urban immersion - a week serving los angeles
hello dear friends! i’m excited to share my reflections from the most recent trip i look with Tapestry LA church<3
background
from july 29th - aug 5th, i had the joy to serve on a second short term mission this summer called urban immersion. for the week, we volunteered at various organizations in los angeles aiming to serve the quartet of the vulnerable in the Bible - the poor, widow, orphan, and immigrant. given that the unhoused population encompasses most of these, a lot of our attention was focused there.
pre-trip thoughts
to be completely honest, before this trip, i was struggling a bit. coming out of my last mission trip immediately into my vocal cord surgery, i was feeling exhausted and honestly just wanted more time to rest. i also had doubts about this specific mission trip; i was unsure what kind of impact we would really make while volunteering at so many organizations. what was a few hours in a food kitchen going to do for the staff, for the unhoused, and the city at large? i grappled with these hesitations and lifted them up to God in prayer, knowing He would provide. i went in with the expectation that the Lord would use this experience in ways greater than i could see or fathom, and that i needed to put my trust in Him.
things that broke my heart
before this trip, i prayed that God would break my heart for what breaks His. and as i was anticipating, there was a lot of brokenness in the city that we encountered that was difficult to see.
skid row
the first day of the trip, we went to the heart of skid row and passed out hygiene kits. one of the first men we passed a kit to somberly said “no one cares about us. thank you for what you do.” while i was glad to have been of help, it hurt my heart that he and so many others feel overlooked and uncared for. soon after, we passed by a woman in a van who reached her arm out to grab a kit. after looking at the contents, she asked if we had more for her kids. suddenly, the van doors opened, revealing a sight that tugged at my heartstrings: six young girls cramped into the backseat, all arms reaching out towards me. this single mother could hardly provide for herself, let alone for her six other young and hungry children, all with needs of their own. i felt overwhelmed by the sheer need and desperation of the people at skid row.
as we walked around, i also recognized the complexity of the homelessness issue politically. i always knew that different parties had different theories on how to alleviate the issue, but seeing it in person made it real. on the same street, there was a sign promoting “healthy streets” in which people could live peacefully RIGHT next to another sign demanding there be no one on the streets. such contradictory policies are only one example of the many complexities underlying the politics of homelessness, and i couldn’t help but feel a bit jaded and cynical.
volunteering
the severe lack of support for volunteers also troubled me deeply. i had the chance to work in the kitchen at union rescue mission and hope gardens, both organizations that house, feed, and provide employment support/other resources to unhoused individuals on skid row. while at both organizations, we had around 5+ volunteers from our team help in the kitchen along with their staff, and it was still incredibly busy. we later found out at oftentimes there was only ONE cook in the kitchen doing all tasks - prepping, cooking, and serving the food, without external volunteer help. i was floored. it turns out that the day we were volunteering, they happened to have 3 cooks there for the first time that week, along with all of us as volunteers, and it still felt like there were unending tasks to do and a constantly a rush. i felt so convicted that there should be more consistent volunteers at facilities such as these, because while it’s nice to have a large inflow of volunteers once every few weeks, it is not sustainable.
salvation
lastly, i had difficulty understanding God’s plan of salvation for certain groups of people that seemed especially hard to reach. during one evening of the week, we separated into three groups to invite one unhoused individual from the area near church to dinner at a local fast food restaurant. my group ate with a young lady named liz. as we began talking, it was clear she was very mentally ill - her sentences were incoherent and didn’t have logical flow, and she could barely interact with our questions. while it was still good to talk with her and learn some details about her life, i felt like it was nearly impossible to truly reach her and get to know who she was. and even deeper than that, how could she learn about the promises of jesus while she could hardly understand our very surface level conversation or communicate her thoughts and feelings?
encouragement
despite the feelings of heartbreak, confusion, frustration, and hopelessness for the brokenness in the city, there were many moments where i saw God working.
skid row
while being in skid row was very dark, there were moments i felt so inspired by the very people we were serving and pushed to be a more loving person. we asked one woman if we could pray for her, and her response was “pray for everyone else here!” after speaking with her a bit more after, it was clear that she wanted the best for everyone with her in skid row, and not herself. she felt that she had enough and wanted her friends and community members in need to receive help first. this selfless attitude struck me. i am so quick to ask God for things for myself, with little room in my mind left for interceding on behalf of others. although she had plenty of things she could be petitioning God for or wanting more of, her mind is more consumed with how to benefit others, which is something i myself feel so challenged by.
andy
a huge highlight of this trip was witnessing andy, a local missionary, in his element. andy is a marketplace missionary, meaning he sees his mission field as his everyday work and aims to show people who Jesus is by just interacting with them daily. he works at chick-fil-a as just a typical worker, serving food and checking in with diners. but andy truly goes above and beyond in showing genuine care and compassion to everyone. because the demographic of this particular chick-fil-a is so international, he learned over 15 languages so he can converse with anyone he meets. he buys flowers every saturday in case a quinceanera comes in, but will give the flowers to anyone having a tough day if not. he does story hours in the morning so families come and children are entertained and he offers math tutoring in the evenings as well. regulars all know him and constantly inquire about why he is so kind, and he can share that it is because he knows and loves jesus!
andy also brought us on a trip to little india, where he took us into local shops and restaurants to explain specific facets of indian culture and religion. here, andy showed us what incarnational ministry looks like, which means to become like jesus so people know him through meeting you. andy knows so many of the shop owners by name and even their stories and religious beliefs. he learned gujurati, their native dialect, and learned the intricacies of their religion. andy makes his own chai in the morning with stainless steel pots and strainers from the family-owned shops and regularly cooks his own indian food. he forms close relationships with the locals in which they call multiple times a week and help each other out with family needs! this type of cultural immersion and love for people is so beautiful and encouraging to me. he sees each individual as someone to do life together with rather than just someone to spread the gospel to once.
union rescue mission & hope gardens
learning more about the work that URM and hope gardens does also brought me a lot of joy and hope. i thought URM was just a temporary shelter that would feed anyone who came in, but they go far deeper than that. each person living there has their own case worker, can receive free mental health support, have trained professionals to help them build resumes and apply for jobs, access to free online courses, all with a Christ-centered focus. hope gardens is more specialized, as they take single mothers from places like URM and give them food and housing in a beautiful mountain sanctuary, and from there offer employment support and rehabilitation. hope gardens also takes a christian approach in teaching these women that they are created with a purpose and redeemed and loved by Jesus. these teachings create true internal change in these women, as they renew the hope they have in life and have motivation to create lasting changes.
one such example is christine, one of the directors at both URM and hope gardens. she was homeless for many years before she finally decided to get help at URM and was referred to hope gardens. there, she met Christ and felt a renewed sense of purpose, graduating from the program and going on to work in the facility as staff. meeting christine was incredible - she is a strong and beautiful woman who fiercely believes in the efficacy of these programs, and specifically advocates for single mothers to find rest and restoration at these facilities.
personal<3
God also encouraged me on a very personal level during this trip. in the middle of the week, i realized that i didn’t feel as if i was connecting with the people i was trying to serve, or even other volunteers outside of our team. so i prayed thursday morning that God would give me just one person that day that i could form a deeper connection with. i spent the day at hope gardens and wasn’t quite able to strike up any meaningful conversations with the kitchen staff or any of the residents during lunchtime. i still trusted that God would show up but was feeling confused.
after serving in the kitchen, christine was giving us a tour of the campus but stopped halfway through to switch out with a different guide. I overheard her say something about back pain and sciatica. i had been struggling with back pain all week, and sciatica was an injury i was all too familiar with - i had gotten sciatica three years ago from a lifting injury. after the tour, i had the opportunity to do a task in the kitchen with christine, so i asked if she had been experiencing back pain. she responded that she had started experiencing symptoms of sciatica a few weeks ago, and that it had been worsening and impeding her ability to work. i shared that i had experienced something similar and explained some exercises that helped alleviate the symptoms. then i offered to pray for her. as i began praying, the other girls on our team came and laid hands on christine to pray for her as well. after our prayer, christine later shared that she felt moved to tears by our prayer and that she felt great power in it, and that she felt something lift from her during it and she was confident she would be healed from her affliction!
i was moved by this experience in many ways. God not only answered my prayer to connect deeply with someone, but also showed me the purpose in my own pain. while suffering from so many physical injuries in the past years, i have felt very hopeless and unsure why God allowed me to experience so many chronic pains. but instances like these showed me that it was only through my own pain that i was able to take notice of the small signs of her physical pain in her, and from that place of empathy, care for her. and in my own prayer for her healing - proclaiming that God is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals, that He also wants to heal me and desires to restore my physical body as well, in His timing.
team
lastly, God encouraged me through our team. He truly hand picked our team !! especially as we served, i felt like i learned what a servant’s heart looked like through other members - how quick they were to anticipate my needs, whether it be tightening my apron when it was too loose without me asking, or cleaning everyone’s dishes in the sink. the sacrificial love exhibited through any action, big or small, throughout the week pushed me to do the same for others while we volunteered.
parting thoughts
as i think about the doubts and struggles i had before this trip, i can now see how God spoke into each one. he revealed to me a few things:
firstly, i was doubtful of what impact we would make in such a short time. but who are we to put God in a box and say this is what He can and can’t do during a certain time? i have come to accept that God is always moving in ways we cannot see or understand. we must not lean on our own understanding, and trust in His character - that is He not only all good, but all powerful!
regarding salvation, i had a lot of worries as to what efficacy we were really having. we weren’t going around explicitly evangelizing to everyone we saw, and we didn’t have time to form deep relationships with people. but i realized that our goal isn’t to convert everyone we meet into a believer on the spot. it takes time to truly reveal the love of Christ to others and everyone is on their own journey in faith. if the only thing is that we are able to show them kindness just for that day, God can use that. put less pressure on yourself, just be obedient to the lord in the current task you’re given. and at the end of the day, it is God who saves, and not us.
i also realized that this trip was not only to have an impact on the city, but also ultimately to shape and form our own hearts to be more in line with Christs. to give us this heart for the brokenness in the city, to develop compassion. to pull us to serve in a more consistent ways AFTER the trip is over. personally, i hope to volunteer more regularly once i move to seattle and see seattle the same way i was able to see los angeles in this past week - a place where there is a lot of darkness and hurt, but nevertheless a city in which God cares deeply for every person and is actively moving, and wants to partner with us in His restoration work.
thank you all for reading this far<3 as always, reach out with any thoughts or questions, and i hope you caught a glimpse of God’s heart through this!
PS here is a video of our week:)