LAUP Update Number 1!

Hello everyone! Here is my first real LAUP update. I apologize for the delay in getting this up, but since my schedule's finally settling down, this will be happening much more regularly. 

So then, how was the Los Angeles Urban Project? Well, fictitious reader, LAUP was intense, and the first day set the tone for the remainder of the program. What happened the first day was that everyone met at the church on Workman St (our normal meeting place), and drove out to LA's financial district. It was pretty familiar to me-- not that I've ever been there before, but if you've seen one financial district, you've seen them all, right? The only thing was that once we got there, we walked down to Skid Row, then circled around and walked back. The entire trip took maybe 45 minutes, there and back. 

Now, here are some pictures to help you imagine the change in scenery. Here's the financial district:

Pretty typical, right? It looks like a nice place to be. Clean sidewalks, shiny new cars, and skyscrapers. Everyone you see is in sharp business attire and walking with purpose, and there's a faint aura of money in the air. Basically what you would expect from any metropolitan economic hub. 

Now here's Skid Row: 

The streets here are devoid of cars, but full of people. People sit on the sidewalks with nowhere to go, with all their belongings in shopping carts or set next to them on the ground. People line up half a block for get food from the missions or soup kitchens. The sidewalk is cracked, there's old, blackened gum stuck everywhere, and there's a faint but persistent smell of garbage and urine. It's a whole different world just a couple blocks down, and walking back up to the financial district is just as mentally jarring as walking down to Skid Row. You can literally see the socio-economic level rise and fall before your eyes. 

Here's a helpful parallel to give you some idea of just how close these two are. Imagine getting off a flight, going through the airport terminal, passing the baggage claim, and walking out to the sidewalk. It takes the same amount of time to get from the financial district to Skid Row. 

Over the next few days, we continued to become better acquainted with LA. We got to visit some historically and culturally signifiant places (such as Olvera Street, Chinatown, and Hollywood), read articles on inner city issues, and each night we all gathered at the Workman St. Church to listen to speakers who live and serve in the city. During each of those nightly meetings each team would come up with one major issue affecting the inner city, attach it to the second-floor guardrail, and tie string to two more related issues other teams observed. For example, if my team saw that gangs were a problem, we could tie it to incarceration and then to unemployment. After only a week of being in LA, we had built a web of 40 different, interrelated issues hanging above us during every meeting. It was unbelievably oppressive, and it made me feel so angry and hopeless. Even if we were to cut one issue off the walls, its links to other ones would stop it from falling-- an apt metaphor for attempting to fix any one problem at a time. 

Not a great picture, but imagine worshipping underneath all that. "Sexual abuse", "broken families", "drug addiction". 

During worship on the last night of orientation week, we got to cut down the whole web. It wasn't a ceremony so much as a declaration-- that the only way that these problems can ever be adequately addressed is through the power of Jesus. He himself declared that "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." -Luke 4:18-19.

Brothers and sisters, there is no governmental program on Earth that could take down this web. No non-profit has the power to tackle this, and we by ourselves are outrageously and hilariously inadequate for a job of such staggering magnitude. The only possible answer is God himself, and if we have any hope of bringing about his good news or freedom, we have to be utterly surrendered to him and his will. 

There's so much more to talk about and so much more I learned, but that will have to come later. Until then, brothers and sisters. 

SDG, 

-Gordon

I'm back from LAUP!

Sorry this post is coming roughly a week and a half after I got back, life's been a little crazy for me recently. There's been a wedding to plan (94 days!), correspondence to catch up on, two cross-country trips to take in the next two weeks, and all the small things that tend to add up on you. 

Pictured: Kinda how I feel coming back to the real world. 

All throughout this, though, I've been feeling kind of... removed. Coming back from LAUP to old, familiar things (e.g. my apartment, my parents' house, getting pho with friends) feels strikingly surreal in a way I was absolutely not expecting, like going back to the baseball fields you played on a decade ago. You still recognize everything and it's still the way you remember it, but it's just... It's different somehow. I'm still struggling to describe it in a way that makes sense, but the best I can do right now is that feeling of mild disorientation. 

That being said, LAUP was incredible. Having the opportunity to work alongside former gang members and prison inmates isn't something that I've been able to do before, and I had no idea that working at Homeboy Industries would change me more than the change I expected to bring. Quick teaser for the next post: I helped a guy who spent twelve years on death row learn Excel functions. That was a weird experience.

Pictured: My expectations meeting my experience, and my subsequent reaction.

I'll write more soon, I promise; I just needed to get this little one done and written to get the metaphorical ball rolling. Don't change that channel, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. 

SDG, 

-Gordon

One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready...

For all you sports fans keeping track at home, today's the day I'm heading out for LAUP. I'm actually going to be driving away in about a half hour, which is just crazy for me, especially considering I finished my last assignment for summer classes about five minutes ago. 

For real though, my team's probably already there.

I definitely feel intimidated right now about this, honestly. I don't feel as though I am prepared for this behemoth of a trip. I don't feel rested enough, like I've prayed enough, like I'm in the right mental state, I'm not ready to give up technology... You name it, I'll feel unprepared about it. 

But if I stop to think about it and look past my compulsive worrying, LAUP turns from this huge cross to bear into a gift from God. There is no question in my mind about whether or not I need to go, given my heart for social justice, the fact that it affected Sam so deeply, AND the fact that as of yesterday, I AM FULLY FUNDED!!! I honestly expected to have to take some of it on myself, but it was a huge blessing to be able to attend with all of the finances already taken care of.

Sidebar: to everyone who has donated and everyone who is praying, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your support means the world to me, and I would not be able to do this without you. God is going to do some incredible things in the next six weeks, and I am so honored that I get to partner with you in this. 

On that note, I have a few specific prayer requests. In no particular order, please pray that:

• I am open to what God has in store to teach me, and that I apply what He teaches me after I return
• My team and I work well together and model Jesus in our words and actions
• God works in the hearts of the people we come into contact with

I'm sure there are others, but these are the biggest I can think of right now, with my sleep-deprived and over-caffeinated brain. 

Well, I'm off. See you all soon, and I will be posting here after I get back on August 3rd.

SDG, 

-Gordon

What to expect when you're going to LAUP

I'm gonna be off to LAUP in five days! This Sunday I'll be shipping off for a month and a half, living right in the inner city and working with Homeboy Industries. If you're not familiar with them, they're essentially a gang-intervention organization, but you can look up their full purpose at their website. (There's also a book, Tattoos on the Heart, written by Homeboy's founder. It's seriously amazing.) In particular, our team will be working in five different departments: (1) curriculum, (2) tattoo removal, (3) catering & gardening, (4) IT, and (5) development. I'm not sure what that last one is, but I'm feeling pretty excited about all of them.

This is definitely going to be a rough couple weeks, and not just because I won't have phone or internet access, but because I've realized that I am afraid of being uncomfortable. It's not like I run screaming from metal folding chairs, but that deep down, I don't want to have to trust God to provide for me. I want to have a house I feel is big enough, a car that's reliable enough, and a bank account stable enough that I can feel safe on my own. I'm not going to get that at LAUP. Until August 3rd, my team and I are going to receive $5 per day to cover all our day-to-day expenses. Food, gas, laundry, unexpected car repair... We're all going to survive, obviously, but I am definitely going to have to learn how to trust God in a much more concrete way than I've ever had to.

Speaking of jarring segues, if you're interested in sending me letters (or receiving them), my mailing address will be this guy:

Gordon Lee
Homeboy Industries
Los Angeles Urban Project
P.O. Box 31190
Los Angeles, CA 90031

They get delivered to us once a week, so don't flip out if you write me and don't hear back for a couple weeks. I'll respond to you as best I can with the time I have, but at the very least I'll write you back at least once.

This is kinda how I picture it. I could be wrong.

I'll post another one on here just before I head out with more specific prayer requests, but the big one I have for right now is that God would keep preparing me, my team, the LAUP participants, and our mission fields for the work that He's going to accomplish. It's going to be hard one way or another, and I figure it's better to have Him there than not.

SDG,

-Gordon Lee

P.S. I forgot to mention: I'M TOTALLY ENGAGED. Holy snap, you guys. I cannot tell you all just how excited I am to get married to the most amazing woman who's ever existed, and turns out she doesn't mind too much either.

WHOOOOOO!!!!

On an unrelated note, did you know weddings take a lot of work? Hoo boy. I feel like I should have seen that coming.

It's the Final Countdown!

But for real, guys. Finals are next week, and I'm definitely feeling the crunch. So far I've been juggling fundraising, schoolwork (so much schoolwork!), and being a half-decent boyfriend for Sam. It's gotten pretty difficult, especially since a lot of these have been ramping up all at the same time. However! I haven't messed any of them up too badly yet, and that's always a nice feeling.

Go me!

One of the things that I was really hoping to get to talk about in this post was social justice and the Church, since both of these have become such significant priorities in my life as of late. The main thing that bothers me is that I just don't see these two things mix much at all, at least in my (admittedly limited) experience, and I am utterly convinced that the Church MUST be actively trying to right the wrongs we see in our countries and communities. 

However, my good friend Robby Lewis got there first, and he has written everything that I wanted to and more. His blog post is absolutely stellar, and he gets right to the crux of the matter. Please, do yourself a favor, take a moment, and go through it. 

For real. Don't worry, I'll still be here when you're done.

tl;dr, Robby's point is that all too often, we live and teach an incomplete Christianity. We evangelize to save people's souls, we preach so people can learn the Bible, and we create various church events to build community. These are not bad things; on the contrary, evangelism, strong Biblical teaching, and having a loving community are absolutely essential aspects of the Christian life. But it's not enough, and we live like it is. If we are supposed to model ourselves after Jesus (or as I've heard it, become little Jesuses), we have to do more than we are. Jesus' ministry was characterized by both soul care and addressing people's physical needs, not just one or the other.

This is exactly why I'm so excited to go participate in LAUP this summer-- that's the whole point of this Urban Project. Their number one goal is to care for the poor and show God's love for them by helping provide for them, whether it's food, job training, or just companionship. This is also exactly why I'm a little scared about going on this trip. I don't feel nearly prepared enough to face the shortcomings in my incomplete Christianity, and I know it's coming for me. 

All that being said, I want to come back changed. I've seen and lived nominal Christianity, and it's so boring, you guys. It's living your one life married to a moral checklist, full of "shoulds" and "oughts", and utterly without knowledge of God's purpose and peace. I've been there, and thank God I've been able to see the other end of the spectrum. Living the way God desires for us is absolutely incredible. Yes, it can feel terrifying and full of questions, but there's this overarching feeling of total satisfaction and peace throughout. It's worth it, and it makes me sad I don't go after it more than I do. But that's for another time. 

Anyway, that's all I have this time. Again, if you would like to pray or support me financially at LAUP, the link is https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate. Not only will both you and I know you're a good person, the United States government will as well (since InterVarsity donations are tax-deductible).

Go you!

Thanks for reading this, everyone, and I'll be posting more soon. Hi-ho Silver, awayyyyyy!



P.S. Let me know in the comments if you want to hear about something in particular, whether it's my life, stuff I'm learning in seminary, or miscellaneous whatevers. I'll be doing this anyway, but I also like writing for prompts. 

Previously, on Lost...

Know what's embarrassing? Forgetting about a blog you made two years ago, starting to make another one, and having Google remind you that you already have one. Sorry for leaving my blog lying around, the internet.

Anyway! I've decided to try and get this bad boy up and running again for a couple reasons, the most immediate being that I want to let people know about LAUP. What is LAUP? Well, fictitious wonderer, it stands for the Los Angeles Urban Project and, coincidentally, is pronounced "lay-up", not "lowp" (it's ok, I made the same mistake). More importantly, however, it is an immersive six-week mission trip to inner-city LA through InterVarsity. To oversimplify somewhat, LAUP as a program has three main goals: (1) Care for the poor, (2) Pursue racial reconciliation, and (3) Labor in the area of prayer and spiritual warfare.

What happens is that a bunch of students sign up, get divided into teams of six or seven, then get distributed to various churches, ministries, or non-profits and spend the remainder of their time working at their sites. My team and I (that's us in the pic) get to work with Homeboy Industries, which is a group that provides various services to ex-gang members and prison inmates in order to help get them out of those lifestyles. We're not sure yet what our responsibilities will be exactly, but Homeboy offers their clients everything from job training to tattoo removal to legal services.

Left to right: Sarah, Suneun, Nick (our fearless leader), Ervin, and me.
Not pictured: Kayla (the 6th chosen one!).

Guys, I'm really excited to get to go to LAUP. The thought of working with ex-cons and gang members for six weeks is pretty intimidating, but I am looking forward to it overall. God has a way of showing up in difficult situations and providing something amazing on the other side.

In any case, there are two ways you can help support this trip. The first, obviously, is financially. I am responsible for fundraising $1,600 for this trip, and if you would like to help support me (in a tax-deductible way!), there are two ways to do that. The first is to donate online at https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate. Just search for my name and you'll find me. The second is to mail a check (made out to Intervarsity) to:
Talbot School of Theology, T-403
13800 Biola Ave
La Mirada, CA 90639

More importantly, though, my team and I will need prayer. Without prayer covering us and our community, everything we do will be a waste. If you would like to partner with me in prayer, I would love to hear from you-- it's always so encouraging to know that other people are praying alongside you.  My email is gordon.samuel.lee@gmail.com.

I'm going to keep updating this every few days up until LAUP, so keep checking back for new posts. As for tonight, though, it's time for me to hit the books as hard as my caffeinated mind can. Until we meet again!

Kinda like this, but with less smiles.

In only five short hours

I'll be on a plane to Detroit, on the first step of my trip. The anxiety of preparing finally got to me today, but I've managed to wrench myself away from it. It helped that a chubby little asian baby grinned at me at the Target checkout line this afternoon.

I have everything I need (I think), I'm almost all packed, and I just need to tie up some loose ends before I'm completely ready to go. I'm not as prepared as I could be (or at least I don't feel like it), but regardless of how I feel, it's soothing to know without a shadow of a doubt that I'm absolutely supposed to go on this trip.

Flight's in five hours, then leaving Sunday morning for the big leagues. Let's do this thing!


-Gordon