my soul sings

We went for our second time to this church in Pasadena yesterday, called "Epicentre," and I'm really loving it. It's nothing like I've ever experienced. It meets in an elementary school, and there are about 100 or so people that go, the vast majority of which are Asians. Yesterday we got there early, by accident, and discovered that there are lot of people that come early to pray for the church in small groups. So, we came in and the Pastor came up to us and introduced himself (name tags=newbie alert!) and explained what was happening. We sat down and he came to pray with us and some others came over to pray too. He prayed for me that I would get a job, specifically within two weeks! I'm really excited to see what happens in the next week or so now. :)

The real church service starts by there being "prayer points" on the screen and everyone just prays aloud personally to God. It is so powerful to hear people from all different nationalities praying for our world, our church, our country and leaders! It's so refreshing to start the service off with EVERYONE praying, not just the person in leadership.

After that happens for a while, there is worship which is really loud (almost too loud! lol), but just alive and with new songs. We sang this AMAZING song yesterday, and I couldn't find a youtube video of it, but here is one recording I found...it's a large file and takes a lot to get going, but I LOVE this song! AH!

http://www.jonathanfordlee.com/mp3/12.14.09.JustALittleWhileLonger.mp3

Maybe it's not that new, has anyone heard this before? Just found a youtube video for it (I don't think I like it as much as the other recording though):

The other thing I really like about this church is that they have Life Groups that you can get plugged into mid-week for encouragement and community within the church. Lots of churches do that, but still, I like it! We might go to one this week.

Another thing is that this church is really open about where they are financially. This church is actually in debt by thousands of dollars, which kind of put me off a bit until I found out what happened. But they put the numbers on the screen, and I've never had a church be so up front like that with the money.

I know I need to do a Pasadena update, but I'll summarize right now by saying that I feel really good here. I feel like most of people we've met have a real commitment to their faith, and it's been so awesome being in a more diverse environment. I LOVE it! Excited for the future.... :D