gross.”

“Yes he is Matt, but I think when you stand before God, he is going to ask you about how you treated Peter, and he is going to count whatever you did to him as if it you had done it to Jesus himself.”

I was so stoked that God used the community dinner, and Peter, to teach a much more alive Bible lesson than I ever could have done in a sunday school room.

Fortunately Randy was still hanging out at the church waiting for me to help him move some stuff into his new place, so he drove over and got the keys from Sean for me.  It took some time, but we were able to get my keys back and lock everything up properly.  Afterwards I followed Randy back to his place and helped him move his stuff up.

I started talking to him about his story, and have realized lately that God has really been showing me a lot of people’s stories lately.  Randy is celebrating 502 days of sobriety today!  So great to hear.  At one time he owned his own business, but since it was a mortgage business, and he started it right at the tail end of the housing spike, he shortly went bankrupt.  He lost everything, and even spent a short period living out of his car.  Eventually he checked into a shelter, and ended up going through some programs for his alcohol addiction.  During that time he was also suffering from severe pain due to gout.  He went through quite an ordeal, but just last week he moved into his own place for the first time in 5 years.

His story was encouraging, and amazing to hear how God worked in his life.  Who would have thought I would have been so blessed to hear his testimony tonight, just through moving furniture.  The Lord is up to some awesome things on the Westside, and I blessed to be a part of them.

Anyway, yesterday I shook his hand and told him I would be right out with a razor.  I went inside and washed my hands instantly then I went and got the razor.  When I handed him the razor, he was very thankful, so he again grabbed my hand to thank me, and then still holding it asked if I had any money.

I had just told him in our encounter 4 minutes ago that I didn’t have any money.  This of course was a lie, I just know better than to let Peter know I have cash on me.  I reminded him that I did not have any money, and asked him if he remembered my name, since he had asked me that 4 minutes prior as well.

He shouted out a couple of random names that sound nothing like mine, so I just had to laugh.  I thought about how I know his name all too well, he is after all pretty infamous in that area, but I don’t know if it is even possible for him to remember mine.  Its kind of ironic the way he forgets my name. It reminds me of someone who is very full of himself, like some kind of quasi celebrity and therefore had little time to remember anyone’s names.  This dirty homeless man, gives off a similar feeling, but it is not because he is arrogant, I just think he lacks the kind of social skills it takes to remembers someone’s name.

I reminded him of my name and went back to the church to wash my hands again.  I came out and started setting up the ramps with a junior high student from the neighborhood named Juan.  Juan seems to be a good kid, he voluntarily swept all the pine needles away from the skate ramps while I was talking with Peter.  Some of Juan’s friends came to help us carry some of the ramps out.  While we were doing so, Peter walked over and decided he was going to help.

I like the idea of Peter helping, but in reality he shouldn’t be around kids.  He has said some things to kids in the neighborhood that force me to keep him separated from them, for their own safety.  So I kept asking Peter to step back, and not to worry cause we could handle it.  Well after asking this several times, he wasn’t getting the idea, that I didn’t want his help.  So I stopped and told Peter, “Peter, you are too drunk right now for me to let you hang out with the kids, I don’t think you are the best example for them right now, and so I am going to have to ask that you not hang out here while the kids are here.”  I have to be honest, my feelings were very mixed in saying that.  On one hand I need to protect the kids, and he can be very counterproductive to what we are trying to do here so it feels kind of good to tell him off, but on the other hand, I don’t want to belittle Peter or make him feel like he is less than the rest of us somehow.  Either way, he shouldn’t be around the kids, and he agreed.

Before he left he had one request, he wanted me to pray over him.  “Really?” I thought.  “I just reamed you, and you are going to ask me to pray over you?”  OK, I thought and I again grabbed his hand, and started to pray over him.  I asked God to look out for him, and to protect him, and all that other stuff you awkwardly say when you are praying over someone.  “Amen” Then Peter said, without letting go of my hand, “Can I pray for you?”

“Of course” I said.

He told me to close my eyes, and then he went on to pray all kinds of blessings over me, or at least I think that is what he did.  I heard him say a couple of times that we were like brothers, and that he loved me.  Now that was probably the booze more than anything, but it really touched me that he would say that, even though at the same time I was hesitantly waiting for the moment that he would let go of my hand so that I could wash it again.  He finally ended with an Amen and wandered off, as the kids watched nearby with confusion.

Honestly, I don’t really like Peter.  He annoys me, and he defecates on the storage units for the skate ramps, but I am constantly remind of Jesus’s words.  “Whatever you did to the least of these, you did unto Me.”  Really God?  Really?  Am I really supposed to treat the smelly disgusting alcoholic sexual predator like he is You?  That is ridiculously hard to do.  I guess the only thing I can do is to continue to keep trying to show love towards Peter as if he were Jesus himself, despite my own repulsion towards him

http://www.nathanaelrowe.com/storage/Understanding%20Pain.mp3

What does God desire?