Coffee Del Mundo

Coffee Del Mundo in South Los Angeles at 7414 S Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90044

Some neighborhoods in Los Angeles have a trendy coffee shop on every corner, with each one selling European style coffee beverages (lattes, espressos, cappuccinos). Coffee Del Mundo is not in one of those neighborhoods, and it’s not serving European coffee. 

Located in South LA, near the intersection of Florence and Vermont, it describes itself as “the world’s first non-European coffee establishment.” Sharing a block with a Latino Pentecostal church and a Black Baptist church, Coffee Del Mundo serves up plant-based beverages that honor coffee’s deep historical roots in Africa and Latin-America, and reflect the diversity of their neighborhood. They also don’t serve any dairy, citing that traditionally people of color have significantly higher incidences of lactose intolerance. 

The Coffee Del Mundo team is made up of folks active in their faith, all with a vision to love their community and spread the word about great coffee. They’re located in an area lacking in plentiful nutritious food options, so they also host a Plant-Based Saturday every month, and the community loves to come out and enjoy the diverse vegan options available to them.

When you walk in, the first thing you notice is a set of national flags hanging along the back wall, immediately letting you know that this is a spot that celebrates the cultures and farmers in Africa and Latin America who do the hard work of growing and cultivating the various types of coffee. They take roots seriously, in every sense of the word. I was delighted to chat with Founder and CEO of Coffee Del Mundo, Jonathan Kinnard.

Tell us about your vision and journey for opening Coffee Del Mundo.

I always wanted my own business, and I knew it had to be around my passions. I love to cook, love to travel, and I love coffee. I visited a coffee farm in El Salvador, and that's where it started.

I had a friend from El Salvador, and I always visit my family in Belize in December. So I asked him, when are you going back? And it ended up being at the same time. So I went over for a couple of days before I went to visit my family, and came to find out his family was coffee farmers. While I was there, they gave me a tour of their farm and shared a lot of the issues they were dealing with. And so I said, “Well, maybe I can help.” So I packed up my luggage with whatever beans could fit <laughs>, and I brought them back here.

And then I started going to different roasters and coffee shops to sell these beans, and just faced a lot of rejection; and this rejection was from people who weren't the people growing coffee. It was so interesting to me that, you know, the farmers are living in poverty, but yet are essential to this industry making billions of dollars. So I thought, well, what does it take to cook this thing? So I ended up going to Turkey to study coffee roasting, since that's where the traditional drum style roasting started, and I brought a machine back and created Coffee Del Mundo. 

And how did you decide on South LA for a location?

I mean, honestly, it was God. I was looking for different locations and I wanted to be in a location that was representative of me. My mom's from Belize and my dad's Black, so I wanted to be in a community that was both Black and Latino. And I also wanted to create a company with a menu designed for people of color. So that's why our whole menu is a hundred percent plant-based. We don't do any dairy. We also don't serve any European style drinks because I wanted to really educate people that coffee is not a European thing. It was here long before Europeans colonized the world. So this is the authentic narrative of true coffee. 

What have you noticed about this neighborhood? And what do you feel are some of the real gifts here?

You know, it’s the people. I've been able to build relationships with a lot of people in the community. Sometimes when people think of South Central, they initially say, what are you doing there? They think it's nothing but prostitution, trash, and drugs. At the end of the day, some people are called to be missionaries across the world, but I think, you know, this is where God called me to be; to shine my light here. And so I always tell people, you know, we're really a community center full of great people that just happens to sell the best coffee.

Tell me about the community center part. How does that play out?

Before Covid, we would do a lot of different events here. We also have an event called Plant-Based Saturdays. Because it's a food desert, once a month on the third Saturday, I invite local chefs who are plant-based, and they come and we block off the street. And at least for a day, the community has access to a whole bunch of amazing different types of fun vegan food that normally they don’t have access to. And we're supporting local chefs of color who are the ones behind it. 

I know you mentioned God as a driving force for your work here. I’d love to hear more: How do you see your work as an expression of your faith?

From my understanding, faith is action. Being a servant leader, Jesus was active out there with the people, with people who were poor, people who had issues, people who were selling themselves. And so a lot of times people think of Christianity and they think of churches or cathedrals or just the beauty of the experience. But really you're here to get your hands dirty, you're in the trenches. And I think that us being here in the trenches and in a community that has been so severely systematically damaged, when people come in here, it's like a breath of fresh air. And a lot of times they ask, “Why are you here?” And I tell everybody the short answer is God. It’s that simple. Now if you have time, I can explain how God worked through me and a whole bunch of other people to make this thing happen. But at the end of the day, you know, that's why we're here.

What are your hopes for both Coffee del Mundo and the neighborhood?

The hope is to continue to be the change and the light that the community needs and to allow people to fall in love with their community again. A lot of our customers have fallen out of love with the community because of all of the trauma, the systematic and historical issues that have occurred here. And so places like this allow people to fall back in love with their community, and also be exposed to other people in their community. 

One of the biggest things I noticed when I came here is that it's heavily Black population and a heavily Latino population. However, they're very separate. So as a Black and Afro-Latino man, I'm like, wait a minute. There's Black establishments and Black folks go only there and there's Latino establishments and Latinos go only there. So when I created the company, I wanted it to really represent both communities and be a place where both communities could feel ownership of what we're doing. Because we're all part of this community, we're part of this movement of cohesiveness. We're all going through these same issues, but together collectively we can really have a stronger voice.

How do you see this cohesiveness happening at your events? 

If you come you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, this is a mix of so many different types of people. And normally you don't really see that. We're trying to let people know that coffee is a thing of people of color. The espresso machine wasn't even invented until the late 1800s. So what about all that history before then? So educating our consumers and, and creating a space that makes them feel comfortable to interact with each other, and to own our history as people of color in the history of coffee, is really important.

Definitely. So, what’s your favorite drink here?

My favorite drink is our Cacao Blanco. It's made with our Nicaraguan cold brew, white chocolate cacao drizzle, coconut condensed drizzle, and oat milk.

What's your most popular drink?

Cafe Da, our vegan Vietnamese style coffee. It's made with Ethiopian cold brew, vanilla oat milk, and coconut condensed milk. It’s awesome.
Is there anything else you want people to know about what's happening at Coffee del Mundo?

Expect big things! We're growing, and our goal is to get a different location so we can really showcase what we're doing and grow. And we're so appreciative of all the people who have supported us to this point.

Coffee Del Mundo is located in South Los Angeles at 7414 S Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90044. Check out their website here, catering and office subscriptions available here, and follow them on Instagram @coffeedelmundola.

Cafe Dulce

If you’ve ever been to the bustling courtyard of USC Village with its many shops and restaurants, you’ve probably noticed a long line at one particular spot: Dulce. And for good reason! Dulce at USC Village, one of five locations of Café Dulce in the eastern half of Los Angeles, has top notch coffee drinks, food (I personally love the breakfast sandwich with avocado), and a beautifully diverse display of pastries (everything from fancy donuts to roti to vegan croissants to brick toast and more). 

I’ve been coming regularly to Dulce since I moved to the USC area in 2019, since there’s free parking (with validation) and a huge outdoor seating area to sip your coffee while you read or get some work done on the wifi. And I can attest to what owner, James Choi, says below about how they strive for an environment of hospitality. Even during busy times of day, the folks at Dulce are friendly and welcoming.

Though James and I sat down for a chat at the USC Village location, we ended up talking mostly about the very first Café Dulce location - in Little Tokyo. (Which I also then visited - right in the Japanese Village Plaza Mall, with lots of other little shops and restaurants! It’s a great spot.) I loved hearing more about James’ story, what he loves about his neighborhood, and - since he’s a Christian - how he understands what it means to run a business as a person of faith.

How did Café Dulce begin?

My mom immigrated to the U.S. from Korea, and after some frustrating workplace experiences, realized she wanted to start her own business. During this time I was trying to pursue golf professionally. I ended up coming to USC and had the privilege of getting an education here and studying accounting.

As she was trying to open up businesses, I would come alongside to help her open them. She tried out a few types of stores, and we ended up opening up a chocolate boutique in Palo Alto. This was a really profitable business, but she was unhappy there because we had no family or community. So we ended up selling that business, moving back down to Los Angeles, and then we found out she had cancer. During that time, I left my accounting job to help her sell the chocolate boutique and take care of her for the year. I'm an only child, and she's a single mother. So during that time we got her through surgery, chemo and all the treatments, and she was in remission. 

I went back to work, and she found a business partner. They were going to open a cafe/bakery in Little Tokyo, and that's what Café Dulce was. So they designed the store, and she spent all of her money from the sale of the previous business. Later I found out she maxed out all of her credit cards and took out hard money loans and got money from aunties and uncles and all sorts of places. But about a month before they were going to open the store, they got into a huge argument, and her business partner bounced. And so then I quit my job again. <Laughs> We officially opened our doors in Little Tokyo in 2011.

What are the other locations, and when did they open?

Our second Café Dulce location started as a popup downtown, near 11th and Hope, and finally became a full store in 2013 at The Row in DTLA. Then we opened Dulce in USC Village in 2017, that was number three - and this is by far our biggest and busiest location. Exactly a year after that one opened, we opened one in Vernon, and about a year and a half ago we opened our fifth location downtown at Los Angeles and Olympic.

Since the Little Tokyo Café Dulce was the first one, I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on that part of the city. 

We’re very involved in our Little Tokyo community, and I'm thankful my mom chose Little Tokyo as the first location. It’s full of nonprofits, and is one of only three remaining Japantowns in all of the U.S. And it's one of about a dozen California Cultural Districts. I wrote a letter as a testimony toward getting that designation, because the community asked me to do it. 

It's fundamentally changed the way I think a cafe should be in a community. Fast forward 12 years, I serve on two non-profit boards there: the Little Tokyo Business Association and the Little Tokyo Community Council. 

In terms of the history of Little Tokyo, they band together very tightly despite infighting and other things that always happen on councils. Because during World War II, when all the Japanese-Americans got rounded up, that caused Japanese-Americans to really have a lot of pride and hold precious to their neighborhoods and areas that they felt safe.

 Little Tokyo happened because they weren't welcome in other communities. Because of that, I think people are very big on protecting the neighborhood. Our Little Tokyo Community Council talks to the city about development, making sure things don't get developed in Little Tokyo that shouldn't be there. We have a historic overlay zone, making sure things that come in are thoughtful to the community, not just any large corporation that can really cause harm to the small and legacy businesses. This has shown me how important it is to be involved with the communities where your cafes reside. 

I love that no matter what day you go out in Little Tokyo, you're gonna see some other community member that works, lives, or volunteers in the community every day who you personally know.

What does it mean to you to be a Christian business owner? How does your faith inform how you run your business?

I actually asked my pastor, Phil, “Is my faith something I have to be exemplifying through my business?” And he said something that took this huge burden off me. He said, “James, just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that your business has to scream ‘I'm Christian.’ There's something to be said to be as excellent as you can be in doing what you're doing. And God will show your faith through that in his own way.” 

It also plays out in the language I use in managing our staff. We have three particular pillars that are very important for our management and leadership to know. One is ownership: owning your mistakes and also owning your victories. 

The second one is hospitality. We truly believe in providing hospitality. That was something I learned from Pastor Alex, who was the head pastor of Sovereign Grace when he married me and Cindy, my wife. He said, “James, you guys are in the hospitality industry and it's truly creating a home for somebody else.” 

And the last word we always talk about is servanthood. When I talk about servanthood, it's kind of icky to a lot of people today. But we take the time to really talk about what that means. It's about being in service to something bigger. Not only our customers that are coming in, but also those that you work alongside behind the counter; taking care of one another. Because if you don't take care of one another, taking care of somebody that walks through your door is even further removed. But if you can focus on taking care of one another, then taking care of the people that walk through our doors on a daily basis becomes much easier and it happens naturally. So I think that plays out in the way that customers hopefully experience our store.

We try to make it a point to say hi to everybody that comes in, ask how they’re doing. Even though you have a 30 second interaction with somebody, that's a moment to make somebody's day a little bit better. 

What is your favorite drink Café Dulce serves?

If I'm looking for something sweet, the Dulce Latte is really good. An iced one is like drinking melted Häagen Dazs coffee ice cream. And generally, I just love a really great batch brew or a cappuccino.

What about your favorite food items?

I love our hazelnut crumble because it's nostalgic. It was the first pastry I remember my mom buying me. When I was about five, I remember being in Koreatown Plaza and she bought me a gombo-ppang (곰보빵). It has a crumbly top, is peanut buttery, and has a nice fluffy dough. And she loved it because it reminded her of her childhood, too. So at Café Dulce we slice it and put a hazelnut buttercream in there, which is delicious. My favorite sandwich is our spicy Korean cheesesteak. The spicy sauce that goes on there is like a spicy Korean chicken wing sauce.

What’s next for Cafe Dulce and for you?

I don't foresee myself opening up any more Café Dulces, so if these five remain and we're around for 30 years and become an LA institution, that would be amazing. I would consider that a huge success. More than anything we opened to create space and opportunity for the staff that have been with us. It was a huge risk for us to open the USC location, but I had a couple of house managers that just needed to grow. They were graduating from college and they wanted this to be their career path. And so we realized we could step in and play a role in their lives. And my backhouse head of kitchen who started with us in 2011, he's still with us today. I’m also in the process of opening a boba shop, starting up a chain of ramen shops, and some other exciting opportunities. 

Check out one of the five Café Dulce locations to experience their delicious hospitality for yourself! Located in: Little Tokyo, Row DTLA, USC Village, Vernon, Santee District. Also find them on Instagram @cafedulcela

With Love - Part 2

Here’s part two of our interview with Andrew McDowell, founder of With Love Market and Cafe. If you didn’t catch part one, check it out here and then come back!

Like most small businesses, especially newer ones, With Love had a lot to navigate as the pandemic hit at a time before they really had a chance to establish themselves and build a dedicated customer base. Check out the interview below where I talk with Andrew about how they shifted focus during that time, as well as the dreams he has for the future of With Love.

What have been a couple of difficult situations or seasons With Love has faced, and what has helped you move through those times?

Every season has its challenges; whether that's keeping the business open because we're growing our customer base, or evolving because the community's evolved. [A well-known grocery store chain offering affordable, healthy options] opened in 2017 after this community had been petitioning them for over 10 years. And I was a part of that group saying, “Please come into our community. We need healthy food options.” And they kept saying, “No, your community's not good enough for us.” And then, surprise! A local university brings them in. But we had been open for a year by that point, after three and a half years of planning. So it had been four and a half years of us saying, you know what, if they're not gonna do it, we're gonna do it. And then when they came in, it completely changed everything and we weren't open long enough to have built long-term grocery customers.

So that almost put us out of business and we had to figure out how to stay on mission while pivoting the business toward sustainability. It was a really challenging season that took several years and lots of money to figure out. And then when we did figure it out, we had a pandemic. When that happened, we were able to lean on our grocery infrastructure and provide a ton of food to families in need and to organizations that wanted to serve their constituency but didn't have the ability to.

When the pandemic first hit, I worked 40 straight days, 12 to 15 hour days, not a day off, and was completely exhausted. But at the same time, I was reinvigorated because I had to be creative again. I had to find new ways to serve, and my passion was reignited. So that season of challenge actually took me from a place of almost burnout from five years of trying to figure everything out, to now catching fire again. I've been running on that for a while with this new season of development and growth.

And now we have a second location, we're about to open a third location, and are planning locations four and five right now. I’m really just focusing on that, and that's all coming from the passion that was reignited at the beginning of the pandemic. The pandemic was really challenging and hard for a lot of people. But for me it also kickstarted something that needed to be kickstarted again.

What is your favorite food and drink item on the menu? 

I'm a Cold Brew addict. I drink cold brew every day. If I need an alternative drink, I drink the Horchata Cold Brew. If I need a smoothie, I love the Fuego smoothie because it's got tons of vitamins and it's delicious. On our food menu I love mixing soyrizo and chicken together in my burritos.

What are the most popular things that people order here?

At this location [on Vermont], the Mint2Be and the Peanut Better are the most popular smoothies, and the Horchata Latte is by far the most popular coffee drink. In terms of food, I would say our beast burritos which are giant burritos. People love them because they're very shareable, and you can have two meals out of it. Our breakfast sandwiches have also become really popular. 

One last question. As you think about the next few years, what are your hopes for With Love, or even personal goals you have outside of your business?

If everything goes well, by next fall With Love will have quadrupled in size in terms of the community impact and the customers we are able to serve. We will have three to four locations by then. And each year we hope to be able to double in size for the next five years. We have a lot of growth plans. But even if we don't meet any of those goals, we will have made a difference. And that's cool. It's great to be able to add layers of icing on the cake that we are all so proud of. I'm really thankful for that.

Personally I'd really like to find somebody I can train and raise up to take over running the business in the way that I do. I envisioned myself as the starter with the goal to empower and to equip somebody to run everything. And at that point I will move into a larger visioning capacity. But still very much involved personally.

My wife and I had our first son, Jack, who was born in October 2022. And we are hoping at some point to have at least one more child whether that be naturally or through adoption. So we are exploring what God has for us in that. I do hope one day to be able to empower groups in other cities that face a similar challenge that we face here in South LA of access, affordability, safe spaces, and jobs and teach them how to do it in a way that they have a greater chance of success.

I want other social enterprises to succeed at a much higher rate than they currently do. And I've realized how hard it is. Each year there's been something that's almost shut us down. Almost every single year there's been something so big that we could have ended up closing because of it. But God's gotten us through. And I don't believe that's a vain thing. I don't think it's for our own personal benefit. I think there's a bigger thing to come out of the lessons we're learning. And so I'm hoping to be able to vision for that and see where it takes us. 

With Love Market and Cafe is a community-owned for-profit Social Purpose Corporation. With more than 35 co-owners of the business and an independent 501(c)3, With Love Community Programs, it is positioned well to partner with and advocate for their community. They’re located at 1969 Vermont Ave. They recently opened a second to-go location at 235 E. 12th St. Follow them on Facebook or Instagram (@withlovela_) to be up to date on all that’s happening there, and check out their website!

With Love - Part I

Walking into With Love Market and Cafe is a vibrant experience. From the bright orange chairs to the upbeat music to the colorful fresh fruits and vegetables in baskets for purchase, it’s a spot for rest and joy on a buzzing street right by the 10 Freeway. 

Inside the huge warehouse-chic space, you find fresh produce, as well as shelf-stable and frozen foods, and a full cafe menu with coffees, smoothies, sandwiches, burritos, and of course, many variations of avocado toast. So, like I have at times, you can get a tasty meal (the eggplant sandwich is, *chef’s kiss*) and also pick up some popcorn, a couple of onions, and a lemon you need for something you’re making later, all in one stop. 

There’s lots of indoor seating at a communal table, as well as smaller tables, with an upstairs seating area as well. Upstairs there’s even a community room available to reserve for an incredibly low hourly rate (the only downside is that it’s located up a flight of stairs, which isn’t accessible to everyone). For an accessible option, you can reserve the downstairs space after hours, or the outdoor back patio, both of which are wheelchair accessible. 

When I was leading a local church startup, we rented the back patio for events several times. It was the only outdoor spot we could find in the neighborhood that was quiet, accessible, and at a price that worked for our budget. The church I worked for also used With Love for catering multiple times, getting lunch boxes or party trays for events and gatherings - always fresh, delicious, and reasonably priced. So as someone whose community directly benefited from the good neighbor With Love has been in the community, I was excited to sit down with Andrew McDowell, the founder, and hear more of their story.

This is part one of a two part interview. In this section we hear some of the motivation behind the idea for the business, and how it first got off the ground. 

Before we talk about the story of With Love, first tell us a few of the key things from your story that make you, you.

I went to Occidental College and was involved with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. It was a very transformative experience for me. Prior to that, I'd never really seen the character of Jesus. Being able to understand more of what he did every day and how he affected people, how he dedicated his life, and what it actually meant, forced me to look at my life. I really became passionate about social justice and community impact and serving and caring and loving those who may need it in ways they can't meet on their own. So I spent a long time figuring out myself and growing and learning about my gifts and strengths and weaknesses. 

I worked in digital marketing for years developing skills and passions. And over time God started giving me a vision for the South LA community I’d been living in, where my church home was, and wondering why I was here. With Love started forming after years of visioning. Not intentionally visioning, but getting pieces of ideas and visions after a couple years that started to make sense. 

Share a bit about that germination time when the ideas for creating something like this started to come together as one coherent vision.

It all started with noticing things in the community that were unjust, like kids eating chips and sugary drinks for breakfast on their way to school. And I loved getting people jobs. But I recognized that I couldn't get a lot of the people in this community jobs because they didn't have a college education or a very specific skill set to work in the industry I was in. They were hardworking and passionate and needed to take care of their family, but the only job openings were far away from our community. I felt that was a problem. 

I started praying about why I was here in this community, how to use the skills and resources I had been given, and I felt encouraged to put down roots in the form of buying a home in the neighborhood and committing to this neighborhood in South LA. Then I started thinking about a business where I could hire my neighbors and sell healthier food options to those kids walking to school.

So that's kind of where the little bit of ideas started, recognizing where the greatest needs in our community intersected with the greatest opportunity for a sustainable business. 

What are a few of the highlights of how With Love grew from an idea to what it is today?

The actual visioning process took about two years. It wasn't a fixed process, ideas started happening and I would write down words or draw pictures to get out what was coming up for me. While I was on a beach in Cancun, vacationing with a buddy, two single hard-working guys getting some much needed free time, I was reading a book called My Business, My Mission by Doug Seebeck. And it was talking about business' missions in developing countries and the transformational nature of that for the gospel.

So I started the process of hiring an assistant, and then it took three and a half years until we actually opened. But that process was: What do we need? What's the business? What's the idea? We need a business plan. We need funding, we need locations, we need an idea, we need a name. We need all of these things. And so that's how, you know, the journey went from idea to actual opening in three and a half years. 

What do you love about this neighborhood?

Two years is the average time someone will live in our immediate community. So it has a lot of turnover. That's both challenging and exciting because you meet a lot of different people and there’s a constant evolution. There's energy, ideas, different people to meet. So this ever-evolving community has the opportunity to evolve in one way or another, and we get to be a part of influencing that. I really enjoy that, whether that's being a part of the Salvadoran business corridor here, or working with our new councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez to figure out how to do something positive in this part of our council district. Or working with the new mayor, Karen Bass, and saying, “Hey, we want to do something transformative on Vermont that really brings prosperity to our neighborhood in a way that serves the people that have been here for a long time.” I really enjoy and love the opportunity to engage, to be welcomed in, even though I didn't grow up in this community, or I don't look like the majority of this community. 

What do you see as the gifts of this neighborhood? 

This neighborhood is constantly surprising me with the diverse skills in the people I meet, from social workers to tradespeople to teachers and people that work in city government. This neighborhood truly has everything, which is a cauldron of opportunity when we are able to focus and rally people and organize folks. Which I also think is the biggest challenge. 

Speaking of challenge…stay tuned for part two of this interview with With Love’s founder Andrew McDowell as he shares about how they navigated the challenges of COVID as a new small business, as well as what beautiful new chapters are ahead for this great community spot.

With Love Market and Cafe is a community-owned for-profit Social Purpose Corporation. With more than 35 co-owners of the business and an independent 501(c)3, With Love Community Programs, it is positioned well to partner with and advocate for their community. They’re located at 1969 Vermont Ave. They recently opened a second to-go location at 235 E. 12th St. Follow them on Facebook or Instagram (@withlovela_) to be up to date on all that’s happening there, and check out their website!

Part II: Bread or Circuses? A Century of Homelessness and Olympics in Los Angeles

A three-part series reflecting on the impact of the Olympics–past, present, and future–on the City of Los Angeles and its most vulnerable residents, from a religious and theological perspective.

The Tenth Olympic Games, held in 1932, was awarded to Los Angeles on a technicality–they were actually the only ones who offered. Anxious to show the world that their desert town was more than just a place to film movies, LA placed their bid in 1923, unaware that the context within which they would be hosting 9 years later would be at the height of The Great Depression. Despite the global economic crisis, LA approved a one-million dollar ballot measure to fund the Olympics (equivalent to $21mil today), prompting Californians to swarm the Sacramento Capitol with signs reading, “Groceries, Not Games!” 

Nonetheless, LA managed to make the Olympics a surprise success. With a little Hollywood pizzazz–advertising the games across the new Route 66, and introducing “photo finish” cameras and the three-tiered podium for medal winners–Los Angeles left an indelible mark on the Games, and also netted a million dollar profit. In many ways, the idea of the mutually beneficial partnership of Olympics and host cities was made in Los Angeles in 1932. And like most Hollywood dreams, it would turn out to be far more elusive than advertised–even for the City that invented it. 

In order to understand the Olympics of 1984 and 2028, we have to pause briefly and look at 1963. The LA City Council at this time passed an ordinance 41.18 with multiple provisions on public behavior, but provision (d) has become the most contentious: a ban on sitting, lying, or sleeping on public property. In one fell swoop, the most vulnerable and marginalized in Los Angeles were now also criminals, subject to punishment.. While a full-scale enforcement of this is impossible, it allowed the City to strategize where homelessness would and would not be tolerated. 41.18(d) could be lax in areas like Skid Row, and strictly enforced in areas like Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Rather than committing to addressing or even ending homelessness, LA positioned itself to be able to nimbly maneuver and control it. 

The Summer Olympics would not return to the United States until 1984, when Los Angeles was once again awarded the winning bid by default with other cities failing to complete a bid. Despite Cold War tensions and boycotts, and the growing reputation that the Olympics took a heavy financial toll, Los Angeles believed it could replicate the success of 1932 with similar tactics and theatrics. For the first time, the Olympics were funded by private financing and corporate sponsorships. Hollywood composer John Williams, fresh off his legendary themes for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, was tasked to write a new Olympic theme. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies were star-studded spectacles (including a man in a jetpack!), and the city once again netted a huge profit from the Games. The lead-up to the Olympics and its aftermath once again changed the city of Los Angeles–but critics argue it was not for the better. 

At this time, homelessness in Los Angeles had skyrocketed. As the Olympics drew closer, Los Angeles increased criminalization and “beautification” efforts that made life more miserable for people on the streets, and drove them out of sight. Local officials were brazen in their language about what they were doing, even if some were more euphemistic than others. Councilmember Gilbert Lindsay even recommended reopening LA’s “drunk farm,” a project from the 50’s where LAPD took their alcoholic prisoners to the deep West Valley and forced them to work as sharecroppers at a cost-neutral farm, saying, “Let them sweat it out in the sun, grow vegetables to eat, and learn a trade.” 

Despite strong consideration, prison camps for the unhoused were eschewed in favor of tougher enforcement policies. Ordinances were passed to prohibit sleeping on the streets, sleeping in vehicles, and sleeping on bus benches. This crackdown did not end with people experiencing homelessness, but extended to communities of color broadly. Implicit and explicit racism allowed the recession, unemployment, drug epidemic, and AIDS crisis to devastate communities of color, and the “solutions” to these problems were to further marginalize those experiencing them. When the Federal Government allocated a budget for Olympics infrastructure, LA did not invest in job creation, public health, or addiction services: they invested in militarizing the LAPD, and christening them to make LA Olympics-ready the only way they knew how.

Because of their success and profitability, the 1984 Olympics etched in stone the dynamics of Los Angeles into the next several decades. The same police force that saw rapid expansion and militarization would go on to brutalize Rodney King and be acquitted for it. The profits generated from the Olympics were again not used to uplift marginalized communities, but to further enrich those on the right side of the widening wealth gap. 41.18 allowed Los Angeles for the ensuing decades to relegate homelessness primarily to Skid Row. Mayor Tom Bradley had promised the Olympics would make LA “a city for the future,” and it fulfilled that promise–there was a Los Angeles before 1984, and for better and worse, there was a different one after. 

Ordinance 41.18(d) was dealt a major blow in 2006 when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared it unconstitutional on the basis that it represents “cruel and unusual punishment.” They set a low bar for the City to provide 1,250 units of permanent public housing before they could begin enforcing it again. 

In 2017, Los Angeles was again awarded the Olympic Games for 2028. Mayor Eric Garcetti not only echoed the sentiments of 1984, but called back specifically to it: 

If you think about back to the '80s, think about the late '70s, we had inflation. We had war. We had some of the same things that we're struggling (with). We had a housing crisis. We had a homelessness crisis. The Olympics in '84 was a jumping off point for the rebirth of our city. And I think '28 will be as well.

Leaning more on spite than sentiment, Councilmember and failed 2022 Mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino declared during a contentious city council meeting about the Olympics, “What these games will do is create jobs and weed out poverty and put Los Angeles on the map!” Ignoring the obvious absurdity of needing to put one of the most well-known cities in the world “on the map,” the language of “weeding out” poverty was telling–poverty was to be treated like an outside invader to be removed, rather than a problem indicative of a toxic environment. This is how it was treated in 1984, and it would be the trajectory of LA in preparation for 2028. 

Less than a year after being awarded the Olympics, Garcetti declared that the criteria to begin enforcing 41.18(d) again had been met, and that the City would be pursuing it. Advocates were floored, as there did not seem to be much documented evidence that the housing units had been built. This same year, though, a different case involving a similar law in Boise, Idaho had made it all the way to the US Supreme Court, and the Court had ruled against the law. Before it even had a chance to revive, the City became fearful of countering the Supreme Court. 

Between 2018 and 2020, City Council made multiple attempts to reinstate the ordinance or one like it that would be in compliance with the Supreme Court ruling. However, community resistance has been strong, and a coalition of activist groups came together known as “Services Not Sweeps” to resist the reinstitution of criminalization. (“Sweeps” refers to when encampments of unhoused people are demolished by the City.) The phrase is a call to prioritize investing money in providing services to those in need, instead of paying for their removal and displacement. Yet even against this severe opposition, Council passed an amendment to 41.18 in 2020 that required an ambiguous “offer of shelter” before sleeping, lying, or sitting could be deemed unlawful. Under this new version which is yet untested in the courts, Los Angeles began sweeping again and continues to ramp them up not only for the Olympics, but for the Academy Awards, the Super Bowl, and to dispel new unhoused communities that formed during the pandemic. 

In this vein, Los Angeles continues to barrel forward toward hosting the 2028 Olympics, repeating the patterns of 1932 and 1984, likely toward the same outcome: increasing the illusion of respectability in Los Angeles, enriching and entrenching those in power, and further disenfranchising those without it. The issues Los Angeles has failed to address for more than half a century will continue to worsen, while those in power choose Games instead of Groceries, and Sweeps instead of Services.

Part I: The Gospel of the Olympic Games

A three-part series reflecting on the impact of the Olympics–past, present, and future–on the City of Los Angeles and its most vulnerable residents, from a religious and theological perspective.

Part I: The Gospel of the Olympic Games

The ritual of the Olympic games, marked by lofty language, sacred symbols, and symbolic ceremonies, all bear the markings of people yearning for transcendence–in short, they are religious. While they may not pay tribute to a particular deity, there is undoubtedly a spirituality to everything about the Olympics, organized and manifested by governing bodies, statements of belief, and codes of conduct. This is not an evolution–it is the very nature of the Olympics as it was imagined and instituted. For as long as they have existed, the Olympics have been religious–and a key tenet of that religion is the marginalization of the poor.

In 2028, these same realities will come to bear on Los Angeles, as the Summer games settle into “the City of Angels,” boasting one of the largest GDPs in the world alongside one of its highest concentrations of people experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness. As I begin this three-part analysis of the impact of the Olympics on LA from a theological perspective, it will serve us well to understand the religious and socio-economic history of the Olympic games, from their earliest iterations to their present-day manifestation.

The original games of ancient Athens were held as part of a religious ceremony paying tribute to the god Zeus. Writes historian Paul Cartledge, “The sports component was only one part, and not the most important, of the five-day festival, held at the second full moon after the summer solstice. The festival began with a swearing-in and oath-taking. It was punctuated by religious rituals and communal singing of victory hymns. And it ended with a religious procession to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, where the victors were crowned, followed by the sacrifice of many animals, feasting and celebrations.” The select athletes, especially the champions, were held in such high esteem that they were adorned with riches and wealth and a status of celebrity that bordered on deity. The festival was ultimately doomed by the confluence of politics and Christianity: after the Roman empire adopted Christianity, the games were banned. 

Fast forward to 1889, they were resurrected by a man with his own theological trajectory, Pierre de Coubertin. Though he was educated by Jesuits, this tradition known for their commitment to social justice and alignment with the poor was an ill fit for the burgeoning French aristocrat. De Coubertin pursued education and history as an academic, and became obsessed with the history of the Olympics in ancient Greece, especially as he embraced the theology and practice of Thomas Arnold. Arnold was an educator in the Church of England known for promoting “muscular Christianity,” which combined (and conflated) religious piety and physical achievement.

Though “muscular Christianity” appealed to De Coubertin, his interest never lingered on the “Christianity” part–athleticism and sport were religion enough for him. In an award winning poem that could easily be confused for a Psalm, he waxed, “You appeared suddenly in the midst of the grey clearing which writhes with the drudgery of modern existence, like the radiant messenger of a past age, when mankind still smiled… O Sport, you are Beauty! O Sport, you are Justice!” President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to De Coubertin applauding, “I think that you preach just the right form of the gospel of physical development.”

When he dreamt up the resurrection of the Olympic Games, it was not simply from a desire to see good sport, athleticism, or fun. It was out of a vision of a world saved from war and strife by engaging in the saving, purifying religion of competitive Olympism. He wrote about the Games as a “sanctuary reserved for the consecrated, purified athlete only, the athlete admitted to the main competitions and who became, in this way, a sort of priest, an officiating priest in the religion of the muscles.”

Inseparable from De Coubertin’s religion was his socio-economic elitism, and both are ingredients baked-in to the Olympics in equal measure. De Coubertin, being born into the aristocracy, was able to engage scholasticism in history and education without ever having to labor, a quality that he came to elevate in his Olympic framework as “amateurism.” No-one who was not considered an “amateur” was allowed to participate in the Olympic games. At first glance, this might seem like a way to prevent the notion of “professional athletes” from having an unfair advantage. (An idea that would be preposterous in the modern Olympics.) Instead, this definition was designed and implemented to exclude anyone employed doing any form of physical labor from competing. For decades, the Olympics would be reserved for those whose wealth and heritage afforded them the ability to engage in physical activity for leisure, rather than survival. 

In their modern iteration, the Olympics continue to embody these essential characteristics. Brimming with iconography (the Olympic rings,) ritual (opening and closing ceremonies,) saints (former champions,) and artifacts with symbolic value (the torch,) participating in the Olympics globally is a religious undertaking. And beneath the bread and circuses, the Olympics have continued their tradition of ignoring or outright oppressing the poor and marginalized, as host cities spend billions to welcome the eyes of the world while displacing the poor out of sight. 

A short dig into the history of preparations for the Olympics in any of its hosts for the last 50 years would inevitably highlight the willingness of host cities to displace indigenous communities, whether they be indigenous populations, low-income neighborhoods, or tens of thousands of people experiencing homelessness. While uprooting and terrorizing the poor, the same cities will spend billions in new infrastructure, including stadiums, luxury housing, and police. This is to say nothing of the money transferred “under the table” to secure a city’s bid to host, as has been uncovered countless times.

The 2016 Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, provide us with the most recent example of the toll the Olympics take. In order to host the Olympics, Rio spent somewhere between 7 and 12 billion dollars, ($2b of which went to security alone,) broadcasting it as an opportunity to provide new forms of infrastructure in transportation, buildings to serve the public good, and an economic boost. Very few of these promises, however were kept. Transportation projects remain incomplete; the monstrous stadiums and training facilities have not been converted to schools and community centers. The only facility that did see transformation became an “olympic museum”--cementing that the legacy of the Olympics in Rio served only the Olympics, and amounted to, in the words of one of the thousands of displaced residents, “The destruction of lives.”

Earlier this year, as the Beijing Olympics drew the most public controversy in recent Olympic memory, ESPN Senior Writer Sam Borden echoed the hesitation of a nation: “For most of us, though, the feeling about this Olympics is something in the middle. Our love for sports and competition, passion and glory is deep and abiding ... but is also not enough to completely divorce a spectacle from its surroundings.” While television ratings were the lowest they’d ever been for the Olympics, it’s difficult to account for the way most Americans consumed them via social media and YouTube highlights and recaps. Tens of millions of Americans still took in the Games. 

With respect to Borden, to believe that love of sports and glory is in tension with oppression is a fallacy. As we have seen, from their very onset, the Olympics held these ideas not in tension but in synchronization. Celebrating and uplifting the wealthy athlete while displacing and excluding the poor is the legacy–indeed the Gospel–of the Olympic Games. We are left with a choice as to whether that gospel is in harmony or at a dissonance with our own. 

Part II: Bread or Circuses? A Century of Olympics and Homelessness in Los Angeles

Meet Annie Choi founder of Found Coffee

Growing up a lot of lessons came from our moms, tias (aunts), and abuelas (grandmas) through their dichos (sayings). One of the dichos that my mom used to say often was, si quieren encontrar las cosas, las tienen que salir a buscar, las cosas no las van a venir a encontrar, which translates to if you want to find something, you must go out and seek it, things will not come to find you. When I got the opportunity to meet Annie, founder of Found Coffee, in Los Angeles, CA, the spirit of the dicho is precisely what she embodies and resonated with the stories she shared. The unfulfilling work and the no’s she received on the journey to finding herself, only encouraged her to seek outside what she had known and get out to knock on doors. This is what led Annie to open the doors to the space known for almost 8 years, as Found Coffee. 

The smell of coffee, roses, and Annie greeted me as I entered the coffee shop. I got to try a cold brew with oat milk, with notes of vanilla, which will have me coming back for more. One of my favorite moments during the interview was watching Annie greet many of the visiting Found Coffee community members by name. Below is a glimpse into the conversation Annie and I shared during my recent interview with her that I hope will spark joy, and inspire you to visit Found Coffee soon!

Annie, would you tell us about you, your background, and bio?

My name is Annie Choi. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, in the La Crescenta and East Hollywood areas in a Korean Christian household. I grew up in a church where the culture was taught from the pulpit and not necessarily the gospel, which turned some of me and my family members off and eventually away from church. When I went off to college at UC San Diego, I went back to church and was really involved. I always knew that I wanted to come back to LA because I thought that telling stories would be my life dream and passion. After college, I entered the entertainment industry. I worked on some little shows such as, Keeping up with the Kardashians and Project Runway. I believe this time is a big part of my testimony because I was so focused on my career being my identity rather than Jesus, and I was so miserable. Because of this, I experienced anxiety and I decided to change careers in my mid 20's. When I opened Found Coffee in 2015, I was only 28. So we've been here now for almost 8 years, and I realized that telling stories within the four walls of my coffee shop and small business has been more fulfilling to me, than what I did behind a computer all day long in a dark room.

When was the seed for Found Coffee  planted? 

First, I would like to share that the name, Found Coffee, came from the fact that I wanted community to be found in this space. But also, because a lot of the things inside the walls of the shop are vintage and upcycled that were found. Reflecting back on the name, I realized I also found myself, and my dog among other things in this process.   

The seed for the coffee shop was planted when I began to look for barista jobs, and after failed attempts due to my overqualification of having worked as a video editor in the industry for a few years. I actually ended up asking for an unpaid internship at Demitasse Coffee Roasters, 10 years ago. I was there for 14 months, and that's where I realized that is what I wanted to do. The connections with people on a daily basis is what I had been missing. 

What was the timeline from the seed to the opening of this space?

From the end of my Demitasse internship to the Found Coffee opening it was 18 months! At the end of my internship at Cafe Demitasse, I got the opportunity to manage the shop, which was like a masters program for me. I had so much more empathy for my old boss in the industry because of this process. I left Cafe Demitasse in August of 2014, and I signed the lease to Found Coffee one week later! I was led to this current location by a friend, and after observing the foot traffic multiple times in a single day, I signed the lease. 

Other realities that watered this seed forward were first, taking risks. This muscle I feel was trained by the gap year I took off to explore careers between the industry and the internship. Two, was community. My crowdfunding loans through Kiva were instantly successful due to family, industry colleagues, church community and friend support. I raised my fundraising goals within hours! Lastly, grit and the resilience to power through. If that is not a muscle that you can exercise you will be squashed in the first few months of small business ownership. 

Were there communities or mentors who walked with you through the process?

I had trouble finding mentors, because they were very much male and white in this business. But what helped me was having my parents to look up to. My mother had an acupuncture clinic for 25 years, and my dad has always had a string of small businesses, which is where I believe I get my entrepreneurial spirit from. 

What was a challenge and lesson from living through covid 19? 

I always joke that with the pandemic it feels like I've been in business for 25 years, and not 7.5! I'm really grateful that I've worked on myself prior to the pandemic. I feel like companies and individuals in this nation, because they had not faced themselves and demons prior to the pandemic, they found themselves facing them during the pandemic. For me it was just another lesson in adaptation and acknowledging where my strengths lie. 

Something that came out of the pandemic is that in light of the #stopasianhate hashtag and events that our community experienced, I really wanted to shine Asian American and Asian Canadian vendors to our community in the shop. As an Asian American woman myself, I opened our space to host pop up shops and carry merchandise from Asian American and Asian Canadian owned businesses, which as a result also brought in different revenue streams because at a certain point we really did not know where everything would lead. 

How do you care for you and your staff through the different layers of overwhelm that COVID and other national mourning moments, such as #stopassianhate, have brought?

I am in therapy, but in 2020 we also closed for two weeks during christmas break for the first time. Rest was so important, and I believe it is productive and restorative. I was also able to provide mental health days to our staff during 2020 and 2021. Personally, I began my physical training journey through running at the Rose Bowl and weight training at a local gym. And I’ve loved that they are teaching me form first prior to weight lifting as part of the weight training. 

On a lighter note, what is the signature coffee drink on your menu that all of us must try when we visit Found Coffee?

My first recommendation would be the Dirty Jai, which is an almond milk dirty iced chai with cold brew instead of the traditional espresso shot. Since we make vanilla bean syrup in house my second recommendation and a local favorite is the bourbon vanilla latte.

Dreams are sacred, but is there a piece of them and where you see Found Coffee and yourself in the next 5 years that you are willing to share with us?

Professionally, I hope to open another location in Los Angeles. Personally, I would like to write a memoir in the next 5 years. But I would also like to write children's books. Children's books are something I pick up to collect during each of my travels. 

Alma Lizzette Cardenas- Rodriguez
Is a writer, published author, mentor, and academic advisor 
From the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, CA
www.almalizzette.com

Shift your Frame of Mind

The Big Quit or The Great Reshuffle is taking the world by storm as more employees are leaving their jobs for greener pastures. In November 2021, LinkedIn noted a record 50% of people transitioning careers globally and the trend hasn’t slowed much in 2022 with CNBC reporting 44% are “job seekers.” But why the great unrest in job satisfaction? 

With the heavy hand of the pandemic lifting, leaving a new world in its wake, people are left struggling to cope with their new reality and are desiring a different experience in the workplace. In a global Zoom workshop on April 20th, 2022, NYT bestselling author of Designing Your New Work Life, Dave Evans, addressed the dissatisfaction with a challenge. What frame of mind are you operating in? 

 Evans presents that if you change your way of thinking, using the Design Thinking process, you can move forward to fullness of life. When a disruption happens (things will never be the same) we can respond with hope and build ideas iteratively to get closer to an answer. If we first accept the new reality, then build our way forward, we can actively make change and transform our experience. Like the Christian walk, we don’t ideate passively but walk out our faith. 

 So, before you quit, consider re-designing your work experience. That next job may not be greener on the other side, but your built-up trust and relationships at your current job gives you credibility and favor to propose a new work idea. A proposal that better fits your creative talent, uses your gifts, or fits closer to your calling. 

The key is finding more aliveness and gratefulness right where you are. Change your story by thinking differently about things. Don’t resign – re-design and give yourself a better job. Evans shared many tips, tools, and design ideas in Designing Your New Work Life as well as a new process called Disruptive Design which implements tools to design your way through disruption (like Covid-19) and thrive. Remember we are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27) and we have the ability to design new things. 

Why should YOU see Summer of Soul?

Wouldn’t you want to see a piece of history hidden away for the last 50 years? In the Summer of Soul documentary, forgotten footage of Black Music Legends performing for the community of Harlem at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival is combined with present day interviews to form an incredible historical account of the Harlem Cultural Festival’s powerful impact. Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) won the 2022 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Which itself is a major recommendation. To receive the honor of Best Documentary for 2022 is worth the watch to find out why. 

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (center) accepts Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Source: npr.org

As Director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson received the award, he was overcome with the honor, giving an emotional speech. He called it a stunning moment and shared, “it’s not lost on me that the story of the Harlem Cultural Festival should have been something that my beautiful mother and my dad should have taken me to when I was five years old…But this is not about me, this is about marginalized people in Harlem that needed to heal from pain.” His emotional moment onstage reflected the beauty of the film and the challenges facing Black communities. 

Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples (left), Gladys Knight and the Pips (middle), B.B. King (Right)
(left) source deadline.com, (middle) source slate.com, (right) source ign.com.

What makes this film so special is its journey to the silver screen. In 1969 the Harlem Cultural Festival took place at Mt. Morris Park (which is now Marcus Garvey Park) in Harlem, New York. Over the course of 6 weekends from late June to late August 300,000 people attended the festival to hear from some of the most popular acts in the United States. Incredible talent lit the stage with colorful fashion, energy, and music. But because the talent was Black and a similar jazz blues music festival called Woodstock took place that same summer, the footage was difficult to sell and eventually was stored in a basement for over 50 years. It had never been seen, its music had never been shared until its world premiere debut of never-before-seen footage at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the documentary category. Finally, the world could hear the heart cries of the people of Harlem and witness the festival that was the “blooming rose among the concrete” livening up the people’s spirits with the biggest party Harlem had ever seen. 

After the Oscars, the film went on to win Best Music Film at the Grammy’s a week later.  Questlove accepted the award recalling, “What a journey for this film since Sundance all the way until … last week,” then he laughed, “It just hit me that we really haven’t given much spotlight to what really matters in the film, which is all the beautiful artists that perform there.”

Summer of Soul is history. Black history. It is alive, vibrant, and thrumming to the beat of change for the Black community. And it is also an incredible Music film filled with sounds from Stevie Wonder, The Staples Singers, Nina Simone, Sly & The Family Stone, Edwin Hawkins Singers, and The Fifth Dimension to name a few. Blues, Jazz, Funk, Gospel, and R&B bump and jive through the crowd of 50,000. Artists recount their experience stepping onto the stage and seeing a park filled with a “sea of Black people” all the way up into the trees. For some, it was their first time seeing so many Black people together and shared it was a “powerful sight, like seeing royalty.”  

You should watch it to learn, to be inspired, to be encouraged and hopeful, to be reminded of where we have come from and where we need to be going. It is shameful this footage was filmed but never viewed until now. You get a firsthand witness of the community of Harlem, the new era of Black culture being born, and a history lesson in the dynamics of the Black community and their freedom fight. Performers shared words of violence and words of peace, calls to action, and calls to unity. Both groups, those who wanted change through peace and those who wanted change through any means, were in attendance. It was a festival for all, and it came at a time when the community was dealing with deep hurt and pain. 

 Summer of Soul is eye opening, exciting, and a look into a pivotal time in America through the eyes of the beautiful people of Harlem. Don’t let Black history be erased or forgotten, don’t miss the incredible feat of the filmmakers finding this gem and bringing it to light. Summer of Soul is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+, it waited long enough in the old basement, please don’t let this piece of history wait any longer. 

Shine Your Light

This past Friday, Faith & Community Empowerment (FACE) held an event called "Passing the Torch: A Conversation On Post Pandemic Relevance: Your Church & Community Impact," that was co-hosted by "Asian American Center at Fuller Seminary," at Hillside Church of LA, which was one of the sponsors of this event along with Together LA.

At this event, several Korean American Churches convened to have a post pandemic conversation on how each of them responded and made an impact in their local communities.

The event started off with Hyepin Im, President and CEO of (FACE) discussing the L.A. Riots and the repercussions of Asian Americans being wrongly portrayed as the "model minority" and how it often puts them against other communities, when in fact, "We should be all on the same team." Hyepin went on to also discuss the benefits of "Letting your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). Her hope was that by sharing what these pastors have been doing, that all would be encouraged and challenged to do more.

As the torch was passed, these are the highlights from each of the speakers.

 Pastor Sam Koh (Lead Pastor at Hillside LA)
"By partnering with the Los Angeles Department of Health Services (DHS), we were able to distribute over 700,000 meals here in our parking lot during the Pandemic."

 Reverend Dr. Elbert Kim (Camarillo United Methodist Church)
"Our ministry expanded three fold: equipment, resources, and grief care. And during  the Pandemic, we were giving out over 600 pieces of medical equipment each month."

 Reverend David Kim (The Garden Church)
"Because we wanted to help local businesses, we decided to help by partnering with the Children's Hunger Fund (CHF), and began distributing the food that CHF provided."

Pastor David Yoon (Tapestry LA Church)
"During the Pandemic, we held care packages for the local community. The first round was 300-400 care packages. We also created something called the Zachaias Fund. These funds were meant to support Black seminarians. In total, we raised around $100,000 and supported two Black seminarians."

The final torch was passed onto Dr. Daniel D. Lee who is the Academic Dean of the Center for Asian American Theology and Ministry and Assistant Professor of Theology and Asian American studies at Fuller Theological Seminary:

"Whether it be Black Lives Matter, Anti-AAPI Hate or White Christian Nationalism, for Asian American churches to engage these topics with the gospel requires that we actually have a better and more biblical theology than what many of us learned in our white normative seminary education… There is no one size fits all gospel… Because our God is a God of Kingdom, all aspects of life including the political realm matters for faith... As we serve our neighborhoods, we need a better theology to support our ministry and mission."

The main takeaways which were expressed by Hyepin were the following: 

• We need to learn to transcend the stereotypes that have been placed on us and stop perpetuating the false narrative that we are quiet and passive.

• We need to begin documenting the work that we do and show it in tangible ways.

• We can utilize the resources of third parties and those whom we choose to partner with.

• We should utilize the giftings of our church members.

All these churches demonstrated through their actions the call to shine our light to others. Is your church shining the light?

At the end of the day, if we choose to shine our light, then others will come and approach us, and we will be able to have a greater influence in the communities that we serve. So let us shine our light today, for this is the will of God.

Echo Park Lake: Imagining New Communities with the Unhoused

Bodies of water have always been a primal source of both life and wonder, with their capacity to sustain life while escaping our control. The first verses of Scripture find the Spirit of God hovering over waters, while the earth was still formless and empty. It is out of this paradox of chaos and potential that everything was made. The earliest communities known to history are the river-valley civilizations that formed at Mesopotamia, the Yellow River, the Nile, their proximity to water providing nourishment for bodies, soil, and spirit. These same bodies of water have served as silent witnesses to the mundane and the miraculous across generations. 

It is hard to tell the story of the unhoused community at Echo Park Lake (EPL) in Los Angeles without using both concrete and mystical language–but then, such is the nature of communities. This is especially true of communities formed to meet their own basic needs and who yet find their very existence under threat. The unhoused community at EPL, and the story of their violent displacement and subsequent emergence as a political force, has so much to teach about what it means to experience homelessness, and how cities can and should address it in ways that are mutually beneficial, life-affirming, and honoring to God. 

Refuge in the Lake

By January of 2021, almost 200 people were living in tents, make-shift shelters, and cars at one of Los Angeles’ most beautiful destinations, Echo Park Lake. Though the Lake is artificial, and only dates back a century and a half, like all bodies of water it bears a history all its own. As Allyson, a longtime unhoused resident of the lake, texted me, “Echo Park is a mystical place.” 

Photo by Suzanne Stein

Located Northeast of downtown LA, the neighborhood was originally dug as a reservoir in the 1860s and flooded with water from the Los Angeles River. When the population of downtown exceeded its land capacity, the lots around the reservoir were sold and developed. The early landowners pressed for the reservoir to become something more community-oriented and appealing. Out of this formed what we now know as the neighborhood of Echo Park, with the lake and surrounding park at its center. 

Since the 1970s, Los Angeles’ policy on homelessness has largely confined unsheltered people to downtown, particularly in the neighborhood of Skid Row. But as with the expansion that led to the creation of Echo Park itself, Skid Row couldn’t hold the rapidly-increasing homeless population of the 21st century. Similar to the moneyed folks who’d made the two-mile migration 150 years prior, many unhoused people found Echo Park to be a welcome alternative.

I’ve worked in homeless services for five years in Hollywood, a few miles up the 101 from Echo Park. I’m deeply familiar with the lives of so many who experience homelessness in Los Angeles. These are lives marked by the toil of navigating governmental systems, a sea of nonprofits, and a citizenry that values compassion, but less than their own comfort. I’ve known and visited many encampments in Hollywood that model various forms of community, healthy and unhealthy, supportive and toxic; though I have never interacted with folks at Echo Park Lake as a homeless services provider. For professional and journalistic boundaries, I approached them as a writer for this piece only. 

As I interviewed so many of the Lake’s newly-displaced residents, one word emerged over and over again: “safe.” For Adrian, another unhoused resident of EPL, the community represented a haven after he left a previous, more isolated encampment in East LA as theft and fights became more frequent. Gustavo was drawn there by a memory of his first time in LA, when he was brought to his immigration lawyer’s office in Echo Park as a youth. When Gustavo was evicted from his apartment as an adult and had nowhere to go, he sought security at Echo Park Lake and quickly found that the community-oriented atmosphere provided just that. “The Queen of Echo Park Lake,” so named for having been both a housed and unhoused resident of the neighborhood for thirty years, summed it up: “I found refuge in the lake.”

Photo by Suzanne Stein

With safety as a starting place, the community grew to also embody solidarity, creativity, and even joy. The EPL residents partnered with local advocacy groups and service providers to maintain a steady stream of resources such as food and clothing and cooperated with case management so people could find a way out of the park and into housing. They paid their own residents to clean up trash. They advocated to public officials for dumpsters and bathroom access yet rarely heard back. When requests did receive a response, it was often as a direct result of civil resistance, such as the time they formed a human blockade to prevent a city official from locking the bathrooms at night.

As more people streamed in and donations increased, a community kitchen was formed to keep food organized, fresh, and accessible to everyone. People with food allergies or preferences had an abundance of choice under this community model. They built working, beautiful showers to increase hygiene and cleanliness among the community. People worked side by side in the community garden, hands in the earth. For those willing to see it as such, this community offers the city and service providers an ideal situation: a low-cost, self-sustaining community that only needed to rely on outside support for housing and long-term-care; what service providers specialize in. 

Nobody wanted to live in the park forever, but for as long as they did, they were not going to do so helplessly. Adrian affirmed what many of us overlook: “Just ‘cause we’re on the street doesn’t mean we have to be miserable. We can have a decent life, a good quality of life… just because we have each other.” The ability to survive and flourish even in untenable circumstances was on prominent display at EPL, but that is a characteristic quality for all people experiencing homelessness. Life on the streets, despite the narratives we internalize, is anything but “lazy.” People traverse long routes, memorizing paths they must take and routines they must adhere to daily to acquire the various resources offered throughout the county: meals, health care, internet access, etc. They take turns watching one another’s belongings and even pets so they can complete necessary errands. 

One of the least-considered realities of homelessness is how little choice and agency is afforded people. “Beggars can’t be choosers” crudely describes the reality of homelessness. Unhoused people must settle for whatever is offered, whether it’s a meal they don’t like, a piece of clothing that doesn’t fit, or a shelter that protects them from the elements but is so loud and unsafe that they can’t actually rest. When someone does exercise their agency and refuses a resource that they don’t want, they are branded as ungrateful, rude, or worse: “service-resistant.”

It is tempting, especially among the left-leaning and well-meaning, to see unhoused people as primarily powerless–victims of systemic injustice and broken systems, and who need us to save them. This functions as a necessary correction from the ethos of the last century: the bootstraps mentality that suggests anyone can make it in our society and economy, and that whoever doesn’t is obviously at fault. Lost in both of these formulations is what people experiencing homelessness exemplify daily and which the people of Echo Park Lake demonstrated in spectacular fashion: that they are creative, resilient, capable, and loving, even where systems fail and help is delayed. 

Photo by Stanton Sharpe

When we persist in our obliviousness to this fact, and instead act out of a savior mentality, those in positions of power wind up speaking for the destinies of the vulnerable, while rarely speaking with them. In doing so, the actual wants and needs of the community are talked over–regardless of whether we do this because we don’t care or because we mean well, the outcome is the same. When they are not brought to the table, the purported solutions often don’t match the actual needs, and so they fail. When that happens, the vulnerable are forced to carry the blame, and conservatives and liberals alike grow frustrated and resentful. Drastic measures are considered by even the most compassionate, and are implemented by force. 

Closing the Park

In the weeks leading up to the raid, the residents of EPL knew something was up. 

Fear and tension escalated as helicopters frequently flew overhead at all hours of the night. City outreach workers had more urgency in their tone, and police prowled the park with increased presence and vague warnings. “They would show up at 3 in the morning, shining flashlights into people’s tents and saying, ‘You know you’re going to be kicked out, right?’” reported Queen. 

The Sunday before, activists relayed intel that the park was going to be closed on Wednesday, March 24. This activated the residents, as well as community supporters across LA. The story was picked up by the LA Times: What, exactly, was going to happen at Echo Park this week? Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell issued a vague statement that promised that if something was going to happen, residents and the community would be notified properly (at least 24 hours notice). But the residents knew better. His office hadn’t responded to their requests for resources, meetings, or information before–why would he start now? 

““When we persist in our obliviousness to this fact, and instead act out of a savior mentality, those in positions of power wind up speaking for the destinies of the vulnerable, while rarely speaking with them.””

All Wednesday morning and afternoon, residents, activists, and journalists kept watch as nothing seemed to happen. But as evening approached, locals noticed police staging a mile away near Dodger Stadium: dozens of police cruisers and large trucks containing hundreds of yards of fencing. Under cover of darkness, what would become a national news event was underway. 

Around 9pm, more than 400 officers in full riot gear descended on the park. Their objective was to erect a fence that surrounded the entire park; more than a mile around. The park would be fenced in that night, and anyone who remained in the park would be enclosed, with 24 hours to vacate before being arrested. For O’Farrell, the deployment of an occupying force would seem to qualify as official notice.

Police cornered a large group, arresting protesters and press alike, including an LA Times reporter. It’s important to note that the arrest of designated, badge-wearing press is not normal, acceptable, or constitutional, even as it is becoming more common. Our Nations Media photographer was surrounded by officers for nearly an hour, unable to leave until a senior officer could “verify his credentials.”

Photo by Stanton Sharpe

While this was happening, residents of the park were being offered a way out: placements at remote sites across the county in Project Roomkey, a state-wide initiative that utilized empty hotels and motels as COVID-safe interim housing. These had been offered before, with some residents agreeing during the tense weeks preceding. Seeing the fence go up, and the hundreds of police, many began to realize that they were out of options and said yes. By the end of the night, only about 20 residents remained in the park as the fence was finished, closed, and guarded; anyone could leave, but none could enter. 

On night one, Gustavo refused to take the “deal.” With a calm defiance, he and two others had pitched a tent right in front of the police line that first night. When he told me the story, his eyes got big and he reached in his backpack to pull out the issue of “La Opinión,” a free Spanish street publication, which features the scene on its front page. After awakening the next day to a nearly empty park, fully encased in fencing, Gustavo finally surrendered and took the Project Roomkey placement. In all, only two residents stayed put, electing to be arrested to raise awareness about their community’s violent eviction from the park. 

That night, another round of arrests and provocation would take place, as activists attempted to hold a non-violent vigil outside the fenced-in park. The police quickly declared it an unlawful assembly, using force and intimidation to conduct mass arrests despite the activists’ clearly-declared peaceful intentions.

Footage from that night taken by activists–housed and unhoused alike–looks eerily similar to footage taken across the country during protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020: police pushing forward, bullying, creating physical contact, and then overreacting when citizens push back. One activist’s arm was broken by police. Officers pointed less-lethal weapons at protesters at point-blank range, and some fired.

Police designated a “Press Viewing Area” blocks away from the action, obfuscating journalists’ view. With the press purposefully prevented from covering the night’s events, all we have is cell phone footage and the crafted narrative of the LAPD. 

““What the former residents most mourn is not the violence they experienced, nor the frustration of being displaced–but rather, the destruction of something beautiful they had made together.””

The choice to stage these events at night, and to neutralize the ability of the press to report, left the unhoused residents of the park feeling as they often do: unseen and alone–longing for a day like the one Jesus promised, when “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known…. whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops” (Luke 12:2-3).

In line with the great prophets, though, the community wasn’t going to sit back and wait for that day to come on its own. The local and national news, which was at first largely critical of the tactics used by the councilmember and the police, began to soften, move on, and even went so far as to suggest that the ends justifies the means. But the community of EPL was determined, after a brief period of lament, to not let anyone forget. 

Photo by Stanton Sharpe

Echo Park Rises Up

In the first month after the closing of the lake, things were quiet–the community was regrouping and seeking traction. A gathering was announced for Saturday, April 17–a celebration of the resilience of the community. It was announced as a large event, but when Saturday came, only a dozen or so arrived. They hung signs along the new fence that read, “Echo Park Rise Up,” “Services not Sweeps,” and “Housekeys not Handcuffs”. One group attached a tent to the fence surrounded with flowers like a gravestone, and a sign reading “There must be a better way.” 

The most prominent work was a collage of tissue-paper flowers, in stunning colors carefully and meticulously made, hung on the most-frequented intersection of the park. Along a common route to access the 110, thousands of drivers would pass by that day, unable to miss the vibrant colors arranged to form a distinct phrase: “F**k Mitch.” 

Beauty, hostility, anger, and solidarity were all held by that fence. The art would all be gone by the next morning, but for one day the community bore creative and prophetic witness to what had happened. This convergence of anger and beauty reminded me of the Psalms, which hold some of history’s most beautiful poetry, and also its most potent rage. One psalm may elucidate a God who leads us beside still waters, while another will ask that same God to dash the head of a child against a rock. For marginal communities both ancient and contemporary, rage and beauty are not opposites, but companions.

In this quiet month for the former residents and activists, O’Farrell’s office filled the void, celebrating the clearing of the park as a monumental success; a model, even. The already-split City Council divided further than ever on the issue, with those who support services over sweeps decrying the event, and those who support criminalization more resolute than ever. Activists and community stakeholders are still waiting to see which approach will win out, as versions of this same battle play out across the City of Angels. 

What the former residents most mourn is not the violence they experienced, nor the frustration of being displaced–but rather, the destruction of something beautiful they had made together. The showers, the kitchen, the kinship, all destroyed and replaced by worse versions that just happen to be “state-sanctioned.” What happened at Echo Park is not a story of people getting kicked while they were down, but getting kicked while they were rising up.

Photo by Stanton Sharpe

Part of believing in the imago dei–that the image of God residing in all people–is not just believing that they deserve help, or that they are owed certain things. Essential to that belief is also that they have agency, that they deserve choices, have the capability to describe and  advocate for their needs, and have people come alongside them rather than decide for them exactly how those needs will be met. The image of God resided in the community at Echo Park Lake, and persists despite their dislocation.

On May 19th, nearly two months after the raid, a group of former EPL residents and activists stood on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall to protest the conditions they were experiencing at Project Roomkey–forced isolation, no case management, sickening food, and unusable toiletries. They announced the creation of a new coalition called U.T.A.C.H.: Unhoused Tenants Against Carceral Housing. They highlighted the unreasonable and dehumanizing features of the city’s housing options–including the Project Roomkey sites that so many had been pressured into. Queen, with conviction, told me, “They basically awoke warriors and fighters… they awoke a whole community and they awoke the roots. When you mess with people’s homes, you will get a fight back.” 

Photo by Kevin Nye

One week later, the Lake reopened, with a few renovations and an entirely new structure. Nearly all the grassy areas are now fenced off. The playground, the walking paths and the shores of the lake itself are the only accessible parts. Signage emphasizing park hours are littered throughout, and cameras survey the previous “hotspots” of tents. The lake, with its beautiful grass and playgrounds, the center of one of LA’s most iconic neighborhoods, is rendered inert, bearing the same carceral features as the places where its formerly unhoused residents now live. 

When we dehumanize the unhoused, we dehumanize ourselves. When our method for dealing with injustice is to displace communities, we lose part of what makes the entire community whole. When we transgress the agency of others, we do so at the expense of our own freedom. In Los Angeles’ decision to rid the park of the undesirable, they made the park undesirable for all. 

The story of Echo Park Lake refuses to fade out of memory. The unnatural, transplanted waters of Echo Park Lake hold the same memories as the transplanted unhoused community who lived there more naturally than those of us who are housed. These memories are of a community that cared for one another, met needs, and created beauty in the liminal space. Will we remain too proud to learn from them? Our innate desire for healthy, whole communities rests on whether we will ultimately embrace living in a community that has space for everyone, or if we will destroy what is beautiful in our vain attempt to control it or keep it all to ourselves. The Spirit of God hovers over those waters, too, where chaos and potential meet, longing for new creation. 

Remembering Dr. King 2022 Part 2: The Letter from Birmingham Jail and Reflections

The second night of the livestream event reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was led by host and Northern Seminary affiliate, Pastor Greg Armstrong of Renew Church in Chicago. He opened the night with excitement and reverence sharing that his Church, mission, and life has been encompassed by many of the words Martin Luther “voiced on the earth as a prophetic witness not only for the gospel but for justice, reconciliation, and equity.” The night very much upheld Armstrong’s words as dynamite speakers joined and shared how Dr. King was a prophetic witness to their own lives and to the world. Pastor Greg covered the night in prayer and kicked things off with Karl Johnson, Director of the C.S. Lewis Institute, a sponsor of the event. Karl Johnson introduced the first speaker of the night, Chris Broussard, a Sports Analyst, NBA Insider, and the Founder and President of the King Movement. 

Chris Broussard was poignant and gripping in his deep analysis of the Letter from Birmingham Jail. He shared Dr. King’s words, “injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere,” sadly is a declaration made to his fellow Christians, to members of the body of Christ. The shameful truth of this letter, and our country, is “the blacks that Dr. Martin is fighting for, he was fighting on behalf of, were being persecuted and treated unjustly by so called Christians.” The decisions and actions of those Christians sewed fruitlessness that can be identified today. “Today’s America doesn’t want the church. Today’s America doesn’t want Christianity, it doesn’t want the Bible because of the past sins of the church.” In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King calls this an “inescapable network of mutuality,” meaning our destinies are intertwined, and we are “all tied together in a single garment of destiny.” Broussard takes viewers deeper into the letter sharing that Dr. King knew the interrelatedness of justice and injustice in the actions of the Church could sew good fruit or bad fruit, and in his letter, Dr. King passionately appealed to his fellow Christians to see this truth. Broussard laments “had the church, black, white, and other, understood this 70 years ago [had listened to the prophetic witness of Dr. King], we as a nation and we as American Christians would not be in the position we are in today.” So, what lessons can we learn for today? Broussard believes “the Biblical church that is going to spark revival in our nation is neither left wing or right wing, neither promotes white supremacy or black supremacy but God Supremacy.” He leaves with a final clarifying thought, “let’s be the Biblical church that Dr. King was longing for, that Jesus Christ came to establish, one that is not beholding to anything but God, and God alone.”

September Penn followed Broussard with her own powerful insight on the legacy of Dr. King. Penn, who is a singer, songwriter, and Director of her own production Sounds of the Civil Rights Movement: The Power of Song, shared with viewers how music stood witness to Dr. King’s kingdom work. In working with the Freedom songs, Penn realized “the significance of what the music did. It was not just these songs. It was glue. It was hope. It was power. It stirred, it guided, it comforted. All of that was in the music.” Music was an integral part of Dr. King’s mission and ministry. “Dr. King recognized the power of the music. When he would go to different towns and different cities, if he could hear the people singing as he was approaching, he knew that they were ready to participate in a nonviolent movement. If he didn’t hear them singing, he just heard lots of talking, he questioned if they would be able to get good work done today.” The music stood as a witness to the people’s heart and sang into existence hope, power, comfort, and was a guiding force that impacted Dr. King’s mission. And today we have the testimony of the Freedom songs to remind and to inspire us to continue with Dr. King’s work.

The panel of the night was led by Greg Jao and included Dennae Pierre, Tara Beth Leach, Nona Jones, and William Adjei. One topic the panel explored was what it means to embody extremism for the Lord. In Dr. King’s letter, he makes a challenge to the church, asking if they will be extremists for hate or extremists for love? Tara Beth Leach responded that “being an extremist for love is to learn how to love as God loves: to learn to love that is cross cultural, counter cultural, boundary breaking, inclusive and it’s hard and it makes us squirm because it is messy. It’s messy and hard because it’s learning to love as God loves.” Nona Jones reminded viewers that our God is a God of extremes, he’s not lukewarm, “the idea of being an extremist is simply the recognition that you have to fully embody your Christian witness. Jesus was so extreme that he went to the cross sinless, how much more extreme can we be?” Dr. King was criticized for calling a racist his brother, but what he did was live out being scalding hot when it came to love and compassion, unconcerned about how much it was going to cost him. Dennae Pierre adds “the call to live this embodied witness in our day-to-day action, habits, the kinds of community we have, the types of relationships, that word extremism really is an expansive word constantly calling us into greater love of others.” Dr. King lived out extremism for love and his life walk is a witness to the church today: don’t sit lukewarm for even the Lord will spit you out, go all in for Love and commit to living a life that is hot for God’s kingdom. 

To hear more from this incredible night including reflections from Pastor Randall Cunningham, a former Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings’ Quarterback, Denver Nuggets’ Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutumbo, Bob Doll of CIO Crossmark Global, Dr. Russell Moore at Christianity Today, Pastor Wayne Gordon of Lawndale Community Church, and Christian rapper Propaganda, please visit this link for the full second night streaming event.

Remembering Dr. King 2022 - Part 1

Part 1: The Letter from Birmingham Jail and Reflections

MLK Day, established in 1983 as a federal holiday to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday and first observed in 1969 by the King Memorial Center in Atlanta, is a day to pause and reflect, not only on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, but on our response to his mission as Christian brothers and sisters. The Grow Center for Church and Mission, an organization that helps promote and grow entrepreneur skills for the Gospel, hosted a two-night event January 17-18 to honor Dr. King and included a fantastic line up of guest speakers who shared on the weight of his words today.  

For the first night, viewers who streamed the event, were greeted by their host Jonathan Banks, the Chief Operation Officer of the Urban Outreach Foundation. Jonathan wonderfully weaved together the stories of the night to highlight the growing theme surrounding  Dr. King’s letter titled, “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” That theme, touched upon by the opening speaker Pastor Albert Tate of Fellowship Church in Monrovia, and repeated throughout the night, is that this letter is a letter for today. 

Pastor Albert Tate with Host Jonathan Banks

Pastor Albert Tate dived in by asking what was missing from the room where they wrote the letter? They, referring to fellow pastors, who wrote a letter of criticism to Dr. King while he was sitting in a Birmingham jail cell, calling his mission unwise and untimely. Their letter sparked a response from Dr. King that is known today as the Letter from Birmingham Jail. Pastor Tate recounts three things that were missing from the room where they drafted their letter and what is missing today: Empathy, Sacrifice, and Love. Pastor Albert goes on to say Dr. King needed his brothers to come and sit with him is his burden, even if they don’t understand it, and have Godly empathy. “The ability to sit with Dr. King in the burden, in the crisis that he was carrying, the ability to sit with minorities as they navigate racial injustice and dynamics and struggles. The ability just to sit, not solve, not try to fix, not look for evidence, not show me receipts, not prove your tears, this is a moment to sit in the brokenness of the reality of the world and what I want from my Christian siblings is not an admonishment to try and find a way to protest that makes them more comfortable. I need empathy. I need someone to sit in the brokenness with me.” Pastor Albert powerfully points viewers to Jesus as he compares Dr. King’s fellow pastors to today. We need to have empathy, come alongside our hurting brothers and sisters in their burden 

and love with a love that comes from Calvary. For that’s what Jesus did. He left his throne to come down to be with us, empathize with us in our humanness, sacrifice for us, and love us.  

An A-List line up also joined the call to share on their reflections of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. including NFL HoF Anthony Muñoz and Michael Irvin, Dr. John M. Perkins, Crawford Loritts and Los Angeles’ rapper/singer/songwriter and producer Lecrae. Lecrae shared he “was most impacted at [Dr. King’s] humanity… a man who consistently acknowledged his flaws, consistently acknowledged the battle he was up against and was constantly dependent on God for wisdom.” Lecrae admired Dr. King’s unyielding trust in the true and living God and how Dr. King was able to overcome the darkness that would show its face as racism through wisdom that only God can provide. Lecrae left viewers with a prayer “for us all to seek the same wisdom that was good enough for Moses, was good enough for Joseph, was good enough for all the patriarchs in the Bible and was good enough for Dr. King. It’s good enough for us as well.” 

Also representing Los Angeles was Kelry Kirschenmann, Program Director of Hollywood Prayer Network, who shared some of her own reflections. For her, Dr. King’s ability to say yes to the call no matter what, and his decision to say yes, every day of his life, was a powerful example of a man radically obedient to go after the mission and would not take no for an answer.

The final portion of night one’s stream was a panel discussion on the Letter from Birmingham Jail. Jonathan turned the mike over to Roy Patterson, Communications Relations Director of Moody Bible Institute, who facilitated an incredible discussion with panel members Shundrawn Thomas, Rev. Dr. Naima Lett, Pastor Albert Tate, and Skye Jethani. Roy asked the panel their thoughts on an excerpt from Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail:

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

–      Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail

The resounding feedback from panel members is that these words are a call to action to the church still today. We are heavenly children, a family, and our focus should be the work of Jesus. As Skye Jethani put it, Dr. King understood the early Christian’s goal was to follow Jesus and cultivate his kingdom and if that just so happened to turn the world upside down and agitate things than so be it. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the thermostat, and we are charged with shining the light of the LORD forth until it changes society. Church, we cannot stay in comfort, we cannot let “disruption” or “agitation” cause us to stop short of living out God’s heavenly design and speaking out his truth. It should be our JOY to suffer for the Kingdom. It should be our JOY to sit in the burden with our brothers and sisters. Please, take a moment and read Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, reflect, and respond. 

Summing up the evening, Pastor Albert leaves us with a final thought, a call for a fresh vision of discipleship. “Spend time with people who don’t look, think, or vote like you.” Spend more time at the table building true relationships and discipling racism out. Practice empathy, sacrifice, and love. 

Unpacking Koreatown with Immanuel Church

Immanuel Church from The Outside

One look at Immanuel Presbytarian Church’s address -3300 Wilshire Blvd- will let you know it not only sits on what is considered the “east-west arterial road” of Los Angeles but also in the heart of Koreatown. A congregation established in downtown Los Angeles in 1888 before relocating to its current chapel in 1929, the chapel is distinctive and impressive in size and design. In contrast to its neighboring mini-plazas with blue tiled roofs (an ode to the signature roof that houses Korea’s presidents and their families) and office buildings, the church is a French-Gothic architectural marvel of beige-grey stones, columns, arches and stained-glass windows. The property also houses three chapels [one can seat up to 1,500 people and, -fun fact- , it was the backdrop for My Chemical Romance’s music video, “Helena (So Long and Goodnight)”], meeting halls, performance studios and the most astonishing of all: a generously-sized parking lot (a rarity in this part of town). 

A glimpse into Immanuel Church’s history also mirrors Koreatown’s shifting demographic over the years. In the 1920s, Immanuel Church was recorded to be a “largely wealthy, overwhelmingly white congregation” with a few thousand members. However by the end of the century, Immanuel Church, in tune to the changing nature of the congregation and neighborhood, became one of the first churches in Los Angeles to conduct bilingual services in English and Spanish, a departure from the separately held services that were held for each language. Fast forward to 2021, the church’s staff and pastors are bilingual (even trilingual) in at least English and Spanish and ministers to the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of the locals. 

With their current congregation of fifty individuals mostly from Latino descent and having had a Korean-Calvinist church formerly use their space, Immanuel Church’s staff made it very clear to me that everyone was welcome, in-person and/or virtually. 

“I think people see the building and it can be a little intimidating,” remarked Niamby Rendon, Immanuel Church’s Executive Assistant, “but we try our best to be inclusive. All are welcome. Young and old. All cultures and ethnicities.” 

Adding to Rendon’s remarks, Salomon Kim, Immanuel Church’s Community & Volunteer Liaison, commented, “I believe the church can be a place that is intentional about building a diverse community and being truly unified in spite of our differences. As we do things together like serving food and opening clinics, we could narrow the gap and break down walls because we are going towards the same goal.” 

Serving Koreatown through Immanuel Church

Once I stepped across the colossal doors, it felt like stepping into a quiet and cozy chapel (the interior is well-insulated from Wilshire Boulevard’s hum). It felt easy to relax and converse. 

Niamby Rendon, Immanuel Church’s Executive Assistant, and Salomon Kim, Immanuel Church’s Community & Volunteer Liaison about Immanuel Church today, talked to me about their ongoing projects and their perspective of Koreatown. 

Eunice: Please share with me about the incredible projects you have organized, starting with your food pantry and diaper drive and how that all got started. 

Sal: We look for ways to serve families and individuals according to the challenges and needs faced within Koreatown. Since COVID, we started doing the food drive three times a week because it was the most urgent and rapidly growing demand. We have received 500 people every [distribution] day from this site alone, and the numbers are increasing. We also have other partners and churches that we truck-deliver our food to, so that more people can have access to the food pantry. Together, we have served over 2,000 families a week. And by doing this, it has become a way to inform the community about the different programs we offer here. It amazes me that we can be a part of what God is doing even with our limited staff. Most of our food pantry is run by volunteers, and we rely highly on them.

Niamby: Before COVID, we had a food pantry welcome to everyone on Saturdays and offered lunches to our unhoused neighbors Monday through Friday. That was an ongoing thing here for 20 to 25 years. Most of the people who come to our food pantry are Latino and Korean, much like the true demographic of Koreatown. People who come to us ARE residents of Koreatown. You see Koreatown in our food line, not just neighbors who are low income and older adults, but also our unhoused neighbors. Homelessness is especially increasing in Koreatown because they are being sent out of downtown into this area. It’s progressively getting worse. 

Eunice: Where is the food coming from? 

Niamby: We are fortunate to receive most of our food through two partnerships. Shelf food and sources of protein come from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank (we are one of their biggest partners) while fresh produce is mainly supplied by Food Forward. Before the [Los Angeles Regional] Food Bank had a contract with a third party vendor, we had worked directly with them, but now, we indirectly work with them through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which is a government program. 

Eunice: Okay, tell me more about your diaper initiative. 

Niamby: That is part of the Family Outreach Program, which expanded through our partnership with the LA Food Bank and through grant writing. It’s a weekly drive that has become busier and busier. So far, we have served over 250 individual households, with almost 800 packs of diapers. Sometimes when we have the funding, we are able to provide formula. A week’s worth of formula can cost you over $40. To some people, that’s not a lot, but that it is a luxury to some. For a woman who can’t breastfeed, it is a necessity. Same with diapers -they are necessities. 

Sal: And, by building relationships with these families, we can bring the resources they are looking for. Recently, we hosted flu and COVID vaccine clinic after seeing the interest to get vaccinated. Our first COVID vaccine clinic had a turnout of over 200 people, which was incredible. We are especially hoping to build relationships with people who wouldn’t necessarily have access to health services like this; vaccines are now available to everyone and we are seizing the moment to make it available to everybody, especially people who we’ve built relationships with, who wouldn’t necessarily trust coming to a place to get a vaccine. Also, we have a great interest in developing partnerships that can make mental health services more accessible to our community as well.

Eunice: Last question: How would you describe Koreatown in its unique blessings and people -in short, why do you love this community? 

Niamby: Koreatown is one of the most diverse places I’ve been able to experience. This neighborhood is very populated, fast growing and ever-changing. For instance, there are more young and single working professionals here (as opposed to families) than ever before. That’s one of the biggest changes I’ve seen. With the younger population, there’s a greater willingness to open up. You see that through the food, coffee and everything -everything is becoming a fusion of what it used to be: more inclusive, more diverse. Because of that, we have so much more community. It wasn’t necessarily like that before. We were together, but still separate. Now I feel like more of us are all truly together.  

Sal: If you love the city, you’ll love Koreatown. 

Concluding Thoughts 

The closeness of God in Immanuel Church’s staff was so apparent. Their desire to be a hub of hospitality and healing was repeatedly highlighted as they emphasized wanting their space and resources to be used, wanting more on their hands and asking for more hands, to the glory of God. 

Sal: Our goal is to fill this exceptional building. Its many empty rooms can be used as meeting and office spaces for the community. For instance, even though we have our own congregation, we have two other unoccupied sanctuaries. By having the space to host different congregations, we can be present for more people looking for spiritual care. All in all, we are praying to be connected to the right people, NGO’s, churches and organizations willing to do God’s work in Koreatown. Additionally, we want to expand our network of connections in order to support, and work in tandem with, other local organizations. We envision Immanuel to be a place for people to become a part of the community and receive spiritual, physical and mental health care, starting from the food, diaper and COVID vaccine initiatives we host.  

Niamby: Though our church has limited staff and resources, we have this space with a great location, a lot of room and parking. Maybe in the areas we lack, another non-profit has, so we are asking ourselves, ‘How can we partner with other organizations and help the community together’? Because once we build those stable relationships, I think we can do really amazing things. 

Want to Know How to Support or See More of Immanuel Church? : We Don’t Blame You 

Partnerships.

Niamby: Immanuel Church is looking for more ways to serve families and individuals according to the neighborhood’s challenges and needs We are trying to find different ways to support our community beyond the food and diaper drives, and planning to expand our network of connections in order to support and work in tandem with other local organizations. We would appreciate it if you could help us connect with different NGO’s, churches and organizations that we can partner with in the future.

Volunteer. 

If you are interested in helping the local community meet their needs, consider donating to and/or volunteering at Immanuel! Volunteer opportunities are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 9am-12pm. To express your interest, fill out their volunteer application, call them at 213-389-3191, or visit their campus. Face masks will be required. 

You are Welcome. 

If you are interested in attending Immanuel Church’s service - In-person and bilingual services are back at their Westminster Chapel on Sundays at 10:30 AM followed by a fellowship gathering after worship around 11:30 AM. For those at home who would like to live-stream the service, find it here via Facebook Live -commenting and interacting with others is highly encouraged!  

Immanuel Church as a Resource. 

If you can use extra support for groceries (from stable foods to frozen goods to fresh veggies), consider visiting Immanuel Church’s food drive at 663 S Berendo St. Los Angeles, CA 90005 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9am to 12pm. Ready-to-eat meals are offered to neighbors experiencing homelessness.

If you need diapers, Immanuel Church is offering diapers sizes 1-6 to families in need. Diapers can be received once a month during any of their food distribution days (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 9am-12pm). First time participants must bring their eligible child to sign up. 

Stay tuned for Immanuel Church’s pop-up flu clinics offered to the community twice a year in collaboration with Cedar Sinai Hospital at no cost for adults and children. Hygiene kits are also available during their food distribution days (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 9am-12pm) for unsheltered neighbors. 

Reach out to them. 

More information can be found on their Website or if you have any questions or are interested in partnering with Immanuel Church, call (213-389-3191), e-mail (info@immanuelpres.org) or visit (3300 Wilshire Blvd LA, CA 90010).

Last but certainly not least, stay connected via Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. 

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Psalm 8:3

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Overview of Koreatown

Photo taken by Matt Marriott

What makes Koreatown in central Los Angeles so vibrant is its fusion of entrepreneurialism, authentic cultural identities and genuine camaraderie. Despite its name, the majority of Koreatown’s residents have been historically and presently Hispanic (around 50%) and Asian (around 30% -and out of the Asian population, almost 70% hail from Korea). Also notable is how this multiracial and multilingual enclave of nearly 115,000 people live within 2.9 square miles -an area half the size of LAX airport. This makes Koreatown 1.5 times more concentrated than the population density of New York City and LA County’s most dense neighborhood. 

Flanked between downtown Los Angeles, East Hollywood and ritzier West Los Angeles, Koreatown’s residents live in an in-between world of commercial offices and mom and pop businesses, glass buildings and historical buildings, and -as of 2020- the highest concentration of nightclubs, 24-hour businesses and restaurants in the country. Due to its prime location and demand for high-end and high-rise developments, Koreatown, for the past decade, has had a story arc achingly familiar to many gentrified communities. 22.2% of Koreatown’s residents live below the poverty line and the median household income hovers over $43,000 (which is half California’s median household income and two-thirds the national median). As a result, the working-class and immigrant families of Koreatown have faced escalating rent, eviction rates and gentrification by developers and landlords looking to attract wealthier newcomers. 

Photo from Curbed Los Angeles

Koreatown is more than a piece of real estate. It is a historical and cultural home for its residents who fought to sustain and protect their community. The history of Koreatown traces back to 1902, when Korean independence activist Dosan Ahn Chang Ho and his wife, Hye Ryeon (Helen) immigrated to the United States. A year after their arrival, the first wave of Korean immigrants settled in Hawaii and throughout Southern California. The budding community was centered around faith and food: one of the first and oldest establishments of Koreatown are Korean-speaking churches and grocery stores. Fast forward to 1980, the immense efforts of businessman Lee Hi Duk helped make Koreatown an officially recognized neighborhood by Los Angeles County. However, much of the hard-won livelihoods of Koreatown were destroyed by the LA Riots; it had to be slowly rebuilt by the children of the business owners who invested into reconstructing and resuscitating Koreatown.

The legacy of Koreatown is not in its skyrocketing property value and being in line with the global spread of Korean entertainment. It was, and should remain, its collaborative and aspirational spirit, rich cultural heritages, historical significance and that it was first and foremost, a home. 

Young Life Hollywood Area Director Alison Puzio

At church it’s automatic. You arrive, check your kids into their Sunday class, and encourage your teens to join the youth ministry group. Boom, they’re plugged in. But what about the unchurched. How do you seek out and minister to the youth in a regular secular environment? 

Cue the young lady walking up to the school campus loaded down with boxes of pizza. She’s with Young Life, and she’s practicing incarnational ministry, she’s going where the youth are, ready to hang and talk. She knows the power of relationship is transformational and she’s volunteered her time to be present. 

Young Life meets people where they’re at, instead of trying to get them to a church place. It’s a model that has worked well since 1941 and has grown to reach middle schools, high schools, and college students in all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Young Life uses volunteer youth, young adults, and adults to connect with youth in secular places, representing the salt and light of Christ, all through the pursuit of genuine relationship and being present. 

In East Hollywood an amazing Young Life team has been working to bring hope where it is much needed, uncover hope where it already is, and connect to an isolated youth. We chatted with the area director, Alison Puzio, to ask her about what it’s like representing Christ to youth outside the places of church. 

Q. What is Young Life’s influence look like in East Hollywood?

Alison: Young Life is uncovering hope where it already is, it has been buried from the suffering and stress the community and young people have experienced, and most importantly that’s through the power of relationship. One of the things I love most about the model of Young Life is that it’s centered around presence and being with people, meeting them where they’re at, like their school or the community center or even on the street. Jesus’ whole ministry was centered around presence. Through his presence and relationship lives were changed; Jesus was at the well, on their death bed, in the crowd, dining with them, praying with them, partying with them at the wedding. And that’s what incarnational ministry follows— just being with people. God is already in the neighborhood; he’s already working in the lives of young people. For us as staff, our ambassadors, and volunteers it’s following God’s movement from what he’s already doing in the lives of young people. 

Q. How does Young Life do outreach to a secular community? How do you represent Christ in that environment and encourage youth to join in? 

Alison: One of the places where we physically meet and serve is at a community center and gang prevention center. Both of those are secular and yet we’re freely able to bring the spiritual in. I think it’s because of the emphasis on holistically caring for people. We’re embodied beings who have spiritual, mental, and physical needs, and there’s an understanding of those needs and it’s been embraced by the different communities and partners that we’ve collaborated with. And honestly, a lot of that has been God opening different doors. There’s a group home for teen moms in the foster care system and we have our Young Lives program there. What most people can understand is the need for mentorship and that’s what we are really centered on is mentorship and the power of relationship, and that’s attractive for the different organizations, or partners, or schools that we’re collaborating with. And then in terms of maintaining a witness of Christ while also in these secular places that’s where our own walks with Jesus become so important. Where the internal work of knowing and being with Christ enables us to be in the world but not of the world. I honestly think it comes down to our leaders and mentors’ relationships with Christ and how that must be first and foremost.

Q. Are the youth you work with mostly Latino?

Alison: Primarily. It really depends on what school or area we are in. One school that we partner with is 98-99% Latino and another is 60% Latino. I would say multi-ethnic and predominantly Latino.

Q: Do you believe that the next revival will come from the multiethnic urban youth?

Alison: One, I think the pandemic has certainly escalated young people’s own understanding of their need for Christ. In this last year and a half of the pandemic there has been so much fear, suffering, isolation, anxiety, and depression. Also at the same time, especially when we’re talking about East Hollywood, McArthur Park, Koreatown (these are some of the densest towns in Los Angeles which means some of the densest neighborhoods in the country), these neighborhoods are so dense that fear, the fear of mortality, came up a lot during this last year as young people lost people, loved ones, or neighbors. Also, on Tiktok there were a lot of ‘end of the world’ videos, ‘end of time’ videos, and I think that opened up a space for a lot of questions about heaven, salvation, and honestly an openness to Jesus, needing something to cling onto.  So, our weekly Bible study had more people attending this past year over Zoom during the pandemic than we had in person beforehand. It was insane and deeply encouraging. Everything was so heightened this last year and there was so much isolation that it gave young people a lot of time to think about their lives, and again there was a lot of fear and a lot of hope that was needed.  

Q: Has hope been restored?

Alison: Hope is in Jesus. Hope in something greater rather than hoping in good things to happen. I feel like their hope is more secured. And honestly prayer is one of the biggest things that I heard more of our students doing than ever before. It was literally praying that secured their hope because they were so anxious or fearful or lonely or whatever it was that they were talking to Jesus more. We were praying over our group aloud over Zoom for the first time. All our Leaders and I had kids talk about talking to Jesus more than ever. God is using all of this to draw people near to him. I saw that so much last year and for me that gave me hope. That gave me hope in the midst of my own suffering and feelings of the pandemic. Literally seeing God move in young people’s lives, which is such an honor and privilege, is what gave me, and the other mentors hope as well. 

Q. Wow that is so encouraging. In my church right now, we are participating in intercessory prayer Monday-Friday at 6am and 6pm because we received a word that God is calling us to more prayer because His revival is imminent, but we need to be praying for it. If now is the time for prayer and you’ve witnessed your youth’s take it up themselves, going forward are you guys going to do more with encouraging prayer?

Alison: We have from this last year, a really solid core group of young people that have been coming to Bible study every week and talking to Jesus more. I think as we’re moving into this time of returning in person and relaunching our ministries in person, that large core group of students are ready and are all talking about which friends to invite, we’ll see that part of discipleship has come much sooner. Often, we see it junior and senior year, but we have sophomores and juniors who are on fire to invite more people in and bring their friends to Young Life. The discipleship piece, they are in a different place maturity wise than I’ve seen before which is also, I think from building a bridge with our middle school program called WyldLife that starts in 6thgrade. We’re seeing two things happen, one the benefit of long-term discipleship and mentorship, and two, the growth they’ve experienced this last year during the pandemic. And for us, leading them in this next step of discipleship of praying for their friends and praying for schools, our leaders are very excited to invest in them in this way. There is a certain sense of maturity happening. All young people are leaders and developing them with more leadership skills is something we try to do. And again, this group of core students from this last year of the pandemic, where they’re at as leaders, they’re more mature and really eager to bring others in. And so, we actually have a number of them becoming leaders for WyldLife this year, more than we’ve ever had in a year because they’re so excited to go and invest in middle schoolers. Watching them go and give their life away has been extremely encouraging and exciting.

Q: Biggest Need?

Alison: Our biggest need is volunteer mentors. We need adults who love Jesus and love young people to invest in young people in Hollywood and Downtown L.A. Because none of this happens without them and we need leaders. We also need adults to serve on our committee board who don’t want to invest directly in young people but care about the ministry and care about the ministry and want to serve on our committee board who help oversee the area. 

What an encouragement to hear what Young Life is up to in East Hollywood. God is on the move, and he is working all things for good!! Amen! If you want to join in with what God has already been stirring in the hearts of the youth YOU ARE NEEDED! Please reach out to Alison’s team to become a leader or join the committee board, and if you’re looking for community as a youth check out one of their in-person upcoming events! You can also support these kids in their ministry and outreach. 

There is a maturing of the Spirit in our youth, a stirring of the waters, an activating of intercessory prayer and true intimacy with Jesus, and a genuine excitement to disciple peers. I am excited for what this on fire and hungry youth will accomplish in this upcoming year. 

Neighborhood Spotlight: East Hollywood Passion L.A. with Pastor Bobby Lopez

Indigenous Leadership From Broken to SUPER

Imagine you’re 13. Your Dad is murdered. Your mom, a part of a gang, marries a drug dealer who becomes an addict and is abusive. One night your parents are high and drunk, beating each other up, so you run. You run straight to the church parking lot, hungry for what they have – the people pouring out of the church – you want whatever it is they have. Tears are pouring down your face. But as you’re reaching out, desperate for a lifeline, a pastor stops you. He says, “Go back to where you came from.” 

 Shocking. Sad. Infuriating. Convicting. Those are my immediate reactions to the unnamed pastor. Because the 13-year-old boy? He has a name, Bobby Lopez, and that is how his story begins. Ministry is tough. Especially if the community you’re called to is a tough neighborhood. But it’s equally tough for those like Bobby Lopez to get plugged in, let alone welcomed into, a vibrant Christian community. Even then, is the ministry team equipped to support and council broken children into fully redeemed and healed sons and daughters of God? 

When the pastor told Bobby to go back where he came from, Bobby left the way he came, over the fence. And continued to cry all the way to his room where he began to draw. Years later – after walking out some life, spending four years in the Marine Corps, irrevocably finding Jesus, and committing his life to ministry – his wife asked him a question. 

“When you ran back to your room, what were you drawing?” 

Bobby’s reply, “I was drawing a picture of kids walking into a building, broken, and coming out superheroes.” And his wife said, “God gave you a vision for what you’re going to be doing.”

Mrs. Lopez’s words rang true when Bobby Lopez founded Passion L.A. three years ago, an outreach ministry to reach kids outside of the church walls. The heart of the organization is to reach the kids across the street who don’t normally go to church, the Bobby Lopezes of the community, and raise them up as indigenous leaders to minister to their own backyards. We interviewed with Bobby to ask him some questions about the ministry.

Q. You mention Passion L.A. has been really blessed. How have you grown? What is Passion L.A.?

Bobby: So originally, we had three programs. One was a social emotional learning program and we used to go to the schools, juvenile halls, and foster communities. The other was our faith-based program where we discipled kids and the last was our leadership program where we trained urban leaders. We really believe that the key to reaching these areas is not just sending missionaries but developing leaders within the communities we serve.

We were doing that, and we expanded to create our South L.A. program. And now we are working with UYWI to build their leadership network as a resource to raise urban leaders. We’ve been really blessed; God has placed us in a leadership position to help create this network of leaders and raise the next generation of the church. 

Q. I’ve been hearing a lot about revival and specifically revival being spurred out of the youth in L.A., since you’re on the ground working with youth do you have any thoughts or witness to that?

Bobby:  When I was in the Marines, I was the operation chief, so I spent a lot of time studying war and strategy books. Someone asked me once, Why L.A.? Because L.A. is strategic spiritually and culturally. You have the city that influences the world, it literally connects to every part of the world. We believe that the key is developing those indigenous leaders to go into those L.A. communities and get off the trail of church. Church tends to be family based, so in their outreach they tend to go after families, and that’s really good, but there’s going to be a lot of organizations coming out of L.A. that are going after specific people groups. And I think that’s going to be where the revival really happens because those groups aren’t stuck to a model of how church should be, they just want to get to know Christ. I really think that this is an opportunity for the rest of the world because what happens here, everybody knows about. 

Q. Tell me a little about the kids you work with and what you’ve seen happen through Passion L.A.’s outreach?

Bobby: We have different groups. For example, Cielo, we’ve had Cielo since she was 14. Her parents were drug addicts. Her dad had recently died, and her mom had abandoned them, and she was with her brother and sister who were meth addicts. She was just acting up a lot, and when we met her, we saw that God wanted to use her in a mighty way. Today she’s the events coordinator for Youths for Christ, she’s the administrator for Passion L.A. and she runs our Eastside L.A. program. She’s been such a huge blessing to us, our personal house, we ended up adopting her. 

Then we have Railene. Her family is all from one of the biggest, most violent streets and gangs in America. And now she’s running the bible study at Lincoln Heights High School. She just restarted it because it died out during covid. 

Q. How do you track your work? Is Passion L.A. a building? Do you have different groups going out into the community, to schools, what is that interaction/connection piece that you guys are utilizing to reach the youth?

Bobby: We had an emotional learning program where we would go into the schools and teach. We’d volunteer to teach a secular program about relationship health or emotional development. It was a curriculum based secular program but, in that process, we’re developing relationship with them, and we never tell them about God because we’re not allowed to. All we tell them is yes, we do pastor on the side. But eventually, what happens, is the kid wants to know. Why does this person care so much? Why does this person come and bring pizza and not get paid for it? Why does this person love me like they do? Why do they ask me how I’m doing or listen to me?

They’ll ask if they can go to our church, and we say well it’s up to you, but we can’t tell you information and they’ll find a way through Instagram. And that just creates a flood of kids.

During Covid we couldn’t meet with the kids, so we used TikTok. And we ended up with 7 million views last year. Our target group was a kid who feels like they don’t want to live anymore at 2 o’clock in the morning in their house. What do they need? So, we created a mom and dad that are giving them advice on relationships, and then we just talked to them as if they were in our house, walking around, putting away the dishes, or cooking. We also put our testimonies online. We spent a lot of time messaging kids back and forth. 

Q. So how is your support system, your team, your staff? Do you have a lot of help? Or is there an area of need or growth?

 Bobby: Our staff is 95% from the communities, so everybody we served we raised up. We have a lot of volunteer churches around us who come out and help cook, clean, some help pick up kids, whatever the need is. The hardest part for us right now is some of these guys are working as hard as they can and doing whatever they can, but we work in a low resource community with high need. The problem isn’t getting the kids through the door, the problem isn’t figuring out what the need is, we have plenty of need, the problem is the community doesn’t have enough resources for us to develop, fulfill, and have impact. So, we usually have to go outside of our community for funding and use of facilities. We do raise our own funds through certain grants but it’s hard because this model is so rare through indigenous leadership. We sat down with missionaries to ask how they raise funds and they said to go to your five most affluent families, and we laughed because we don’t have that, when they told us what to do, it was based off a model that doesn’t work for what we’re doing.

"La Raza"

Passion L.A. needs help. In Bobby Lopez’s community it’s life or death. Gangs, drugs, and violence threaten to steal the youth from their appointed purpose. These kids need access to the church, the vibrant, reaching across the street, across the fences, Christ filled church. Bobby Lopez’s indigenous leader model, raising up mentors and difference makers to serve the community they grew up in, is a necessary and impactful source for kingdom change. Kids are being mentored and taught by people who understand what it’s like to be on the streets, around gangs, and what it means to be fully seen and loved. It’s life changing for these kids. You can partner with Passion L.A. and help bring kids from a place of brokenness to a redeemed son or daughter of the King. They can become a Superhero, an Indigenous Leader, just like Bobby’s vision he drew. To learn more about Passion L.A. and the work they do head over to their site or check out their inspirational posts on Tiktok @DadandMomADvice.

Urban Youth Workers Institute: Tommy Nixon, CEO

The Neighborhood Leader

Are you called to Light up the Youth?

A father reaches out to the kids on the block. He doesn’t want them to steal from him, so he grills hot dogs. His efforts to build friendship and show kindness grows the backyard cookout into a full-on ministry with the neighborhood youth – all while taking care of his daughter with disabilities. 

In Pomona, a leader ministering to troubled youth, this last year, has lost 14 of his students to violence. Not only is he dealing with the war outside, but also, the war inside from enemy attacks on his spirit. He is planning on going on sabbatical. 

A leader plays video games with a group of drug dealers living rough. He pursues relationship with them online, his headset the only connection to their world, and finds out that one kid doesn’t have any food. Not wanting to embarrass him, he contacts another leader and has food delivered while they’re still playing. At that moment the hungry youth realized the provision of God. 

REVIVAL. We need a great revival in the Christian faith.

A song titled “Lord Send Revival” comes to mind. Hillsong Young and Free cries out passionately, “Lord send Revival, Lord send it now, a move of your Spirit, Heaven break out, come now in power, cover this land, like you’ve done it before, would you do it again.” Our praise is powerful to move the Spirit into action, but we can also partner with the Spirit. Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38). 

It’s time for the Kingdom flame to ignite the world, but how do we work the harvest, and who do we pursue?

Urban Youth Workers Institute in Santa Ana, CA identified the need to equip willing laborers with the leadership skills necessary to lead our youth in a great revival. UYWI exists to empower urban youth workers so that urban youth have the leaders and role models they need to live transformed lives by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? 

The world is increasingly young, urban, and multi-ethnic. By 2045 the majority in the United States will become the minority when 51% of the population will be multi-ethnic. However, this change for those 18 and younger, happened in 2020. This is what the future of the church will look like. When it comes to revival, urban youth represent the richest group that if caught on fire by the Holy Spirit, will have a global impact. 

So how do we reach a multiethnic urban youth? 1.2 million young people are leaving the church every year. At this rate it is estimated that 42 million young people could leave the church by 2050. We are facing an incredible urgency to reach the next generation! What could be a more important work than ministering to and retrieving the lost youth? 

Youth need leaders that can model, walk, and talk out what it means to be Christian and to have a personal relationship with Jesus. But leaders cannot go into the battle alone, they need the church body to help support and pour into them, so they have the strength to serve the broken, addicted, violent, and lost urban youth. 

UYWI provides free resources and monthly trainings on topics such as: how to disciple youth, build leadership skills, understand trauma-informed mentorship, and more. But their bread and butter is a low cost, yearlong leadership program (UYWI Certification Program) that focuses on equipping leaders with the 12 elements of effective youth ministry with a specific focus on Personal Leadership (Developing Me), Ministry (Developing My Ministry), and Community (Developing My Community). 

One of the greatest tricks of the enemy is to make you believe that you are alone in your battle, tiring you down and beating you down through isolation. UYWI stands firm in the place of disconnection and offers a network of connections unique to your location called Fuel Networks, launched during the pandemic. If you need help, help is there. 

Tommy Nixon, CEO at UYWI, shared with us “[their] goal is to reach 15,000 leaders to reach 1 million youth with the Gospel.” One of the ways they are doing that is through Digital Discipleship. Tommy explained, “We launched a resource called Digital Discipleship, a video resource and training to help leaders and churches know how to reach and disciple youth digitally. Along with those videos, there are technical videoscreated to help any novice set up their technology to better engage with students. In September 2020, youth no longer wanted to attend youth groups via zoom, but they were still playing war zone and fortnight. Using this resource, we put together a tournament to help leaders reach youth in the language they understand.”

If you’re starting up a nonprofit, church, youth group, ministry, or just the parent in the neighborhood with all the kids at your house and you’re unsure of what to do with them, UYWI is a great resource. 

If you’d like to partner with UYWI and their mission, please consider becoming an Urban Ally and answer the call to Light up the Youth. 

 STOP. LOOK. LISTEN w/ KAREN YAC

Spotlight on East Hollywood: The Hope Center with Mike McIntire

Recovery from Disconnection

Boiled eggs. Small but nutritious. The Hope Center began in the 90s when Reality L.A. Church invited the homeless camping outside their doors inside, serving them what they had, boiled eggs. What started out as a church opening their building during the week, grew into a passionate endeavor to connect the disconnected. From eggs to soup, to the most widely known delicious hot meal in the L.A. region, The Hope Center in East Hollywood invites the most disconnected marginalized people to authentic community. Through partnerships with Trader Joes and Whole foods the nutritious food prepared by amazing chefs attracts homeless from Skid Row, the East Hollywood community, and some from as far as Santa Monica and Venice Beach.  

But how do you connect to those experiencing the deepest pain of disconnection? Mike McIntire, Director of The Hope Center in East Hollywood, starts off with a question:

 Where would you like to die? 

An intense question, yet a very real reality for those on the streets. Hope Center’s heart is to offer Hope in such a way that they can ask someone where you would like to die so they don’t die disconnected. We asked Mike a few questions about how they do that: 

Q: What is Hope Center? What is Hope Center’s vision?

Mike: At the Hope Center we’re looking to stop the transaction. Ultimately stop the way we’re offering a basic service for someone to take and then sort of walk away from. We’re trying to build authentic community where we can invite people into our space to ask them the question in a very real way. I know that’s very serious, but it’s a very serious question because the next step usually, when you’re talking about unhoused and those that feel disconnected on daily basis, is death. And so, we are very serious, we take our charge very seriously of rescue, but we also believe in restoration, and we believe in redemption in such a way that says, if you stick around with us a little longer, I promise you, you don’t have to die alone this day. 

Q. How do you create authentic community and keep people engaged?

Mike: We do our best to try and create environments where they feel warm and welcome. We stopped handing out to-go plates that we were doing in Covid because it’s purely transactional. Helping can hurt when it’s transactional and doesn’t involve authentic community. Our role is to say, “Stay with us.” Homelessness is a community, but it is a community that takes from one another, and what we’re doing is saying stay with us and we won’t take from you. It’s very easy if you’re high to come grab a hot plate of food and go, hiding your pain and need for redemption. It’s very easy to maintain this facade of isolation and disconnection. And we believe that disconnection is the worst possible sin of all. So, when the state allowed for folks to come eat with us, we said please, join us inside, let us serve you on a plate. Let us spend time with you and just sit together and let’s enjoy each other for the moment. And the coolest thing is happening. Roughly 8 minutes was the average eating time, now we have two tables that are staying the entire hour. That’s a good sign, that means that we are allowing God to do his work by creating a space where community can exist

Q. Why is the issue of homelessness so hard to minister to and address?

Mike: Every city has their equivalent of skid row, but there’s the famous one, and as I spent 10 plus years in that environment a lot of what I see is rescue. There was a massive movement in the 80s and 90s to centralize services. In their quest to centralize services they created some unintended consequences creating more policies like “not in my backyard” - I would rather have homelessness centrally located than in my backyard. What that does is put all the resources in one location, and then it becomes out of sight, out of mind. The Pool of Bethesda in the Bible was filled with all types of people waiting for rescue and ultimately restoration. That would have been that society’s skid row. Who was controlling this? Well, it was the local churches. The Pharisees were like let’s centralize pain in a location where everyone knows you can centrally go to. What that ends up doing is creating poverty and despair in one location, as opposed to everyone naturally feeling it. In sharing the gospel, the hardest thing for me to fight, in the midst of injustice, is this concept of prosperity or I would argue this reality of transaction. This idea that you give and get, you give a little bit of your time and thoughts to God, and you’re supposed to get all this stuff. God is not a transactional God; he is so much more.  

We have made a bad habit of centralizing homelessness and then slipping into an “out of sight out of mind” position. As Mike McIntire puts it, “we are called to live with folks and experience this together.” We need to put our hands to the plow and do the work of rescue and restoration through ministering to those who are suffering in our community and our backyard. Let’s acknowledge the man who sits on the corner of Santa Monica and Vermont every day, ask his name, and invite him to join in authentic community at The Hope Center. If you feel called to reach out to the disconnected people of God’s Kingdom, the Hope Center provides training and classes for how to safely interact and communicate with the unhoused and homeless so both parties can safely engage in a non-transactional relationship that embodies authentic Christlike community. 

Additionally, if you would like to partner with the Hope Center, they have amassed large contracts for receiving food and supplies to the point of overflow. The Hope Center assists other programs in the area by providing food from their surplus.

God calls us to “bear one another’s burdens”(Gal. 6:2), and to “love one another as [he has] loved you”(John 15:12). So, take a step towards the places of pain and join the amazing work at the Hope Center in bringing home the isolated and disconnected to their restored place as children of the Most High King. 

An Evening with Tony Bancroft Recap: Making Art Breathe and Speak for the Glory of God

On a Friday summer evening, nearly fifty individuals from all over the country had the opportunity to listen and ask questions to Tony Bancroft, a dear friend of Together LA’s director, Tommy Lee, and a world renown animator. With over 30 years in the animation industry, Tony Bancroft has been creatively involved in almost every facet of producing an animated film, video, commercial, or short film. He worked at studios including Sony Pictures, as the Animation Supervisor on Stuart Little 2, and Disney Feature Animation, where he spent 12 years creating and animating characters like Pumbaa, the lovable warthog in The Lion King; Kronk, the sidekick in The Emperor’s New Groove; Cogsworth the clock from Beauty and the Beast; and Lago the parrot in Aladdin. Also at Disney, Bancroft co-directed the animated feature Mulan. He left Disney to start his own animation studio producing a Christian animated series, Lenny and Sid. He currently hosts a popular podcast with his twin brother, who is also an animator, called the Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast (available on iTunes). He is also the author of the book Directing for Animation: Everything You Didn’t Learn in Art School (Focal Press, 2013). His newest animated movie, Animal Crackers, is now available on Netflix. Tony is now working with Warner Bros. leading and animating the Looney Tunes characters for Space Jam: A New Legacy.

The audience, which was a mix of Disney fans, film enthusiasts, story-tellers, animators, entrepreneurs and writers, asked their burning questions ranging from which characters Tony developed that he would want to do over, his favorite and challenging creations (hint: the former is a warthog and the latter is a famous basketball star featured in Netflix’s Space Jam: A New Legacy), how he handled situations when his work conflicted with his spiritual beliefs, how many animators it took to animate a production like Space Jam, his next project (a Wizard of Oz animated feature told from the perspective of Toto, the dog) and what skills the market demanded of new and upcoming animators (hint: check out ‎episode 152 of The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast, available on Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast, to hear the complete list of skills one needs to learn to become an animator at Disney or Pixar). When he was not answering questions, the audience watched in amazement as Tony shared his personal deck of storyboards and preliminary sketches or drew Bugs Bunny and Pumba in real time on a blank computer screen. 

Enjoy below some of Tony Bancroft’s insights and stories:

When asked how Tony and his twin (Tom Bancroft) stewarded their artistic talents as Christ followers, he shared how watching Saturday morning cartoons and their “free-spirited upbringing” inspired their love for drawing. It was only later in life, when they attended church that they “[became] focused in using the passions of our hearts for His glory”. Their first job right out of college was at Disney, and the rest was history. 

Tommy Lee then asked Tony what it meant to him to design characters for the glory of God. He responded with a fascinating observation: “Animation captures the imagination all over the world. It makes people think of magic and of higher powers…[so] characters can be used to drive interest into a lot of things. People will more often follow a character like Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty and Pumba the Warthog than an individual.” It was moving to see artistry as a vessel to inspire people of all ages and languages towards the goodness and beauty of the world.