In May, BSM will be returning to Los Angeles to continue the work we started there last year. The connecting church is Mosaic Church (Erwin McManus, pastor), and we will be serving in some very challenging places and contexts.
It was interesting to go through this process of discerning where God wanted us to go. At the beginning of last year, I had a very clear sense: Go to LA. Interact with Mosaic, learn from them, serve in that city.
This year, I fell into the trap of thinking we had to go to some "new" place-concerned the students would want a 'new' experience. I prayed and sent out so many 'feelers' to see where we were supposed to go...but never had a peace-even though there were several possibilities-and new experiences.
One day I was reading an article. The title was "Short-term missions=spiritual tourism?" The title grabbed me. The article talked about how churches and student ministries tend to go from one place to another each year to keep students 'interested' (or entertained)-as opposed to committing to one place over the long haul. In other words, missions being prostituted by the longing for new experiences.
We prayed about that as a group-and talked about it. It soon became clear, our "Samaria" is Los Angeles. We contacted Mosaic, and they welcomed us back-and we are returning this year again. Some of the students at first wrestled with the idea-because lets be honest-we all want to see the world...but I am so proud of their maturity-they prayed and talked and it became clear to them as well that we should invest in one place outside of San Antonio as opposed to using missions as a disguise for tourism.
Now there is peace.
We will spend one day taking a spiritual tour of Los Angeles-learning about the spiritualities that are influential in Los Angeles. We will re-visit the Scientology Celebrity Centre (seriously-Scientology is very influential in Hollywood and in Los Angeles), as well as visiting the largest Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles.
We will be working with Union Rescue Mission and the Dream Center-two agencies that serve Skid Row-and the 90,000 homeless in Los Angeles. One thing that gripped us last year was this "city within a city" of thousands upon thousands of homeless.
We will be serving with Adopt a Block-working in some of the rougher areas of Los Angeles-to serve families and children in need-to demonstrate and declare the Gospel.
We will be working with MetroKidz-another inner city ministry that focuses on bringing hope to inner city youth by sharing Christ and His love.
We'll also be working with School on Wheels, an organization that provides tutoring and education to homeless children and teenagers.
We'll also be working with Hope Gardens, a transitional community for women and their children. These women were homeless, have gone through job training and spend 9-18 months in this special place as they are getting on their feet. We will be ministering to the women as well as to their children.
We may also be working with Hollywood street kids (homeless young people who have turned to prostitution and are in bondage to many other things).
God has put together quite a trip-a hard trip-but a wonderful time to serve, grow, be stretched and to continue investing in that area.
Finally-we'll be helping Mosaic (doing the grunt work of clean up, set up and tear down) for at least 3 services: William Carey, the Mayan, and either Beverly Hills or South Beach).
Please pray for the following:
1) Pray for those God will call out to go. The trip last year stretched and grew us immensely and helped shape our culture and view of missions, service and evangelism on campus. Pray that our students will be open and receptive to His call.
2) Pray that our schedule will flow well. We will be working long hours every day-and it is important that we schedule wisely. There will not be much in the way of 'down time'-so also pray for grace and strength.
3) Pray for those we will be ministering to and with. Pray that God would use us to bless and glorify His Name. The ministry contexts are very tough. It's hard ground. But God is working there. Mosaic is also a wonderful community of believers. I've never seen a church so effectively model loving the 'outsider' as we experienced last year. We learned a lot about loving the lost and reaching out to the lost through our time with Mosaic. We are trusting that our continued relationship with them will be used by God to contnue shaping us into a missional community-a community of people who go to the edge of lostness. For more on this-see entries below!
4) Pray for provision. Last year God provided wonderfully for our students. The actual cost per student was initially just under $1,000.00. God provided through churches and individuals and as our students raised their support...the actual cost was just at $350.00 per student-a remarkable blessing since that included air fare, car rentals, housing and meals for a week. Please pray that He would superabundantly provide for us. Economic times are tough-but God is bigger. We are trusting Him for all we need. Please join us in praying for provision.
God has something special for us on this trip. We ask for your prayers-and will keep you posted as we continue to prepare. We are hoping to take around 25 students, which would be 10 more than last year. We know that as students have this shared experience of serving together, sweating, working, crying, praying, laughing and worshiping together in this 'strange land,' they will come back to San Antonio better equipped to be missionaries on campus-and their vision of the Kingdom will be profoundly expanded.
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