Isaiah 1:17-23

"Los Angeles has become one of the largest prostitutes-trafficking centers with an estimated 10,000 immigrant women are brought here and forced into prostitution each year, a city councilman said Thursday". Read Article

Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows.

"Come now, let us argue this out," says the LORD. "No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool. If you will only obey me and let me help you, then you will have plenty to eat. But if you keep turning away and refusing to listen, you will be destroyed by your enemies. I, the LORD, have spoken!"
See how Jerusalem, once so faithful, has become a prostitute. Once the home of justice and righteousness, she is now filled with murderers. Once like pure silver, you have become like worthless slag. Once so pure, you are now like watered-down wine. Your leaders are rebels, the companions of thieves. All of them take bribes and refuse to defend the orphans and the widows.
-Isaiah 1:17-23

Growth...

I have had a lot of opportunities to grow recently. Being stretched is not fun, to say the least. I have been struggling under the weight of realizing the need for this growth. It's not easy continually realizing how in deficit you are!

We had a great staff prayer time today.

During that time I realized that this pressure I have been putting on myself to grow is exactly that, pressure that I have created, not God. So I remembered that He wants to be responsible for my growth! I can't do it.

So now I'm trying to walk in the knowledge that growth is His responsibility and my availability to His leading is mine.

Blogging in Compton...

I just blogrolled Ramiro Caldera, one of our main SAY Yes! student leaders. He is helping me test blogging as a discipleship tool. This can help him process his life and what's happening as he walks with God and be used to encourage, challenge and share the journey with others. Visit Living in Compton... and let us know your thoughts on discipleship blogging!

Downtown LA Urban Hike

Today I led some of our LA Campus Crusade staff on an all-day hike through downtown LA. What an amazing place. The contrasts are amazing. The dead ducks hanging in the window of Sam Woo's restrauant in Chinatown to the opulence of certain Little Tokyo shops, the suprisingly peaceful beauty of the Civic Center plaza and the Bonzai garden on top of the New Otani Hotel and the noise of the busiest retail street in the country, Broadway.

I love the Grand Central Market where a sheep head is going for $1.19 a pound and you can get a huge serving of Pad Thai for $3.00! Across the street from there is my favorite LA building, the Bradbury. It is unbelievable inside. I love the 'ohhs and ahhs' of people seeing it for the first time. My other favorites are the Biltmore Hotel and Union Station. I fall in love with this city more and more each day!

Los Angeles Leads U.S. Counties in Population Growth

Apr. 9 - Driven by immigration and new births, Los Angeles County's population swelled by 352,000 people from 2000 to 2003, the largest growth of any county in the nation in the period, according to new U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released Thursday.

L.A. County continued to be a major destination for immigrants, primarily from Mexico and Asia, gaining 335,000 foreign-born residents. At the same time, the county lost 286,990 residents to other counties in the United States.

Read entire Article

The world is coming to Los Angeles. What a great place to live and minister! If I didn't live here, I would move here.

HIV/AIDS Links

"This generation will be remembered for three things: the internet, the war on terror, and how we let an entire continent go up in flames while we stood around with watering cans. Or not." -Christian rock singer Bono of U2, on his efforts to raise funds to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa - Christian Century (Dec 27, 2003)

HIV/AIDS is projected to wipe out half of Zambia's 10 million inhabitants. The disease has already resulted in more than a million deaths and created nearly 600,000 orphans. - Christian Reader (Sep/Oct 2003)

Every single day, 9,500 African contract AIDS. The daily death toll is 6,500. - Christian Reader (Sep/Oct 2003)

Understanding HIV/AIDS - Do you and your church understand the basics of HIV/AIDS? Before you can attack the global HIV/AIDS crisis, you'll need info on how the disease spreads, where the trouble spots are and what's being done elsewhere to combat the problem. This website is a good place to start.

HIV/AIDS Timeline - It has been 23 years since HIV/AIDS first received public attention in 1981. Here is a review of how the disease has spread around the world.

Tutorial on HIV/AIDS - Before your church members will get involved in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, they need good information. On this website you'll find articles about the global HIV/AIDS fight, along with an interactive map and a moving photo essay on the subject.

MediaLink download - HIV/AIDS: Milita's Story - Free Video download - The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy. But, Christ came to give life to the fullest. The thief is using HIV/AIDS to devastate vast regions of our world. Young orphans are left to survive on their own. But there is hope in Jesus Christ. As believers, we are responsible for sharing that plan with those hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. (Length: 1:10)

Jesus only answer to HIV/AIDS crisis, missionary tells youth - Sue Sprenkle

Abstinence one of five keys to battling global HIV/AIDS problem - Randall Tobias

Nightmare becomes sweet dream in Uganda's HIV/AIDS battle - Barbara Brake

I'm on our church's 'TeamSwazi', a committee to discover what we as a American church can do in light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. We have partnered with WorldVision to adopt the Sithobela Area Development Project in Swaziland. So far our church has started sponsoring 120 of the 474 available child sponsorships from that area. We hope to make some trips there and build much awareness here in our church, community, area. I agree with Bono, we must act now, our lives literally depend upon it.

Galaxy edge Revolution in opener

Go Galaxy!

Our new guy Andreas Herzog is amazing! We picked up Jose and Ramiro, met up with friends and had a great time. Fireworks were awesome as well.

Syd did cry when she found out Cobi Jones didn't play!

8200 Easter Bags!

Just got home from our Easter Bag Packing Party. Hello Advil.

63 churches were involved and we sent out 8200 bags and a ton (probably 3 pallets) of bulk candy and Luna bars (not there not really just for women!).

Pray for these bags as they go out today and tomorrow. Pray that God will use these bags to touch peoples lives.

We had a great time. We did a bit of a vision pull-out session from a group of folk from some churches in the Inland Empire. Dave and Heidi are finishing raising their personal support to open an IE team and the brought almost 20 people to show them what can be done up there in the future! Go God!

Also spend a few good minutes with Craig from Kairos LA.

Now were napping and resting up for the LA Galaxy home opener tonight. We got tickets for all of us to go including Ramiro and Jose. We're all excited! Go Galaxy!

Hopefully we don't get so excited we forget to set the clocks back and get to church late!

Easter Bag Packing Party

Today our staff, an Urban Imersion (spring break mission trip) team from Seattle and a Jr. High School class for Calvary Christian School in Pacific Palisades prepared for our 15th annual Easter Bag Packing Party tomorrow.

At 8 am about 400 volunteers and 40 ministries will decend on Downey First Baptist' gym to pack over 8000 evangelistic Easter Bags! These bags will be distributed by these inner city churches all across Los Angeles.

This packing party event is a great example of the body of Christ working together. People from all different racial backgrounds, socioeconomic classes and regions from LA will work shoulder to shoulder packing these Easter Bags.

This is a lot like our holiday evangelistic food outreach Boxes of Love, just a bit smaller!

Los Angeles County's Poor Struggle with Hunger, Insecurity

Results from the recently released Los Angeles County Health Survey show an estimated 260,000 people in the county experienced food insecurity during 2002-03, and an estimated 141,000 experienced hunger. The survey was the largest ever conducted by the health department.

Read entire article

Setting up the program

We are setting up our newest program, TechExchange a computer refurbishing center. We just put the first page of the website up. This is keeping us busy for sure!

Our Pastor makes the LA Times!

Compton Pastor Taps Into Youths' Passion for Sports (registration is required)

This has been our church in Compton for over 10 years.

Our Agenda or God'a Agenda?

"So if I want to be on mission it’s really about getting on God's agenda. " Read this whole interview.

I see this a lot; people in ministry with their own plan and they ask God to bless it. We try to see what God is doing in the city and get into that stream. A bit subtle, but important.

A Good Read

"Taking a compelling look at where the church is today and where God wants it to be, McManus argues convincingly that we have chosen convenience and comfort and the result is deadness. He challenges churches to go beyond accepting the new reality of the changing world we live in to actually doing something about it. He offers insight about the negatives and positives of megachurches. Each chapter concludes with some excellent discussion questions."


Just got this book, looking forward to sitting down with it.

Unreached people in the US targets of evangelism

USA (MNN) -- Meanwhile, If you can believe it…there are unreached people in the United States. American Missionary Fellowship is aware of the situation and they're doing something about it. Beginning in March, AMF will begin training missionaries to start US based 'Learning Communities'.

AMF's Ed Henderson. "We believe it's a time in America that we need to create a new spin on Bible studies and we're calling them learning communities. We want them to focus on reaching some unreached people groups in the U-S." Henderson says many Americans and international students on college campuses have never heard the Gospel. He says that's not the only place the unreached can be found. "There are those in our inner cities and our suburbs that are unreached because no one has taken the Gospel into those communities. Neighborhood after neighborhood where there is no influence of the church whatsoever." Full Story

There are kids and adults in our neighborhood who have never seen snow, never been to the beach (even though it is a 10 minute drive away) and have never heard about Jesus.

Who is going to church?
According to Leadership Magazine:

People over 50 are more likely to go to church, but are also more resistant to the Gospel.
Younger people are more likely to have an interest in spiritual things, but less likely to attend church.

How does your church rate?

A church newsletter mentioned a man who visited eighteen different churches on successive Sundays. He was trying to find out what the churches were really like. He said, "I sat near the front. After the service, I walked slowly to the rear, then returned to the front and went back to the foyer using another aisle. I smiled and was neatly dressed. I asked one person to direct me to a specific place: a fellowship hall, pastor's study, etc. I remained for coffee if served. I used a scale to rate the reception I received. I awarded points on the following basis:

10 for a smile from a worshiper
10 for a greeting from someone sitting nearby
100 for an exchange of names
200 for an invitation to have coffee
200 for an invitation to return
1000 for an introduction to another worshiper
2000 for an invitation to meet the pastor

On this scale, eleven of the eighteen churches earned fewer than 100 points. Five actually received less than 20.

The conclusion: The doctrine may be biblical, the singing inspirational, the sermon uplifting, but when a visitor finds nobody who cares whether he's here, he is not likely to come back."
>From: Steve Barack - heb1035@prodigy.net

Passion in the Box Office

I have been looking for a way to chart the success of the movie. Here it is. Blockbuster Showdown - The Passion vs. Return of the King vs. Spider Man vs. Star Wars

Jim Caviezel on playing Jesus

"When this whole thing began--I met one day with Mel [Gibson], and we're talking about other roles, and then stories in the Bible, and he's looking at me. And I said, 'You want me to play Jesus, don't you?' And he said, 'Yeah.' Your life builds up to things. When you're asked a question, when the whole history of your life comes to that moment--You want me to play Christ. don't you?--God gives you a grace inside your heart that says, 'Look, this is where I need you.'

"Miraculous things have happened. When I was hit by lightning [during the filming of a crucifixion scene], it was the one day I didn't have communion. We always had mass and I always received communion but on that one day the priest ran out of hosts. I was up there on the cross and I was hit and we knew I was going to be hit, we could see it coming. And the eyes of the men below me turned glossy. Everything was pink, fire coming from both sides of my head."

The whole article.

Urban Immersion

Today about 100 college students from around the country descended into LA for week 2 of this years 4 week urban Immersion Schedule. Urban Immersion is our short term inner city project for college students during spring break.

Tonight I spoke to the group from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. About 30 of them are spending their first night in South Central LA! They are at Lighthouse Community Ministries, an amazing ministry we just found out in the last few months. They house 8-10 women and children in their woman's home, a lifestyle-discipleship program. Pastor and Sister Hall are incredible examples of dedicated heroes of the faith, who have served there for almost 20 years.

The students will do work projects, have evangelistic outreaches and endure a poverty simulation that will give them painful insight into the life of a homeless person on the streets of LA.

We are praying for many lives to be touched these next few weeks!

Tonya's Home!

Well it has been a slow blogging week! Tonya arrived home from Thailand on Wednesday to an anxious, awaiting family! We were so happy to see her.

She came home with many great stories, many about the incredible women she got to hang out with. At this Global Women's Forum she met many national Campus Crusade staff, many from closed countries. She heard story after story of how women are advancing the gospel far and wide.

They rode elephants, prayed in and around government buildings, were coached in leadership development areas and explored both Chaing Mai and Bangkok. All around a great time. We're proud of her!

Two thirds of the American women there, including Tonya and Erica (our LA team member) got sick. They had some type of food poisoning. Tonya wasn't able to keep anything down for a few days, including the antibiotic to help the infection in an upper molar. So now she is recuperating and trying to find a local dentist that can put Tonya out to perform a root canal! She says that she'd rather go through labor again than go to a dentist. Being the thoughtful and wise husband I am, I don't challenge her on that declaration!

So as Sydney says, "We're all back together again, we're all family again".