My Weekend in Southern California

I enjoyed my weekend in Southern California. I landed on Saturday, and the first place that I went was IN and OUT! By far the best hamburger in America! I stayed at the Marriot in Anaheim next to Disneyland. The hotel was so nice, and I really enjoyed staying there. I was on the 17th floor and had a balcony room that overlooked the city of Anaheim. What a gorgeous view! I posted on my Facebook, "If everyone treated you with this kind of Hospitality and First Class Service, I'd want to travel more often!" It was refreshing to be with the Hodgson’s. They are down to earth, authentic people that have a passion for Revival and Soul Winning.


I spoke on Saturday night at 7:30 to their Youth. Mark and Kim Hodgson are one of the top 5 best Youth Pastors that I've ever meet. They are the real deal and doing a great job with Pyro Youth Ministries. God filled 19 teenagers with the Holy Ghost on Sunday. It was powerful, and we baptized 3 in Jesus name. After church, I wanted to go - you guessed right - IN and OUT! Twice in one day for this ole Health Nut was a shock for people to see on my FB and TWITTER, but it was well worth it. You truly haven't had a real good quality hamburger until you've been to IN and OUT.

Sunday I met their leaders at 9:00 am for some training on "How to Pray People Through to the Holy Ghost!" They were doing a push for Sunday 200 and worked very hard to see over 200 guests come to church. There were 311 in church total, and God filled 26 of them with the Holy Ghost. We baptized 7 more in Jesus name! It was fun to preach under the Tent, and I felt right at home. Well, I stayed around for about an hour just talking with people, asking questions, and connecting. They have a really good church. Guess where I wanted to eat lunch? IN and OUT! However, they wouldn't let me do it three times straight and felt I deserved something "better" ;) HA! We went to another one of my favorite Southern Califronia places, The Claim Jumper. I like to try to new places when I am on the road and will rarely eat something that I can get back home. I ordered a good ole fashion Filet Migon and Baked Potato! :) Came back to my room and even though I was SO tired, I didn't want to nap because the weather was to nice, and it was my last day in So Cal. Sleep is overrated anyways ;) I took a nice walk around the Anaheim and then took a little cat nap on the green grass under some beautiful Palm Trees. It was so relaxing and peaceful.

I wanted to stay on that grass for hours, but instead I met with their Youth Staff at a cool coffee shop at 6:00 pm just so I could connect and hang with them. That's another thing I love to do when I travel: I LOVE to visit new Coffee Shops and hang out. The one they took me to (Looked really cool) was PACKED; therefore, we took our meeting to Starbucks. We had a great time. I ordered a Large Ice Green Tea UNSWEET but crashed and drank a small White Chocolate Mocha Frap. I only drank half of the Frap because it was too much sugar for me ;) I talked with them for a few hours, and we just did some good Q & A and really focused on how they can reach more young people. I'd love to share more about what we talked about but my plane is about to land and this Flight attendant is looking at me to shut down 

Guess where we ate after our meeting? You got it - IN and OUT baby! I didn't want it to end; I savored every bite I could and enjoyed the moment. All knowing full well that I'd be juicing like crazy and back to my healthy ways today :)

Matt Maddix