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.

My Dream is Becoming Reality

I am seeing a dream become reality before my very eyes…and it’s starting to gain momentum.

This past weekend I hosted a group of a dozen students in my home for a 24-hour experience of God’s heart for the poor. We ended the night with clarity about what that means for us as Americans: we ARE the rich and need to learn to identify with the poor.

We had students sleep on floors and outdoors to experience homelessness. They went without showers. Each of them was given three dollars and they were sent on foot to local markets to turn that into breakfast and lunch. We traveled by bus.


After a tour of the financial district, we started the 10-block walk from a center economic power to a den of despair: Skid Row. By the time our visit was over we had seen a man smoking crack in broad daylight, two women fighting while the crowd wagered on who would win, and a number of children who call Skid Row home. Students reflected on their experience as we took the bus back to my house.




The combination of teaching and experience brought students a unique clarity about what it means to follow Jesus. We ended by having students write letters to themselves. Judith told herself this:

“It is very evident that God was present at Skid Row. Don’t be scared to approach these people! Remember, God himself has been through this. God made us a promise of a new city, where there is no poverty and all tears will be dried.”

To see students being transformed before my very eyes, and to get to play a part in that transformation…for me it’s the beginning of a dream come true. Never have I felt so sure that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

Launching the New Movement

This evening marks the beginning of something new with LAUP.

In about one hour, 16 students will arrive at my house to allow God to give them his heart for the poor. We'll tour my neighborhood, experience simulated homelessness night and tomorrow morning, and then spend tomorrow serving at Skid Row with Central City Community Outreach.

I'm nervous. I'm excited. I feel like I'm corking something open that has the potential to revolutionize InterVarsity Los Angeles and even our whole city.

Please pray for us any time over the next 24 hours...and if you want to play a role in the next one, we have one each month for the next four months!

Redefining Reality

Greetings to my partners in ministry from the inner city of South Los Angeles!

Even here in sunny Southern California it’s finally clear that summer is over. But in response to one of the central themes of LAUP—learning how to slow down and to be present to God and to people—I have been reading through students’ reflections on what God did in them and through them this past summer. There are a number of exciting developments of LAUP into the future, but first I want to lead you into celebrating what has already been achieved. Listen to Ophelia’s testimony:

“The key word of this summer is probably ‘reality’. This summer I was dragged out of what I thought was the whole world and was put in a completely different environment: a neighborhood where drugs, gangs, teen pregnancy, drop-outs, and homelessness are the reality. At the same time, I saw the deeper spiritual world that I didn’t even fully believe, and I saw that it is more real than the world I had known. I finally realized that my understanding of reality is limited by my experience. This summer my understanding of God shifted from creating my own image of him based on my experiences, to digging into Scripture, taking God for His words, getting to know who He is through my relationship with Jesus, and living in his reality.”

The consistent theme of students’ reflections was encountering heartbreaking stories in the youth and families of the inner city—physical and verbal abuse, parental neglect, pre-teen sexual activity—but seeing how their prayers, their presence, and their love brought transformative healing. Students saw themselves become the presence of God to those in desperate need of it, and are now back on campus and in the work place with new hope for what God can achieve through their own lives.

I encourage you celebrate the hope that has come--both to college students and to the poor--and to thank God with me for involving us in such a wonderful work

When Theory Becomes Reality

In the wake of such a glorious summer of God moving students into becoming good news to the poor by the power of the Spirit, this morning I'm feeling the reality of the spiritual battle in which we are engaged.

Yesterday one of the neighborhood youth was hanging out with me as I was working from home. Things proceeded as they normally do, talking about music, future plans, and life in the hood. Then, as we talked, we drifted into discussing his life on the streets:

"What would you do when folks come at you?" I asked.

"I'd pull a gun on 'em," he shared, directly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm strapped...I'm carrying right now."

"Show me."

And he reached into his pocket and pulled out the gun you see here...loaded...with a bullet in the chamber...in my basement office.

This is a wonderful kid, a kid we love deeply, a kid we're invested in...yet he's caught up in a system that's far bigger than him, and it's changing him.

Jenny and I have been thrust into a more real counting of the cost than we have before. Clearly there's a deep component of spiritual attack involved...but with our kids in the mix, and the unpredictability of our environment, our current course of action is a temporary retreat. We spent last night with friends in Culver City and are seeking temporary housing in a place that feels safe and allows us to make space for prayer and discernment about God's will for our future.

We would love your prayers about God's desire for where we would live. I also invite you to pray with me for this youth who it setting himself on a course that has prison or death in its future. And I urge you to pray and consider--in your own heart--how are we, as the people of God in Los Angeles, supposed to respond to these realities in our city?

Alone, Jenny and I have no chance of fighting the entrenched powers of violence in the city. But as I have experience the hospitality of friends, the generosity of churches offering housing, the initiative of friends praying on our behalf...I am seeing anew the power that we have in our partnerships as the community of faith.

Right now that power is working to help us retreat and reassess, which feels needful, welcome, and appropriate. But in the bigger picture, how is God inviting us to use that power we have as his people to advance his kingdom, and to bring the peace, hope, safety, and love of Jesus to the inner city of Los Angeles?