http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album25
Last night was a late night... all that walking around downtown and kickin it.... whew. I talked to Threat (graffiti artist from GospelGraffiti.com) and he wanted to scoop me up early so we could get to Tijuana to paint. I think its like 45 or an hour or so away from Man of Wars (the rapper) house. So he got me like at 7:00? Not to sure about that but Im thinking it was 7.
Threat pulled up in a blue mustang and all dressed up. I was like what? I thought we were painting today? He said he didnt get dirty but I felt like a scrub cause I was like all in old clothes and what not chillin in San Diego... SCRUB... lol
Anyways we drove out to this dude PISTO's house. This fool was like straight off of Friday man. Like what everyone think Mexicans are in Cali. He was like "wassup holmes... simon...". You know like straight homeboy. Threat reminded me of Blood in Blood out, Miclo... He's half Irish and half Mexican but was raised in Tj (Tijuana). We got directions from Pisto cause he couldn't go with us but REALLY wanted us to connect with Hecho en Mexico Crew (made in mexico).
So we jet from Pistos and hit up McDonalds for some breakfast. On the way I talked to Arkitekture who's working on the House of Faith site in Canada. I LOVE ARK!!! Just thought I'd throw that in. We cross the border pretty fast and all is cool but right as we enter Mexico its like an all out car battle. WOW... I felt like we were playing bumper cars just without the bump. We thought we had it easy with the "mapquest" style map PISTO drew us but that wasnt the case. At first we couldnt figure out this like things in the middle of the street we had to go around cause everytime we went around it took us off to this funky street. Good thing my cell was still working cause we called Pisto up a hundred times asking questions. After we figured that out it we got lost on this whole... "past the basketball courts, take a right second street to the right, turn at the liqour store thing. Whew... After about 30 minutes we finally go to a house that had like graf on it and fit the description we were looking for.
Now when I say "house" Im not talking front yard and a roof. I'm talking Mexico here homie. Dirt street, a huge ditch next to the houses to throw your trash and just some serious poverty. Now this neighborhood wasnt no cardboard box block but it still was trashed. Supposedly this was HEM's studio. A dude named CAFY lived here and we were just suppossed to whistle and yell, "CAFFYY!!!" and he'd come out. I mean I didnt think about it then but yo, here I am I don't even know Threat and he don't even know these guys we're looking for, and here we are like yelling at some house in the middle of TJ... Lord help us...
We yelled for a minute but nobody came out. I saw a mop laying near by and decided to lean it across the iron fence to the door and bang on it. In a couple minutes someone yells "quien es" (who is it). We told him Pisto sent us and he opens the door half dressed. Tells us to open the gate and come in. We walk in and its like this tore up house. I guess in Mexico its a pretty nice place. But in America it'd be considered pretty nasty. The living is like full of art supplies and half painted canvases and boards everywhere. It was crazy. We found out that this place was used as a studio for HEM crew to paint in.
Cafy invited us back where he had a Apple computer and all kinds of crazy stuff laying around. He had this like car door laying on the floor that all kinds of graf heads had signed and tagged up. On his desk were all kinds of stuff... weed, a couple pipes, fliers, markers. As we talked to him he was like half awake still. He said he knew we were coming but went to this graffiti party last night and got wasted.
As we waited I drew in his black book and he and Threat talked more about graf. Other people started showing up that Pisto had called from Cali to check if we made it there ok. I guess you wouldnt want to like plan a sneak attack on these fools cuase seriously dudes like came out the wood works. As we chilled a lady showed up looking for Cafy (pronounced CAFE). She started talking to him about art work and galleries and then out of no where... BAM... started like demanding rent money. Supposedly dudes been using this house for months without paying rent and she was MAD. This whole time I just got my head down drawing pretending I didnt know anybody... lol. Just incase she kicked us all out or asked me for some rent money :)
After she left we finally got our stuff together and headed out. We drove through the city for about 15 minutes to get to this wall. The streets are crazy out there and its like swarming with people walking and driving everywhere. When we finally got to the wall we saw that Cafy had hit up his piece up and that the rest of the wall needed to be buffed so we could paint on it. You know if you dont prep the wall all the spray paint just gets soaked up in it.
We popped the trunk and soon realized Cafy didnt grab the buff paint. Man... That meant we had to find some or drive all the way back to Cafy's house. But it was already getting real late. I mean we woke up at 7 and its like already 2-3 hours later. This other homeboy named Crisis (pronounced CRE-SEES) had driven up to this wall with us and his house was just down the street. He told us there was a paint store nearby and so we decided to go for the walk.
We walked, and walked and walked and walked.... Finally we got to a store but the paint was expensive there. We decided to keep on walking and asking store owners where we could find paint. Nobody knew. After walking and not having any luck we turned back around to get the expensive paint so that we could get started on the wall.
We were getting hungry so we hit up this little taco stand that had "adobada" tacos/burritos for like .50 cents... not a good sign huh... I trusted Threat and Cafy and went ahead and ordered a couple and yo THEY WERE GOOD. Especially with some lemon on them. They were like pork I think marinated in like this sweet bar-b-que stuff. As they say in Cali... They were MACKIN. Atleast then they were... more on that later.
So we got the paint and jetted back to the wall only to find out NOBODY BROUGHT THE ROLLER NAP. We had a roller but no nap to put on it. We even had the tray... sheesh. The time is like 1 or 2 I think and we wanted to leave Mexico early cause it was Halloween weekend and we figured the border would take a minute to cross. We sent Crisis to go buy a roller nap which took a minute cause he used some of the money to buy weed down the street (machinnn). He soon ran back with the roller and we started rolling. The wall was real bad though. The paint on it was flakin of like dust. Cafy taught us how to use the bottom of the cans to scrap the whole wall cause the flakes were jaking up the roller. After ALLL that we finally started to paint.
Since now we were out of time we had to be quick. We talked about hitting up a full scene on the wall but to do that was gonna push it. Threat wanted to do a character but felt the wall needed more to really be good. He ended up painting Vincente Fernandez, a famous mexican singer, while Cafy did a rooster. I went ahead a pieced to try to fill up the wall.
We knocked out the wall pretty fast. All helping out and just working real hard. Mexico is a crazy place. I enjoy being in neighborhoods like that but our primary purpose that day was to meka a connection with Cafy in order to share Christ with him. To help Threat do that was great. I think he really enjoyed painting with us and just gettin down on a wall. All day he kept saying MACHINNEEE.... kind of like saying HARDCORE MANN... lol.
I also got to meet this guy from Texas... well he said he was from Texas but he actually was locked up here in Texas. His name was Lito. I gave him my email address so maybe he will email me. I doubt it. I told him what I do back in Texas and I can tell he had heard about spiritual things. I always wish I could share more with people like that. I probably should've just offered to pray for him right there. Although he seemed like the "church" thing made him more distant as we talked. Which I dont blame him. He probably doesnt know the Jesus I know about.
As it got dark we cleaned up our supplies and headed off back to HEM's pad. Early on the drive out we listened to this cd that Crisis and his rap crew AD made. He raps and is a pretty big name in his area. I think the do like quinces and highschool parties. Cafy is like their promoter of sorts. So yea.. thats what we listened to on the way home. Not to mention getting to drive by this like insanly long wall FULLLLL of graf. They had this graf jam awhile back and wow... its pretty amazing. It would've taken all day to take pictures of it but I can't wait to go back and shoot it all. It would be wayyyy worth it. (to me atleast... lol)
We finally got to the HEM studio/house/ whatever you want to call it, and the rest of the crew was there. A dude named Libre who is an AMAZING portrait painter and Chente who's a well repected graf head out in that area. It was really crazy to see them cause all day we had been hanging out with crazy CAFY saying MACHINNEE all day and drinking and smokin out. And now there were two guys who looked nothing like CAFY. Well atleast not on the surface. Libre had glasses on a red medium fit hoodie, regular fit blue jeans and some books. Chente was all pimped out. He had on a jean jacket, sleeveless "golf" sweater, a collared shirt underneath, nice shoes and a cup of coffee. The offered us some cake too. I was soo lost. I really did not expect to see some guys like this in a house like this. We hung out for a long time. Way past the time we were suppossed to leave. Libre told us about his work and Chente talked to us about his past and graffiti art nowdays. All the while Cafy's still upstairs smoking a pipe and showing me rap videos from AD about smoking tweek (what we call ice (meth)) out of a gutted light bulb.
This day was really awesome. I mean wow... I just got to Cali and I'm already hittin the streets meeting people. Earlier when we were walking the streets looking for paint I was feining for God's Word. I had given my Bible away to before I left San Angelo and I like carrying around a pocket one. So while I was walking I was trying to say scripture back to myself instead. It was nutz cause I couldnt even say John 3:16 in my head. I tried and tried and I finally gave up. That night Cafy was showing me this video they made (the Tweek one) and it was just nutz. I watched it all (still while he's smoking weed next to me) and at the end it said something about 3:16. I asked him what they were talking about cause it was all in spanish. He rewinded it and said, "Oh 3:16 isnt that that God thing?" I said yea he was like, " What does it mean?". WOW. I started trying to say it to me and got stuck right at For God so loved the world... He went back to cleaning out his pipe and I was like oh man... I'm gonna miss this if I dont remember it. And then BANG. I said the whole verse to him and he just looked at me. I then retold it in plain english (to bad he speaks mostly spanish.. lol) about how God loved us so much that he sent his only son JESUS to die on the cross so we could live forever in Heaven with him. It was awesome!!!! and then he just started smoking again... lol. I was honored though to be used by God to share that verse with him. I hope I can pray for him more and maybe keep in touch.
We finally left their house with 3 more new friends and lots of stories to tell. Our trip across the border was long but not like hours or anything. It's pretty sad too. This young like 3rd or 5th grade girl was juggling fruit in the middle of the night so that someone would buy one or give her cash. She was gone trying to impress us. It was sad... We got to the American side and man THEY DONT PLAY. They straight up opened up the car door on these two young guys and searched their car, almost shut down lines and questioned you hardcore (maaacchhineeee).
Now that we're finally across we head over to Man of War's house to pick up clothes and stuff since I decided to crash at Threats house. We get to Mow's house and he's already asleep. I sneak around get my stuff and head out the door. Only to find out I left my other sweater in there with MY CELL PHONE in it. The door is now locked and I dont want to wake them up. Man... the main problem was that I didnt have Man of War's number on me except for on that phone. So I was like man, how am going to let him know when Im coming home. Because Threat lives like 45 minutes away. I knew I couldnt do anything about it till tomorrow so I just tried to leave it alone. Plus now also I couldnt call Val and she might be trying to call me. grrr...
We started to get hungry... actually... We had been hungry. So we hit up a place called IN and OUTs. This is a famouse burger place in Cali. It's like one of those burger shops everyone takes you your first time out. This place even has a secret menu. Their regular menu has like the burger and fries and what not on it. But you can tell them secret code words and they hook you up with extra stuff. Like we got our burgers "Animal Style", which means everthing on it. And you can even get your fries Animal Style where they put like all kinds of stuff on it. We also got us a Nepolitian shake, where they mix the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry in one. Really dope place if you've never been. On the bottom of the cups there are scripture verses and when you pull up to the drive through they say,"Will you be eating this in your car?" lol... awesome
We drove out to Threats house... out in Oceanside and kicked it some more. Looked at all his old Krylon paint and graf stuff. Pretty much just winded down. Went to sleep and BOY DID IT FEEL GOOD. Day 2 and its already a good time out in Califasss...
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
San Diego Day 3
http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album21
A new day... day 3 I think... Woke up a couple times already to a motorcycle outside revving its engine. I looked at the time but man it was early. I decided to go back to bed. I finally got up and I was feeling great... washed up went down stairs and mmmmm BREAKFAST.
I started hittin Threats blackbook and eating breakfast when I remembered I left my phone at Man of War's house... grrrr... so all morning I was on Aim hittin everyone up trying to get his phone number. I finally got it but wow... it took like all day.. lol. (thanks nefi and danimal)
Then out of no where... yuck... I started feeling reall nausiated. I started feeling so bad I had to go back upstairs and crash. I felt like crap. This has happened to me before when I push my body too much... and I guess I was pushing it. But now I was sick... wow... I started popping dayquil which usually helps. But all day I just felt bad.
I had gotten Man of War's number and left a message at his house. He called me back later and I just told him how sick I was feeling. He said he was trying to get some turntables for me to dj at a show tonite that he was doing. I told him I'd call him back and let him know how I was feeling. I ended up not going to the show with MOW and just rested and hung out. Took it easy.
As it got later Ezra (Threat's wife) started painting in their garage (shes a graffiti writer too). I went to go watch her and she asked if I would paint too. I felt alright so I went upstairs and asked Threat for some of his clothes I could get dirty. Plus it was cold to me in the garage. Threat got all antsy too cause he wanted to paint now but he was watching the kids. They went to bed in like 30 minutes so right when they were out... He was OUT... outside with us... lol.
We hung out and painted. Ezra was having trouble so she quit but Threat wipped out this Fat Albert scene behind my piece. It was fun to just hang out and rest in a sense. I still felt bad but alot better.
Man of War called me back to let me know he was heading home and Threat took me back out to San Diego. I hung out with Man of War some, showed him my pictures and just talked about my weekend. He hooked me up with some Alka Seltzer cause he said it makes you feel "energized". My first time to have Alka Seltzer... takes like an extra fizzy drink of salt water if you ask me. But hey... anythings worth a try.
Another day another dollar... or something like that
A new day... day 3 I think... Woke up a couple times already to a motorcycle outside revving its engine. I looked at the time but man it was early. I decided to go back to bed. I finally got up and I was feeling great... washed up went down stairs and mmmmm BREAKFAST.
I started hittin Threats blackbook and eating breakfast when I remembered I left my phone at Man of War's house... grrrr... so all morning I was on Aim hittin everyone up trying to get his phone number. I finally got it but wow... it took like all day.. lol. (thanks nefi and danimal)
Then out of no where... yuck... I started feeling reall nausiated. I started feeling so bad I had to go back upstairs and crash. I felt like crap. This has happened to me before when I push my body too much... and I guess I was pushing it. But now I was sick... wow... I started popping dayquil which usually helps. But all day I just felt bad.
I had gotten Man of War's number and left a message at his house. He called me back later and I just told him how sick I was feeling. He said he was trying to get some turntables for me to dj at a show tonite that he was doing. I told him I'd call him back and let him know how I was feeling. I ended up not going to the show with MOW and just rested and hung out. Took it easy.
As it got later Ezra (Threat's wife) started painting in their garage (shes a graffiti writer too). I went to go watch her and she asked if I would paint too. I felt alright so I went upstairs and asked Threat for some of his clothes I could get dirty. Plus it was cold to me in the garage. Threat got all antsy too cause he wanted to paint now but he was watching the kids. They went to bed in like 30 minutes so right when they were out... He was OUT... outside with us... lol.
We hung out and painted. Ezra was having trouble so she quit but Threat wipped out this Fat Albert scene behind my piece. It was fun to just hang out and rest in a sense. I still felt bad but alot better.
Man of War called me back to let me know he was heading home and Threat took me back out to San Diego. I hung out with Man of War some, showed him my pictures and just talked about my weekend. He hooked me up with some Alka Seltzer cause he said it makes you feel "energized". My first time to have Alka Seltzer... takes like an extra fizzy drink of salt water if you ask me. But hey... anythings worth a try.
Another day another dollar... or something like that
Monday, November 07, 2005
San Diego Day 4
So yeah... here the fun begins.
I wake up at about 5:30 in the morning to Man of War asking me if I'm ok. I guess he was just checking on me as he got up to throw the trash out. But, I never went back to sleep. My stomach was in knots. It was crazy. I felt at first as if someone was wringing a towel inside of me. Actually that came next. At first I just felt like a pigeon who took a couple Alka Seltzer and was ready to blow up.
I layed around till about 7:30 like this. I had no desire to use the restroom or throw up. My stomach was just like trippin hard. I had never felt anything like this before. At first I blamed it on the Alka Seltzer. As the day went on I realized there is no way that those Alka Seltzer could have hurt me that bad.
By 8:30 I was like cryinggg it hurt so bad. I mean maybe not bawling... but I was in pain. It felt like something wanted to get out but my body wasn't letting it. Just like wrestling inside of me. Like AIR wrestling inside my stomach.
The pain got too intense and all of a sudden I was in the restroom throwing up. Man... By the end of the day I had thrown up about 8 times. I would throw up and be alright for a minute and then the pain would come back. Around the 3 time of throwing up the pain started decreasing and I knew there was something in my body that wanted to get out. I layed around on the couch all day and just drank water and then would go throw up.
I watched haunted house shows with Man of War (crazy cause I never watch that stuff). This dude that chills with Man of War named Catch 22 stopped by. He brought his blackbook of crazy characters. He doesn't have any online right now but dude is DOPE. He has been making these crazy etched out drawings on plexiglass that you shine light behind. Very tight stuff. He also makes beats for different groups. He's real cool. I felt bad cause I was sick though. He left and I threw up some more....
We left the house a couple times that day and Man of War's wife came home later that afternoon. Everyone was hungry so we went out to Olive Garden in search for some soup for my sick self. It was Halloween night so I needed some energy just incase we stayed out late again. Olive Garden was good and I actually ate more that I thought I was going to be able too. Awesome.. maybe I was getting better huh?... Thank you Lord.
After eating we stopped by the house to pick up stuff and went out to the neighborhoods to let the kids Trick or Treat. We went to a real nice neighborhood where most the people treated it like it was Christmas or something. I'm talking houses all done up, lots of candy... wow.. like one house had a strobe light in every window up and downstairs. Others served hot apple cider and had pathways you walked down. It was really something. I've never seen that before. Not in Texas atleast...
As it got later we headed home but before we came back we stopped at Man of War's parents house to say hello. We hung out for a little bit and then his dad came in talking about a family he was fixing to go pray for. The son had choked his sister earlier today and did some other crazy things and he felt as if he needed to go out to deal with the situtation. The crazy part is that his family straight up does spiritual warfare on people. If someone wants to get stuff out of their life then they pray for hours on these people as cast out spirits from them. What's even crazier is that me and Man of War had been watching all these "haunted house" shows were they call in everyone even priests to get evil spirits out of homes. All day we talked noise, "What they need to do is just pray", "man them fools are stupid, I can't believe they're even doing all that dumb stuff... Call a CHRISTIAN!!!" And now look at us. Headed to some kids house who's been "manafesting" all day to lay hands on him and cast demons out.
Crazy right... and you're not even there... lol...
So we pull up to this trailer park in Chula Vista around I dont know... 10 or 9... And we go inside this reallly small trailer home. Like the type you take on vacation. It's got two rooms, a kitchen and bathroom. We meet this kid Eric who knows Man of War's dad as Pastor. His dad talks to him for a minute and the kid agrees to get prayed for. Cool... he stands up and Man of War and his dad start praying over him... Me too... but im sitting in the chair praying and trying to figure this all out. His dad prays for like 20 minutes and then starts trying to cast demons out this kid. Telling the evil spirits in Jesus name to get out and leave Eric alone. At two points Eric starts like wanting to cough and throwup. He turns to the sink and starts coughing up flem... crazy... another time he keeps trying to fall asleep to the point where he's on the floor all balled up in a daze. After like an hour Eric is up and mad. You can tell he's fed up with all this demon stuff and he keeps telling Man of War's dad that there's no more spirits in him... but he's still being all weird and junk.
Eric starts to fight and try to get out the kitchen, but we have him blocked off. At first I was not gonna touch him cause I was like... OH HECK NO!!!! I'm not from here and if a cop comes I want Eric to say... Naw that dude didnt touch me.. :) But, eventually they need my help. So we're all holding him and he slips out past us to the back of the room. Man of War's dad goes back there with him and Eric decides to jump out of a window... so he opens it up kicks off the screen and kicks some stuff out the way and trys to get out. By this time Man of War is outside waiting for him. He hits the ground and Man of War grabs him. While this had all been going on Eric's mom has pulled up and has been praying in the walkway to the house. We go outside drag his but back in and he goes to his room with the door between us and him. WEIRD... this whole time Eric has really said NOTHING other than two word phrases... "I want to go outside", "My name is Eric" "There's no more spirits in me"... Now he's back in and mad.
Man of War's dad starts talking to Eric asking him what the big deal was. Why did he want prayer but then get all defensive. Eric starts talking a bit then shuts us out. I jumped in and figured why not do what I do back home and talk to this kid. It works and Man of War and I are now talking to this kid about why he's angry and what's really going on. He opens up and talks to us about him being into pronography that he got from his dad. His dad left his mom about a month ago and he's just been angry about it all in a sense. We talked to him about how he was throwing his life away over some naked girls in some magazines and he needed God to help him. That those things were controlling his life and he wasn't in control anymore. He agreed and eventually prayed to the Lord to help him get all that out his life. We then took him back into the kitchen and Man of War's dad did his thing. Eric apologized to his mother... they hugged and cryed and we were done.
Before we went in the kitchen we talked to Eric about getting rid of all these things.. like the videos and magazines and video games that were keeping him from God. We cleaned out his room and even later we went through it all again, threw away a trash bag full and took it with us so it wouldnt get back in his house.
That was really crazy right there. That some kid let us come up in his house and do all that. It really showed me how we gotta be there for these kids. I mean if we wouldn't have showed up Eric would've just kept on doing what he was doing. But he was crying out for God in a sense. And in another sense we went to his house and fought for his life. Even if he continues to do what's wrong atleast we did our part and planted seeds in his heart. I mean Man of War's dad could have just said,"Well bring him to prayer tomorrow at church." But he didnt, he went 30 minutes out to this kids house and was there. In all it was a really great experience. Since I have gotten back to work I've also talked with others that have been put face to face with some of these kid of things (casting out demons and spiritual warfare). I'm excited to see what God is showing us.
We got back to Man of War's dad's house at like 1:00 or 2:00 in the monring... Everyone was asleep on the couches and stuff, just waiting for us to get back. We told them our war stories and headed to MOW's house. I think that's it but after all that I really cant remember much more.. :)
I wake up at about 5:30 in the morning to Man of War asking me if I'm ok. I guess he was just checking on me as he got up to throw the trash out. But, I never went back to sleep. My stomach was in knots. It was crazy. I felt at first as if someone was wringing a towel inside of me. Actually that came next. At first I just felt like a pigeon who took a couple Alka Seltzer and was ready to blow up.
I layed around till about 7:30 like this. I had no desire to use the restroom or throw up. My stomach was just like trippin hard. I had never felt anything like this before. At first I blamed it on the Alka Seltzer. As the day went on I realized there is no way that those Alka Seltzer could have hurt me that bad.
By 8:30 I was like cryinggg it hurt so bad. I mean maybe not bawling... but I was in pain. It felt like something wanted to get out but my body wasn't letting it. Just like wrestling inside of me. Like AIR wrestling inside my stomach.
The pain got too intense and all of a sudden I was in the restroom throwing up. Man... By the end of the day I had thrown up about 8 times. I would throw up and be alright for a minute and then the pain would come back. Around the 3 time of throwing up the pain started decreasing and I knew there was something in my body that wanted to get out. I layed around on the couch all day and just drank water and then would go throw up.
I watched haunted house shows with Man of War (crazy cause I never watch that stuff). This dude that chills with Man of War named Catch 22 stopped by. He brought his blackbook of crazy characters. He doesn't have any online right now but dude is DOPE. He has been making these crazy etched out drawings on plexiglass that you shine light behind. Very tight stuff. He also makes beats for different groups. He's real cool. I felt bad cause I was sick though. He left and I threw up some more....
We left the house a couple times that day and Man of War's wife came home later that afternoon. Everyone was hungry so we went out to Olive Garden in search for some soup for my sick self. It was Halloween night so I needed some energy just incase we stayed out late again. Olive Garden was good and I actually ate more that I thought I was going to be able too. Awesome.. maybe I was getting better huh?... Thank you Lord.
After eating we stopped by the house to pick up stuff and went out to the neighborhoods to let the kids Trick or Treat. We went to a real nice neighborhood where most the people treated it like it was Christmas or something. I'm talking houses all done up, lots of candy... wow.. like one house had a strobe light in every window up and downstairs. Others served hot apple cider and had pathways you walked down. It was really something. I've never seen that before. Not in Texas atleast...
As it got later we headed home but before we came back we stopped at Man of War's parents house to say hello. We hung out for a little bit and then his dad came in talking about a family he was fixing to go pray for. The son had choked his sister earlier today and did some other crazy things and he felt as if he needed to go out to deal with the situtation. The crazy part is that his family straight up does spiritual warfare on people. If someone wants to get stuff out of their life then they pray for hours on these people as cast out spirits from them. What's even crazier is that me and Man of War had been watching all these "haunted house" shows were they call in everyone even priests to get evil spirits out of homes. All day we talked noise, "What they need to do is just pray", "man them fools are stupid, I can't believe they're even doing all that dumb stuff... Call a CHRISTIAN!!!" And now look at us. Headed to some kids house who's been "manafesting" all day to lay hands on him and cast demons out.
Crazy right... and you're not even there... lol...
So we pull up to this trailer park in Chula Vista around I dont know... 10 or 9... And we go inside this reallly small trailer home. Like the type you take on vacation. It's got two rooms, a kitchen and bathroom. We meet this kid Eric who knows Man of War's dad as Pastor. His dad talks to him for a minute and the kid agrees to get prayed for. Cool... he stands up and Man of War and his dad start praying over him... Me too... but im sitting in the chair praying and trying to figure this all out. His dad prays for like 20 minutes and then starts trying to cast demons out this kid. Telling the evil spirits in Jesus name to get out and leave Eric alone. At two points Eric starts like wanting to cough and throwup. He turns to the sink and starts coughing up flem... crazy... another time he keeps trying to fall asleep to the point where he's on the floor all balled up in a daze. After like an hour Eric is up and mad. You can tell he's fed up with all this demon stuff and he keeps telling Man of War's dad that there's no more spirits in him... but he's still being all weird and junk.
Eric starts to fight and try to get out the kitchen, but we have him blocked off. At first I was not gonna touch him cause I was like... OH HECK NO!!!! I'm not from here and if a cop comes I want Eric to say... Naw that dude didnt touch me.. :) But, eventually they need my help. So we're all holding him and he slips out past us to the back of the room. Man of War's dad goes back there with him and Eric decides to jump out of a window... so he opens it up kicks off the screen and kicks some stuff out the way and trys to get out. By this time Man of War is outside waiting for him. He hits the ground and Man of War grabs him. While this had all been going on Eric's mom has pulled up and has been praying in the walkway to the house. We go outside drag his but back in and he goes to his room with the door between us and him. WEIRD... this whole time Eric has really said NOTHING other than two word phrases... "I want to go outside", "My name is Eric" "There's no more spirits in me"... Now he's back in and mad.
Man of War's dad starts talking to Eric asking him what the big deal was. Why did he want prayer but then get all defensive. Eric starts talking a bit then shuts us out. I jumped in and figured why not do what I do back home and talk to this kid. It works and Man of War and I are now talking to this kid about why he's angry and what's really going on. He opens up and talks to us about him being into pronography that he got from his dad. His dad left his mom about a month ago and he's just been angry about it all in a sense. We talked to him about how he was throwing his life away over some naked girls in some magazines and he needed God to help him. That those things were controlling his life and he wasn't in control anymore. He agreed and eventually prayed to the Lord to help him get all that out his life. We then took him back into the kitchen and Man of War's dad did his thing. Eric apologized to his mother... they hugged and cryed and we were done.
Before we went in the kitchen we talked to Eric about getting rid of all these things.. like the videos and magazines and video games that were keeping him from God. We cleaned out his room and even later we went through it all again, threw away a trash bag full and took it with us so it wouldnt get back in his house.
That was really crazy right there. That some kid let us come up in his house and do all that. It really showed me how we gotta be there for these kids. I mean if we wouldn't have showed up Eric would've just kept on doing what he was doing. But he was crying out for God in a sense. And in another sense we went to his house and fought for his life. Even if he continues to do what's wrong atleast we did our part and planted seeds in his heart. I mean Man of War's dad could have just said,"Well bring him to prayer tomorrow at church." But he didnt, he went 30 minutes out to this kids house and was there. In all it was a really great experience. Since I have gotten back to work I've also talked with others that have been put face to face with some of these kid of things (casting out demons and spiritual warfare). I'm excited to see what God is showing us.
We got back to Man of War's dad's house at like 1:00 or 2:00 in the monring... Everyone was asleep on the couches and stuff, just waiting for us to get back. We told them our war stories and headed to MOW's house. I think that's it but after all that I really cant remember much more.. :)
Sunday, November 06, 2005
San Diego Day 5
Alright im getting lost here... Day 5 I think...
Ok today is the day we were suppossed to hit up Man of War's van. He got an old van donated to him that runs awesome. He's gonna take it on the road but he wanted to "pimp it out" first.
But hey... first off... lets go get breakfast!!! Man of War took me out to this "mackin" place in the hood that everyone from the mayor of San Diego to homeless people eat at. They say sometimes the firetruck will stop right in the middle of the road and just get down and grab some food.
We showed up a little before 11:00 and there was like only 8 people in this like "Luby's line" that started out the doorway. In the next 10 minutes it was almost 20 people long. Crazy. They say if you dont make there in time you miss out. Tim from Syntax Records came to eat with us and almost lucked out. He came right as we were ordering. We actually let some people go infront of us to wait for him.
The food was SOOOOO good. This like rice and bean chorizo stuff and these Tacos you put white grated white chesse on. Wow... I almost forgot the first night I was there we went to this small hole in the wall asian spot... MAN THANKS M.O.W., Rosalinda, and TIM... Crazy food. If there was anything I'd go back to San Diego for it would be THE FOOD...
So yea we ate there and then bounced. I noticed a spot right on the corner that I remembered from reading lowrider magazines as a kid... Chicano Park. It's this park where lowriders use to cruise and they let people paint the columns under the freeway. I can't believe I got to stop there. I took alot of pictures and it was real dope to see something like that. If I lived there I'd probably try to paint there.
http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album24
We took off to find Surge from MDR Crew. I had contacted this dude before we went out about painting the MOW's van but I hadnt gotten back in touch with him. He's also currently working on a tattoo for Man of War. Surge has made a name for himself out in SD. I recently saw a shirt that he made for Tribal Gear of some characters of his.
We headed to his tattoo shop he works out. Surge was real cool. He even has started reading a Bible MOW gave him. We hung out on this big comfy red couch and just talked about life. He wasnt going to have time to paint with me that was cool. Meeting him was enough for me. I understood the situation. He ended up painting on the van later in the week.
As we left the tattoo shop we noticed we were right by Erics house. Man of War wanted to stop but I figured he would be at school. Sure enough we stopped and dude was there. He let us in and checked to see if he wanted to chill with us for the day. He called his mom and she said it was cool and he left with us. We hopped in Man of War's 4 door only two door working vehicle and jetted (dope ride... 80s style Lincoln... the doors wont open though... grrrr dukes of hazard).
The day was already half way gone and we still had NO paint and lots to do. We eneded up spending the rest of the day going store to store looking for spray paint. NO luck... and then at the end of the day the breaks were locking up on the ride and this kid Eric had to be back home. We ended up taking him back to his neighborhood and stopping at Wal-Mart as well for more supplies.
We got home and it was DARK... I think like 6 or 7. Man.. whole day gone. We still had to sand, prime and paint the van. I know I know... Man of War's crazy... I tried to tell him. There we were outside in the parking lot with fans, house lights and sanders... MACHHHINNEE.
We eneded up having to give up cause we couldnt tell what we were doing and it was like 2:30 before we went to sleep. I mean we like had to drive up the street to the Seven11 to even see how nice or bad the paint job was going... lol.
You could tell Man of War wanted to get it done. We spent hours trying to figure out the game plan to get the most of my time since I had to be at the hotel at 12:00 the next day. And there it was 2:00 in the morning not even started on the van.... wow... time to crash on the couch before I die... Im pushing it... Man of War style.
Ok today is the day we were suppossed to hit up Man of War's van. He got an old van donated to him that runs awesome. He's gonna take it on the road but he wanted to "pimp it out" first.
But hey... first off... lets go get breakfast!!! Man of War took me out to this "mackin" place in the hood that everyone from the mayor of San Diego to homeless people eat at. They say sometimes the firetruck will stop right in the middle of the road and just get down and grab some food.
We showed up a little before 11:00 and there was like only 8 people in this like "Luby's line" that started out the doorway. In the next 10 minutes it was almost 20 people long. Crazy. They say if you dont make there in time you miss out. Tim from Syntax Records came to eat with us and almost lucked out. He came right as we were ordering. We actually let some people go infront of us to wait for him.
The food was SOOOOO good. This like rice and bean chorizo stuff and these Tacos you put white grated white chesse on. Wow... I almost forgot the first night I was there we went to this small hole in the wall asian spot... MAN THANKS M.O.W., Rosalinda, and TIM... Crazy food. If there was anything I'd go back to San Diego for it would be THE FOOD...
So yea we ate there and then bounced. I noticed a spot right on the corner that I remembered from reading lowrider magazines as a kid... Chicano Park. It's this park where lowriders use to cruise and they let people paint the columns under the freeway. I can't believe I got to stop there. I took alot of pictures and it was real dope to see something like that. If I lived there I'd probably try to paint there.
http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album24
We took off to find Surge from MDR Crew. I had contacted this dude before we went out about painting the MOW's van but I hadnt gotten back in touch with him. He's also currently working on a tattoo for Man of War. Surge has made a name for himself out in SD. I recently saw a shirt that he made for Tribal Gear of some characters of his.
We headed to his tattoo shop he works out. Surge was real cool. He even has started reading a Bible MOW gave him. We hung out on this big comfy red couch and just talked about life. He wasnt going to have time to paint with me that was cool. Meeting him was enough for me. I understood the situation. He ended up painting on the van later in the week.
As we left the tattoo shop we noticed we were right by Erics house. Man of War wanted to stop but I figured he would be at school. Sure enough we stopped and dude was there. He let us in and checked to see if he wanted to chill with us for the day. He called his mom and she said it was cool and he left with us. We hopped in Man of War's 4 door only two door working vehicle and jetted (dope ride... 80s style Lincoln... the doors wont open though... grrrr dukes of hazard).
The day was already half way gone and we still had NO paint and lots to do. We eneded up spending the rest of the day going store to store looking for spray paint. NO luck... and then at the end of the day the breaks were locking up on the ride and this kid Eric had to be back home. We ended up taking him back to his neighborhood and stopping at Wal-Mart as well for more supplies.
We got home and it was DARK... I think like 6 or 7. Man.. whole day gone. We still had to sand, prime and paint the van. I know I know... Man of War's crazy... I tried to tell him. There we were outside in the parking lot with fans, house lights and sanders... MACHHHINNEE.
We eneded up having to give up cause we couldnt tell what we were doing and it was like 2:30 before we went to sleep. I mean we like had to drive up the street to the Seven11 to even see how nice or bad the paint job was going... lol.
You could tell Man of War wanted to get it done. We spent hours trying to figure out the game plan to get the most of my time since I had to be at the hotel at 12:00 the next day. And there it was 2:00 in the morning not even started on the van.... wow... time to crash on the couch before I die... Im pushing it... Man of War style.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
San Diego Day 6
http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album22
Wake up at 7:30... LET"S DO THIS!!!
We figured to paint the word DEATH on the side of the van for the verse DEATH to LIFE. I busted a sketch and headed outside to finish taping up the van. It was very kaotic cause these plumbers were working on the house all day. To our luck the cut the water off for the rest of the day... sheeshh...
So yea.. bang I was so nervous. I wanted to finish but I didnt know if I could. I mean that's like no time at all... and I'm not the greatest graffiti artist by any means. Tough stuff.
I had some good paint to work with but mostly I just wanted to paint something that Man of War would enjoy, as well as finish it for him. We pushed it and by 12:00 I was pretty much done. I called Rachel and I didnt have to be at the hotel until 1:00. I didnt finish till 1:00 and ended up getting to the hotel at like 2 something. It was fine cause they were still setting up the booth at the convention.
I felt all hood when I got dropped off at this "big time" resort. I opened the door to the car and it went crrrreaankk.... not to mention since the water was off at MOW's house I had not taken a shower or even washed up. It was real cool though cause that's what I was there for. To do graffiti and show outreach to all these church people showing up. But the hotel people didnt know that, lol. They just saw some ghetto mexican with paint all over him :). I played it off though and talk real proper and asked where the restroom was. They held my luggage till the rooms where available. I washed up in the restroom and headed out to find Kevin, Rachel and Victoria. It was GOOOD to see them. With such a busy week I was ready to just go to a hotel room and sleep.
We met up and had lunch and I shared all these stories with them. Alot can happen in 4-5 days. Food at the hotel was good and House of Faith hooked it up with some food money so it was no holds barred on the prices. j/p. After we ate we went to the general session and listened to some amazing stories.
I think we will be getting the DVD's of the general sessions at House of Faith. So you if you're interested hit me up and I can see what's up. Awesome stuff about reaching your community for God. I really dont remember much after that. We went back to our rooms and crashed. Kevin had been in China for weeks so he was excited to have alone time to sleep. I was excited to just be on the internet with a computer. Good deal...
If I remember more I'll post it laters
Wake up at 7:30... LET"S DO THIS!!!
We figured to paint the word DEATH on the side of the van for the verse DEATH to LIFE. I busted a sketch and headed outside to finish taping up the van. It was very kaotic cause these plumbers were working on the house all day. To our luck the cut the water off for the rest of the day... sheeshh...
So yea.. bang I was so nervous. I wanted to finish but I didnt know if I could. I mean that's like no time at all... and I'm not the greatest graffiti artist by any means. Tough stuff.
I had some good paint to work with but mostly I just wanted to paint something that Man of War would enjoy, as well as finish it for him. We pushed it and by 12:00 I was pretty much done. I called Rachel and I didnt have to be at the hotel until 1:00. I didnt finish till 1:00 and ended up getting to the hotel at like 2 something. It was fine cause they were still setting up the booth at the convention.
I felt all hood when I got dropped off at this "big time" resort. I opened the door to the car and it went crrrreaankk.... not to mention since the water was off at MOW's house I had not taken a shower or even washed up. It was real cool though cause that's what I was there for. To do graffiti and show outreach to all these church people showing up. But the hotel people didnt know that, lol. They just saw some ghetto mexican with paint all over him :). I played it off though and talk real proper and asked where the restroom was. They held my luggage till the rooms where available. I washed up in the restroom and headed out to find Kevin, Rachel and Victoria. It was GOOOD to see them. With such a busy week I was ready to just go to a hotel room and sleep.
We met up and had lunch and I shared all these stories with them. Alot can happen in 4-5 days. Food at the hotel was good and House of Faith hooked it up with some food money so it was no holds barred on the prices. j/p. After we ate we went to the general session and listened to some amazing stories.
I think we will be getting the DVD's of the general sessions at House of Faith. So you if you're interested hit me up and I can see what's up. Awesome stuff about reaching your community for God. I really dont remember much after that. We went back to our rooms and crashed. Kevin had been in China for weeks so he was excited to have alone time to sleep. I was excited to just be on the internet with a computer. Good deal...
If I remember more I'll post it laters
Friday, November 04, 2005
San Diego Day 7
I stayed up a tad too late last night. But the internet was soo good. I typed like the whole first day blog... took hours.. LOLOLOL. Good stuff to type though so it was worth it. The only reason it wasnt worth it is cause I wore my body out some more and opened myself up to an infection on my nose. FEVER BLISTERS. Right on the side of my nose. I thought it was like a pimple but oh naw... it's like fever blisters. No medicine with me either. Dag.
Today I was the last one out the room. But that was ok cause I didnt want to get up early and I had alot to do. Today I had a photo shoot, an interview with the Outreach magazine and getting ready for our graffiti/dj expo tomorrow.
I missed breakfast and I think I even missed the general session, but I made it in time for the workshop Kevin and Rachel were doing for children.
Nobody knew what to expect in this workshop. Past history on these has not shown an excitement and low numbers. This time would be different. The attendance was good and the crowd was VERY attentive. Kevin even tried to stop so people could get on to the general session getting started downstairs and a lady spoke out and said with here program book, "Wait, it says we have 30 more minutes, the session doesnt start till 9:00." And everyone in the room was agreeing out loud... "Yeah!!". So... They kept on. Even the first question asked from the same lady generated an agreement from everyone like, "Yea good question.. yea good one." These people were hungry for advice like we had never seen before.
Alot of them wanted information on discipline. I guess alot of churches reached unchurched neighborhood children but then can't handle them once they got them. Making it a burden and for many wondering why the even do it. It was awesome to be able to offer sound advice on House of Faith's 12 year experience on subjects like these. Some people said that they came all the way out San Diego just to attend our workshop. Man.. very humbling stuff.
After the workshop (and me putting Kevin and Rachel's picture all over the free internet laptops) I headed back to the room to cut my hair, shave and get ready for the photo shoot later on. Still with my red nose from fever blisters, the lady told me that I was gonna have to wear make up and they would photoshop all that out on the computer... whew... lol.
transmission ended -----
Today I was the last one out the room. But that was ok cause I didnt want to get up early and I had alot to do. Today I had a photo shoot, an interview with the Outreach magazine and getting ready for our graffiti/dj expo tomorrow.
I missed breakfast and I think I even missed the general session, but I made it in time for the workshop Kevin and Rachel were doing for children.
Nobody knew what to expect in this workshop. Past history on these has not shown an excitement and low numbers. This time would be different. The attendance was good and the crowd was VERY attentive. Kevin even tried to stop so people could get on to the general session getting started downstairs and a lady spoke out and said with here program book, "Wait, it says we have 30 more minutes, the session doesnt start till 9:00." And everyone in the room was agreeing out loud... "Yeah!!". So... They kept on. Even the first question asked from the same lady generated an agreement from everyone like, "Yea good question.. yea good one." These people were hungry for advice like we had never seen before.
Alot of them wanted information on discipline. I guess alot of churches reached unchurched neighborhood children but then can't handle them once they got them. Making it a burden and for many wondering why the even do it. It was awesome to be able to offer sound advice on House of Faith's 12 year experience on subjects like these. Some people said that they came all the way out San Diego just to attend our workshop. Man.. very humbling stuff.
After the workshop (and me putting Kevin and Rachel's picture all over the free internet laptops) I headed back to the room to cut my hair, shave and get ready for the photo shoot later on. Still with my red nose from fever blisters, the lady told me that I was gonna have to wear make up and they would photoshop all that out on the computer... whew... lol.
transmission ended -----
Thursday, November 03, 2005
San Diego end of Day 7 and 9, 10, 11, 12
Well there is just tooo much to type out. I left you hanging on Day 7 so here's the rough end to everything...
Did the photo shoot (show you those pics if I gett'em), got stuff ready for the next day, saw some awesome comedians that night... GOOD STUFF...
NEXT DAY.. Graffiti Expo and Workshop. We had alot of great guys come out and represent for us. thanks to everyone. You can see the photos here http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album27 . All went well and our workshop was well recieved too. It was a great time.
I was soo ready to come home. We had an adventure traveling to the airport and our plane wouldnt start so that extended the adventure an extra night in Dallas Texas.
We got back and as usual... The adventure continued... heres all the pictures to tell the story...
http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album20
Thanks to everyone for your prayers during our trip.. IT WAS A LONG ONE...
Did the photo shoot (show you those pics if I gett'em), got stuff ready for the next day, saw some awesome comedians that night... GOOD STUFF...
NEXT DAY.. Graffiti Expo and Workshop. We had alot of great guys come out and represent for us. thanks to everyone. You can see the photos here http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album27 . All went well and our workshop was well recieved too. It was a great time.
I was soo ready to come home. We had an adventure traveling to the airport and our plane wouldnt start so that extended the adventure an extra night in Dallas Texas.
We got back and as usual... The adventure continued... heres all the pictures to tell the story...
http://www.refugecrew.com/refugeflix/album20
Thanks to everyone for your prayers during our trip.. IT WAS A LONG ONE...
Friday, September 16, 2005
I figured...
I figured if I was gonna use blogger.com to host all my blogs I might as well do one up to just shoooot out my heart. I mean everyone else I know has a platform...
guess I got one now too. :)
guess I got one now too. :)
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