A Member of Acts Ministry International

Tithing and Offering

LA Trade Tech. Wed. Dec.13 at 6 am.
Meet in downtown to provide free coffee and donuts to the students at LA Trade Tech during their finals week.

This was one step Tapestry wanted to take to bless our neighbors, the students at LA Trade Technical College. Seems simple enough – we start by engaging in the community. Yet, I honestly didn’t want to go; I didn’t want to engage in the community. Waking up by 5:30 am in the middle of a busy work week was the last thing I wanted to do. But, I went. And by the end of a short 45 minutes, God had completely changed my heart.

Spending the morning meeting the students (young and old) was such a blessing. Despite having finals starting at 7 am, they were happy, warm, and welcoming towards us. What a privilege it was for me to be able to interact with the students just a little bit, and to simply connect with them. While such statements may seem rather general, unrelatable or undescriptive – perhaps that’s the point. What’s cool to me is that nothing special or super “spiritual” happened. It was completely ordinary. But I think the act of participating was my way of saying “yes” to God, and He took that and through me physically being in the city, He is transforming my heart.

I was reminded that sometimes we need to say yes to God, even if we don’t want to, and He will do the rest. Though I started with asking God to help soften my heart in prayer, I couldn’t stop and wait for Him there. I had to continue on to take steps. Even just small steps of action to allow God to start truly transforming my heart; to allow Him to show me before my very eyes, His heart and love for His people. I am now excited to take baby strides with my Lord to serve and engage locally; and I never would have wanted to if I didn’t take the first unwanted step to begin with.

Eisner Health Center. Thursday Afternoon.

5 of us met at Eisner to help them distribute toys to their child patients. When we entered the room, I was surprised by the amount of toys being distributed. Toys were donated by the mayors office, council members, toy distributors, private donors and of course Tapestry. As an organization that has been in L.A. over 90 years, Eisner has developed strong partnerships throughout the city. Over 90% of the patients who use the clinic are Latino.

Passing out gifts to children and parents, I was able to see so much joy in the children’s hearts, it was a blessing to see them so happy. Although my interaction with the children and their families was brief, my prayer was that they would experience God’s love through the simple act of gift giving.

We also interacted with other volunteers and Jake, the events/social media coordinator from Eisner. He mentioned there’s always a need for volunteers so hopefully we’ll have further opportunities to work together. We invited him to our church and he seemed interested.

New Rhythms.

Thank you to all the Tapestry members that donated toys and gifts for teenagers and children. Thank you for showing love. Moving into 2018, we want to continue to build strong relationships with our neighbors and partner with organizations. Pray God will continue to lead us to those he wants us to serve and love. Each opportunity is a beginning and step. We want to be present and loving in South Park. To have opportunities to bring flourishing to the city and to share Christ’s love.

Thank you,

TLA Missions Core Team
Family Member | Servant | Missionary

We exist to glorify God by making disciples through gospel-centered and Spirit-empowered mission, growth and community.

But seek the welfare of city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Jeremiah 29:7

My job at LAHSA is as a Performance Management Analyst. I work closely with our contracted agencies to ensure that they are operating at their best, providing technical assistance, training, and guidance.

1. What is most challenging working in this field?

There are multiple facets when considering challenges in the homeless social service field. Each is quite nuanced. For instance, the challenges I faced as a “street” clinician are very different than the ones I face as an analyst. Thus, I won’t be able to answer comprehensively since it would take too long, but personally what I encounter on a daily basis now is a major issue of capacity building for agencies throughout the County. Measure H funding has provided a plethora of resources never seen by homeless social services.

$355 million a year is a lot of money to manage and the scrutiny it receives from local government is extensive. Agencies are literally building the plane, while flying it too. Many of the social service providers are receiving new monies that provide resources to create new and necessary programs, but have such a hard time staffing, training, understanding program regulations, and meeting performance targets.

My job is to work with all providers to ensure that they are performing optimally, because not only are tax payer dollars at stake here, but thousands of people experiencing homelessness count on it too. Not everyone is primed for this new era though. Agencies are used to doing things the old way, and so educating not only line staff to perform well, but also managers and executives is of prime importance. We need strong leadership that is willing to adapt to new methods of accountability, management, service provision, and training. The list can go on and on.

2. What can the average citizen do to help end homelessness?

Be educated! This is extremely important! LAHSA provides community informational events where our directors and staff, who conduct and write reports used by the media, are present and willing to answer your questions. Homelessness is so complicated, because it involves many societal aspects and systems.
I know that learning about homelessness can be daunting, so I would suggest people to start reading about the affordable housing crisis in Los Angeles. Urbanize.LA is a great blog to stay up to date on that information. The reason I say first start there is because of the new faces of homelessness that are rising due to high housing prices. People are easily paying 60-80% of their incomes just to have a home.

Talk to your local nonprofits. I used to work for an agency called The People Concern who trains their volunteers on the issues of homelessness, and also in the appropriate way to interact with someone who might be experiencing homelessness. They then have different shelters, drop-in centers where volunteers can work along with actual staff. I would also suggest that typical donations of clothing, food, and hygiene items be sent to these nonprofits. I’ve led an outreach team and we would utilize donations every day to “break the ice” with people who normally wouldn’t want to interact or talk with anyone. These are precious resources to these outreach teams, and a tool to begin the relationship building process with people experiencing homelessness.

3. What is most exciting about how there is more focus on this social issue in LA?

People may not realize this, but Los Angeles is a major leader in the nation for homeless social services. Measure H is a miracle, and it has provided the groundwork for new and innovative strategies to combat homelessness. Yes, there are new issues that come along with the funding, but it is exciting every day to go to work. Things don’t just remain in the theoretical or conceptual, instead ideas are being piloted and funded. This is probably one of those rare times where you can say it is simply exciting just to be able to go to work.

4. How do you see your work as part of restoring God’s kingdom?

I think there are obvious biblical connections that could be made in helping to end homelessness, and it’s not to discount the “restorative” properties that this work entails, but for me restoring God’s kingdom through my work has been more like being a good example to my coworkers, caring for them, and trying to show Christ’s love. It is also about being diligent in my work – being the best that I can be to my coworkers and clients. There is so much room for innovation and development in what I do too, so I ask God for inspiration and for him to use me to incorporate his standards, his values, his gospel into this new foundation of homeless social services. Right now there is such a prioritization to house those experiencing homelessness, and of course that is extremely important and relevant to the issue, but the more I do this work, the more I realize how often the gospel is overlooked. That is what is most important at the end of the day, and I want to do whatever I can to obey God even if it means just to uplift a coworker who is feeling discouraged or having a good attitude when work gets tough.

From 2011-1013 we had an event called Traffick Jam Walk-a-Thon. It was a nationwide fundraiser held by the Hard Places Community to support sexually abused and trafficked boys in Cambodia.  The first year for Traffick Jam was 2011 and it was a huge success. Nationally we raised over $75,000; enough to open Punlok Thmey Prevention and Restoration Center for Boys in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and fund it for most of the year. Punlok Thmey (poon-lok ta-my) is a drop-in center for boys ages 5-24 who are at risk of being sexually exploited. The area we have chosen for the center has a high concentration of boys working and living on the streets. Because of the poor economic state and lack of education of the majority of these boys and their families, they are at high risk for exploitation by local men, tourists, and expatriates. The fact that on September 12th, 2011 the center was able to start it's programing is a huge blessing. God cares about these children and wants them to be whole and have a future.

- Short term trip to China 2019 winter -
Reminder:  Deadline for donations is January 2nd!

Church is sending 5 short-term missionaries to the city of Hope to share His LOVE with students from Feb 2 to Feb 10th.
 
Our mission is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with these young people of China.

The team will be teaching the Word, praying, sharing, activitities such as Arts & Crafts, Body worship/Hip hop dance, Games, Skit, and doing everything we can so that these students will get a glimpse of God's Agape Love!

Please join us by Praying and Giving as the Lord leads.

Please pray for  
1.Unity: bind the team in Love and Truth of Christ.                      
2.Protection: the team and students before, during & after the trip
3.Salvation: every student will encounter God's Agape LOVE
4.Provision: enough funds to be raised within a short amount of time

We are John and Susie. We met in college our freshman year and started dating during a study abroad program in Africa. From the beginning of our relationship we shared a passion for service and international development work. Early in our relationship, we realized we ‘sharpened’ each other. We encouraged each other to take all our ideas of bringing heaven to earth from an ideology to a reality.

There is no doubt whatever about the clear Biblical injunctions that impose a social responsibility upon the Christian, and especially a concern for the poor and underprivileged (as e.g. in James 2:14-16 and 1John 3:17, and numerous passages in the Old Testament). These do not, however, require us to follow headlong in the train of every person or organisation or body of opinion that claims to be promoting social justice. Not only has God clearly imposed social concern upon us in the Scriptures, but in them He has also given us guidelines to direct us.

What, then, is social justice in Biblical terms? "Justice" and "righteousness" are part of a way of life which God expects of us as His people (see e.g. Micah 6:8; Ps. 11:7; 1John 3:7). This stems from the kind of character which we possess, and is in turn the reflection of what God Himself is and how He acts (1John 3:7). Social justice is essentially the outworking of this way of life in our relationships with others. It is thus not an option that we may accept or avoid at our choice; it is a necessary part of our practical Christian living.