This week a poor mom who is 8 months pregnant is unable to eat because her teeth ache so badly.  So she goes to a dentist, whose solution is to pull out two of her teeth.  This is the second time in her pregnancy that she has had sore teeth pulled out.  “Better to do it now,” the mom explains to me, “I may not have coverage in the future.” 

Yesterday I’m sitting across the table eating lunch with a poor young dad in his early twenties.  “How long have you stopped smoking?” I ask him.  “Ever since my tooth started to hurt,” he says, “It started to crumble in my mouth and I had the worst headaches.”  “What did the dentist say?” I naively ask.  “I can’t afford a dentist, so I pulled it out myself with tweezers.”  He opens his mouth to show me his handiwork.  Pretty good job, I remark.  He says he feels much better now.

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While we were doing a filming project this weekend, we interviewed a neighbor whom I will call Devon.  He told me that he doesn’t like religions but ever since he and his wife met our two families they have started to pray together for their meals.  He also shared that he and his wife want to spend more time with us because they want their family to be more like ours, and he said he wants to read the Bible together with me.  So the next day he invited our families (and Hannah’s family) to the park.  While the women played with the kids, Devon and I sat under a shady tree and started our first Discovery Bible Study, something he wants to continue with his wife the next time we meet.  

Looking back, Devon said his curiosity began when he took his sons trick-or-treating at our home.  Right away Ed, Katie, Meri and I invited them to come to our Halloween party where we were playing children’s games and serving popcorn and apple cider.  They knocked on many doors that night to trick-or-treat, but Devon got the feeling we are “good people to be around.”  From that simple interaction a mutual friendship began, in which we played and ate meals together, listened to each other’s stories, and introduced spiritual topics of conversation.  Meanwhile, we’ve been praying and fasting, and asking others to pray, too, for Devon and his household.  Then something mysterious and beyond our control began to happen in their hearts.  Now Devon has demonstrated a desire to expose himself and his family to the Word of God.     

Please keep Devon and his family in your prayers…

Categories: stories, the how
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The public drunkard.  It seems every urban village has one (or several in some cases).  In our neighborhood the young people tease him, dare him to do foolish things, push him around in a circle.  Nobody takes this fifty-something man seriously.  And yet I recall the stories Ed tells us about how he watched men like this gradually transform into reliable men and godly leaders in his parents’ church.  Anything is possible with Jesus.

Inside the man’s apartment is a tiny old woman, praying, always praying for her lost son.  The pages of her Bible are frayed from thorough reading.  Worried sick, she verbally beats him down by reading highlighted scriptures that condemn him for drinking too much and doing drugs.  He whines at her to stop telling him things he already knows.  “I know I’m sinning.  I want to stop.  I know I need the Lord,” he complains to me. “He never listens.  El Diablo is in him,” she complains to me.

In his hands, the bottle is a taskmaster, controlling and condemning him.  In her hands, the Bible is a tool for controlling and condemning him.  Look at the mother’s face and you see the worry lines the son has put on her.  Look at the son’s demeanor and you see the spiritual scars the mother has inflicted on him.  Both have abused.  Both need to be liberated.  God, come to the rescue!

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You’re going to love this story Hector shared with me this evening.

Today Hector and Roxy are walking their girls home from school.  Madelina (age 6) is feeling bad that she forgot to thank God for her breakfast this morning.  She stops and kneels on the sidewalk and puts her hands together, thanking God for her food, her parents, her health and several other things that come to her mind.  Hector and Roxy look around – there are people passing by.  Get up, Hector thinks to himself.  But Madelina just won’t stop praying.  So Hector shrugs his shoulders, kneels on the sidewalk, puts his arm around his little girl and starts praying too, thanking God for everything under the sun!  When all is said and done, they get up and walk a little farther, but Madelina remembers she has forgotten something else.  So she makes her daddy kneel again to tell God thank you one more time.  Right there next to the busy street, crowds of Angelenos all around.  Do think God is pleased?

From the lips of children.

[Names have been changed.  All other details are accurate.]

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Here is the second of a mini-series on growing people through small groups in East Hollywood.  (To read part one click here.)  These reflections hopefully provide you a window into what it is like to join God in “growing faith where life happens” among the different cultures of LA’s working poor immigrants. 

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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. 

Show me more… »

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For those who would like to become more acquainted with East Hollywood, here is an excerpt from http://www.easthollywood.net, published by our friends with the newly certified East Hollywood Neighborhood Council.  Please visit their website for photos and a brief history of this extremely diverse, dynamic and unique neighborhood of LA!

(When looking at the map, we live in the subcommunity designated as Virgil Village.)

Demographics

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