For many of us, the images of the 1992 LA Riots is something we will never forget. Its aftermath left our city wounded, scarred and divided, often on racial grounds. But 20 years later, God is reconciling what was broken.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the LA Riots, a multi-ethnic coalition of faith leaders is joining forces to bring long-needed healing and forgiveness to our communities.
[click “Read More” below to continue]
Ever feel like you’ve been distant from God? Are you praying, and still waiting for an answer? Bonnie, a Voice for WitnessLA, shares her experience of wrestling with life, prayer, and her purpose as a designer.
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved. -Matthew 9:17
For the past 3 week a restlessness loomed over my mind. Nothing is horribly wrong in my life. In fact, nothing is wrong. Yet, I’ve felt a distance from God that has brought me into questioning my beliefs. Did God abandon me? Did I do something wrong? Why am I feeling this way?
It started with me walking into a building that could still be the perfect place to run Freedom and Fashion out of. High ceilings, live/work zoned, plenty of parking and affordable rent. This was a miracle. Yet, when speaking with the owner, he said he had promised someone else to look at it before he offers it to us. The most disappointing news was that she was using it for storage space.
In 6 weeks, our good friends at Freedom & Fashion are hosting their 2nd annual Freedom & Fashion Showcase and Trade Show. The Editors of WitnessLA will be in attendance, so please join us for this great cause!
Freedom & Fashion is an innovative nonprofit that raises awareness of human trafficking and provides a forum for organizations to showcase their designs and products that raise money to change the lives of those victims.
More info and tickets are available here:
One of our WitnessLA members is in Mexico City right now visiting NEO, a Newsong Mexico church plant, as well as helping remodel “El Pozo” (a shelter for former sex trafficked girls).
The air is very thin here. We are 7000 feet above sea level and altitude sickness seems to be an initiation ritual for every foreigner. I woke up almost every night from a nightmare or some stomach pain. Most of the team members had their share of physical ailments. But despite the physical annoyances, we knew that we were supposed to be here.
It was a few months ago when Daniel, our LOL small group leader from Newsong LA, felt that he needed to form a short term mission team to Mexico. Pastor Benny Yu had started a church in Newsong Mexico City 3 years ago, when God has led him and his wife to also begin the plans for “El Pozo,” the shelter that would house girls who have once been sexually trafficked. Currently, there are only 2 other shelters in this whole region. It is incredibly difficult to get through all the red tape in Mexico City. However, God has been gracious to El Pozo. They have received their tax exemption status TODAY!
For the past 3 days, our short team missions team has been working very hard to remodel the “El Pozo” site. In a few weeks, this shelter will be filled with 6-8 girls ranging from several months in age - 18 years old. Our team went in and took an inventory check to see what items needed to be purchased as well as cleaned up.
We used paint thinner and cleaned up all the marks on the windows. Using nails and hammers, the strong men built furniture, as well as fixed light fixtures. The rest of the team went to purchase womens’ basic products such as shampoo, combs and such. It was an interesting experience to say the least. It reminds me of the abundant life that I live, and how even a simple item like shampoo can be taken for granted.
God is so amazing. He wanted to take our team to show us what His heart aches for. After speaking with Pastor Benny, I realized how much more need there is for the shelter. They are in need of even more basic necessities (i.e. mattresses, new bedsheets, etc.). I felt my heart sank at how much the need was. I know that God will provide, but at this time I’m just waiting to see how He will move. Please keep us in prayer.
Follow us on our journey: www.missionlmol2010.wordpress.com
-Bonnie
I’ve shared before about how I run a non-profit called Freedom and Fashion. A few weeks ago I was on the phone with one of our FnF team members for more than 4 hours. In the last hour, we ended up praying.
As we were praying, she saw pictures of weeds that God was pulling out. She discerned the weeds to be distractions, and these were the distractions that have been cropping up all around our team, but the Lord wanted them out! It’s funny because that was exactly what a few friends from my small group discerned for me personally just the night before. I was complaining to them about a situation with a partner of FnF, and I was getting angry and frustrated at the injustice. My friends could see how my anger and frustration with that partner was keeping me from experiencing God’s peace, and that it was a form of spiritual warfare meant to keep me discouraged and distracted from what I was really called to be doing. They warned me not to give in to the distractions because they were not from God.
So as my FnF team member and I kept praying that night, I also felt the Holy Spirit showing me things about her. I said to her, “I feel the Lord is going to take all these shattered pieces of you and make it into a beautiful moasic.”
I didn’t know at the time, but that word hit her deeply. Later on, still thinking about what the Lord had put on my heart for her, she asked me ”did you happen to go onto Facebook today?”
I replied that I was Facebook fasting, so no.
She said, “because on my Facebook status I put ‘God take these broken pieces of me and make me whole.’”
Isn’t the Lord great?
Solei Deo Gloria!
Bonnie
“Don’t pidgen-hole me into this Asian-American sterotype of a naive student coming in here just wanting research to finish my Master’s paper.”
My boss stared at me, both flabbergasted and insulted. She replies back with, “I would be very careful of the way you word things around here.”
For several months, I have been working part time at a non-profit community development center in South Los Angeles, called “X” (name not mentioned to ensure privacy) to research for my Master’s paper, along with fulfilling the mission of the center. The organization seeks to leverage the collective voice of LAUSD parents and their children, by providing parenting/empowerment classes, making opportunities for civil engagement, and given individual attention to each family (case by case). My role at the center is to be a “parent counselor / case mananger” where I assess each parent’s level of involvement in their children’s lives with regards to educational success.
For the few months I have been there, I was given no translator till the 3rd week into the parent empowerment academy classes, given only a list of obscure objectives, and the green light to implement a pilot case management follow up program. Now, by pilot, I mean, I AM SUPPOSED TO CREATE AND EXECUTE the program. I am basically a counselor working with parents one-on-one to ensure that their children don’t end up dropping out of school now or in the future. Mind you, I’ve never been a case manager, let alone worked in South Los Angeles. I knew there was a atmosphere change when all the staff members continuously warned me not to walk to my car alone in the daytime (even if it’s 30 feet away). This area “South Central” was not as bad as the rappers claim it to be. Sure, it’s far from poshy West LA, but again, it’s not as ghetto glamorous.
“Bonnie Kim has been able to do something that most people would find unimaginable: forgive the man who sexually molested her. In this Upper Room interview, Bonnie shares what her childhood was like, including her early exposure to porn and her father’s gambling addiction. But what could’ve been a life of despair has turned into a mighty testimony. Bonnie reveals how she found healing through God, and that it is only by His grace that she has been able to forgive and be forgiven. She is now a passionate anti-slavery advocate and founder of Freedom & Fashion. -KAC Media”
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At first I was contemplating if posting this up here would be a bit too shocking for our readers, thus a slight reluctance came over me. But I know if it can help you, reader, to know that there is never an end to God’s ability to restore and heal…then please go ahead and see how great our God is! The Lord is still to this day working out issues I have in my life about various relationship damages. My point? That the Lord is always looking for ways to love you, and clean your mess. You are never too stained for God to hold you. Will you allow Him to embrace you today?
“Bless are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom”. Matthew 5:3
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
During my stay in Orange County last week I visited my old church in Fullerton. Grace Korean Church was the church I grew up in. It was also the church that God used to show me what spiritual warfare and missions training looked like. I was trained to literally die for the gospel, as I heard of the accounts of our missionaries being sent off to dangerous places like North Korea, Afghanistan, Burma, and areas of unreached people groups.
I didn’t realized how much I missed worship music, till I entered in the doors of Grace Korean Church’s college service. Before the service started people were praying to usher in the presence of God. There on the stage was once a young college student who was in a family group (small group) I once lead back when I was in college. During that time in college, I was on the worship team as well. After a few months of being frustrated (my voice was clearly a distraction to Sunday worshippers), the Lord spoke for me to step down and start a small group instead. It was humbling but I decided to obey.
During the year of that small group, much happened. I decided to delay finishing my undergraduate studies at CSU, Fullerton in order to devote more time to the small group. I knew my parents thought I was crazy, but I knew that it was necessary. For who has been given little must prove faithful. I took two part-time semesters and spent a lot of time with the 12-15 members. I remember this one passionate individual named Joe Yoo who would also question the contextual accuracy of the bible studies, or torture me by threatening to let out his natural gases in my house. I also recall the beginnings of Joe learning how to play the guitar and sing. It was horrible. Joe if you are reading this, you know it was true. I saw the passion in Joe and wondered what would become of it.
Last Sunday, I saw Joe on stage at Grace Korean Church leading a team of 10 or 12 musicians. They were so talented it blew my mind away. The beautiful meshing of violin, piano, bass, drums, and 5 or 6 singers appropriately welcomed in the presence of God. Musical technicality was superb. I heard his guitar strumming against his matured voice. I could not help but start to cry. Not only because they were THAT GOOD, but I could easily focus on what was being sung.
“Ask and I’ll give the nations to you, Oh Lord, that’s the cry of my heart. Distance shores and the islands will see your light, as it rises on us.” I was spending time in worship with the Lord surrounded by the cushion of euphoric music.
During the worship time, I could not help but to feel so free, so uninhibited to pray and sing and cry. And because of this, I saw the importance of worshiping in spirit and in truth (and in musical technicality). I was not once distracted by the lack of musicality.In addition, they had many times of prayer woven into the set, causing us to refocus on the reason why we went to church in the first place.
I found out that Joe Yoo practiced playing guitar 7 to 8 hours a day for a few years. He also recorded his voice and each worship set he led, on garageband and replayed it over and over until it was in pitch. This showed me so much dedication and because of it, my life for the moment is truly blessed and filled with the spirit of God. This week has been very different indeed.
“Do not grow weary in doing good [or practicing at your God-given gift] for at the proper time you will reap if you DO NOT GIVE UP” -Galatians 6:9
Till Next Time,
Bonnie
