#dcls

Hello everyone! SO!

 I am here. 

It is BEAUTIFUL. 

I am in love. I’m sorry this update has taken me over a week, but it’s been a little crazy! The first day I arrived, stepping on to the black top (parking lot), looking around me at my new home was amazing. The Dream Center is in an incredible location, so the view is wonderful. I couldn’t see the Hollywood sign when I hopped off the plane at LAX, but I can when I’m standing in the parking lot of my new home, so that’s cool, hahaha! Los Angeles is so full of life, bright colours and people everywhere, all of the time. It’s a little crazy but I honestly love it already. I have three wonderful roommates from Sweden, Iceland, and Texas, and many other friends already! Everyone here is excited and full of love for Jesus and His children, it’s so so encouraging.

My first day was something called Serve24. Basically what that means is the whole church (Angelus Temple) and the Dream Center were invited to help with outreach ministry, covering a 1 mile radius (fire station, schools, the streets, etc) for 24 hours straight! This means I was sweeping gutters out at midnight, and writing letters of love to the fire station at 3am. We DID have breaks though, don’t worry. They’re not THAT insane here. And in the morning I had the opportunity to serve breakfast on Skid Row. (For those of you who don’t know what Skid Row is, it’s an area of LA that goes over several blocks, where there is a very large, condensed homeless population. The Dream Center does a lot of ministry here, so I will probably mention it relatively often.) All in all it was an incredible experience. This church lives out the love of Jesus in the most dedicated way I’ve ever seen. It has challenged my own heart and life already. It was so cool walking down the street handing out water bottles or picking up trash and having strangers call out “Are you guys with the Dream Center!? Bless you guys, we appreciate you!!! You do so much for us, thank you!” Blessed. Blessed. Blessed to be a part of it.

After Serve24 we had orientation week, which included a day of mandatory auditions (Tuesday), and general orientation, as well as learning about the many many tracks we get to choose from (Wednesday, Thursday)! So that was really cool to get the chance to hear abut everything that the Dream Center is doing and the many many ways they have us get involved. Then, on Friday, we had our first team day which was super great and super tiring. It felt like a million degrees and we were doing a whole lot of running in the sun playing games, however my team won (YES) and our prize is a catered dinner at some point (which is BLESSED because free food is my favourite thing now). You guys don’t understand how hot it is here, I’m telling you its killer some days. Saturday was my first Adopt-A-Block which was awesome. I have a feeling Saturdays are going to be my favourite days of the week! Adopt-A-Block is basically when the church and the people at the DC go out on busses to sites every single Saturday, and takes care of the communities/Projects in Los Angeles. Playing with kids or helping them with homework, supplying food, running kids programs, and picking up trash are some of the things that take place during these Saturday mornings/afternoons. The kids you meet LOVE the Dream Center because of the consistency of this program! (As well as Adopt-A-Block, the DC sends out busses every Sunday and Thursday to every one of those sites to allow a way for kids and sometimes their whole families to get to church.) It’s really really impacting and beautiful to be a part of. I will have my official and permanent site within a month! Since then I’ve been to the beach (SO beautiful) and hung out with all my friends. Done laundry (why does washing my clothes have to expensive, I definitely took free utilities like that for granted) , and other errands (all on my penny board hahaha). It's been hot, humid, and so much fun. I’m really excited about my new life here. I am so so excited to be assigned my track for the semester (tomorrow), and find out my small group family (Wednesday), and just get in to the swing of things in general. The church and the chapels have been amazing, the Spirit is working heavily and quickly here, and I already feel so much change taking place in my heart. I am so excited for the growth that is bound to take place. I can’t thank you guys enough for getting me here, I’m still pinching myself. I will try my best to keep the updates coming! If you all could be praying for safety and health. Being sick in this heat would be KILLER. Also! I lost my voice during Serve24, and haven’t yet got it back, so if you could keep that in your prayers. Much love everyone, until next time,                          xoxoxo Keziah

PS- My Canadian number is cancelled so if you’ve been texting me, I haven’t gotten them, I’m sorry! If you would like my American number please either email me, or Facebook message me, or ask any of my family members! love youuu.

Here we go ...

The countdown as begun. 10 days (9? It’s 12:21 AM as a write this so oh well) until I fly out of this country and into the next, crazy chapter of my life in Los Angeles, California! I (hesitantly, timidly) decided to start this blog now, as there are things happening, and ways you can get involved in my journey in this next week already!

Firstly, you guys should know my excitement for these nine months grows literally every. single. day.

I was thinking to myself today, “Ok Kez, but why, WHY are you going, and taking a year of your life to go to LA? What is the number one, most important reason REALLY to take that much time in your life, and do something so set apart, and far away?” And although many, many things have complied to bring me to this decision, and many many benefits and awesome things will come as a result of this chapter, the answer that resonated in my heart, and came to my mind was immediate, and concise, and it was this:

Why? Because I desire, more fiercely than I have ever wanted anything else, for the person I am closest to in this entire world, to be the One who is not of this world. 

Maybe it doesn’t sound terribly profound, but it is the unaltered, and naked truth of it. I want time away with Him, solely for Him. Seeking Him, learning from Him, and growing so intimately close with Him that I pick up His habits and mannerisms. That I come home even deeper in love. That I come home reflecting Christ so brightly, stronger and more vibrant than I ever have before. And I know that DCLS is the place He has chosen for me to go for just this.

And can I just say that I have never felt so eager, and so excited? The best way I can describe what this feels like is what I imagine a dog on a leash, pulling ahead after spotting a cat or the mailman must feel like. 

Pushing, and panting.                                                                                        

Barking, and bursting.                                                                                 

Ecstatic, and energetic and ready to take on anything and everything.

I can’t wait to share this journey with all of you. If you would like to read my full support/info letter to get the whole story about why I chose DCLS, and how you can support me financially, I posted it previously here -> 

http://keziahgoestocali.tumblr.com/post/128243961715/dear-family-and-friends-here-it-is-my-update-and

If you’d like to check out more about what’s going on at the Dream Centre, and what the Dream Centre Leadership School looks like you can follow this link -> http://www.dreamcenter.org/leadershipschool/ . 

Lastly! For all of you in the Edmonton area! Don’t forget! I have a fundraising concert/goodbye party bash this Saturday, September 5th. There will be great music, food, a bonfire, and lots of wonderfully friendly faces. To all my friends, you’re invited. Facebook, email, or text me for details! 

DISCLAIMER: I’ve never had a blog before so hopefully this works. Bare with me friends! Hahahaha!

It’s 12:51 AM. I should be asleep, but my brain is still running fast. Of course writing inspiration always HAS to come in the middle of the night. Figures. It’s been awhile since updated my blog, so I thought I’d go ahead and write what’s on my mind before morning comes and I lose all motivation, because this is something I really want to share. Maybe it’s that exhausted energy speaking, but might as well go for it right?

               To say I’ve come to know lots of things while being at the Dream Center Leadership School is an understatement. Like, massively understated. I could sound all spiritual and say I’ve been stretched and challenged, which is mega true, but what I’ve experienced being here goes beyond our everyday Christianese descriptions. I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve made a lot of realizations. One in particular just hit me tonight. Ready? Here goes.

               Life is hard.

               Mind blowing. I know. Try to pick yourself up off the floor. But for real, most of us would come to terms with that from things we’ve gone through ourselves. I’ve had more “oh my gosh this sucks why is this happening right now” moments that I can begin to count, even just being here in LA. That’s part of life. But when I say that I’ve realized life is hard, I’m not talking from the point of view of myself. I’m talking about the lives of others, the people I see day in and day out. I don’t even mean the people I see on outreaches, in the projects, or visiting on the streets in Skid Row. Yes, their lives are obviously extremely hard and anyone can see that. But what I’m talking about are the people I see every single day. The people I live with. The ones I do my ministry tracks with. The ones I go out with. The ones whose rooms I hang out in. The people who are here for the same reasons I am. The more I get to know them, the more I see just how many levels there are in life. How their lives are different. Each one, woven with details unique to everyone else around them. I see from different points of view that growing up is hard. Dealing with yourself is hard. Learning how to navigate the world is hard. Life is hard.

               Like I said, I’ve had my share of young life hard experiences. But for some reason, even at a young age, I knew I could always turn to Jesus. Even when I doubted to the point where I thought I’d never be able to turn back, I turned back to God anyway, because I had no other option. Jesus was the only thing I knew. He was the only answer I had. In all those moments, I ended up back at Christ. That’s not typical. But I don’t think I've ever been as grateful to have lived that life as I am now. Because I know people who didn’t have that. Jesus wasn’t the first option. Something else was. Something that grabbed the attention first, because who was Christ anyway? I look around at the people I get to do this thing with, and I see the millions of different directions life can split off into. But somehow, some way, we all ended up here. At the same time. The same place. There’s no way for me to believe there’s no reason for it.

               Besides the personal revelation God is showing me, what I’m most grateful for being here is that God is opening up my eyes to so many different sides of life. Guys, there is so much more than what you’re living right now. I can’t wrap my mind around it. I’m surrounded by people from completely different walks of life. We’ve all been stuffed inside a huge old building and made to work together every single day. Why does this work? JESUS. If I’m honest, I’ll say that back home, my view of life with God was simple. Yes I learned so much from so many different avenues, but it was simple. My view of God was simple. Now, after spending five months here at the Dream Center, I’ll humbly admit that I really don’t know God as well as I thought. But he sure as heck knows me. I can also see now how small my view of the world was. I mean, I had good enough reason. Living in the suburbs for twenty years, two states, not a whole lot of exposure to outside life. But now I’m on my own, and I see the compilation of character traits, the complexity of just basic living from person to person. It blows my mind. The last thing I’ll say, is that I’ve realized just how much I love people. I always knew I was a people person, but being here is making me see how much. I genuinely LOVE people. I love stories. I love hearing how so and so ended up in this place and that place. It fascinates me. Being surrounded by so many different people and learning about them, even if it’s just noticing something small, is like finding a bunch of hidden treasure spread out and buried underneath the ground. It’s a vast, unending and beautiful discovery.

               Life is hard, but I am seeing Jesus in new ways I NEVER could have imagined. He shows me how strong he is. How truly powerful he is. How absolutely nothing could stop him from going after someone. He’s showing me that his love is passionate. Ragingly passionate. He is gentle, but he is fierce. It’s a fierce, intense, startling love that will completely shift a person’s life.

Right now I’m sitting in a minimalistic café, sipping the remnants of an iced caramel latte and listening to Ed Sheeran. Yesterday I ventured downtown to the Belasco club to attend a service at Hillsong LA. When I walk down the block to get home, I’ll saunter down Sunset Blvd and see the Hollywood Sign off in the distance.

                Tonight, I’ll relax in my non air conditioned and WiFi-less dorm and hang out in the lounge where the ping pong balls constantly go missing. This week I’ll go to the projects and play with kids who’ve seen more violence and hardship and are more street-wise than me. Sometime in the next few days I’ll also haul a massive bag of clothes to the Laundromat. I’ll stand on the Dream Center parking lot, looking at that infamous landmark on the mountain, knowing all the glamour of Los Angeles that sits underneath, while standing right in the middle of a neighborhood not a whole lot of people would actually be willing to live.

                Interesting how two extremes can be so close together.

                Los Angeles is a place of seemingly unattainable glamour, joy, money and shiny things. But if you look closely, you’ll see a whole lot of dirt and grime in the middle of those shiny things. Step on enough stars on Hollywood Blvd and you’ll step in front of someone with no money asking you to share yours. Walk a couple blocks away from that beautiful Belasco and you’ll end up on Skid Row. But you wanna know something funny? As enticing and fun as it is cruise downtown and take in the city around you, there’s something lovely about stepping onto a neighborhood in Compton knowing that kids are waiting for you there. In the moment, it doesn’t seem like anything. You’re here to do your job and that’s it. But then you sit in a coffee shop trying to figure out how to update your friends back home and you realize what you’ve actually been doing for the past month. To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything spectacular. I guess it’s not supposed to. Because it’s not about me. It’s so easy to say these things and feel like I’m only saying them for the recognition, but that’s not the case. What happens here at the Dream Center is just too amazing not to share with everyone you know. These experiences are only what I’m doing. It doesn’t even begin to cover what the other 700 people on campus, including all of the programs other than DCLS, are doing.

                I’d also love to share with you what God’s been doing in my life. But I can’t. Because I have no idea. I’m being totally serious. This past month has been a whirlwind of crazy chaotic who-knows-what and I LOVE it. Of course it’s hard to love not having your usual commodities (finding an unsecured WiFi hotspot has never felt so rewarding) but the amazing things that are happening to me and around me are too crazy and mixed up to even explain clearly.

                Last week I spent the afternoon at Santa Monica beach with some friends. While in the water, this fog appeared out of nowhere. It rolled in from the ocean so thick you couldn’t even see the waves ahead. I almost went back up to the shore because I thought I wouldn’t be able to see anything soon. My friend was standing next to me, and we just looked at it trying to figure out where it came from. I looked back toward the shore and saw that the fog already travelled over the water and was heading for city away from the beach. It completely passed over without me realizing it. Soon everything was perfectly clear again.

                This past month has been somewhat like that. I can’t really make out what’s happening around me. Sometimes I think I’ll become completely clouded over to the point where I can’t see. But if I just stay where I am and enjoy playing in the water, I look around and realize the clouded chaos didn’t blind me at all. Things are clear again, and I can see. Now I know that when the second fog rolls around, I don’t have to freak out. I’ll let it sweep right over me. This swirl of goodness that feels so strange in the moment is actually refining me, and I don’t even realize that it’s happening. Who knows how many fogs will roll around in the next eight months. I can’t predict or explain any of it, all I can do is stand in the waves and have fun as they crash into me.