Meet Our Summer Interns: Ashley

Hello readers, my name is Ashley Salazar and I am going to tell you about whom I am, what I love, and my exciting plans for this summer. Lets start with who I am and a little about myself. I am a seventeen-year-old girl who was born and raised in Long Beach, California. Growing up was amazing with my big loving family, we were all so close. I attended Valley Christian Schools all my life, and have made such great memories and friends through that community. My freshman year of high school I experienced the loss of my brother Jason. My family and I were very distraught and heartbroken. Although I loss one of my best friends, and it made me weak, but I was able to build a strong relationship with The Lord and I am so grateful for that.

            As a girl there is a lot of things that I am passionate about like shopping, cosmetology, and consistent Netflix movie nights. But, in my sophomore year of high school I experienced this thing that people liked to do in their free time called volunteering. I knew it had something to do with helping people, but I wasn’t entirely sure of what it consisted of. My first time volunteering was at the Long Beach Rescue Mission in downtown. I absolutely fell in love with helping people and I felt like God had called me down to the mission for a reason; to find what I love to do. What I love about volunteering with people and others in my community, is at the end of the day, seeing everything we have accomplished, and most importantly, seeing everyone with a smile on their face.

            Volunteering led me to join a class through my school called Service-Leadership which, in summary, is a class where every Wednesday, groups of students go out into the community and volunteer with different organizations, and that is how I came to know Kingdom Causes Bellflower. I have been volunteering with Kingdom Causes ever since (two years now) and I have developed great relationships with the employees here. I later discovered that they offer summer internship opportunities for high school graduates! I was so excited because I had recently decided that I wanted to go into Social Working and get my degree in it, so I thought this was absolutely God's calling for me to be a part of this organization.  I interviewed, and am thrilled to have been selected as an intern! I am going to be the intern involved with Homeless Outreach and Our Place Housing Solutions. I am so incredibly excited for this summer’s internship and I cannot wait to see what God has to in store for me this summer.

Bellflower lost a very important neighbor...

On May 30, 2015, Bellflower lost a very important neighbor--Charlotte Forrest.  If you knew Charlotte, you would have fond memories of her dancing her heart out at the Bellflower Streetfests every summer, organizing the annual coat drive for Bellflower Unified Schools, and serving with the Lord's Church food pantry, among other things.  What you might not have known is how big of a role Charlotte played in my life as I was deciding what to do after graduating college. In that sense, I guess I consider her a mentor.

The thing about Charlotte is that she was truly a friend of the homeless and of the people most of us choose not to notice. Before I joined the KCB staff in 2006, she used to take me around with her to visit her friends. Sometimes she would bring food, sometimes she wouldn’t… but always she would spend time talking, listening, and praying with each person we would visit. I would do this maybe once a month with Charlotte and feel really good about myself for the “good work” I was doing.  Sometimes I cramped up from patting myself on the back too hard.

But for Charlotte, this was not a once a month volunteer activity--this was her life. Charlotte didn’t need a program or designated time to do outreach. Loving the poor and the stranger was something that oozed out of her being. There was no schedule.

Charlotte befriended and invested in people that many of us would just walk by and not notice. She recognized the value in them, she loved them, she helped them get connected to the resources they needed… and now they are stable families also giving back to the Bellflower community and serving the Lord.

I’ve had a hard time with her loss, if I can be honest. I’m so happy she’s not suffering… and even happier when I imagine her dancing around in heaven like she would every summer at the Bellflower Streetfests. But Bellflower lost a key servant and friend, and for that, I am sad.

To be frank, if more people in our churches and society were more like Charlotte in their willingness to truly befriend the poor and take risks on people, we wouldn’t need organizations like KCB.  I would love to see that happen.

So my challenge, both to myself and to you, is that we pick up where Charlotte left off. That we notice the people in our communities that go unnoticed. That we get out of our comfort zone and challenge our own stereotypes by becoming a friend to a homeless neighbor. That we honor God by keeping his command to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Isaiah 58 says this: “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."

Let’s carry on this Godly legacy that Charlotte leaves behind in Bellflower.  It's going to take a lot of us to make up for this loss.

-Chrissy

Meet our Summer Interns: Crystal

 

My name is Crystal Luque, I am nineteen years old, and have been a resident of Bellflower from the time I was five years old. I have grown more invested in my city each year of my life by singing with the Bellflower Unified School District  Elementary Ensemble, leading Bellflower Middle and High School’s activities, and learning more about my community by being apart of the Miss Bellflower 2012 court.

This past year, I was able to study at Hillsong College in Sydney, Australia because of the love and support my city has shown me. So now I want to spend my summer showing Bellflower the same love that encouraged me to make such a big step straight after high school. At the start of my summer just a year ago, I was graduating high school and boarding a plane to a place where I knew no one. Being away from home showed me what home really is. I hope to provide Bellflower with the warmth and acceptance that is needed for more young ones to dream big.

In the future, I hope to become a pastor and plant a church in Hollywood. Every good idea starts with one simple thought. Mine is to love openly, generously, and honestly. There is no better environment to do that than Kingdom Causes.

Meet our Summer Interns: Ryan

Hi there! My name is Ryan Leck. I am one of the summer interns here at Kingdom Causes Bellflower this year. Nine months out of the year I am a student studying accounting at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The other three months, however, I am spending at home in sunny Southern California. I was raised in the Bellflower area, so this place this place is very dear to my heart.

A few things about me: I love all things movie. Whether it’s going to the movie theater, spending my weekend watching Netflix, or watching an old movie for the one-hundredth time, I love it. Favorite movies include but are not limited to: Grand Budapest Hotel, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and the Star Wars movies (Yes, even episodes I-III). I am very competitive but like to pretend that I’m not. I hate losing. I just don’t show much I hate it when I actually lose. I also love jokes and secretly like good puns. GOOD puns. Not bad ones. Bad puns make everything worse.

This summer at KCB I will mostly be working with Shaun, Jason, and Abbey on the financial matters of Good Soil. However, I am just an intern, so pretty much anyone can tell me what to do and I’ll have to do it. It’ll be interesting, but I am excited to experience the things that God has set up for me in this internship.

14 Lives Could Change

On-going supportive services
provided for all our move-ins!

My husband, Cody, and I are hoping to one day own a home in Bellflower... but have you seen the housing prices in this area lately? They are no joke! We live in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the United States. In fact, Los Angeles County is ranked #10 as the least affordable area to rent or own a home.

But, why am I sharing this with you? Because, unfortunately, it makes our work with our neighbors in need even more complicated.


When someone is ready to get off the streets, even with a steady job (which is a whole different barrier to discuss!!), most housing is still far from their reach. That giant chasm between homelessness and a stable roof over their head is even larger because of our location in Southern California. This causes us to rely upon special affordable housing programs in order to get our neighbors permanently housed. As imperfect as they are, subsidy programs like Section 8 and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) often become our neighbors only tool for finding safe and stable housing.

At KCB/OPHS one of the many things we do in partnership with the local church community is working with neighbors who have been homeless for a year or more in order to help them track down resources to become housed. It's no small feat! When a homeless neighbor does get a voucher, we rejoice... and then we sort of panic. We panic because sometimes it feels next to impossible to find landlords willing to accept a tenant with Section 8 or VASH. I don't know how many times we've worked for years with a neighbor to finally line up a voucher only to have it expire because no one will rent to them. Frankly, it's heart-breaking.


We are part of a new system (we call it the Match.com of housing) that is now slowly connecting some of our most vulnerable homeless neighbors, many of whom you might know from a Saturday morning breakfast, with vouchers. Right now, we have 14 homeless neighbors, including a few families, and 3 veterans, with vouchers. More vouchers will likely be coming through in the next couple of weeks. Please pray that we find landlords in the next week or two willing to rent to our 14 friends!


The supportive services provided by KCB/OPHS do not end once our homeless neighbors are housed. In fact, our staff and volunteers provide on-going case management designed to keep our neighbors housed, paying bills on-time, and ultimately giving back to their community. Basically, we won't leave the landlords hanging!


If you know of any open apartments or have any connections to property managers willing to accept Section 8, please contact Becky, Kim, or Julie at 562-804-2189.

Fellows Update: Lindsay

Spring is here! And so are my allergies. I never experienced allergies in Michigan, but they make their presence very known with heavy sleeps, fuzzy brain, and the sniffles- cute and not so cute. But really, this is the extent of my complaints! God has been and is so good- I'm excited to write this letter to share His work in my life, in this program, and to connect for you my current context to my future plans (God willing). 

I'll start with my next steps. I'm headed to graduate school in Michigan at University of Michigan to begin my Masters of Social Work starting this coming Fall. Momentum starts to build in July, however. This reason combined with a family reunion at the end of June and some family plans in mid-June makes leaving on June 1 the most pragmatic departure date. These next steps bring with them waves of emotions including but not limited to excitement, anxiety, sadness, frustration, and happiness. The last five years of my life have been transient largely by choice, but I am becoming weary of the moving. In full candor, I thought this is where I would stay for a long while. I invest wherever I am, but this location carried a larger weight and a deeper pursuit in growing my roots. My heart hurts when I think about leaving my coworkers, my clients, my lovely roommate, the KCB community, my hospitable church, and the friends and family I have here that have embraced me beyond what I could have asked. Before I move on, I just want to say a deep, heartfelt THANK YOU. 

Next, an update on our neighborhood relationships. There are 2 relationships on our property that I embrace and that God has led us in. I'm investing and solidifying the ones already created while leaving room for new ones to be built and for prayer to make them possible. One way you could pray for us is to give us the words and the action to have more meaningful conversations with our friends on our property. 

Secondly, I've been involved with the Eucalyptus street neighborhood outreach. This is the most exciting part of the community development for me right now. I see the fruit of long-term relationships that have developed over time and patience and love for the youth on that street. I see the power of God's hand in their lives and our lives especially when the lives are lived side by side. My part in this outreach is limited due to timing, but I'm so grateful to have a picture and sense of where prayer is needed, so that I may pray while I'm away. I ask for prayers for our Wednesday nights when we are with the young adults, that hearts are opened and trust is built, that the Holy Spirit moves and breathes in our interactions. 

Our Church is a bit of a different picture right now.  In my heart and life, this issue hits close to home. Deep in the heart. My mother attended Calvin Theological Seminary and my younger sister is now accepted at Western Theological Seminary for this fall for her Masters of Divinity. Clearly this topic won't go away in my life, but my own personal conclusions didn't move me to discuss this issue anymore since I knew where I stood (and still stand). So when I was placed at this church and was informed this was their view, I put up walls. I came in hostile. I was thinking there was a huge mistake made. Like this was one big joke and KCB would jump out from behind a complementarian wall shouting GOTCHA!!! and then every idea I held dear would come together in a Utopian church community. But more realistically and spiritually, I was fearful God was going to teach me, stretch me, and humble me there, all of which terrified me to no end. Because when God moves, I can't deny it or look away.

My church is more and more like home. I'm ever grateful for the hospitality they show and the friendships I've built with my fellow members. I deeply care about the church and how it's doing, so the most recent discussion on women in office is something for which I'm requesting prayer. The topic is now on the table and being discussed in the church. I am learning more and more about myself, the church structure, the church body, how people disagree, how people (myself 100% included) find comfort in arguments based off of interpretations, and how pride is a primary driving force in many of these divisive arguments. My pride included.

Here is my request: please pray that we disagree well. That we seek to listen and understand before we build walls, accuse, judge, and get hot-headed. That we look inside the church at all the different lenses we bring to our discussions, our logic, our arguments, and our fears. And ultimately, I ask for prayer that we ALL submit to the Holy Spirit in the decisions being made. 

Thank you for reading!

I want to end this letter with proclamations of love: I love Bellflower. I love Kingdom Causes. I love BellOne. I love InJOY Rosecrans. I love my communities here. And ultimately, I love Jesus. 

Malachi 4:2 (I'm soaking up this verse right now. I just love the analogy.)

Lindsay

Fellows Update: Lucy

These last three months have been hard. There have been so many instances where I have chosen fear. Where I have chosen to take control of my life because of my fear, rather than surrender it up to God. God showed me that I get into this cycle of wanting to control my life. I get caught up in my own selfishness. It’s my way of pushing God out of my life rather than looking to God and recognizing his presence in my life. Life becomes about me if I choose control. My desires become more important than God.  My God who is constantly asking me to leave those feelings behind. My God who is constantly asking me to forgive myself like he has already done. My God who is asking me to see myself just as he has made me, in His image. 

This is what God has been doing in my heart. He has been prompting thoughts of his forgiveness, his strength, and his ability to heal the brokenness not only in me, but also in the world. God is gracefully showing me the areas in my life and heart that I need to hand over to him. God has been teaching me about vulnerability. Well he has actually been showing me how much I need to start being vulnerable. How I need to start admitting to myself and to those around me that I am a person who likes to be right. I am a person who thinks I know everything. I am a person who forgets that what I want isn’t actually always the best for everyone else. 

Goodness. I’m scared. I’m a scaredy cat. I don’t like to admit that I’m prideful. I’m a person who would rather have her roommates admit their faults before ever even touching on her own. This is why these past months have been hard. Because I have been learning how to talk through my feelings with God. Surrendering them to God. Surrendering them takes an immense amount of vulnerability. It takes me admitting that I don’t know everything and that I can’t do everything. But the second I do I realize that there’s so much power in vulnerability. That power comes from knowing I can rely on God for all that I can’t do. Being honest removes the barriers that I put between God and me. He becomes the center of my life when I choose faith in him rather than fear. Life is slowly becoming a conversation with Jesus, where I get to admit to God what I’m feeling, then work through that with Him. I’m learning how to be real with God, with my roommates and with the people he has placed me near. This isn’t easy and sometimes I just want to fall back into the superficiality that can come with daily interactions, because that seems easier than actually facing and discussing the emotions warring in my heart. But the world doesn’t need fake the world needs God. God has been so so gracious with his word. There’s verse in James 3 that I keep coming back to. Please join me in praying that God helps me rely on his wisdom, not my own. 

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness." 

James 3:13-18

Birthday Club

My birthday was on Wednesday. I had so many people texting, calling, and sending Facebook greetings that I eventually put my phone away on silent because I was constantly being interrupted from my work. Don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate all the attention I can get on my birthday--I just didn't have the bandwidth to respond to each one. Bottom line -- I felt incredibly loved and known.

Contrast that with Alice*. Alice has been living on the streets of Bellflower for a couple of years. I see Alice almost every day as I walk to the office. We usually chit chat, sometimes even getting into deeper issues of how her and her daughter ended up homeless. But I realized something. Even though I see her every day, I have no clue when her birthday is. More than likely, it passed without anyone making her a cake or even taking her out for a warm meal. Who is celebrating Alice?

Over the last couple of months, the team at Kingdom Causes has been struggling to find more tangible intersections between the church and our disenfranchised neighbors, like Alice. We have Saturday morning breakfast and showers, and various other food ministries among the local churches where volunteers can serve and become familiar with the faces of such neighbors. But where are the opportunities for relationship building... like really really getting to know each other's stories?

I think we need to learn the birthdays and celebrate some of the faces we see wandering the streets at night without a home. What if a women's small group celebrated Alice on her birthday with a meal, birthday cards and a cake? What if that same group also knew Alice's prayer requests during the month and checked in with her when they saw her walking around the city?

We are in the business of transforming lives. We see the most success when people of faith are walking alongside our neighbors. Will you take a small step towards that by joining our Birthday Club?

Click here to sign up and write "Birthday Club" in the comment section.

*Name changed for privacy

Community Fellows Update: Sarah

Hello Family and friends! I hope this finds you well. Thank you so much for all of your prayer and support over the last couple of months. It is hard to believe that I have been in this program for almost a year now. We only have two months left. I feel like we just moved into our apartment that we have lovingly dubbed “Hood Unit”. There are still some problems that have just become a
part of our everyday lives: such as our neighbor always parking in front of our garage, the ants,
our neighbor yelling to her cats at odd hours in the day while I’m trying to sleep, and random strangers ambling down the driveway. Such is life.  We are learning how to live in Bellflower and be truly comfortable with the wacky things that once irritated us.

There has been a lot going on in the neighborhood since I last updated you all. One of the more exciting things is that our church, which is a Christian Reformed Church, has decided to allow women to hold a position of leadership. I would say that, on a personal level, this issue has been the hardest to understand while I’ve been engaged with our church; but the church has prayed about it quite a bit and decided to implement that decision.  Our pastor has been very gracious about discussing the issue openly.  It has been quite encouraging to see the church coming together over this difficult decision, and I am excited to see how God will continue working in this place.  I am encouraged by meeting more members of the church and getting to know them better.

The second thing that I have been the most excited about in the last few months is that Lindsay and I are now part of a weekly youth group with some kids in our friends neighborhood. It has been such a blast! They are high school students and a couple students who are recent graduates.  God has been opening doors for some really great conversation and I have really loved getting to know them better.  It is so much fun to be involved with these kids and be learning more about the way they grew up, their relationship with their parents, and discovering how much their family and past influences how they view themselves.  I can only pray that I can help them understand how much Jesus loves them and is chasing after them.

I still am in need of your prayers. Always. I so appreciate them. I would really love prayers for direction in the coming season.  As lovely as it would be to just enjoy my last few months here, I do have to be thinking about next year and where God will be leading me.  I know it will be something great but I have no idea what it will look like.  Thank you again, for walking with me through this year.

Fellows Update: Noemi

I’ve noticed, in more than one way, the world tells us that we are not enough. Not strong enough smart enough, rich enough. The world tends to highlight everything that is wrong with us and then gives us a temporary “solution”. In reality, the world puts a Band-Aid on people who are looking for a cure. I think most of us would agree that being accepted into a group, no matter how good or bad, gives us a sense of purpose.

I like to think of myself as a person who is not judgmental and overall very accepting. In the past 9 months of getting to know my neighbors, I’ve noticed that’s not the case. I realized around month 5,that I saw my neighbors as projects and not people. I weighed there worth based on appearance, education and income. This realization made me feel guilty and self-righteous. I put people, who God designed in His image, into a category the world has already put them in.

I did not expect a particular neighbor to change my perspective. Here I thought I was going to come in like some white knight, but instead I got schooled. I think God used my neighbor to show me how He sees us. While we are underserving of God’s grace, He accepts us and adopts us as His own. God welcomed me with open arms into His family and it was like I forgot! I needed to accept my neighbor, like God did with me. I think that when we accept those who are struggling, we help them find their purpose. Hopefully leading them to find their value and purpose in Christ.

Romans 15:5-7 paints the picture I hope to one day experience:

“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God”

Community Fellows Update: Janet

Hello All.

I am well into the 9 month, and going into the 10 month of the Kingdom Causes program. I can’t believe how time has passed living on Eucalyptus Street. Living in Bellflower has been eye opener, in meeting neighbors, hearing their stories and our growing relationships.

Seeing my neighbors nearly everyday has been a neat living experience because I have gotten to  know more neighbors even more. It is different from where I used to live because my previous neighborhood is quiet and there does not seem to be much neighborhood interaction. Jesus has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone to be social and converse about anything with my neighbors. Jesus has shown me how sweet it is to engage in conversations at any time of the day with neighbors. Even if it was just a good morning or good-bye, it can be something that helps me get to know my neighbors.  

There are two neighbors in particular, who have welcomed me into their stories. I couldn’t believe how honest and open my neighbors were in sharing their life stories. One neighbor candidly shared her childhood, teenage years and family stories. It was neat how Jesus made things happen and I am glad she was willing to share, because it helped grow a relationship. I had the chance to connect with another neighbor when she shared her life story over coffee and snacks at a gathering we hosted in our neighborhood.  She began by sharing about her experience living in Bellflower and then she went on to share about herself and her family. She shared about how much she loves her sister and how she had to raise her. She also shared her challenges and struggles she personally has gone through. I see her as such a strong person because even through everything she went through, she does not let those things stop her from living her life. My neighbor does not let challenges keep her down, she always does something about it, to see the change. She is a kind and caring person and I am grateful for the opportunity Jesus opened for her to share her story with me. Jesus has taught me a lot about relationships and how important it is to be there for neighbors and friends. I also learned it takes time for community to develop and I definitely saw this living with my neighbors. I am very thankful for having the opportunity to be part of the Fellows program and Kingdom Causes because I definitely see the impact they make for Bellflower. –Thank you!

Prayer Request

Please continue to pray for Bellflower and its community.  Pray also for our Eucalyptus community that they can see Jesus wants them to be part of his huge family. Please pray over the friendships/relationships I have made with the neighbors I have gotten to know and for new ones to grow. Thank you for your prayers and God Bless.

Life Happens

Life happens.

This simple phrase is a no-brainer. Everyone knows that life happens. We experience it every day. Yet, somehow, I am continually surprised and thrown off guard by this simple fact. By the quickness of time’s passing. By the unexpected pain and trials. By the immeasurably joyful moments. By the monotony of the mundane.

Regardless of my surprise though, life continues to happen.

Jesus continues to draw me deeper into his life, into the pain and brokenness of this world as he walks through it with me, into the peace and grace of his love as he extends it to me and asks me to extend it to others.

Jesus continues to remind me. He reminds me of the fact that I do not have control over how life happens. He reminds me that when life happens, I have to trust him. Yet, he also reminds me that I have incredibly important choices to make when life happens. I may not be able to control how or when the hard, the joyful or the mundane happen, but I can control how I live in the midst of those things. I get to choose who to share those things with, who to love in the midst of those things and to whom I will surrender those things.

I confess, these last few months, I have been inconsistent in all of those areas-in my response to life when it happens. Jesus has shown me, in the midst of all of it, though, how important it is to be present. Life happens. All the time, life is happening: hard things are coming or going, happy moments are in constant movement, popping up all over the place. Yet, in the fluidness of life and all that it brings, Jesus gives me the opportunity to be in constant communion with him and with those around me, especially those I live with.

I have a friend who is in first grade. She lives in the apartment across from us. There are times when I get home and life has happened that day, in a big, hard way... And my friend wants to play with me or just sit and talk with me. In the second that I have to process her request and form my response, Jesus is also inviting me. He invites me into the life of my friend, into his love for her and reminds me to be present. It is far too easy for me to write off relationships and invitations from Jesus into the lives of those around me because I am ‘too tired,’ too exhausted from the happenings of life to do what he’s inviting me to: to rest in him and let his love consume and control me.

Yet, when I accept his invitation, there is truly no greater joy, no greater life on this earth, than the life I live with Him. I am praying for his reminders to lay aside my preoccupations with the happenings of life, past or future, and, instead, to be present in those happenings, walking with him, choosing to be a friend to others and to be sensitive to those around me.

-Gabi, Community Fellow 2014-15