LAUP's first week

The LAUP 2012 interns, discussing Luke

What a first week of LAUP we’ve had!

 
Starting with Jesus’ inaugural address in Luke 4—the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor—we immersed students in God’s heart for the poor and the city, and challenged them to recognize the brokenness in our world.

The first day, after looking at economic and racial demographic information on the city of Los Angeles, all ninety of us went to Skid Row to let God turn statistics into people.  As we arrived, the brokenness and despair were palpable:  people passed out on the sidewalk, marijuana being smoked in public, and a smell of urine, trash, and neglect.  One of our female students, Maria, shared her difficulty in recognizing the Skid Row homeless as human, and recoiled from making any physical contact.  Yet by the end of a fifteen minute lunch, something had begun to change.  In saying goodbye, the homeless woman embraced her and gave her a kiss on the cheek…as she did, Maria later shared that she sensed God speaking to her, “You are both my daughters.”

Students discussing issues underneath the "web" of injustice

We also made a point to help students understand the complexity of urban issues.  Each time we discussed the brokenness in the city, students identified issues (unemployment, drug abuse, domestic violence, etc.) wrote them on posters, and hung them from the balcony of the church.  As they saw links between these issues—unemployment can lead to depression, which can lead to drug abuse, which can lead to prostitution—they tied yarn between the posters.  By the end of the week, our sessions were a parable for the true spiritual state of the city:  continually living under an oppressive web of interconnected issues of injustice.

We ended the week speaking about God’s coming Kingdom which has been bursting through into our world since Jesus came to earth.  As we worshiped and proclaimed God’s good news of healing and redemption, students cut each piece of yarn, one by one.

Pray with me that this will be more than a metaphor, but that students will let God’s love for the poor seep into their hearts, and that through their own lives, they will see his Kingdom coming and his will being done in the city, as it is in heaven.