Tourformation

Tourformation was an amazing experience on Monday morning taking all 1100 conferees into inner-city Los Angeles and other surrounding communities. The goal was to expose students to urban ministry sites, help them understand the urban condition by listening to ministry leaders who live there, and serve the ministries they visited in some tangible way. Students experienced things like visiting World Impact, World Vision and the missions on skid row. They talked to, and in some cases ate with, homeless people in downtown L.A. They cleaned homes, offices and beaches, hacked out dead weeds, dead bushes and dead trees, painted walls, played with children, and more. One group of 70 spent four hours cleaning. That's 280 hours of labor, or as the director of the ministry said, four weeks of work for the full-time custodian! It was a long and tiring, but exciting day.

Above: Students prepare to leave for Tourformation

Above: Boarding the buses

Above: Orientation at World Impact

Above: Diggin' out the dead stuff

Above: Trimming bushes, or trimming hair?

Above: Pausing in downtown L.A. for a picture

Above: On the roof of the Union Mission

Above: A tour of Union Mission

Above: Praying for a homeless man

Comments

[James Bergen]

Thanks for keeping this up to date. I, and we as a church at NFC, have been praying for you and the whole gang. We spent time praying on Sunday morning and I put this weblog address up for people to stay up to date.

James

[Cathy Unterseher]

I thank you so very much for this website. My two children are with the Harvey North Dakota Mennonite Church Group and my daughter called after having been on Skid Row. She explained the faces that would just glow, when they offered to buy lunch with some of the homeless. I have been praying for the entire youth group continually throughout each day, and esp. for my children that these kids will come back home; changed....Souled out on Christ...Thank you for these updates, photos, etc. I throughly enjoyed it. God Bless all of you!!!!!

[Tim]

James, thanks for the comments. I'm so glad that pastors and entire congregations are supporting and praying for the conference and the ongoing work of the spirit.

Cathy, I can imagine the anxiety that might come in knowing that your child is walking on skid row in downtown L.A. But what a great report! The Spirit is at work. We hope and pray that each student and leader was challenged in similar ways! Praise God!!