Thursday, April 10, 2008

Easter at Seal

Written: Thursday, March, 19th Seal Beach, CA

We found a 2nd surfboard on Craigslist and spent the rest of the day surfing. It was awesome, the waves were poor but it made it quite easy for us to get used to the whole surfing concept. We spent the evening taking in the night life in nearby Long Beach. We found an amazing acoustic folk trio playing on the street they were just like the Marc Atkinson Trio (another favorite of ours). Acoustic bass, lead guitar and rhythm guitar – really tight and polished. I wish that we could have stayed longer to listen but the rest of the night was calling. Here’s a link to their my space page. I suggest you check it out. They’re called the Long Beach Caravan Trio. http://www.myspace.com/thelongbeachcaravantrio

Written: Friday March, 20th (Good Friday) Seal Beach, CA

Too many surfers and not enough waves. Only caught about 2 waves today, one of which sent me flying straight into Geoff and knocked him a good one in the head. First with the nose of the board, then the fins for good measure. Later on in the day we came across a Spanish-Catholic church surrounded with crowds of people and asked a lady if there was a good Friday service. “Oh yes” she said “We’re acting out The Passion, we’re going to bring him (Jesus) out here, beat him up, crucify him...it's gonna be fun” What we forgot to ask was whether of not the service was in English, (it wasn't). There were so many people gathered you couldn't find parking for blocks. Likely because the play was being acted out in the church parking lot. Hundreds of people lined the 'make-believe' streets of Jerusalem, while vendors sold glow sticks and churros (cinnamon pastry) on the church lawn. It began by leading Jesus up to Pontious Pilate, while the Roman Soldiers whipped Jesus. They were actually hitting him quite hard, and the whole thing was really long, and rather violent, and weird, kinda neat, but mostly weird. The whole thing was quite the scene, people on the streets were stopping to watch and news helicopters circled above.


Written: Sunday March, 22nd (Easter Sunday) Seal Beach, CA

We found ourselves at Damascus Church for Easter Sunday service. What a refreshing place! It was like being home at Royal City Church (our home church) for a day. The church is still quite young maybe 3ys old. They rent out space in the community centre for their services. Awesome worship, anointed preaching, and a very welcoming community. It’s nice to come to a church for the first time and leave having met at least 5 people and have had time to have significant conversations with most of them as well. It’s a nice change since lately we’ve been spending our time at a lot of churches where all they seem to care about it that you fill out the little info card and drop it in the collection box so they can count their attendance numbers. http://www.damascuschurch.org

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Crystal loves Crystal Cove

Written: Saturday, March 15th – Huntington Beach, CA

Went to “The Sanctuary” for a Saturday evening service. It was a nice church but the pastor was way too slick for us. He was tres high fashion - the definition of cool. His profile in the Sunday bulletin features various pictures of him with photo-shoot quality. They highlight his skills as an ex-pro skater, his dashing good looks, great fashion sense and of course his beautiful wife. Again, is this a California thing?

Sunday, March 16th – Palm Sunday – Huntington Beach, CA

Since the Saturday evening service wasn’t quite what we were looking for we went in search of another Sunday morning. We found ourselves at the Sea Coast church upon the recommendation of Glen. It was by far our biggest church we have ever been to. The sermon was about the importance of not playing “the game” (the game being "keeping up with the Jones"). He spoke about how revolutions historically have been about TAKING power and how ultimately this will not get us anywhere except in another situation of power imbalance. He presented Jesus' teaching on GIVING power. A concept that in todays world is a bit… well… revolutionary, as much as when Jesus first suggested this idea to his Disciples.

Monday, March 17th , St. Patrick’s Day – Crystal Cove, CA

We went to Crystal Cove State Park today. Its free during weekdays - a benefit of traveling in the off season. It’s funny that you see a lot of sights saying “closed – off season”. In Canada, half the country would be out on a beautiful day like today. Here in California, however it’s too cold for locals. Walking along the beach we saw a pod of dolphins off shore! So exciting! Our long walk on the beach led us to the Crystal Cove cottages. These are old, abandoned homes from the 1920’s, old squatter cottages put together by beach bums and runaway C.E.O’s looking to escape from their busy lives. People have lived in these homes as a community up until 2001 when they were evicted to make way for a beach-front resort. People freaked out and protested. The compromise, was to instead restore the cottages to their former glory. Today you can rent them out for the night at a capped price of $150. It’s pretty fun to think of a community of people who ran away from it all to live on the beach. They gathered together for sunset cocktails, surfing, and beach parties.







Tuesday, March 18th San Clemente, CA

SO from now on we will be traveling down the coast highway. Passing through the beach towns along the way. The view is beautiful, I can’t seem to capture it’s grandeur in a photograph.