May 4, 2010

Friends of ICM:

            I will be killed if I have to return to my country.  I have committed my life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  I am from Pakistan.  I have just spent 7 months in jail seeking asylum in the USA.  I have been a flight attendant for 18 years.  But now I am running for my life.  He stood before me last Thursday morning after the Bible Study.  Can you help me?  I am staying at the local mission.  They have sent me over here to get bus money.  I have to report downtown LA once a month to the Immigration office.

            Whether his story is true or a an attempt to secure immigration into this country, our Basement Gathering family is committed to accept everyone’s story in the beginning as their truth.  The small stream of people who come from around the world is amazing.  We have had people from the strangest places and are reminded every time that Southern California is a gathering place for the World’s peoples. 

            Our mission is to speak from the heart the language of the heart that Jesus Christ is God the Creator of the Universe and He has a plan for each of us individually.  People who land on the “streets” of urban America are not looking for a message about our political position, relationship to the current social trends, nor how we feel about the Green movement.  They are looking for answers about “right now”.  I need a blanket because I am sleeping on the streets tonight.  I need a bus token because in the morning I need to get somewhere to tell my story.  I am looking for work and I have an interview at 10:00AM tomorrow.  I haven’t eaten in 24 hours, can you help me with change for a dollar hamburger.

            People who are not used to the chaos of no place to go tonight, nor no connections with anyone except the perveyors of madness—drugs and sexual liaisons,  are hoping we have some kind of immediate answer for their desperate plight.

            Several weeks ago a mother came to the Sunday night Gathering with three children in tow.  They have come from Arizona to escape a racially induced attack on their Section 8 home in a suburban neighborhood.  Their little change had run out for motel stays.  During the Basement meal they had connected with someone who had an extra tent.  So her plea was only for connections with agencies who would hear her story.  We were able to give her bus money and food money for several days.  She has returned with her husband, and reports that her stay on the LA River bed was short lived.  We were also able to give them shoe vouchers for their 3 children.  Her husband has already found work and they have a temporary place to stay.

            It is the little things including the language of love from the heart that people caught in the plight of living on the river are looking for.  As they begin to process the fact that in the Basement Gathering our message is consistent that only Jesus has a consistent and dependable survival plan for a growing awareness that governmental solutions are short lived and dependent upon economies that grow and shrink.  We pray daily that our own witness is consistent and dependable.  People are looking for examples of Jesus folk who admit that their feet are feet of dust and daily dependence upon the Mercy of God’s Guidance and supply to help us help them with the little needs that sometimes are the bridge to better things.

            Regularly we have people returning to give witness that Jesus has opened the door for employment which has given them a simple apartment and food on the table at night when they return from work.  It is in a small way an astounding list of peoples who have had a little help with bus fare, but more importantly the message about their importance in God’s Eye.  We understand why they move out from their Egyptian bondage in whatever place they have been trapped in.  We have homeless people coming from all over LA and Orange Counties--their place of bondage is wherever they have decided to leave.

            We are constantly reminded that consistency and dependability and the message of God’s Respect for each of us, when it connects with the heart and mind of the hopeless, bring about incredible change.  We are privileged to be part of the “Stones of the City” that cry out that God cares and we are here to be that voice.

            Thank you for your continuing prayer and support.

            Fred Newkirk,  Pastor-Director ICM