Friday, July 13, 2012

Sadddleback Church / Las Vegas

Time to start steering the ship towards home...

Our last stop in California was visiting Saddleback Church Sunday morning.  Rick Warren, probably mostly known as a prominent Christian author ("The Purpose Driven Life"), is the Senior Pastor of this "Mega-Church" (which he started in his kitchen in 1980).  We were fortunate to catch him on Sunday when he was co-preaching with two of his colleagues. We were blessed by our visit here.  It was good to hear Warren live and experience his "famous" Church.  Mostly, it was good to worship together with my family on a Sunday morning where Christ and the Gospel was proclaimed...

We piled back into the van and went to the next step on our Itinerary:  Las Vegas.  Talk about a contrast!!  As we pulled up to our hotel, The Excalibur, we immediately were taken in by the "wow" factor of this town.  After we checked in, we decided to take a stroll down the Vegas Strip.  We had fun!  No doubt, this town is built on making as big of an impression as possible!

As we walked around, the "wow" things we saw (the dancing fountains at the Bellagio, the fancy lights all over the Strip, the flaming volcano at The Mirage) started to mingle with quite a bit of observable "yuck" (drunk and "overexposed" people, lots of noise, "female escort" flyers).  Honestly, I am thankful were were able to walk around and experience some of Vegas WITH our kids.  We were able to have some good and frank conversation around what we saw and witnessed.  We know we will never be able to completely "shield" our children from "yucky stuff" in this world, but hopefully we can encourage them to make good/better/best decisions when they find themselves in "seedy" situations.

Monday we'll get to do some more things in the Vegas area...!!


The Worship Center after the Service we attended 
at Saddleback on Sunday morning.

I like it when Churches and organizations try to tell you
clearly what they believe and are all about...

Just outside the Worship Center.

Book Store & "Mission Mall".

A Baptism Pool ready for use.

Rick Warren himself...

A shuttle taking us back to the visitors parking lot.

Back in the van - movie time!

Road Dog...

Where we stayed in Las Vegas.

Across the street.


Taking a walk down the Vegas Strip at sundown....

Hard Rock Cafe.

Fancy...

The Bellagio Hotel and the Famous Fountain Show


Late night "snack" at Denny's.

It was good to experience Las Vegas Blvd together...!

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