Hope in the 'Hood

Written on the wall of the LAUP House after her weekend experience of God’s heart for the poor, Marilu’s testimony reads, in English: "I constantly fight with the lies that tell me I can’t be a Latina leader, but God keeps reminding me of the truth and of his promises: 'And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time like this?' Esther 4:14”

Marilu was one of 25 students who spent the past weekend in the new LAUP house. 21 of these 25 were Latino students from East Los Angeles College, and Pasadena City College. Though they were moved by God’s love for the poor--both in Scripture and on Skid Row--just as other groups have been, something here was different.

The first night my staff partner, Erna Hackett, shared that Jesus himself was born to a teenage mother who became pregnant out of wedlock and who was raised by a man who was not his biological father. As we asked how these things affected their view of God, Matthew responded,

"That’s just like me. I never thought about that before. It makes God feel less distant…more near to my experience."



While we ended with our usual call that students live as good news to the poor and let God’s Kingdom come to the world through them, I sensed that something else needed to happen. “But God doesn’t just want his kingdom to come through you, but to you…to your families, to your pain, to your numbness.” Suddenly you could feel something penetrating deeper. We moved into a time of music and prayer as students renounced the effects of poverty and depression upon their lives. I closed our time praying in Spanish that they would receive the spiritual mantle of leadership I sensed God placing upon them.

It was after this—like others—Marilu wrote upon the walls of the house, testifying to the empowering words God had been speaking to her for the future student groups who would share this experience.

These are the students that mainstream America often forgets, many the first in their families to go to college. They are from the schools that don’t catch much attention. Yet as God chooses the weak to humble the strong, so I sensed God doing something in these young urban leaders that is unsurpassed in all the other students with whom I’ve worked...not unlike the story of Esther.

Thank you for partnering with LAUP to bring God’s Kingdom near to our city. It is coming, and it is good.