One of the most famous Skateboarding legends of all time, Christian Hosoi lived the high-life - a rollercoaster of fame, partying and drugs until he was sent to jail for ten years for trafficking in meth. While in prison, Christian found Christ and his life changed forever - he is now a pastor at a church in Orange County. “Jesus set me free,” he says in this interview with our friends from Enoch Magazine.
Recently, a group called Youth With A Mission Denver visited Orange County to share the word of God to some of the OC residents. Many were exposed to God’s love and power, and a few even experienced healing through prayer. This video is a snapshot of what went down on the beaches of OC, and how God’s presence was felt by many who were there that day.
Does your church need a wake up call? Our friend Stephen shares an inspiring story of God bringing the Holy Spirit back to a church that was just going through the motions.
I have been attending a church for the past 5 Sundays and it’s the kind of place where it’s hard to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit at all. They come sing their hymns, listen to the sermon and say their goodbyes and church is over. The members are mostly in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. The reason I’ve been going is because a Korean church rents this place and the Korean church is also pretty much Holy Spirit-less.
One day, the Father told me to keep attending and there will be a chance to pray for people from both services and they will get healed and this will be the sparkplug to invite the Holy Spirit to come…[click “Read More” below to continue]
Familial relationships can at times be volatile. Our friend shares his experience of how God opened his heart to humility and forgiveness as he overcame his anger and hate towards his father and sought for forgiveness.
Grumpy, tired and jet lagged; I had just come from an overseas Christian conference. I was feeling a bit holier than before, but little did I know, God was about to teach me a lesson on humility.
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Friendships are those relationships that enrich our lives. Friends build you up when you’re down and they walk with you through all seasons of life. But when the relationships closest to us do not have our best interest in mind and are abusive, they can tear us down. Our friend Johnny shares his encounter with domestic abuse and how the resulting brokenness could be healed if we were in a loving relationship with God.
It was another one of those rare nights; it was a wide open schedule. Tonight my friend Fred and I went to have dinner and then went for a nice cruise on our fixies on the bumpy under-budget paved streets of So Cal. Sounds nice right? In retrospect, it was a typical celebration of friendship. We saw some random things; a pile of snow in a parking lot in downtown Fullerton, a very cultish looking church service, lots of British people, people waltzing, but what was most out of place was on the way home…
We were heading up Lemon Ave. towards Fullerton and all of sudden, across the street, we saw what looked to be two men fighting. Okay that’s not that weird but like any other youtube video, pushing play was the next step. Turns out there was a 3rd person, it was a young girl, getting beaten by her drunk boyfriend. What?!
Four years ago, our friend Michelle’s family suffered an incredible tragedy. We are so blessed that she was willing to share her story of how anger and grief eventually turned to peace and redemption.
It was a Monday afternoon. I got a phone call from my mom while I was walking home after class. I could barely hear what she was trying to say to me, and I found myself getting annoyed as I kept asking her to repeat what she was saying. After several “what?”s, I heard her say, “Can you come home? Not right now, but maybe after dinner when traffic dies down…” This was a really odd request, especially because I had just been at my parent’s house over the weekend. I knew something was wrong, and a whirlwind of possibilities ran through my mind. Are my parents getting a divorce? Did my dad lose his job? Did one of my dogs die? Whatever it is, God, please let it not be anything about my brother…you see, at the time, my brother was in Iraq serving as a member of the US Army.
Taking my mom’s advice, I was getting ready to go out for dinner when I got a phone call from someone I don’t normally talk to. “How are you doing?” says the voice on the other line. “Pretty good…” I responded nervously. A few moments later, he says “Michelle, I’m so sorry about your brother…” and there, my worst fears were confirmed.
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My name is Annie Trang, and I have lived in Los Angeles pretty much all my life. I was raised in a Buddhist family. As I was growing up, my mom would take me to the temple, and I was taught that Buddhism was the only religion for me. When I was a little girl there were nights that I would pray to God, at that time I don’t even know who He was yet. I went through a phase of Buddhism then eventually I was stuck between the two religions, and I couldn’t decide. It took me a while trying to figure it out.
I would say about 5 months ago, that’s when I truthfully encountered God in my life. I was going through a break-up with my boyfriend of 3 years. It wasn’t a bad relationship - we had a great time. But I felt there was something missing. I wasn’t completely happy mentally, and spiritually, I wasn’t fulfilled - I felt like I needed to search for something more. I was sad, but I wasn’t devastated by the break-up, because I knew God had a better plan for me. I believe “when God takes away something from you, he just clears the way for something greater.”
In Mid May of 2010 It’s all started when my dear friend Kim Nguyen invited me to an event at her church when Nick Vujicic was ministering there. He was born with no arms, no legs, but he is happier than most human beings on earth! His words about Christ has touched my heart in a way that I never felt before. I actually started crying at church, it was the tears of joy! That’s when I knew the Holy Spirit had taken over me.
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Join the editors of WitnessLA for the fashion and social justice event of the year! VIP Tickets are already COMPLETELY SOLD OUT! Get your tickets here before they sell out at the door!
Here at WitnessLA we are proud to support Freedom and Fashion - an amazing organization dedicated to raising awareness for fair trade fashion organizations whose proceeds go to fighting human trafficking.
Last year, its Fair Trade Fashion Show rocked UCLA with more than a 1000 people attending. This year it’s hosted on November 6th by Jeannie Mai from the Style Network’s “How Do I Look?,” and it’s the must-attend event of the year. The WitnessLA editors will be in attendance, along with hundreds of others interested in fashion, social justice, fair trade, human rights, and just anyone who loves an incredible show and event for a cause. Get your tickets now here for only $12 before they sell out (VIP tickets are already COMPLETELY SOLD OUT):
http://freedomandfashion.com/tickets/
Here’s a sneak peak at some of the amazing vendors who will be showcased on November 6th:
Our world is surrounded by opposites: black and white, yin and yang, good and bad. Without one, we aren’t able to fully grasp the other. For me, being a Christian means understanding and accepting that there is our heavenly God and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there is Satan. From the beginning of time, starting with Adam and Eve, Satan has tempted God’s creations. Till this day, the evil one continues to tempt us, enticing us with deceivingly empty gifts and false promises. In our personal lives, we witness Satan’s doing when we struggle with right and wrong. Evil also tries to ruin our relationship with God by hurting, breaking and sometimes even destroying us. He succeeds when we turn around and blame God for our mishaps and misfortunes.
What is spiritual warfare? In my humble opinion, it is a battle between good and bad. More importantly though, it is how faithful we remain in Him when things don’t seem to go our way. When blessed abundantly, Satan attempts to steal God’s glory by placing bumps and hurdles in our lives in an effort to instill doubt in our minds that ultimately turn us away from God. Recently, I have experienced spiritual warfare on a minor scale. Within the last month or so, I have been blessed by God in so many ways. After a year of being in an unhealthy relationship that deprived me of my self worth and security, I found a sense of freedom and peace that gave me the ability to live and breathe again (I will share this testimony in the future.) I graduated law school, took the bar exam and finally started to live the life that I studied so hard to attain. My dearest friends, one by one, started accepting Christ and opening up their hearts to God. In short, good things kept happening and I thanked God for each blessing. Then, the devil decided to do his tricks.
About a week ago, I got rear ended by a semi truck on the 91 freeway during peak traffic hour…[click “Read More” below to continue]
