Here is the first part of a mini-series on growing people through small groups in East Hollywood. These reflections hopefully will give you a good glimpse into what it’s like as we join God in “growing faith where life happens” among the different cultures of LA’s working poor immigrants.
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Wow! What a challenging road these last three weeks have been for Katie and me as we navigate the world of small groups in a very different context than we’ve ever experienced before.
The Holy Spirit had been prompting us to begin a group for women in the neighborhood. We’d spent lots of time getting to know these particular ladies, praying for them, and having many “God” conversations on all different levels. In our hearts, we knew it was time to get them into a formal study of the word…it was time to start a small group! We decided since one of the women spoke only English, and since two ladies from the Hollywood Church of Christ were helping us and they did not speak Spanish, we would only invite the women who were bilingual. Then we’d start a Spanish-speaking small group next month!
So we prayed and brainstormed, talked with other urban missionaries with more experience, and came up with a game plan. We decided to have some desserts and coffee, spend time talking and sharing, aswering some questions we’d have ready like, “How have you seen God working in your life this week?”. Then we’d spend time in prayer for each other and others in the neighborhood. Finally we’d watch a short scene from the “The Gospel of John” DVD (first week: the story of the woman at the well). We’d issue verbal invitations to seven women, then written ones, and finally a quick reminder call or drop-by on the day of the event. We even wrote a little “script” to help us use just the right words to explain the purpose of the group – not too pushy or churchy, but also forthwright and excited about the fellowship, prayer, and Bible componants of each Sunday evening!
The day we were to do the inviting, our whole team prayed and fasted for these women. It was a wonderful day for us as we felt God’s peace. Overall, the invites were well received, although it was tough to read the responses…were they just being polite or were they really interested enough to come?
Well, when 7:00 p.m. Sunday came, we were very disappointed when no one appeared at Katie’s door. We waited for about 15 minutes and even called some of the ladies to see if they’d just forgotten. Most weren’t home, one said she was too busy getting her granddaughter ready for school, and one said she’d see if she could come by later. We were so disheartened! We were drowning our sorrows in brownies and hot cocoa when Katie reminded us of the story that Jesus tells in Luke 14 where the Master invites people to his banquet but they are all too busy and no one comes. Then he tells his servant to go out into the streets and invite all they see, even the undesirables. After that, the Master sends him out yet again for more saying, “Make them come in!”
So, we went out. We prayed as we walked and went to women that had not been invited. That evening we had three women and one girl come to the “small group”. It didn’t look aything like what we had envisioned. We spoke Spanish, so it was difficult to come up with translations for our well-thought-out questions on the turn of a dime. The sound on the movie wouldn’t work and we couldn’t get the Spanish subtitles to play anyway. People had to leave because we started and ended so late, and we weren’t even sure if the ladies really enjoyed the time or not, although they said they’d all like to come again.
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In part two I will share what happened the next week, and what we are learning from this experience.