Counting down to our official launch/ Grand Opening this Sunday (3-25-18) has got us (our CORE Team/ church family) super busy with the remodeling of our nursery (even though the building is not ours), evangelizing and outreach, multiple promotional/ ad campaigns, coordination of guest/ visitor invitations, putting together 300 gifts bags for guests, building on relations within the community at all levels… all while doing the regular work of being missional with my friends, neighbors, and anyone else in the community that will exchange in convo with me for a couple of minutes…it can all be pretty exhausting. Yet, I’m currently traveling and in Holland, Michigan for some training that is specific for religious fundraising for Latinos…all this while being just a few days away from our big day. . .all these kinds of things added to trying to date my wife, hang out time with my son, date my daughters, AND…AND full time seminary and part time hospice chaplain can be alot… but then I received this text from a good friend with this picture attached:
I know that some of you are looking at this and not knowing why it’s a big deal… I got another text from the homie Chris King who’s an Elder at The Church at Del Aire in Hawthorne, an ACTS 29 church plant, and his text read, “Driving into Hawthorne this morning on the 105 and saw your ad pop up on the Plaza Mexico marquee…” this is the typa’ stuff that’s a game changer, this is the typa’ of stuff that makes all the other stuff worth it, this is the typa’ stuff that allows me to see God’s hand all over what we’re doing for Him at RCLA and affirm our calling yet again. This sign right here is located in one of Lynwood’s greatest attractions. . . Plaza Mexico, which is home to over 250 shops and restaurants, has thousands of shoppers there daily, maybe even tens of thousands. . . it is a venue for many Latino festivals, especially those that arise from the Mexican culture… but this is an even bigger deal because this huge sign/ marquee rests just off to the side of one of L.A.’s busiest freeways (105 Freeway) that runs directly through Lynwood and Watts on the way to LAX airport… so hundreds of thousands of people drive by this sign everyday. . . this is really cool, and God has placed His special people in our lives that have helped make things like this happen, things that have surpassed anything we’d ever anticipated. . . God’s sense of humor is this though, that in our original prospectus and business plan for what we felt God calling us to at RCLA in Lynwood, Plaza Mexico was a large part or focus. We hoped and prayed Plaza Mexico would be a part of whatever we do in Lynwood to be a blessing to our new community, and then this happeed… just days before our official launch. . . ya’ll don’t even know, I got goosebumps when I saw this. An answered prayer to what we’d hoped to eventually do here…and this sign before we launch just leaves me in awe of God and His mercies… (Lamentations 3:22-23)
One of my new friends, Fernando Martinez owner of Global Cuts Barbershop in Lynwood, is someone I’ve been cultivating a friendship with and have been blessed to have him come to church with his family, getting to know him, and his hunger to get closer to God is an amazing experience for me. I remember the first day he visited us at RCLA it just so happened that we had a guest preacher that day (doesn’t happen too often) but when it does, you know it’s a big dog in the faith, and we were honored to have had the Rev. Dr. Tim Brown, President of Western Theological Seminary bring some fire to the pulpit. This was the first of many times Fernando and his family have come hang out, I pray that our relationship would grow, and he would get to know Christ like I do…one of Fernando’s barbers is a young homie that comes from the same type of background as mine, Franko is a recent addition to the shop and we’ve had great conversations. I was able to recently help get him plugged in with one of my boys at Homeboy Industries where he’s getting multiple tattoos removed from his head, face, and neck. I’m hoping he’ll be at our launch this Sunday along with Fernando, Yesenia, and Mykol to praise God amongst friends and family.
If you’ve helped us out, prayed for us, supported us financially, encouraged by our posts, motivated to do more for Christ, or simply like us… please continue to pray for us and know that you’re invited to join us this Sunday at 12 Noon at:
Reformed Church of LA
3801 Cortland Street
Lynwood, CA. 90262
Church Planting In The Hood 