Reaching the City…Through L.A Reaching L.A

 Joseph is on the leadership team of  “LA Reaching LA” (LARLA). In a little over a year LARLA has a network of 55 churches reaching out to 88 cities of Los Angeles County.  These are multi-ethnic churches reaching the inner city, Muslims, young professionals, hipsters and the  wealthy areas of LA.  The churches are also reaching people groups from around the world living right here in Los Angeles:  including: Iranians, Mexicans, Nepalese, Filipinos, Armenians, Koreans, Cambodians and Afghans.  God has blessed LARLA as well in helping to start churches internationally in Mexico, Guatemala, Nepal and the Philippines! Over 100 people have made decisions for Jesus this past year through the churches!   We  recently were a part of the one year celebration of “LA Reaching LA” and it was so encouraging to see the many churches celebrating how the Lord has been using them in their communities, as well as hearing testimonies of many who left the life of drugs and crime to come to Jesus! Please pray for many more to be reached as we provide training, resources and help to pastors reaching their community..  Here is a great video of one church worshipping the Lord  during the celebration dinner!     https://youtu.be/PdPkHYO71Nk

Reaching the City… Through Helping Churches Reach Their Community

ThriveLA is a new church in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. Joseph has been meeting with Pastor Andrew to encourage, pray over different neighborhoods with him, engage in spiritual conversations with people in the neighborhoods, and discuss leadership development, training in starting a church, church structure, evangelism and discipleship.  Silver Lake is an area with many unreached young professionals and millennials.  ThriveLA has been intentionally reaching out to the community and recently began a book club in a Café that has over 30 people attending that they are building  relationships with!  They also began a bible study on marriage and dating that is drawing many from the community.  Please pray for the many young professionals and millennials that do not have a desire for church—that they would come to know the Lord!

Reaching the City… Rescuing One Girl at a Time!

A young girl rescued from sex trafficking!  Our hearts are overflowing with thankfulness to see a young 16 year old girl rescued from the horrible world of sex trafficking right here in our city.  This January we partnered with EveryOne Free again to host our third clinic in the city of  Pomona reaching out to girls and women caught in the sex trafficking industry and desiring help.  There were different local organizations present with recovery resources, mental health services, Christian safe houses, as well as clothing, hygiene products and food. In-n-out burgers blessed the women with free food.  We praise God that at this past clinic one young girl from our area came seeking help and returned home and was reunited with her mother!

Reaching the City…by empowering teens to be advocates to fight sex trafficking!

Another huge answer to prayers is how the Lord has opened so many doors for us to do sex trafficking prevention in the public junior high and high schools of high risk areas throughout Los Angeles County! Joseph and EveryOne Free ministry have been sharing at numerous schools this past month and teachers and principals are eager to have them come and share.  California accounts for nearly 20% of all sex trafficking cases being reported in the United States.  Sex Trafficking cases have increased 300% since 2012.  The average age of a girl to be trafficked is 12-14 and a boy is 11-13 years old.  Prevention is so important! Praise God they were able to share at Claremont High School and Northview High School this month and have more schools lined up within Pasadena and Anaheim soon!

Family Update…

Finished up another season of Freshman and JV Basketball!

A good friend is teaching Jessica how to ride and she loves it!  We also just celebrated 10 months with this precious daughter of ours!

Thank you so much for your continual prayers and support to us as we reach out to Los Angeles with the life changing message of Jesus!