The best day off in a long time.

The best day off in a long time.


My friends Holly and Mike came to town this past weekend from phoenix. They came with a group of their friends to check out a couple churches in the area.

I worked all day on Saturday until about 7pm and then got off work, jumped in the jeep and headed for Santa Monica for dinner. Santa Monica is about an hour away. We met at a restaurant called Gladstone’s on pacific coast highway. I’ve eaten there a few times before. I love that place. When you’re done, they wrap your left overs in tin foil in the shape of sea creatures. It’s fabulous. So we had dinner, laughed a lot and then got back in the car to head back to Huntington Beach but only after the waiter wrapped my left over food into the shape of a crab. LOVE IT. Freeway driving can be fun if you know how to do it. ☺

Sunday morning I headed over to the Hyatt at Huntington Beach to meet up with the group to head off to the first church. Their group they are here with is about 20 people that fit into about 6 cars, including mine. This is when freeway driving is not so fun. Especially when people don’t know how to keep up. It kills me. So, we head out from the hotel and hit the road and arrive at Saddleback church for the 11:15 service. It was incredible. Rick Warren was preaching. Amazing. He’s an incredible speaker. Their service was so great. It was like being at home. Everything seemed to be just like it was for me at home. It was comfortable.

After church, we headed over to Irvine spectrum Center where I work. It’s a really cool outdoor mall and has a variety of restaurants to choose from. It was great. Too bad that all 20 people decided to eat at the same stinkin restaurant. Very unfortunate.

After lunch we all jumped back in our cars and headed into down town LA. Side note: if you own a soft-top vehicle and drive with the top down, put the dumb thing up before driving, at night, through downtown LA. So, after about and hour and fifteen minutes we arrive at this building called “The Mayan.” This could be one of the coolest places I’ve been in a very long while. We parked the cars and headed in. This is it. This is what I’ve heard about for years. It’s a dance club. (for those of you who know me, you’re thinking, “Katie? In a dance club? That’s just not right.”)
One of my top three favorite speakers is Erwin McManus and he’s the pastor of the church called Mosaic. INCREDIBLE the building it’s self if phenomenal. I can’t even describe it. It reminds me of the Morris in south bend but…cool. I’ll have to take pictures. So, we walk in and since the floor seats are filled, they send us to the second level. Again, this is an old theatre. It has the main floor. Then, between the two floors are the bathrooms and then the upstairs. And all through the building there is incredible detail on every bit of the building looking like a Mayan…temple maybe. I don’t really know. It’s pretty incredible. And as I stand there in the middle of phenomenal worship I found myself thinking, “this is the church I’ve been searching for.” I felt like I fit in here. I’m surrounded by people my age in a building that is so far from a church that it’s almost ironic and I found myself at home. After thinking that I’ve found a new church home, I found myself thinking, “Crap, I’m going to have to sell my car so that I can attend here. I can’t drive a soft-top car in LA. I’ll have to sell my car.” Incredible service. Erwin spoke. Unbelievable. The whole sermon was about living to your fullest. Erwin kept repeating, “What would you do if you weren’t paralyzed by fear?” And at that point so many things in my head started to pan out…

What a phenomenal day. I heard Rick Warren preach about truth in the morning and then learned form Erwin McManus. Are you kidding me? I used to spend hundreds of dollars going to conferences to hear these men speak and now I live within driving distance between both churches. Craziness.

After church, I got into my car…well first, I had to get to my car. Holly and I start walking and I hear footsteps behind us. I kinda glance, trying to keep aware of whats going on around me, and I see this guy following behind us about 15 steps. It raised my attention level but no big deal. We get to our car and he says, “thanks for coming ladies, have a wonderful night.” We got escorted to our car. This is how…different this neighborhood was compared to what I’m used to. How cool.

It was a great day off.