California Trip Day 5

 Hey Guys,


So pre-warning it is pretty late when I am beginning this blog so if my sentence structure and grammar are worse then usual sorry ahead of hand! Well today Day 5 is completed! Praise be to God that there was no rain, we have a place to stay and everything for the most part has worked out!


We spent the last night at Biola University that I want to call the American version of TWU. It was bigger, richer and had a real soccer field. But more to the point it was a blessing last night that Stephanie found us and home and gave us a place to stay. We (Me and Dan) stayed with some great dudes who gave us a place to stay and offered us anything the could. I know I have mentioned this before but people offering up their home, their food or anything is such an amazing blessing. I think we are at the point where we feel bad because usually we are coming under one of three circumstances: 1. We are out of options, 2. We just arrived in town, 3. You were the first person to pick up their phone at 1am :) But today was the "FOCUS" of our trip which was to go down and go to Disneyland.

This was the first thing that stood out for me was this sign posted on the bridge entering Disneyland which said "Here you leave today and enter the world of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy". Which totally bugs me because I believe it is a little no with scripture but that is alright it is Disneyland :) It was good to finally be there and have fun for a day but as we are starting to find out having fun and being filled with joy are two COMPLETELY different things. 

 This is how our day went! We started off in the morning pretty earlier and started off strong, we went to the Matterhorn Mountain. Side not Aaron a guy that has joined us these last few days has NEVER been to Disneyland. After the MM we went to Pirates of the Caribbean, Hunted Mansion then to Thunder Mountain. That was the start to the day and some where along the time we took this picture of us in a tea cup. Epic though right??? Yea it was fun to run around all day as a group of 8 19-21 year olds.

This is where the day started to become extremely interesting... as I will post a video later. Rides began to break down on us left, right and center. First was the Big Thunder Mountain Roller coaster. We has waited in line for a long long long time and then we finally got on and we started up the first incline and BOOM. Ride shuts down, now the difficult thing is this you cannot exactly just get off. You have to wait for someone to come, let you out and walk back in a orderly fashion. So we missed our first big big ride but that is alright. They gave us a free fast pass to another ride. So we decided to go to space mountain and the moment we got there BOOM ride broke down just as we were about to enter the line up. We were thinking at this point maybe we should stop breaking down Disneyland. So we figured we would use our free pass to go to Indiana Jones adventure which was awesome! Probably one of my favorite rides and then just as we were about to end BOOM ride breaks down. At least this one we were able to do the whole ride and were able to get off within a few minutes. This was a pretty weird experience for all of us but you know what whatever. The end of the day we still hit a lot of rides and only a few broke down. It was not until the very end of the day were the actual Tram the brings you back and forth lost all power. BOOM!

This is the Pirate of the Caribbean, this was my absolutely FAVORITE ride growing up as my mom and family will tell you. I LOVED this ride and was so excited to go on this ride. I was telling Aaron how amazing it was and how great this was etc... We waited in line for about 25 minutes and I was getting excited to excited. We started down the path like it always does, we heard the pirates warning and then down the first drop into the track. But then something was off, the ride had changed, it was not what I remember and the excitement was gone. This was sad for me, I ended up call my mom that night and telling her the ride had changed because it was that big of a disappointment for me. I know it seems crazy and dumb but that was one of my fondest childhood memories that I had was this ride. But it made me realize something, they things in this life are not forever that these worldly things are going to end one day and what will we have in the end? This trip has really opened my eyes to what is truly important in life. I intend of making sure my actions from now on not only live up to that but exceed those expectations. Just like the enjoyment of this ride has ended for me, the memory that once was will be there for a long time. The memory of being close with my parents and feeling loved will not leave. As much as this was such a surface level thing it showed me something deeper that maybe Disneyland is fun but it is not where near the happiest place on earth!

Guess what I got to do today! Meet Micky and sorry to burst some bubbles he is WAY shorter then I remember. It was pretty disappointing too I was hoping for this epic time in Disneyland and in a lot of ways it fell short. It was such a FUN trip and so nice to walk around see everything but it did not bring me joy like it use to. This joy I talk about if you can remember is as a kid where nothing eles mattered you were so excited to be in Disneyland or to be by Micky or anything! That joy was no longer there... I have something epic to share at the end of the blog that will talk about this overcoming Joy :)

FOR THE RECORD, McDonalds has wifi, they are extremely nice and I want to personally thank Tiffany that was the assistant manager at the McDonalds we were at. I think it is one thing to receive hospitality from people you know and another thing for a complete stranger to give you hospitality. After Disneyland we did not know where we were going to stay... AGAIN! so we went to McDonalds at around 10:15pm. We sat there talking, relaxing and just trying to figure out where we were going to stay for the night. Eventually we decided that we were going to stay in a house and Stephanie opened up her house to us :). She needed to drive back to Biola. So we sat there and did not realized that this place closed at 11pm, they ended up asking everyone to leave except us. They allowed us to stay there and wait until Stephanie and Aaron returned back. On top of that they allowed us to charge our phone in the breaker, laptop next to the register and other electronics around the kitchen area. There was not an outlet in the whole store except the ones in the Kitchen area. It was pretty epic Tiffany was so nice and generous she opened up McDonalds for us to rest and recharge (figuratively and literally).

Tonight we are staying at Stephanies house in San Diego which is so awesome. I for one loving having a roof over my head and a place to sleep. But that is not the point of these last paragraphs I want to share with you guys a miracle.  I am going to keep names out of it but last night in Biola we were there and one of Andrea friends was there and Rebecca felt as though someone would have back pain so we came together and prayed for her for spiritual and physical healing. I ask for spiritual because I felt as though she was carrying and huge burden that was causing her pain. Turns out there was some health issue with her mom so we prayed for her again. Today at McDonalds she showed up and was talking, was joyful and then she told us something amazing. ZERO BACK PAIN, she said she woke up this morning and had no pain. She said she was shocked that she started to test it, to see what she could do and see if it would hurt and there was NOTHING. Funny note she said that while she had horrible posture just because she finally good without pain. Do you want to talk about Joy now? Tell me here for a second what do you think brings me more joy right now... the fact that in God's name and power we as a crew healed her or going to Disneyland?


This lady is and should be an inspiration to all, she is going through so much had to leave her life and come back to LA to take care of her mom. Yet she still praises the Lord. She still gives thanks. She should be a new understanding of the word joy and I think I speak for our team the act of being apart of God healing her was inspiring and created a immense amount of joy. For me personally I wanted to jump up and down, run around, do flips and scream. Does that remind you of anything? The image that I was thinking of is a kid receiving a toy, going to meet Micky for the first time and being given a surprise. I felt today like a child that has just gone to Disneyland for the first time and was overwhelmed with joy. The moment I knew God had healed her, was working through our lives and was alive here, today. MAN I wanted to jump up and down and sing songs of praise! Doesn't that want to make you do it too?
Philippians 4:4 (New Living Translation)

 ⁴ Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!

Habakkuk 3:18 (New Living Translation)

 ¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
      I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! 

Be Bless, Be Joyful and Rejoice in the Lord
Christian Sawka


P.S. Additional Pslam if you got the time to read and rejoice!

Psalm 33 (New Living Translation)

Psalm 33

 ¹ Let the godly sing for joy to the Lord;

      it is fitting for the pure to praise him.

 ² Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre;

      make music for him on the ten-stringed harp.

 ³ Sing a new song of praise to him;

      play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy.

 ⁴ For the word of the Lord holds true,

      and we can trust everything he does.

 ⁵ He loves whatever is just and good;

      the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.

 ⁶ The Lord merely spoke,

      and the heavens were created.

   He breathed the word,

      and all the stars were born.

 ⁷ He assigned the sea its boundaries

      and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs.

 ⁸ Let the whole world fear the Lord,

      and let everyone stand in awe of him.

 ⁹ For when he spoke, the world began!

      It appeared at his command.
 ¹⁰ The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations

      and thwarts all their schemes.

 ¹¹ But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever;

      his intentions can never be shaken.
¹² What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord,

      whose people he has chosen as his inheritance.
 ¹³ The Lord looks down from heaven

      and sees the whole human race.

 ¹⁴ From his throne he observes

      all who live on the earth.

 ¹⁵ He made their hearts,

      so he understands everything they do.

 ¹⁶ The best-equipped army cannot save a king,

      nor is great strength enough to save a warrior.

 ¹⁷ Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory—

      for all its strength, it cannot save you.
 ¹⁸ But the Lord watches over those who fear him,

      those who rely on his unfailing love.

 ¹⁹ He rescues them from death

      and keeps them alive in times of famine.
 ²⁰ We put our hope in the Lord.

      He is our help and our shield.

 ²¹ In him our hearts rejoice,

      for we trust in his holy name.

 ²² Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,

      for our hope is in you alone.