San Francisco Day 4

Made it to day 4. Slept really well. Too well. Roommates recalled being awakened by elephants being tortured with jackhammers sometime in the night. Gotta make an effort to sleep on my side tonight.
Big victory of the day was waking up in time to go to a coffee bar! O dark caffeine mother! How I have longed for your pleasant bitterness!
Made a couple of sandwiches for today’s event. Forced the repressed memories of making school lunches into the recesses of my mind. At least there were Girl Scout cookies as part of the lunch. God’s grace is amazing.
Kim Katopodis also had a victory she wanted me to mention, but this is a family blog.
Gathered up our groups after a brief morning worship time and walked down to Civic Center Plaza—an interesting mix of city bureaucrats, art students, homeless, and tourists. It was difficult to judge who needed our prayers the most, but since the homeless were our target market for the week, we set about the plaza in groups of two to ask the homeless if they’d like to eat lunch with us. This was a wonderful way to talk to the folks on the streets and we did have some nice conversation and prayers with people. Unfortunately, part of the process was actually eating one of the lunches ourselves. Call me a snob, but I hate plain old lunch bread sandwiches, I abhor plain old lunch bread sandwiches with American cheese. Guess what we were forced to make and eat? I ate it but it honestly distracted from my conversation. Note to self: Next time I make sandwiches for the homeless, buy some nice aged Gruyère for sandwiches.
After lunch, we stayed in the plaza to set up a Prayer Booth to ask passerbys if we could pray for them. This was difficult for most people. I broke the ice by asking for them to pray for Gruyère cheese, but I think they were preparing for a few deeper requests.
The kids handled it all with great maturity and enthusiasm, and despite a few rejections, related mostly positive experiences at our debriefing time. I was very proud of all of them.
Then it was back out the doors and back on the streets (Editors note: this would be a fine lyric for a Bruce Springsteen song. Or at least a Bruce Springsteen cover band song). Our destination was dinner at an Indian restaurant. Or perhaps we accidentally told them all we were going for limb amputations. The moaning and complaining were roughly equal. But after being challenged all week to step out of their comfort zones, the kids were able to overcome their fears and taste Chicken Tikka Masala (Editors note: Excellent!).
The evening finished with Expressions, a worship and reflection program designed solely to get teenagers to cry. And a couple of adults too, to be honest. With kids emotionally and physically exhausted, God was able to move pretty freely around the assembly. It will suffice to say that it was a time that none of them will forget.
Tomorrow is a “free day,” as we clean up the building and head to the Fisherman’s Wharf area for some rest and relaxation. I opted to not sign up for the optional hill climbing seminar, and will instead explore the sitting still in one place activity.