The Circle is Growing

Here's a snapshot from the front yard of the LAUP house today.

True to their commitments, over a dozen of the USC students who experienced the joy of bringing the healing, hope, and light of God to the South LA urban community have been coming back every week.

Except now it's more than a dozen.

Today they had Bible study in our front yard before mentoring youth and serving the neighbors. The original five kids from the neighborhood have grown to 10. (If you look, you'll see them all in the Bible Study circle.) The original dozen from USC have grown to 15. The circle is growing.

There is a movement of God growing right here on the grass of the front yard. Urban kids are finding mentors they never dreamed of. USC students are gaining a heart for kids navigate an alternate urban reality. Both of them are caught up in the Kingdom of God...which may leave none of them ever the same!

Pray for God's power to go before this movement: to protect it, to deepen it, and to use it to not just transform 25 kids on a lawn, but to make God's grace, healing, and salvation real to a whole city.

Living the Dream

Thirty Two students from USC and Occidental College just finished spending five nights of their spring break together in the LAUP house. Their presence here did something that will change this house forever.

The goal of this LAUP "plunge" was to help students gain God's heart for the poor, and to give them a practical experience of bringing the light, hope, love, and generosity of God's Kingdom to the South Los Angeles urban community. All of that happened...and then some.

If you haven't been to the neighborhood, it's dirty. Trash everywhere, overgrown weeds, chipping paint, broken couches on the sidewalk...not to mention a general feeling of danger and depression. So they picked up trash on the whole block, pulled weeds, painted people's fences, planted a lemon tree...and gave the LAUP house itself a makeover.

And as they did that, neighbors came out of the woodwork. Urban youth helped paint, played with the students, and joined us for dinner every night. A woman donated dinner one night. Another loaned us four ladders. The plumber across this street cut us a deal to fix the water main (broken by an overzealous student taking a pick-axe to tree roots). Today, my neighbor across the street came to share his gratitude to the students. "You're here on your spring BREAK?? Are you kidding me? Wow...this is something special." In my seven years of living here, I've never seen the neighborhood react with such warmth, gratitude, and community as I saw in these past five days.

This isn't the typical spring break for today's college student. Yet at the end of a week in the inner city, working hard, sharing three bedrooms with 32 people, one student captured the feeling of the whole group. "We're living the dream."

Another student captured it like this: "I participated in the LAUP Plunge over spring break, and I witnessed so much of God’s work and His love. My heart was transformed, not just temporarily, but for life, to a point where I can’t turn back. I heard God’s calling to serve so clearly and I strongly desire to be part of His plan in whatever way I possibly can. The Plunge was an incredible experience, and I am drawn so strongly to continue working with the poor here in LA."

The USC students are returning on their own, Saturday, to host a neighborhood barbecue. They will come back to mentor the kids on the block every Friday and Saturday. They ARE living the dream: Jesus' dream of the kingdom of God. For these students and for this neighborhood, what was once just a dream is becoming reality.

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!