What I Do

In the last entry, I wrote about how I ended up in Los Angeles. In this one, I’ll explain what I’m doing here. To begin with, my job title is Los Angeles City Host, which means that I lead youth groups/college groups/ school groups on mission trips in inner city LA. CSM sets up a schedule for them and I guide them through their time in the city. Groups are usually here either Sunday evening through Saturday morning or Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. We usually start the morning working at one of the homeless or food ministry sites. After eating lunch there we go to an after school program to tutor and/or hang out with the kids. At night we eat at an ethnic restaurant of some sort and then we head to a park to debrief (process the day). That is our basic schedule in a nutshell; although there are some variances. I’ll likely highlight some of our partner ministry sites in future blogs.
That is the job description, but I want to explain some purpose behind it as well. One of the main goals of CSM is to expose and educate people to the struggles of the city. We also put emphasis on encouraging groups to find ways to serve their own communities when they return home. What it all comes down to is love. God’s love for His children runs deep, and as the body of Christ we must share His love with all of His children, especially those who may feel as though God has forgotten about them. This feeling is connected with the ways our society pushes away the “undesirables” as though they are not people who love and hurt, just like everyone else. Their hearts beat and their stomachs growl in hunger, just like everyone else. There are two parts to my job: as a city host I strive to teach my groups about the realities of the city— its hopes and struggles—and help them hear God through it all; as part of the body of Christ I try to be love to everyone I encounter, to remind them that God has not forgotten about them and that He loves each one of His children. I am by no means saying that I have mastered either one of these; what I am saying is that is the way I am striving to serve God in Los Angeles.

I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes from Kevin Blue’s book Practical Justice:
“We are called to be God’s reminder to those who suffer in poverty and injustice that he has not forgotten about them.”

“Direct relief of another’s suffering is a high form of love. Sometimes it requires our money; frequently it requires our time. But most of all, it requires that we see the value and dignity of each person we interact with. It requires that we see who they were created to be more than who they are. It requires that people be more important to us than the list of things we have to do that day or our possessions. It is, after all, the people around us who are eternal, not the stuff we use or the money we make.”