With only two days to go until the Harvest Carnival, many of us are busy with logistics and last minute planning. Many details have yet to fall into place. There are volunteers who still need a task, vendors who still need to return a phone call, diagrams still to draw. As I write, I am surrounded by 84 pounds of beans that still need to be cooked.
In the midst of all of this, some of us gathered to pray last night and were reminded that
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves. (Psalm 127:1-2)
I smiled at "rise early. . .toiling for food to eat" because early this morning Lauren and I were at a restaurant supply store toiling over large packages of meat and vegetables to make tostadas for the carnival. We had fun, and I felt pretty accomplished, crossing a major item off my to-do list. But -- the Lord says that this is in vain if he doesn't come to the carnival to do something powerful and even unexpected.
The volunteers and police officers who will be standing guard are in vain unless the Lord watches over the street. There is so little we can really do to prevent violence, especially on a night that is often about demonic activity. But, the Lord can protect our street.
We can labor and labor, plan extensively for excellent follow-up, but we can't make anyone come to know God or even make someone connect well with a new friend from our church. But, the Lord can bring great change and redemption.
So it is good and right and critically important for us to devote ourselves to prayer these next few days. Pray that God would do a new thing and use this event to build many relationships, even build a new core of believers from our neighborhood who could be pillars of our church in the future! Pray that God will powerfully protect our street from any destructive person or spiritual influence. Pray that everything will come together, not because we labored in vain, but because the Lord built the house.
This is the theme of the Christian Community Development Association's annual conference this year. As I write, Richard and I are settling into our Cincinnati hotel room. One child asleep and one still tossing and turning, victim of the three-hour time difference. The third is back in Los Angeles with Juan and Stacie, his substitute parents for the week. If our goodnight phone conversation is any indicator, he's having a great time so far.
Tomorrow we'll attend a pre-conference institute, then meet up with eight other Church of the Redeemer members who arrive tomorrow. We are so excited to spend a week learning and being challenged together! Please pray that God will use this conference to strengthen and guide the work he is doing in our neighborhood.
Pray also that God will specifically bless each of us who are here: Elliot, Lauren, Jen Chi, Sarah, Sierra, John, Amy, Scott, Anna, Richard, Isaiah and Abigail. Each of us serves in a unique capacity within our neighborhood, bringing unique questions and challenges with us into this time. Please pray that God will direct us to workshops, relationships, resources and conversations that will help us grow in all the ways we need.
Thank you for praying for our Harvest Carnival! As we prepare we are excited, and seeing how even the process of planning can be joyful.
At the same time we are aware of the potential for spiritual and even physical violence. Please continue to engage deeply with us in praying for peace on Raymond Avenue!
We would also like to ask you this week to pray specifically with us for some logistics. Let's ask God to work in concrete ways and thank him as we see his power.
Ask God to bring 200 volunteers by this Friday. While many people have already signed up, God will have to move to reach this goal!
Pray that vendors who are bringing the stage, lights, jumpers, and dunk tank would be reliable, arrive on time, and come on time to pick up their equipment.
All the logistics and details would fall into place with food, entertainment, games, and raffle prize donations
We had a great time at Catalina Island together last weekend. Here are some praises:
- All 11 youth and young adults who signed up came. There was a little drama, however, as one of the girls in our group lost her bag at school earlier in the day. One car stayed behind to wait for her and left over an hour late – they narrowly arrived to the port in time to catch the boat to Catalina. Whew!
- Many 18-24 year olds affiliated with our church have fallen away from God and gotten into a lot of trouble – pregnancy, homelessness, incarceration, etc. With this in mind, a young adult ministry was birthed earlier this year in hopes of better serving youth transitioning out of high school. With this, it was encouraging for me to see our youth, young adults and adult staff form deeper relationships during our weekend away.
- Youth, young adults and adult staff alike enjoyed a weekend of fun. Whether it was hiking, snorkeling, skipping stones or playing group games, everyone had a blast. Philip, a high school sophomore remarked, “I wouldn’t mind getting stuck here.”
- God provided enough money for all 11 youth to attend! Thanks for your generosity.
During our time at Catalina Island last weekend we also experienced God doing the unexpected. First we discovered an awesome new game called “Ninja.” After learning it for the first time on Saturday evening around 9:30 pm we continued playing until 1:00 am. The next morning, more “Ninja.” On the boat ride home, more “Ninja.” As we waited at the dock for our rides, “Ninja.” At our YG meeting last night, again, “Ninja.” I’m not sure if the youth or adult staff enjoyed playing more.
Beyond “Ninja” God had some more surprises, particularly through our times in the scripture. Unexpectedly the main scripture and theme for the conference was switched at the last minute to Luke 15:11-32, the parable of the lost son. I was a bit surprised and actually didn’t find out about the change until we had a leaders meeting on the boat ride over to Catalina. Turns out God knows what he’s doing =). Over the course of the weekend the speaker pointed out the way in which our experience of our earthly fathers affects our ability to believe and receive the perfect love of our Heavenly Father. This really hit home with our group. 9 out of the 11 youth/young adults on the trip do not have father’s actively involved in their lives. The two that do are part of the same family.
By God’s grace, many for the first time began to process the pain of having absentee fathers. Through tears, prayer and physical healing God ministered to us. Here’s one of our adult staff’s account of praying for one of the youth: When I asked him how he felt about the talk, all he just said, "Pain.” And then he had a headache and his whole back was hurting. It was clear that the pain he had from his dad was manifesting physically, so I just prayed in the name of Jesus that God would reveal himself as J's true father and heal him to increase his faith and trust in God. And he did! Praise God!
I asked J how he felt about what happened and he gave an honest answer that he was scared. But as we talked about it, he came to really see how good it was and he said he'd like to continue meeting up and dealing with his father issues.I asked J about testifying at church about God healing him and he didn't feel comfortable but he said I could on his behalf. J definitely took some huge steps in openness to God as his Father this weekend!
D, one of our youth student leaders, also grew up without his father in his life and had a more tumultuous response. He wasn’t ready to forgive his father and struggled with connecting to the speaker throughout the weekend. He was unusually distracted and rebelled against my authority in ways that took me back to when I first met him 3 years ago. It all came to a head Saturday night.
After playing “Ninja” for 3 hours, at about 1:30 am, I told our youth it was time for bed. Unexpectedly, D was furious and refused to go. He felt like he was being treated like a child. He didn’t feel like I had his best interest in mind and said defiantly, “I can take care of myself.” After frustrating and failed attempts to talk through the situation, I went to bed angry and disappointed.
By morning I felt a conviction to wait and see how God would move. Through breakfast and as we packed to leave, D had said little. By the time we boarded the boat to head home, nothing but superficial chit-chat. About 20 minutes into the boat ride home, D approached me and asked to talk. Plainly he asked for forgiveness for the night before. I forgave him, we hugged, went back to the top deck, and played some more “Ninja.”
D still hasn’t forgiven his father or dealt with all the pain that comes along with being abandoned. I anticipate that this will be a long journey for D with Jesus. He did, however, ask for his own forgiveness and in that I find hope. As he grasps the Father's love for him in his own forgiveness I am hopeful that D will experience the healing and wholeness he needs to forgive his own father. Would we all know the Father's love more truly in the days to come.
Next weekend our youth and young adult ministries will be taking a group of 15-20 year olds on a retreat to Catalina Island. We will be joining with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapters from several Cal State University campuses for a time outside of the city and in the word of God.
Some of you may remember that we went on this retreat for the first time last year with a handful of our youth student leaders. Not only did our youth get a chance to spend time with college students who come from inner-city neighborhoods like ours, but they experienced Jesus in personal and profound ways:
- One youth had just come off an incredibly difficult 6 month stretch. His stepfather had passed away, his family was struggling to make ends meet and over the summer he got involved with the wrong crowd on the street. By the end of the summer he had seriously contemplated suicide.
During the last evening session of the retreat, Jesus spoke to him in an intimate way, providing a vision of himself with Jesus and his stepfather who had passed away. It was a moment of healing and clarity and, as a result, he re-committed to following Jesus as Lord and Savior.
- Another of our youth, through the influence of his mother and friends began to consider converting to Islam. Uncertain of where he stood, he came to Catalina Island and received an invitation to commit his life to Jesus. Though he felt something stirring in his heart he couldn’t get himself to publicly commit.
In the next 12 months the seeds of faith planted at the retreat were watered and God grew a beautiful life of faith for this young man. He is committed to our church youth group and has grown into a leader for other youth. At home he has been a peacemaker between his mother and sister. Personally he has made faithful efforts to turn away from drugs and alcohol. He has seen Jesus move in his life and testified to others about this.
I stand in awe of God’s work in the lives of our young people and am excited for how God will use our time together this year. To make it out there, however, we need your prayers! Here are some initial prayer requests for our time this coming weekend:
- At least two of our youth who are attending have not made an initial commitment to follow Jesus. Please pray for their conversion this weekend - their names are Jnye and Dillon.
- The other youth and young adults who are attending have made a decision to follow Jesus. Pray that God would speak to each of them really clearly and personally and that this would inspire deeper lives of faith.
- In youth group we've been doing a series on "Becoming Young Heroes" and taking a look at young people that God has chosen to do great things through: David, Josiah, Joshua, Esther, etc. The weekend retreat has a theme and by God's providence, it is "Heroes: How God Changes the World." Our church had no input into the conference theme and the original conference speaker had a different topic in mind (she is no longer to speak to do a family situation). It feels like God wants to speak to us about this so I pray that our youth would be inspired to do great things in their schools, streets, and families with, through and in God.
- Pray that our youth and young adults would relate well with one another, develop friendships with each other and increase in their trust with the adult staff
- Finally, please pray that the youth and young adults who have decided to come would follow through on their commitment.
Preparations are already well underway for this year's Harvest Carnival. Members of our church and community are coming together as we have in the past to host a huge block party on Raymond Avenue, where hundreds of neighbors can come together on Halloween night to celebrate not darkness or death, but light. Our neighborhood is not a safe place to walk around at night, and families who want to trick-or-treat often have to drive to wealthier areas to do so. More importantly, as we bring in bright lights and bring families out into the street, we are creating a safe space for our community, declaring that at least for one night, neighbors can come together safely.
Although we take many precautions, we cannot actually create a safe space on our own. Last year we planned to hold the carnival on Raymond Ave., but a week before the event, there was a shooting just around the corner. Because the young men involved lived in the area, retaliation was a very real possibility. The carnival was moved a few streets down to Brighton Avenue, and took place without incident, but this reminded us how fragile our sense of safety can be.
Each Sunday at church we have a testimony time when people can stand up and share what they have seen God doing during the past week. Yesterday several people shared amazing stories about real, tangible ways that prayers have been answered and lives have been changed. Two people also shared about two different shootings that occurred in the last week. I was struck by what sometimes appears to be a connection--as spiritual headway is made, violence often seems to intensify as well.
For all of these reasons, it is vital that we pray intensely for the Harvest Carnival. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the . . .spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." As we plan this year's event in the midst of a particularly violent season here in South Los Angeles, would you commit to interceding especially for the Harvest Carnival this month?
Please pray above all for safety and for peace, for an end to this season of violence. We are also praying that God would prepare people spiritually to meet our church at the carnival. In this time of logistical preparations, we are also asking that he would bring many of our neighbors to volunteer, and help us to build relationships as we serve together. Check back for more updates as we get closer to the big day!
This prayer guide invites you to hold a two-square mile section of South Los Angeles in your heart, talking to God about the hopes and struggles of those who live here. You will come alongside a community of believers who are seeking to create a safe, healthy, opportunity-rich environment where children and youth can thrive. On paper, we a nonprofit, faith-based community development corporation called Redeemer Community Partnership.
