{"id":788778,"date":"2013-11-10T16:37:08","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/?p=788778"},"modified":"2013-11-10T16:59:52","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T16:59:52","slug":"hillsong-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/2013\/11\/10\/hillsong-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillsong Conference Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

It all started about 10 months ago. \u00a0I received an email announcing Hillsong<\/a> having a conference in Los Angeles. \u00a0Assuming it was going to be a worship conference, I thought this would make a nice gift for my husband. \u00a0I also thought he would like to go with his good friend, and fellow worship leader, Scott. \u00a0I called my friend Liann (Scott’s wife), and proposed that we gift our guys the conference for Father’s Day, and Liann and I play in L.A. for the weekend.<\/p>\n

Our friends ended up having to cancel, so I decided to take Scott’s conference ticket. \u00a0I figured that even though I was not a worship leader, I would still benefit from the conference. \u00a0My lifelong friend from WA state (Michelle) flew down to watch the boys.\u00a0 We have this tradition where she carves pumpkins with my boys because I don’t like to.\u00a0 Timing for the conference was perfect!<\/p>\n

What a blessing this turned out to be! \u00a0The conference was not targeted to worship leaders, but to all who love Jesus.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4142\"<\/a> \"IMG_4143\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had requested an early check in and they had a room ready.\u00a0 It was great because there was a huge convention of Herbalife Latino and the hotel was beyond packed later that day.\u00a0 Our room was on the 13th floor.\u00a0 This was my first time in L.A.\u00a0 We had a view overlooking the city.\u00a0 It’s crazy to see actually how big this city is, with the protective layer of smog.<\/p>\n

We decided to walk around and explore downtown L.A.\u00a0 The concierge gave us a map and drew along the streets she suggested we walk.\u00a0 We took off walking, but I had not oriented myself at the beginning and we ended up on quite the adventure.<\/p>\n

We passed a parking lot where they were filming something.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As we passed this temporary square box that had only three walls, we noticed a set that was supposed to be a Wendy’s restaurant dining room.<\/p>\n

We kept looking for the landmarks the concierge mentioned, and the area kept getting seedier and seedier.\u00a0 We pull the map out and discovered we were walking the exact opposite from where we were supposed to head.<\/p>\n

Based on the map, we had ventured into the Fashion District.\u00a0 My interpretation of fashion and what the Fashion District are two separate things.\u00a0 We made our way through it, passing all the vendors, sitting on seats or standing in front of their stores, speaking to us in Spanish to step inside.\u00a0 A mentally ill man stated walking behind us, saying, “I hate you, get out of the way”, as he passed, he said it to the next person, then the next.\u00a0 I started praying over him, praying that he’ll feel love at some point that day.<\/p>\n

We tried to fit in as much as possible.\u00a0 Kept our phones and the map hidden, and I was calling on my city-bitch attitude I knew so well years ago while living in downtown Seattle.\u00a0 I’ve become a bit mushy over the years \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

We managed to move over the Jewelry District.\u00a0 Cartier this is not.\u00a0 Think bling x 10….Imagine the face of Jesus in gold one a thick gold chain, with the crown of thorns in diamonds….<\/p>\n

We circled back to our hotel and rested up before the event began Friday evening.<\/p>\n

While waiting in line for the event to begin, it was beautiful to witness literally every age\u2026race\u2026language\u2026 present.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few pictures from our walk….<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4145\"<\/a> \"IMG_4148\"<\/a> \"IMG_4151\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sun sets, and the conference begins!
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I will post notes from what I experienced in another post…\"IMG_4158\"<\/a> \"IMG_4159\"<\/a> \"IMG_4161\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We ran into friends that are worship leaders for a different church, and had dinner with them. \u00a0We enjoyed our servers so much, we took pictures with them \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4166\"<\/a> \"IMG_4168\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday, we had a whole day to explore L.A.\u00a0 David rented a convertible.\u00a0 I asked the car attendant woman where she would go for breakfast.\u00a0 She mentioned a nearby place called Trenton\u2019s, then suggested the old standby\u2019s IHOP and Denny\u2019s.\u00a0 Just as we were leaving, she said, \u201cyou can always do chicken and waffles at Roscoe\u2019s\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

David stopped the car and we both shrieked, \u201cchicken and waffles?! Where??\u201d\u00a0 Neither of us had ever had that dish, and we both love new experiences. So, to Roscoe\u2019s Chicken and Waffle House we went.\u00a0 We are both fans.\u00a0 Not something to do one a regular basis, but glad we went.<\/p>\n

After breakfast, we drove to Venice Beach.\u00a0 It was Sunday morning, so the counter culture had yet to rise.\u00a0 Saw a few little kids (under age 10) practicing at the skate park.\u00a0 They were insanely good.\u00a0 The next generation\u2026walked the walk for a while, then drove to Sunset strip.<\/p>\n

We had to take a picture of ‘Randy’s Donuts’ because it is a part of a show that the boys love. \u00a0They were excited to see that we were there.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4169\"<\/a> \"IMG_4170\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_4171\"<\/a> \"IMG_4172\"<\/a> \"IMG_4174\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_4175\"<\/a> \"IMG_4176\"<\/a> \"IMG_4177\"<\/a> \"IMG_4178\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Drove along the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\u00a0 David offered to park, but I could not think of a star I would want to find, so we kept driving.\u00a0 Drove along Sunset strip and drove by all the clubs your hear about and Chateau Marmont. \u00a0Drove up through lovely Beverly Hills.\u00a0 I had a list of addresses of old time movie star homes that I wanted to see.\u00a0 Found the one for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.\u00a0 Our GPS was acting up so much, we had to pitch it.\u00a0 My phone was almost down, so I turned it off.\u00a0 We ended up just driving around and enjoying the beauty of high end architecture and landscaping.<\/p>\n

Drove along Rodeo Drive, then had lunch at a cute Mediterranean caf\u00e9.\u00a0 It was yummy.\u00a0 Walked along and shopped a little.\u00a0 David found a cute purse for me that he bought.\u00a0 He bought my favorite purse that was on its last legs, so this was a sweet moment. Swapping the old for the new.<\/p>\n

Went to a place called The Grove and walked around there for a while, then headed for the airport.\u00a0 It was a much needed day for both of us.\u00a0 His back did well all weekend, PRAISE GOD, and even though customer support was crazy for work, (we both had to cover support that weekend) we were able to have some quality one on one time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_4183\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This was Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s home…
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\"IMG_4189\"<\/a> \"IMG_4190\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a wonderful weekend with my favorite person!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It all started about 10 months ago. \u00a0I received an email announcing Hillsong having a conference in Los Angeles. \u00a0Assuming it was going to be a worship conference, I thought this would make a nice gift for my husband. \u00a0I also thought he would like to go with his good friend, and fellow worship leader, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-788778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thisnthat"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788778"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788817,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788778\/revisions\/788817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}