Dreamcenter here we come

Now explaining what the Dream Center is in on entry is going to be hard work, but if you are really curious, you can have a look here www.dreamcenter.org. We got to the Dream Center on the Thursday night after driving through the worst traffic known to man, the LA highway system. I thought London or JHB were bad, but this is non stop bumper to bumper, 24h stuff. We did get to drive through Beverly Hills though and saw some of the many mansions around the area. Also getting a chance to see the famous "Hollywood" sign on the hill which in it's won right is pretty cool.

Thursday nights at the Dream Center they have a midweek church service which is pretty cool as we were able to go that evening and were blown away by their praise and message, we also met some really awesome people including some from the UK who are over there to volunteer long term. We quickly struck up a bond with them and learnt much from them about how the project works and what they do within the program.

Friday morning was our first chance to help out and we had to pack the trucks for the 'adopt-a-block' outreach. This is where tens of buses drive out to the homeless and residents in surrounding areas in LA to find out how they can help. Our block turned out be an area in South Central LA which is full of gangs and rife with drugs. We helped hand out the food to the needy and spoke to them about any other care they require for themselves and their families. We also ended up cleaning out the trash from their yards and streets to make it look a little cleaner.

On one of the evenings we got to go on a group tour to Universal City where we met Justin Mayo who works at the Dream Center and heads up a program called Red Eye, which is trying to get young people of talent to express them in an environment where they don't have to end up acting like Britney Spears or Amy Majestic Wine Warehouse.

We met some really amazing people here, from converted drug addicts, to ex gang members and leaders and also the people that are helping out to achieve the above mentioned goals. I will not forget these days in a hurry.