PHOTOGRAPHY FOR SALE

I’ve been here in San Francisco four months now. The past couple of days have been packed full of new experiences and lessons learned. Still loving every minute of it. We have pretty much figured out our schedule for each day of the week more or less. We have a different guest speakers each week coming from all over. Two weeks ago we had Patrick Dodson from New Zealand, this week have Mark Scandrett, the author of Soul Graffiti from the Mission District of San Francisco. The Mission District is about two miles south of where we live; basically right in our backyard. So as you can see we experience a wide variety of theologies and cultures from each speaker. We have about 12 hours of class time a week. Four hours on Monday and two hours Tuesday through Friday. Yesterday Mark invited us to his home for class. It was so great seeing the inside of these vintage San Francisco duplexes. The architecture alone here is enough to captivate you. Anyways, we had class with the 12 of us students the 3 leaders and Mark all crammed in his living room. Sipping on hot tea, surrounding the coffee table lit by candle light, sitting on whatever space there was on the ground. Mixed in with lecture time and head learning we have worship, group prayer, prayer walks, our individual ministries and just hanging out in the “Ellis Room”, our homeless drop in center downstairs during our free time.

We’ve all split up and joined ministry groups as we feel called. The group that I am apart of is a Women’s Out Reach Group. Where we do exactly that, reach out to the women of the Tenderloin. Every Wednesday night I and three other girls host a Ladies Only night at 7:00p.m. Starting at 6:30 we go out on Ellis St. and start pulling ladies in off the street persuading them with a warm place, coffee and snacks. So far women have been receptive. Of course these things are simply a way to lure women in so we can talk and get to know them and start building up relationships and trust. We met the sweetest lady named Molly last week, she lives on the streets on Market St. We had a great time of honesty and life story sharing. We hope to get the same women week after week and new women with time. We are really pioneering this ministry so it will take time to take off but we are really excited about its endless possibilities.


Before this or on other days we get flowers from a corner flower shop to pass out to stripers and/or prostitutes to tell them we care and that they are beautiful. We’ve gotten some good responses with this. Really we are in an experimental stage to see what the women of the Tenderloin really would be receptive to hearing. My heart breaks for their broken hearts and I can’t wait to see a change begin on these streets. Because this ministry and the Ladies Night ministry is just in the beginning and it is our idea (the students) there is no budgeted money from YWAM for things such as flowers and coffee and such. Thus that is coming out of our own pocket but we can really only afford to do that for so long because we ourselves or broke. We have faith God will provide for this ministry so that we can keep going with full force. That is simply a problem we are facing at this moment. Please keep our finances and the hearts of the women here in your prayers.



SO GUESS WHAT GUYS! I have my fancy new SLR camera as of a couple months ago as a gift and I’ve been putting it to use here in the bay area. I’m in need of about $4,000 dollars. So I’ve decided be proactive and to start selling my work as a means of fund raising. I believe God has granted me with a gift and I think that this would be a great way to cultivate this gift. I need practice and I need funds. Both are very practical. So here’s the pitch: It costs me $5.00 to print off a 8x10 photo. Shipping would be about $1.00. I can print in different sizes and such as well. Customize it I guess. Beyond that donations would accepted to go towards my mission here and my outreach to Italy. I’ve set aside my Tuesday and Sunday afternoons to going out and taking more pictures so that I can continually be producing new schemes and choices. I can also take requests of things you would like. My work can be viewed on the flickr link below.



Check Out My Photographs on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26577162@N05/

8x10……………$5.oo (Shipping $1.oo)
Donations Go Towards My Mission



Payments Accepted through PayPal or by Check

Made Out to:
Linda Kinsky

Address:
357 Ellis St.
San Francisco, CA 94102

Make Your Orders Through Email
Email Address:
linda.kinsky@verizon.net

PICTURES!

I'm slowly uploading pictures of my trip. You can click on the link and these are a few on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26577162@N05/

Third Week

Hello! I’ve been living in the tenderloin almost three weeks now and I feel more at home and welcome than ever. I’m building so many great relationships with not only the staff and students but the men and women on the street as well. Daily I’m walking in the streets and conversing with everyone that’s willing. Which is the majority. I’m getting to get to know so many of the guys and there life stories and backgrounds. Often times they’ll finish the conversation off with asking for money, but offering to buy them a hamburger sometimes suffices. Not only are their stomachs getting filled but it also gives you the opportunity for more conversation. I’m not out here to save every man and woman I see on the streets. But rather build lasting relationships with them and show the light of God threw my own life. The twelve students I’m with feel and live the same.

Part of the program I’m in also includes twelve hours of class time each week. We have a new guest speaker come in every week and speak on specific topics. John Bills from L.A. was the speaker for last week. He spoke on the Character and Nature of God and how it relates in your lives. This week we have Patrick Dodson visiting us and speaking on Using the Gifts Gods Given and Hearing Gods Voice. All the lessons thus far have been really beneficial. I have been thinking and processing a lot of the information. There are just so many aspects of God’s Kingdom my eyes are being opened to.

“You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but You remain;
And they will all grow old like a garment;
Like a cloak You will fold them up,
And they will be changed.
But You are the same,
And Your years will not fail.”
Hebrews 1:10-12


Mindy Reyes, Holly Geber, Katie Greenawalt, and I have decided to pursue pioneering a ministry to the women in the tenderloin. We have started hanging out with woman on the streets on Wednesday nights to talk and get to know some them. We want to begin taking a woman out to dinner each month. Doing a movie night at the base week or just having snacks and coffee and just making these women feel loved. There really is no ministry designated specifically to the waman here in the tenderloin and we would like to change that. The hope is that through us God can show his love to these women.

Learning All About the Area

Hey guys. So I’ve been here a week tomorrow now. It’s crazy how time flies. Yesterday we went about and toured around. Got lost, found our way back, used about every transit system in the city and loved it. We each have passes, $45 bucks a pop that let us use every public transit system inside the city limits of San Fran. It’s really useful. We went all over! Little Italy, China Town, Haight, Broadway, the Castro it was really great. We’ve been to fishermans worf and seen and bay bridge. Next week I can start going out on my own and I think I’m going to walk the Golden Gate.

Man, let me tell you though, it’s a whole other world where we live. We live in the heart of the tenderloin above a drop in center for the homeless. I live with three other girls in a dorm room size apartment. We’re working out the details and quirks of all living together in such a small place. I’m getting used to it though.

My heart has been breaking for this city already. Outside our building at any given time there’s thirty homeless men and women. Our area is one of the worst areas of the city. Which puts us in such an opportune spot but is also somewhat intimidating at first. I’ve seen men shooting heroine on the sidewalks, you can smell the crack from the crack pipes simple walking to the corner store. Walking down the street you’ll witness at least four or five drug deals and people loading there crack pipes. People are constantly searching the ground, at first I didn’t know why. Later I found out it’s for fallen crack rocks. Some of the pigeons here find the left over crack as well and become deformed, addicted and violent.

The city is split up into different sections defined by ethnicity or drugs or other things. Some of these block sections consist of Haight, the Tenderloin, the Castro, China Town… the list goes on.

The Haight is the hippie area, the streets are lined with old men who have been here since the 60s and the hippie revival movement or rebellious teenagers living life with a “free spirit”. Haight is lined with such things as smoke shops and fair trade coffee shops. The area reminds me far to much of Portland. Golden Gate Park is in the middle of all this, commonly referred to as Hippie Hill. This is where everyone smokes and dances to the beat of drums, lays and basks in the sun and just hangs out. There most common drugs in this area are that of the hippies of coarse; weed, LCD and mushrooms.


The Castro has a lot of heroine, this is where most of the male prostitutes would hang out. Since the rise of the internet though, they have doing there business over the web more and more. Still there are a lot of gays in this area. (the word homosexual is really very offensive to them)

Little Italy and China town I don’t know much about except there rich with culture and great food! Haha

The Tenderloin or the TL as we call it, is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods. There’s a lot of anger and hopelessness here on the streets. We live in a predominantly African American neighborhood. Most people here are addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol, the effects are heart breaking. Drugs and alcohol are much more accessible here then most other places. It’s 75 cents for a hit of crack, a buck fifty for a hit of heroine and three bucks for a fifth of vodka. Not only that but there’s really no such thing as liquor stores here. Hard alcohol it just on every corner in the rite aids and small markets open all hours of the night. Everyone around here is generally really nice. It’s sad though because you can be talking to one guy one mintute having a great conversation and see him on the street only a few hours later and he’s a whole other person, just plain angry. That’s happens a lot here because of the come down from the drugs. There aren’t really gangs in the area but the streets are really tight knit. Everyone knows everyone.

I’ve seen a lot and I’ve only been here a week. I’ve made friends with guys on the streets, I’ve prayed for people and seen God just break them. It’s been an amazing experience. And I’ve only been here for a week. I can’t wait to see God work in this community. It’s defiantly in need of love and kindness.

Like I said I live above a homeless drop in center. YWAM owns it. It’s open from 9 to 4 Monday through Friday. It’s such a great place to get to know the people on the streets. It’s funny coming down for breakfast and walking through to get to the kitchen for breakfast. It’s a whole other way of life. I love it.

We’ve started class but we haven’t had any guest speakers here yet. They’ll come next week.

I love it here, I love to see God working here, and I can’t wait to see more. It’s fastly becoming home.

I will put up pictures soon. I swear. :)

Turn of Events

Well I leave in about a week and a half now. So much has happened from the day I graduated up until this point in time. It's been quiet the roller coaster. Originally the plan was to take part in a DTS progam in Brazil and do my mission in China. I had my plane tickets to and from Brazil, all my vaccinations. Six exactly. Funny story, my nurse had obviously had a very long day and i was one of her last patients. She sits me down on the counter and injects me with four viruses and hands me a perscription for the fifth. Stamps my card for six vaccinations and is about to send me on my way. But 4+1 didn't quiet add up in my head to six. I looked at the bottles. and asked where the last one was. She was so embarrased she was about ready to send me on my way, with out polio! She promtly dug up the polio bottle and gave me the shot and sent me on my way. My card was stamped and everything for it. So no one would have ever known. haha oh well. Glad we caught that one. I learned alot form her though. Such as tribal medicines to get rid of worms,using three cloves of garlic ground up into a glass of milk and drinking that. Not only will you keep away the worms but the vampires too! I digress....

So recieved my vaccinations, my plan tickets, all was going well, got my passport with no problem. Sent in a request for visas to Brazil and China. A long story short my chinese visa came back just fine but my Brazilian visa was denied. I wrote YWAM down as my contact in Brazil. The embassy knew what YWAM was all about. Didn't like that and denied me on the grounds that I would be doing volenteer work as a missionary. In a nutshell alot of conflict is going on with the goverment of Brazil and missionaries there. The goverment is in lack of better words trying to exploit the poor tribal indians of Brazil and missionaries and organizations such as YWAM are helping those people get back up on there feet. The goverment sees this as a problem and is limiting the amount of missionaries they allow in. My first mistake was to show affiliation with YWAM my second is just bad timing. Thus I am forced to re-route. Within four days I searched, contacted, discussed, and finalized participating in a DTS progam with some folks in San Francisco. There outreach is mainly to the inner city residents of the Golden Gate City. For the last month we will be traveling to Italy and be doing some mission work there. My plane leaves on the 5th of January and I should be back by the end of June.

This is not what I thought God had planned for me, in fact throughout the months my heart got pretty set on Brazil. But life happens, God re-routes and he will use this new experience in my life and use me in this new city. I will go full heartedly into whatever he has for me. I have always said this. But I know now I really mean it, because that is the very thing that this trip requires.

The trip is no cheaper because it's closer. Infact it is more expensive. In Brazil the american dollar is double. The first three months at YWAM always costs 3000. In Brazil that would be R$3000 meaning I would only have to pay $1500 american dollars. The same applies for the last three months. This is some what of a set back but I have faith the Lord will provide. I've been working full time up until this point. But now donations is really all that'll keep this going. I'm setting my mom up with access to my bank account so she can deposit money that comes in or wire me money while i'm in Italy if the circumstance may arise.

I wanna thank all of you for all your prayers and support. It's really been great.

So that is the latest update! Quiet the turn of events I'd say. But hey, that's life.

It's christmas, we're snowed in with a solid foot and a half of snow. We watched the classic White Christmas last night. It was fitting. I'd never seen it before. Cute movie.

Anyways, hope your all having a wonderful day with your families!

............Just remember don't eat the yellow snow!