Hello Church,
It’s “hot but dry” here in Inland Southern California (or as Tamara Denlinger would want me to say it, “calidum et siccum.”). Regardless of the temperature, it has been a joy to watch the MYF serve. Sunday, they served with Los Angeles Faith Chapel, a Mosaic Conference congregation, and Physician Assistant trainees from Charles R. Drew University. They served unsheltered persons at Jesse Owens Park in South Los Angeles with meals, groceries, clothes, shoes, Bibles, blood pressure, and other health screenings. Monday, they served with Rebirth Homes, providing some labor in the heat (remember Tamara, it’s a dry heat!). Later this week, the MYF will serve at Crest Cottages – a small pocket neighborhood being designed and purpose-built to accommodate the needs of young adults who are aging out of foster care.
A lot of hard, hot, sweaty work in the early summer sun. Our MYF has served without complaint, with good spirits, and with great energy. In doing so, they’ve experienced in this week the three ways we serve our neighbors.
First, they served in ministries of relief. They encountered hungry and homeless men and women. Some were just down on their luck. Others suffered from addictions. Others were dealing with a life of poor choices. All had a need right now, for food, for some groceries for the next meal or two, for clean clothes, for someone to pray with them, and for some immediate medical attention. God’s mission of reconciliation helps to relieve the crisis individuals find themselves in now.
Second, our MYF participated in ministries of development. They worked with an agency (www.rebirthhomes.com) committed to the long-term needs of young women who have been trafficked. This ministry provides a safe haven and a holistic approach to healing and empowerment, as well as education and advocacy in the community. They are at work to develop a new community of women who have experienced healing and hope in the Way of Jesus.
Third, the youth served with a new ministry seeking to create sustainability. As young people in the California foster system turn 18 years old, they are “aged out,” and released from any further state support. Renting a place to live, holding down a job, paying college tuition, even just preparing food can be an enormous challenge. Crest Cottages (https://crestcommunitychurch.org/crest-cottages) is a model of sustainability in the transition from foster care to lifelong independent living in the Way of Jesus.
The work that the Blooming Glen MYF is doing in the calidum et siccum of Southern California in this first week of July isn’t “make work,” so that our youth can have a church-sponsored vacation – it is a serious effort to give our youth serious missional opportunity in its various forms. And it is a way to begin to teach the rest of us how to orient our Church Together calling to serve our neighbors and neighborhoods. We are being invited into a mix of missional approaches – relief, development, and sustainability – as we look forward in launching our Church Together efforts. And our MYF has the jump on the vision.
Let’s go, Church!
Pastor Jeff