Sometimes we do stupid things without even knowing it...

... maybe I should explain.

See, this weekend we had something called NYI (Nazarene Youth International) Convention. Basically this is the business meeting for all of the youth on the Anaheim district. It's where we elect our NYI President and Vice President and council for the next year. The way that our district chose to do it this year is to have it Friday night and Saturday and also do some leadership training. Well Javier and I were both nominated for positions on the ballot. We also had two teens (Chrisha and Patty) who were nominated as well. In order to be on the ballot you had to be present, so we decided to take the two girls. So we got there Friday night and everything was going wonderfully. We got done with our sessions early and decided to take the girls to do something fun. After asking for ideas from the current NYI President, Jason, we decided to head over to the beach. After "exploring" (Javier's word for getting lost) the area, we ended up at the beach around 10:15. We "explored" our way down to the beach from the street and found the beach fairly empty with some fires that were still going. We spent about 30 minutes hanging out and sitting by a burning out fire and decided we'd had enough and we should head out and get something to eat instead. So we headed back for the car.

We realized on our walk back that there was a cop standing in the parking lot by where you exit the sandy part of the beach. We kept walking and when we got to him he announced that the beach had closed at 10pm and that they had cleared it out at that time. I explained that we had just gotten there about 20 minutes ago and he told us that he needed to enforce the rules and asked us to please sit on the curb next to his cop car. At that point, two more police cars pull up and one announces to the people still on the beach "Walk toward my car!" When no one moves, he says "If you do not walk toward my car right now I will come out there and arrest you!"

They ended up with about 25 people sitting on the curb. They took ID's (Javier had his, but mine was in the car, and neither of the girls had them) and began writing tickets! At this point I'm panicking a little bit because of the two girls. I wasn't so worried about me and Javier (although I didnt want a ticket, and I'm sure he didnt either) but I did NOT want them to get them. So the cop gets to us and asks if we have state issued ID's (not with us, just at all). The girls both said no. He asked how old they were and they said 14. Then he looked at us. I quickly explained that we are their youth pastors and we were here from another city for a leadership convention. He wrote down my name and told us he'd be back to take care of us.

In the mean time, Patty asks if we can pray. So we start praying.

The three police officers worked their way through everyone else and then came back to us. The cop that said he'd be back told Javier and I that he was going to let all of us go (and rip up the ticket they'd already written Javi) because they knew we weren't trying to do anything wrong.

So we were able to leave without a ticket while the other 20 or so people were ticketed. It really ended up being pretty cool because the girls got to see an immediate answer to prayer. We explained to them that God didn't have to show us Grace, that He could have let us get a ticket. They were so excited!

One of the funniest things that came out of all of this, was when we were sitting on the curb waiting (we were sitting there for more than an hour). Javier looks at Chrisha and says, "So is this your first curb-sitting experience?" To which Chrisha replies, "No, I sit on the curb at home all the time!" She is so funny!

So I know that this is not the typical funny story I share on here, but I also think that when God does something incredible, that people should hear about it. I had debated posting this because I know it could really come across wrong, but again, God deserves recognition for the great things He does! And I'm sure that this will be an experience those girls NEVER forget :) I'm sure I wont!