Blast off!

9:00am this morning was the launch of our summer science camp. Thirty-nine children have registered, with more on a waitlist. When I dropped our son Jordan off at 9:05 the center was already full. Kids were busily creating cutouts of themselves in flight gear to add to our wall mural. This morning they did a lot of "getting to know you" activities, as well as some "getting to know the rules" exercises. This afternoon they are learning about gravity and conducting their first round of scientific experiments. As our family shared breakfast with four of the six summer interns, I seized my chance to ask them for specific prayer requests. Looking a little overwhelmed, they told me "pretty much everything." So there you go. Hopefully you have some good time set aside!

Next Door...

Streetlamp Studio, our performing arts ministry, is working on their first full-length play called "Next Door". This will be the longest production they have undertaken so far. The play's setting is a familiar one for all of us who live and serve here in this neighborhood. It will take us through a journey between two neighbors in a South LA community, exploring each of their stories and what it means to be a neighbor. It will give us a picture of their efforts to communicate and relate across very different circumstances and views. We anticipate an exciting and thought-provoking drama, rich with great performances. And we hope many of you will come see it! Please pray that God will guide their writing and rehearsing to communicate the beauty and challenge of his greatest commandment.

Streetlamp Studio is also doing major work on their organizational infrastructure this summer. Please pray for their team as they sift through their archives, organize finances, and persevere through the tedious, non-artistic tasks that are necessary to make their work viable.

We will keep you posted on performance dates, times and venues for "Next Door."Stay tuned...

Sky's the Limit Prayer Focus: LAUP Interns

Praise God that tonight's parent meeting went well! It was a joy to see parents eager to hear more about the program paying close attention and asking questions.

Tomorrow morning Lauren will meet with our summer interns from the Los Angeles Urban Project. These six students from Occidental, UCLA and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will be the primary teachers for the Sky's the Limit camp. There is so much to do with them in just one day -- everything from starting to plan their classes to a detailed training in the history and goals of Adventures Ahead, teaching and discipline techniques, etc. Please pray for this time.

Please pray for our interns throughout the summer as well! The students wear many different hats, including supervising other volunteers, forming primary relationships with the children they teach, leading field trips, making sure that kids remain safe, and planning and leading lessons. Doing all of these things together in a small space can be a challenge. So pray for their work.

Pray as well for the spiritual formation taking place in the lives of our interns this summer. While working with us, they are also participating in an Intervarsity summer project called LAUP (Los Angeles Urban Project). They spend time in prayer and study, learning about God's heart for the poor and the oppressed. They also live in community and seek to grow in discipleship through their relationships with each other and with their leaders. Like other summer mission trips, this experience is a time of especially concentrated growth and challenge. For many students, LAUP also represents the beginning of a call to longer term service among the urban poor. Let's pray that the students could experience the fullness of all God has for them this summer.

Please also keep the start of classes on Monday in your prayers. On Monday Lauren will also be speaking to the owner of the computer store down the street about using his parking lot for some of the science experiments. This could be the answer to our prayers for more space! So keep this conversation in prayer as well.

Thank you again for your faithful partnership in intercession. This work would not be possible without you!

Sky's the Limit Prayer Focus: Parent Meeting

Preparations are also continuing at full speed for the Adventures Ahead summer program, The Sky's the Limit!

Tomorrow (Thursday 6/25) at 6:00 pm, Lauren will lead a meeting for the parents of the participants. This is a time to communicate important information about field trips, program policies, and other details and to answer any questions the parents have. Please pray for Lauren's preparations and presentation, and for the logistics that need to come together for the meeting to take place.

This will also be a time for vision casting -- sharing with parents our goal of seeing transformation come through education, gaining exposure for our program, and beginning even now to encourage summer families to continue to participate in the after-school program during the year. Please pray for this, and that the meeting could be a time of relationship building with parents. Lauren is hoping to build deep relationships with many neighborhood families through this program, and the meeting can be a natural time for parents to get to know her and each other.

Please also keep the following general requests in prayer:

• Good communication with the tutoring center's neighbors
• Arranging the space to fit the maximum number of students comfortably
• Equipment: 3 of the 5 computers are not working completely correctly -- pray that these can be fixed so students can use them for experiments! Similarly, one of the air conditioners does not fully cool its space.
• These next 24 hours will be very busy as Lauren seeks to finish everything needed for the program. Please pray for her and for all the work that is to be done.

Getting out of the City

The Church of the Redeemer youth group meets at our tutoring center each Wednesday night for Bible study, discipleship and fun. This summer they will have regular meetings in June and July, then take a break for the month of August. Many of these kids are graduates of the Adventures Ahead tutoring program and live in the immediate neighborhood. We asked Elliot Ling, Church of the Redeemer's youth pastor, to share some ways you can pray for these middle school and high school students. He writes:

"In these last two months our lessons will focus on compassion, mercy and care for the needy around us. Most of our kids are living around or below the poverty line, yet loving the poor is still quite counter-intuitive. Pray that the Holy Spirit would break through and reveal Jesus in a new way to the youth. At the end of July, 7/24-7/26, we’ll be taking the kids on their first ever youth group retreat! It is such a blessing to have the opportunity, for a weekend, to be with our youth outside of the city and away from the distraction of everyday life. The youth have been working hard to raise funds through bake sales and garage sales and it looks like we’re almost fully funded! That said, we certainly need your prayers:

- good communication with parents

- traveling mercies & safety at camp

- soft hearts that are open to God

- logistics, details, final fundraising

- spiritual protection

This is our first attempt at something like this and we're fully expecting the enemy to bring opposition. With that, we greatly desire your regular intercession in the weeks leading up to the retreat and throughout the weekend itself. Please let me know if you'd like to be one of our intercessors. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective!"

If you would like to make a commitment to intercede during the youth retreat (7/24-7/26) please contact Elliot by email: elliot.ling@gmail.com

When Justice and Peace Kiss

Streetlamp Studio has recruited 7 interns to work with them in the coming year! These interns are recent college graduates, mostly from the greater LA area. Their first project will be a production we all know & love called When Justice and Peace Kiss. The team plans to reach out to approximately 20 new kids in the neighborhood to get them writing and performing original poetry, music, rap and dance.

Please pray for this year's When Justice and Peace Kiss production. Below are two specific needs.

1) We are looking for the location that holds at least 100+ people as well as the finances for it. The venue is always the most expensive part of these productions.
2) As this production grows in popularity there are more kids who want to participate but don't make the age cutoff of 12 years old. Please pray for wisdom about how to incorporate these youth in an engaging way so they still feel part of the crew.

Sky's the Limit Prayer Focus: Preparation & Place

Here is the lovely skyscape I wrote about yesterday. This is the main room of the tutoring center. The center is mostly one large room, with a small office, a bathroom, and--out the door down some stairs and through a narrow yard shared with neighbors--another room that was once a converted garage.

This small space will hold 36 students plus up to 15 adult volunteers at any given time. Pray for wisdom for Lauren as she figures out how to best organize the space and rotation of groups. As the days gets warmer and active children get restless, pray for a spirit of peace and a space that is large enough to contain all of the learning and excitement that will be happening each day. Also pray for positive relationships with surrounding neighbors.

Please also pray today and throughout the week for the ongoing preparations and logistics that Lauren is finalizing. She is working hard to create grade-specific math and reading curriculum with daily lesson plans based on hands-on activities. She is also coordinating a crowd of volunteers to provide lunches for the children. Each individual, family, or bible study group that signs up volunteers to make nutritious and tasty sack lunches for all 36 children one day, or once a week. Praise God that most days are now covered! Keep asking him for someone to make lunch for field-trip Fridays.

Thank you for your partnership in prayer! We believe that as we lift up these prayers for preparations and place together, real power is released and real change will happen.

The Sky's The Limit Prepares to Launch!

A week from today the Redeemer Community Partnership storefront will be filled with 36 children from the surrounding streets, eager to learn about the science of flight. There are still many things left to prepare, however! Program director Lauren has been running around working hard to get everything done, and so much has already been accomplished. Church members designed, painted, and hung two beautiful banners in the classrooms, one of outer space and the other a skyscape filled with hot air balloons and airplanes.

Lauren has also just finished leading the week-long registration process. As we expected, there was much greater interest this year than in past summers because local public schools are not offering any summer school. Each day many new parents and children came to sign up. Praise God for the opportunity to meet so many new families! Praise him, too, that we were able to form a complete class of children almost all from just two streets closest to the tutoring center.

Having kids that come from nearby is important because it allows us to get to know their families, and also makes it more likely that the same students can continue to receive tutoring in the fall. The mission of Adventures Ahead is to make a long-term impact on students, helping them succeed academically over many years and putting them on a college-bound path. We also hope to see God's Kingdom come in our neighborhood through deep relationships built over time. So a group of children that all live within walking distance of the center, close to each other, and on the same streets as many church members is a huge answer to your prayers.

As the week goes on, I will give more specific updates about how you can pray for Lauren and her preparation, so check back often! For now, here is a brief list of things coming up in the next week:

• Finishing up math and reading curriculum
• Looking for people to make lunches for students
• Thursday: Parent meeting
• Friday: student interns (our summer teachers) arrive
• Monday: the adventure begins! as classes start
  

Redwoods, Science Camp, Sidewalks & Art

Two themes emerged in the eulogies offered for Richard Sr. on Saturday: 1) his love for the outdoors and 2) his love for decadent french toast breakfasts. Tomorrow the Parks family will head up the California coast to live into both of these legacies. We're spending the week camping in the Redwood National Forest, and our secret french toast mix is all bottled and ready to go. Please pray that God will lead us beside still waters and restore our souls.

Please also continue checking the prayer guide. Our friend Amy will be posting updates about our Sky's the Limit Science Camp. The camp starts on June 29th so this coming week is critical! Since Amy shares an apartment with Lauren (our program director) she'll be able to keep you current on the challenges, obstacles and works of God that Lauren encounters each day. Stacie Paz will also share information about Streetlamp Studio's ministry with youth. Please pray boldly for God's work in our neighborhood kids and youth this summer!

Lastly, our sidewalk repair campaign is underway, with 13 volunteers starting to survey the damage. Please pray for this group by name as they set out to document problems and listen to their neighbors' concerns. You can also view their findings at the Take a Walk Campaign blog.

Raymond: Amy
Kenwood: Lauren
Normandie: Ihi
Brighton: Eddie
Halldale: Darren
Dalton: Jen
La Salle: Krista, Edith
Harvard: Bethany, Erika
Hobart: Andrew
Western: Amy
Jefferson: Kathy

On a personal note...

Nine out of ten of Richard Sr.'s grandkids.
The smiling, nicely dressed ones are nieces and nephews. The other three are ours.

We know that many of you pray for the Parks family personally and we have so appreciated your cards, notes, service and prayers during the last three weeks. On Saturday we honored Richard's father at a memorial service in Westlake Village near his home.

Richard and two of his dad's best friends offered eulogies and it was good to share the stories of ways we all were blessed by Richard Sr.'s life. We had a chance to meet a group of former co-workers who could not say enough about Richard Sr.'s skill, integrity and peaceful demeanor in the workplace. We also met his former yoga instructor, spinning instructor, hair stylist, masseuse and facialist. This was a caring crew who we wistfully realize won't be represented at our own funerals. Richard's stepmother Nancy is part of a women's club, and this group of ladies hosted a wonderful luncheon buffet, complete with flower arrangements from their own gardens. We are so glad for the frienship this group has provided, not just this weekend but steadily over the last three years.

It was especially encouraging to us to have our own friends and church family with us, whether they knew Richard Sr. or not. We were able to participate in the service and reception undistracted, thanks to others blowing bubbles and folding paper airplanes with the 10 energetic grandchildren. But most significantly, the weight of our grief was lightened by those came alongside us to share it. Thank you again for your prayers and words and presence.

Doctoral Student by Day. Sidewalk Activist by Night.

Amy Goh and her husband Arthur live on the 3000 block of Kenwood Avenue, where their home is shaded by a truly marvelous canopy of trees. Their sidewalks, however, require light climbing gear to traverse. The picture above shows the upheaval directly in front of Amy's home, which is mild compared to others on their block.

Our neighborhood is home to many, many mothers who push children, laundry and groceries in carefully loaded strollers. On Kenwood Avenue, as well as many other local streets, strolling on the sidewalks has become impossible. Our neighborhood is also home to many people who use wheelchairs and scooters to get around. Shopping and simple errands are challenging for this group under any circumstances. But in our neighborhood they face the added obstacles of unmaintained sidewalks and nonexistant curb cutouts at intersections.

Enter Amy and Arthur. By day Amy is earning her PhD in Marine Biology at the University of Southern California, and Arthur works for an engineering firm downtown. This summer they will moonlight as sidewalk activists. Our city has received substantial stimulus funds from the federal government that are designated for "shovel-ready projects." The goal is to increase employment while also making improvements to our infrastructure. Amy and Arthur want to see some of this funding used to create safe passages through our community, and they are organizing a campaign to make their case to our city council.

Please pray for Amy and Arthur as they lead this endeavor. And you can watch the effort unfold on their blog at http://takeawalkproject.blogspot.com.

All Hands on Deck

Thank you everyone who prayed for the Normandie/Brighton/Halldale Neighborhood Association meeting last night. Eleven adults, six kids and one 12-year-old gathered around a plate of brownies in our living room. We talked about illegal dumping behind a vacant property, the need for four-way stops around the park, cars getting repaired on the street, the pros and cons of speed bumps vs. roundabouts and neighbors throwing loud parties. One of our neighbors suggested creating a directory with all of our contact information, and someone else proposed organizing a trash cleanup day. It was a lively, enjoyable discussion and a good start overall. But here was the surprising thing: During the process of gating our alley and establishing "gate protocol" the group who gathered were primarily Spanish-speaking, and a majority renters. The group that came to last night's meeting were entirely English-speaking and all homeowners. We're not sure why this happened, but we want our gatherings to draw in both groups. Would you pray for God to weave ALL the households on our blocks together in friendship, teamwork and mutual care?

Warp and Woof

When Richard gives neighborhood tours he likes to use the term "warp and woof" to describe the thing we are trying to restore to our neighborhood. I (Anna) always think to myself, "Does anyone have any idea what he's talking about?" His favorite metaphor refers to the process of creating fabric: the warp are the lengthwise threads, under and over which the side to side threads—the woof—are woven. It's a great image, though perhaps lost on the average USC freshman.

Tonight is a big night for warp and woof on Normandie, Brighton and Halldale. It's the first official meeting of a new neighborhood association which will serve these blocks. Richard, Jordan and Isaiah spent the weekend passing out fliers and talking with neighbors about their hopes. Everyone they spoke with shares a concern for making our streets safer, and everyone has a unique perspective about how that should look. Some feel passionate about installing speed bumps. Others are wary, citing the potential downside of "slowing down emergency vehicles...or maybe slowing me down." Some perceive this group as a fresh new endeavor. Other carry memories of the last time a block club was organized here, which ended with some money disappearing and lots of blame cast between former members.

Tonight we will meet with our LAPD representative and begin the process of weaving our households together into a stronger, more resilient fabric. It will no doubt be a colorfully patterned one as well! Please pray for humor, grace, respect and vision to set the tone as we meet tonight at 7:15pm.

Want to know more?
Almost everything we know about warp and woof we learned from Bob Lupton, a community developer in Atlanta. When Jordan was a year old we had the chance to tour three neighborhoods Bob works in and see the impact that neighborhood associations are having. His reflection below paints a picture of what we hope to see happen on our own blocks:

Crime thrives when it is ignored. It springs back with resilience following police sweeps. It is immune to the threat of tougher laws and stiffer jail sentences. But it does not do well under the daily scrutiny of watchful neighbors.

Take Walker Avenue for instance. This two block, forty home street is an oasis of health in the midst of a high-crime area. Children play in safety and mothers push strollers down the street on carefree afternoon walks. Break-in's are rare because neighbors have established an active crime watch. Any stranger who pauses on Walker Avenue is bound to have someone inquire as to his business. What goes on in people's homes also becomes community business. Consequently, unwholesome activity soon comes to light.

Awhile back a neighbor across the street from us started picking up daily doses of illegal drugs on his way home from work. He would split his purchase with a friend a couple doors down. What began as a friendly gesture soon turned into an enterprise. Before long his house had a steady flow of traffic coming and going all hours of the day and night. When the pattern became too obvious to ignore, four adjacent neighbors met to discuss the matter. We elected a representative to go and speak to him on behalf of the community. We said that we were making no accusations, merely sharing our concerns, but that we were unwilling to take the chance of any of our children being cut down in the cross-fire of a transaction gone wrong. No threats were exchanged, but a clear, firm message from caring, watchful neighbors was communicated. The traffic dried up in less than twenty-four hours!

Every criminal (or potential criminal) lives somewhere. Ignore his activity and the house and street where he lives will soon become malignant. All it takes for crime to flourish is for responsible people to look straight ahead when they drive down their street and pull their blinds when they get into their house. And then lobby the government to put more police on the street and build more prisons.

Is it mere coincidence that at the very time we are seized by a national epidemic of violent crime, we are simultaneously experiencing the disappearance of community? It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to establish the causal connection. If we are too busy to get to know our neighbors, too absorbed in individual pursuits to consider the common community good, too involved in church activities to show concern for the well-being of our neighbors, then it should come as no surprise when crime springs up in the very places where we once felt secure.

The Sky's the Limit

Our program director Lauren is putting in long hours right now researching curriculum, arranging field trips and organizing scientific experiments for our summer camp. The theme for the summer is "Sky's the Limit" and the focus is flight technology. We know of at least one airplane-crazy 8-year-old boy who CAN'T WAIT to start. He is volunteering for every household chore he can think of to help his mom out and prove himself worthy of the $40 registration fee.

Our summer session is always a critical time for the kids we serve. The college interns who lead camp lavish the kids with love and attention. Our extended hours allow for more spiritual mentoring, more creative endeavors, more outdoor play AND more academic instruction. Last summer our students made significant progress in both skills and self-confidence, and we anticipate more of the same this year. But last week our planning took on added significance. On May 28th the school district announced they were canceling almost all summer school classes.

Normally the district would provide summer school instruction for 225,000 elementary and middle school students. Now these students' families are not only scrambling to find childcare, but losing the extra help that summer school provides for kids who are behind.

Sky's the Limit Summer Camp provides an alternative for 36 of the 225,000 children who just lost their summer school option. Lauren's phone is ringing frequently, and we are preparing to field far more applications than we have slots.

Here are some things you can pray for:
1) For God to guide and prepare our team of 6 interns from UCLA and Occidental College.
2) For God to provide all the volunteer help that Lauren is seeking for the summer.
3) For God to bring together the right group of kids. The specific things we hope for are: a) a solid mix of Black and Latino students, b) a group who will stick with our program through the coming academic year and c) a group that is tightly clustered geographically around our facility.
4) That God's people across the city would creatively serve and advocate for the children who need, and won't have access to, extra academic help this summer.

CAMP STARTS ON JUNE 29TH AND RUNS THROUGH JULY 31.

Urban Superheroes?

From an ABC News interview with Geoffrey Canada, Director of the Harlem Children's Zone...

ABC: What role did Superman play in motivating your life's work?

CANADA: One day my mother told me Superman wasn't real. I was absolutely stunned and broke into tears and she thought it was because of how much I loved Superman. What she didn't recognize was that I realized that if there were no Superman then no one was coming to rescue us. And I always thought Superman would get around to the South Bronx once he took care of Lex Luthor and some of the other villains in the world. When I realized there was no Superman and nobody was coming, I thought that if I ever made it out and got an education I would make sure that at least for the children that I could touch they would never feel like they needed a superhero to save them.

If you care about building better neighborhoods for children and you plan to read one book this year, allow us to recommend Geoffrey Canada's story told in Whatever it Takes by Paul Tough. While secular in it's perspective, this book has fundamentally challenged our thinking about Jesus' command to love our neighbor. The story of Canada's grand experiment in neighborhood-building has been alternately invigorating and devastating to us as we wrestle with how to rightly love our neighborhood's children.

We'll share more about the book in later posts. But here is a prayer for today:

Superman is not coming. Jesus, however, is already here. Pray that we, his people, will not be wearied or numbed by the sheer big-ness of the problems. That we will offer up to Jesus "whatever it takes" for his work to be fulfilled. Pray this for RCP's corner of South LA, and for the distressed communities near where you live, work and worship.