Portrait of Transformation: Steven

Jenny and I were so impressed with the students who were in our back yard, especially with the young Latino man who was their leader.

Two weekends ago, students from Cal State LA came to our home to wash cars. They were raising money to help pay for their week-long trip to Catalina Island to study the gospel of Mark. The students were courteous, hard working, and did a great job. But the one who really stood out was the student leader in charge of the group: Steven (pictured above to the right, on a mission trip in Turkey last summer).

Since childhood, Steven has lived with his family of eight in a small apartment in East Los Angeles. It’s a hard place to study. It’s a hard place to pray. It’s in a neighborhood abundant in temptation for a young Latino man. The odds were stacked against him making it in life.

But four years ago, Steven came to East Los Angeles College—a two year city college—and found our InterVarsity group. (To the left, some of our core InterVarsity students at ELAC) He quickly became a central part of the community, and eventually a student leader. Steven grew in faith, he grew in responsibility, and he began to excel in his studies. Despite ELAC’s horrendous 9% transfer rate to four-year colleges, after two years, Steven was accepted at Cal State Los Angeles, where by God’s grace, we had an InterVarsity staff restarting that campus ministry. Steven adjusted to the change of campus, got to know the InterVarsity staff there, and this year, has been instrumental in establishing the chapter, and seeing it grow from a handful of students to a solid group of twenty-five.

In our back yard I saw Steven organize the students’ work, empower and encourage them, and model for them the hard work, thoughtfulness, and servanthood characterized by Christian leaders. Steven was articulate, respectful, confident, and easy to be with. Steven is one of the most impressive college seniors I’ve met in the past decade. It didn’t surprise me a bit when he shared with me, at the end of working at our home, that he feels called by God to become and InterVarsity staff intern, and step into a life of campus ministry next year, when he graduates.

Ten years ago, InterVarsity was not at East LA College. (Right, Steven and other ELAC students) We weren’t at Cal State LA. Much like the rest of society, we’d overlooked those places as less significant than the USC’s and UCLA’s of the world. But in his grace and wisdom, God called us to go. And because we went, amazing young leaders like Steven are being transformed, and are bringing a quality of character and leadership to our churches, our work force, and our city that is unsurpassed.

I’m honored to be a part of God’s development of Steven, and I hope you are too.