During a season of deep struggle, her.BIBLE was more than just an audio Bible—it became a lifeline.
The closing bell barely finished its release song as the middle-schoolers spilled onto the sidewalks, independence at last. After two days of a weekend respite from studies, the adolescents sniffed freedom from the Monday school blues. Greeting them along the escape route was an adult crossing guard, monitoring their movements and blocking traffic as they made their frenzied getaway.
Across the road, David Urquhart, a longtime staff member with Cru® Inner City Los Angeles, was also surveying the action as leader of a four-day Urban Immersion™ mission trip, which brought seven college students to LA for ministry and outreach during their spring break.
The annual program, a collaborative effort between Inner City and Cru Campus, is designed to expose college students to evangelism opportunities in some of the nation’s particularly vulnerable neighborhoods. The mission project is an opportunity for young adults to experience in real time, Inner City’s mission statement of “Living out the Great Commandment and Great Commission with churches in the inner city.”
This year’s team, including students from the University of California San Diego and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, hosted events in local parks and at Venice Beach; toured the urban neighborhood of Compton, one of Los Angeles’ most isolated and maligned communities; participated in a training session on gang culture; hosted a community dinner; and handed out drinks and snacks outside of Prairie View Middle School in Hawthorne from several tables.
The Prairie View outreach, which involved Inner City staff members, volunteers and the Urban Immersion participants, also included worship music and the distribution of gospel bead bracelets, which use color beads to explain the salvation story. Although his primary role was to serve as a mentor, Urquhart said the event reaffirmed that God works through the seasoned and the rookie.
“Here is this picture of this young man ... that just wants to sit and listen.”
Before school let out, Urquhart explained to the UI students that the pace would be frenetic and to be prepared for limited touchpoints. Some students will want to talk, he told them, others will want to keep going,
“A few of us were kind of inviting students (into conversation) because most of the junior high students were kind of skeptical, or at least curious,” Urquhart said. “What are these guys doing here on the street corner, and what do they want?”
While many darted off toward other distractions, dozens of students hung out, taking it all in.
“We were telling them we're here to worship the Lord, and you can do that wherever you're at, in school, at home, in sports, on the street corner,” the ministry leader said. “I think a lot of the junior high students kind of got it, like, ‘Oh, wow. This is pretty cool.’”
Soon, Urquhart was deep in discussion with a young man named Alex, who demonstrated a basic understanding of the Christian faith. As the college students moved about ministering to the other kids, several of them watched Urquhart’s approach as he shared the gospel.
“Here is this picture of this young man in junior high that just wants to sit and listen,” Urquhart said. “I talked to him about how the Bible is God's Word for us, and the gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — kind of focus on different parts of God and Jesus and His character.”
Eventually, the conversation turned toward salvation, and Urquhart reached for one of the gospel bead bracelets, which are simple leather cords with colored beads that symbolize different aspects of the Resurrection story. Geared toward smaller children, the gospel beads are a foundational tool of Cru Inner City and are often included in Easter Bags and Boxes of Love®, our annual Thanksgiving meal for families.
After explaining the colors, Urquhart posed a question about Alex’s salvation.
“Is this something that you want?”
“Yes,” said the adolescent, who had been short on words but not interest.
“We prayed to trust the Lord, to come into his life and to be the Lord of his life,” Urquhart said.
In the space between talking and silence, Alex eventually admitted he wanted to read the Bible more before going quiet again. Sensing he was holding something back, Urquhart deftly used the awkward silence to allow Alex to process his spiritual awakening when the teen’s shyness gave way.
“When I saw you guys, I wanted to stay and listen. I wanted to be here.”
“My mom normally picks me up from school, but today I wanted to walk,” Alex said. “When I saw you guys, I wanted to stay and listen. I wanted to be here. This is why God had me here.”
Alex’s observation created an opportunity for Urquhart to explain the role of the Holy Spirit.
“I told him, that's the Spirit inside of you, giving you wisdom and direction … He's living inside of you,” the program leader revealed. “He listened, even in the midst of all the commotion and the busyness, he stopped and listened and kind of took it in.”
More than 30 minutes after he first approached the Inner City team, Alex prepared to leave, but not before asking if he could have one of the gospel bracelets. Urquhart gave him a handful and a challenge.
“This is one simple way that you can share your faith with other students, with other people around you,” he told Alex. “A simple step of faith and growth that we can take is taking the message, believing it and then sharing it with others.”
Having the bracelet as a tool allowed him to have a tangible next step.
“By the end, I could tell he was beaming. He was literally beaming. It was kind of one of those quiet internal beams, not doing cartwheels on the outside.”
Alex’s conversion was just one of the highlights of the Inner City outreach, Urquhart said. Throughout the trip, the ministry teams shared the gospel more than 100 times, with another person also deciding to follow Christ. Three high-schoolers attended the community dinner and indicated a desire to grow in their faith.
Through the homeless outreach, 100 sack lunches were provided, as well as prayers for safety and salvation. A pregnant teenage couple was given baby shower gifts and prayers.
During one of the park events, Daniel Chmiel, from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said he met a man named Caleb, who was interested in what the group was doing. Caleb confessed he had walked away from God and was ashamed of his past.
“We just affirmed how much God loves him and nothing that he has done will ever make him too far from God,” Chmiel said. “He will always forgive him. He started tearing up. It was so impactful that his friends came over asking, “What did you do to him?’ We got to share the gospel with them, too.”
UCSD student Makai Gomi said he was moved by a generational exchange between a kid and Pastor Woody Robinson. The 62-year-old pastor leads South Bay Celebration Assembly, which hosted one of the gospel events. During the gathering, Pastor Woody noticed a middle-schooler playing basketball by himself. The pastor didn’t hesitate, joining the teen shooting hoops.
“The moment just spoke to me and (it showed) how powerful a moment or person can be,” Gomi said. “It felt profound on a level that makes me want to impact my community, just like Pastor Woody has on his.”
“She let us pray over her ... grateful to have others treat her as a person with value.”
Cal Poly’s Breanna Smith was touched by a conversation with Sol, an unhoused woman who told her and Urquhart about recent violence against her by others, including someone who intentionally drove into her while on her bicycle, and an encounter with police that resulted in one of them punching her, then impounding and selling her car. Sol confided that the violence against her left her numb.
After hearing Sol’s story, the team offered comfort, along with sandwiches and a Homeless Care Kit that contained a warm blanket, socks, gloves, scarf, hat and toiletry items.
“We listened to her and she was so appreciative of us giving her food and blankets,” Smith said. “She let us pray over her and she seemed so grateful to have others treat her as a person with value.”
Urquhart said the exchange also left an impact on Smith.
“It stuck with her,” he said. “As we walked back to the rest of the group, she was quiet for a little bit because it's such a heavy story.”
The encounter allowed Urquhart to remind Sol and the Urban Immersion students that the only salve for deep-seated hurt is Jesus Christ, the son of God, who sees us.
“We're not there to solve everything or point her to every resource,” he said. “Just having somebody there from the church that can listen and empathize and speak encouraging words, (to share) that we are made in God's image, that we are not alone, that God does not want us to live numb, and to affirm that she's experienced some incredible injustices.
“There are a lot of hurts in the city, but we serve a God who knows each and every one of them, and we believe he can restore people back to Himself and back into healthy relationships with each other.”
Lori Arnold serves as the senior writer for Cru's inner-city ministry.
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