LAUP, Shivs, Racism...and Faith Made Real

Jonathan (in the yellow shirt with other LAUP interns) is a USC sophomore who spent the summer tutoring Latino teenagers in East Los Angeles. Angel was the biggest problem kid in the whole class: he was disruptive, disrespectful, and intimidating. Angel comes from a long line of gang members. Things came to a head about a month into the summer, when Angel brought a shiv to class. Jonathan was fearful for his own safety. Over the weekend, Jonathan’s LA Urban Project team spent time in deep prayer for Angel. When class began on Monday morning, Angel was a totally different kid: he was helpful, attentive, and responsive in a way he hadn’t been all summer. Jonathan and his team experienced God hearing their prayers, and bringing a powerful character breakthrough.

Have you ever felt the difference between a person who knows a lot about God versus the person who KNOWS God? It’s easy to know a lot about God and still not have much to offer this world. But when you come across a person who has first-hand experience with God’s POWER to bring REAL CHANGE…well that’s the kind of person I want to be around. This past summer God used InterVarsity’s LA Urban Project (LAUP) to take 48 other students like Jonathan (some of them above, with me) from knowing a lot ABOUT God to really KNOWING him.

Carrie is a junior from UC Riverside who spent the summer working with Black youth in Northwest Pasadena. All summer, one of the students in her class—DeAndre, a Black youth—was hostile to Carrie all summer because she was White. DeAndre regularly muttered comments to other students in the class about Carrie being racist. Carrie spent the summer feeling intimidated and guilty. Things came to a head when DeAndre got up in her face and yelled directly at her that she was a racist. Carrie was devastated, and couldn’t respond. That night, she asked her team to pray for her. As they did, God revealed to Carrie that she was wrongfully living in guilt about being White. “Yes, White people have done horrible things, but you don’t have to live under that,” she sensed God speaking. The prayer time released Carrie to trust herself, and engage DeAndre. The following day, no longer fearing his accusations, Carrie confronted DeAndre about his tirade, and apologized for ways White people had hurt him. “Would you be willing to tell me about how you've been hurt by White people?" she asked. DeAndre melted. He apologized for his behavior, and they had an immediate breakthrough in their relationship. Carrie saw God heal and free her, internally, in a way that allowed her to lead in racial reconciliation externally, changing Andre’s experience of White people for the rest of his life.

This summer, LAUP was a place where faith became real for 50 students. Reconciliation, healthy relationships, the power of prayer…these went from being theoretical ideas to daily practice. Your prayer and support is allowing InterVarsity to nurture people with the real kind of faith that our churches, our work places, and our world desperately need. It is my joy and honor to see God take the next generation of leaders from knowing about him to knowing him, and having him to offer.

Family and Financial Update

Our kids continue to bring us rich joy. They turned three in May, and continue to bring more of the same energy, laughter, and fun into our lives.

Lucy loves to look out for younger kids and teaches them with patience, gentleness and compassion. Here she is teaching her little one-year-old friend, Aaron Marks, to dance.


Tyler's active physicality continues to increase with age. Here he is "driving the tractor" (a real tractor) out at Catalina Island in early June with his buddies, Marcus Gee, and Jayden Mammen.

Scott will spend his summer as a co-director of the Los Angeles Urban Project, and Jenny is in the midst of her summer play season, launching one play as we speak, and running two youth programs as the summer goes on.

June marks the end of our fiscal year as well, and so far I’ve seen donors like you provide 95% of our ministry budget. That leaves us seeking an additional $5K of gifts, so if you are in a place to consider an extra year-end gift, it would come as a wonderful blessing to finish our year in the black. You can give by simply clicking the link to the right.

Wrapping Up a Great Year

Your prayers and support have made a profound impact! Steven’s story, below, is just one of hundreds of student testimonies to the power and work of God on campus over this past school year. Next year Steven (Pictured at right) will join our young team of staff interns.

One of the ways InterVarsity assesses the fruitfulness of our ministry is by doing an annual numeric assessment of our growth. Well, this year’s was astounding! To kick the year off, our students followed up with 1122 students interested in InterVarsity...more than ever before! We had 27 student-led bible studies specifically for non-believers, and 64 students made new decisions of faith (the most we've ever had in one year!) We saw huge jumps in our number of student leaders, the number of students gathering to pray, and in students going to our week-long scripture study camps at Catalina Island. Translation: more students are having a richer experience of God in college, they are having greater impact on their campuses, and God is more deeply equipping them to be a blessing to the church and the world.

June marks the end of our fiscal year as well, and so far I’ve seen donors like you provide 95% of our ministry budget. That leaves us seeking an additional $5K of gifts, so if you are in a place to consider an extra year-end gift between now and the end of June, it would come as a wonderful blessing to finish our year in the black. You can give by simply clicking the link just below or to the right.

I look forward to keeping you updated on all that God keeps doing over the summer through the Los Angeles Urban Project, and into next fall!

Summer Blessings!
Scott

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.

LAUP in full swing!

I've just finished the orientation week of the Los Angeles Urban Project.

All of you who are supporting me--THANK YOU--I can't tell you how great it feels to get to be a part of such a PHENOMENAL program. We have 50 WONDERFUL students: they are hungry to grow, eager to learn, and in less than a week have become a powerful community of prayer and faith. The past two nights we've already had more powerful prayer and intercession times than I've had in years, and together we're seeing God respond to our prayers!

Teaching and leading these students over this past week has already been one of the most natural and satisfying ministry experiences I've had.

Now that our week is done, students have been equipped to understand the spiritual dynamics behind poverty and injustice in the inner city and have been introduced to God's deep heart of compassion for those in need, as well as his invitation to them to participate in bringing healing, renewal, and redemption to the inner city.

Today is the first day students are out on their urban ministry sites. I look forward to tell you the stories of what God does in and through them, and who they will become over the next six weeks.