The Little Angeles

Wow, quite alot has happened since I last updated this blog... It's been almost 6 months, and school is now out, which means the main part of our job at Central City is finished until the fall, when the kids start school again after summer break. So much to write about in these last 6 months, where do I begin? Or where do I end? Let's work backwards.

School is out (June 20), and I get on a plane for Sioux Falls, South Dakota to spend a few days with Kadie, my girlfriend, and her family. It is wonderful. Kadie and her family are amazing, and spending time with them is good for me. It reminds me of God's love for me. They take me for who I am and let me belong. The love of Christ is wide and deep.

While in Sioux Falls, a sadness hits me. I think about a boy in my class who has suffered abuse. I think about another boy in my class who lives without his father in a slum hotel with his mother and older brother. I think about another brother and sister in my class who live without their father, being moved with their mother and siblings from one temporary house to the next. I think about another two brothers who live with both parents, but who are struggling to make it to school every day because of the long bus ride from their temporary home. I think of another boy in my class who recently came to downtown with his mother and three siblings and are staying in the Union Rescue Mission. All of these children are between the ages of 5 and 7 years old. All have amazing smiles, beautiful laughs, eyes full of wonder and playfulness, bodies that rarely run out of energy (!!), questions about the world, an eagerness to learn and be good kids, hearts that ache for reasons they sometimes don't understand, hair that is braided in rows or cut short or grown long, clothes that stay on their back for several days at a time, mouths that never seem to eat enough candy, cavities that cause them pain because they rarely see a dentist or are disciplined to brush their teeth and floss everyday, hands that draw and paint and write and throw and hold and wash and hit and plug their ears and scratch backs. Normal children. With parents who were normal children. Living in a city that is so diverse and spread out and polluted, full of opportunity but still cold at night. And in a culture of individualism. Living in rooms infested with cockroaches or rats, or sleeping against a wall containing harmful chemicals that the health inspector seems to have missed. Living on the bus, on the sidewalk, in the hallway, in the playground, in the crosswalk, in a shared hotel bed, in a mission room, in a temporary apartment, in a classroom, in a sanctuary, rarely in a park, in a bathroom shared by everyone on that floor, in the city of angels. How many of her angels have bent their ear to hear the story of the homeless? How many are ready to refuse the labels "illegal immigrant" or "irresponsible mother" and instead listen to the years of struggle and pain and joy the families of skid row have endured together? God, forgive us for wanting easy labels to file our would-be friends away and get back to our television sets or our fantasy novels. Forgive me for being more passionate about the story of Harry Potter than the story of my brothers and sisters filling the streets of downtown.

The sadness remains as I return home to Los Angeles after spending my last days with Kadie until September. Now on top of it all, I miss my girlfriend! And sometime between then and now, God reminds me: He will make things right. He is making me like Him. He is coming to establish His kingdom (or nation) on the earth, including the soil that cradles LA. Promises, promises. His promises are good and sure. And I find hope, somewhere in the waiting for Him, and let go of my desire to save the poor and the rich from their troubles. Jesus saves. Not me. And the sadness changes into a peaceful kind of ache. I'm not sure how to pray, but I know He knows me and won't let me wander off from His embrace for very long. So I'm free. And I pray for this freedom for my friends. For the children. For the earth.

There will be more to come, as this blog only covered the last two and a half weeks! Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry for not updating this more often. It feels really good, you'd think I'd do it more for that reason alone!

Justin