Misconceptions/Trip to So Cal

Well, I recently got back from California early Sunday morning. It was a fantastic trip. We spent most of our time in San Diego and the last day or so in Los Angeles. It blew my mind how different the culture is from what we're used to here in the South. The people were great. We were able to partner with Harbor Church to help clean up the city by picking up trash in the alleys and painting over gang graffiti. Our whole team was absolutely broken over seeing the state of the people who live there. It's about a 15 minute drive between some of the poorest and richest people in the US. The poverty gap is extreme. We spent the majority of our time on the campus of San Diego State University. It's a school with about 35-40,000 students. We had students take interactive surveys that had questions about what they did for free time, where they planned to go after graduation, and who they thought God was. It was a very eye opening experience. Most of the students were very open to talk about surface level things like where to hang out, or what restaurants were good; however, the spiritual conversations were difficult, few, and far between. People would listen to what we had to say, but most just had the attitude that "that's great for you, but I'm just gonna do my own thing."

Through this trip God really showed me how much of a need there is to reach these people. There is such a plentiful harvest in areas like California, but the laborers are so few. I pray that God will convict the hearts of those able to go there. The gospel is needed all over the world, not just in the South, or Alabama, or our quiet neighborhoods. Most of the people we talked to had no idea of who Jesus really is, other than what they read on hateful signs that people carry on campus. When we were there, a guy was standing on the steps of a busy building with a sign that said "drunks, whores, fornicators, liars, and thieves will not enter the kingdom of God! Repent and turn from your wicked ways!" This is such a one sided picture of the gospel. The truth is, we're all equally wicked, and are in need of a savior just as badly. Outside of God's grace, none of us could enter the Kingdom. Christ came to save sinners like the ones in California, and Australia, and Florence, Alabama! This lack of truth has lead to negative feelings toward Christ and his people. Those people are in dire need of truth, and it's up to us, Christ's ambassadors, to show them what truth really is...