Sharing Lunch on Hippie Hill, Golden Gate Park Originally uploaded by phoutz

Bucket Brigade, Cleaning Shops on Ellis Originally uploaded by phoutz

The ATM Attitude Talk Originally uploaded by phoutz

Hot Chocolate Evangelism on Polk Street Originally uploaded by phoutz

Boxing 10,000 Lbs of Produce Originally uploaded by phoutz

Many of the buildings have colorful pasts. The YWAM annex where we hold our meetings was once a gay porn club. The YWAM staff are extremely compassionate about the people who live in the city. Later in the evening we went out to explore the city. My group ran into a couple of the roughest,…

Ping pong at YWAM Originally uploaded by phoutz

Arrival and chilling at YWAM Originally uploaded by phoutz

Story Time, Santa Cruz Originally uploaded by phoutz

Worship Time in Santa Cruz Originally uploaded by phoutz

First Night: Vintage Faith Well, we’re on the road again with the high school group. Tonight we stopped at First Presbyterian Church (aka Vintage Faith) for pizza dinner and time to bone up on our personal stories. The old Fellowship Hall has been converted into a coffeehouse. A group called Jesse’s Pride played jazzy testimony-rock…

The other day I set out with a noble goal–to find and map a better local hike than Ventura’s two trees. Midway in my exploration rats! My low battery alarm went off. Today’s hard-knock lesson is this: always bring fresh batteries on a hike. Doesn’t matter that you’ve got a GPS unit with the highest…

To the person who wanted to know if dogs were allowed on the Grotto Trail: the trail is posted no dogs, no mountain bikes. Truth is that you really wouldn’t want to take a dog down there anyhow, unless you’ve got a champion boulder-hopper. Once you reach the grotto the trail gets sketchy. Not to…

I know one little doggy who will be having an Easter hangover–the cocker spaniel just wolfed down four cranberry-orange scones while the “Easter Bunny” was hiding eggs down in coyote-ville and marking coordinates on his handheld GPS. The things we do for love. (Mind you, this is to delight the married daughter. The little princess…