An Awesome Week of Ministry in Los Angeles

Love In Action team members who went on the Los Angeles outreach are pictured to the right. From left to right: LIA President and Vice President Mike and Laurie Shroades; Volunteers Martha and Mark Tomberlin; (Back row) LIA Assistant Inner City Coordinator Justin Swasey; LIA Vice President Ken Tuck; LIA Praise and Worship Leader Brad Garrett.

Love In Action Ministries took a team of seven to Los Angeles, July 16-22, to minister to the lost and hurting on the streets of Los Angeles and Hollywood. To say it was an incredible week of ministry would be an understatement. It was an awesome week! We were blessed to be used by God to lead a number of people living on the streets to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They were not left on the streets to fend for themselves after they accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. As always, we work with local churches who will follow up on the people we minister to. In Los Angeles, we directed them and gave their names to the L.A. International Church Dream Center, which has nearly 200 ministries to reach out to virtually every need in inner city LA We also found a new friend in Los Angeles. Pastor Tony Sperl of the Azusa Street Missionary Christian Center.

Ken (left) and Mike (right) stop for a photo with Pastor Tony Sperl under the 6th Street bridge in Los Angeles. There, they ministered to some homeless people who live under the bridge. A film crew was filming parts of the new Terminator movie in that area, and the police eventually came in and moved the homeless out from under that bridge. Picture to the right is a homeless man on Skid Row. He allowed us to take his picture because we were a Christian group. Then he allowed Ken to pray with him.

We ministered the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the homeless on Skid Row with Pastor Tony. Just to have someone to talk to makes all the difference to these precious people. Society may have pushed them aside and forgotten about them, but God hasn't and we let them know that. We did more than listen and talk to them, however. We also prayed with many of them and poured the love of Christ into them. We also ministered to the homeless under the 6th and 7th street bridges with Pastor Tony. Since that week in LA Pastor Tony has given us a great report. One of the homeless men now has a job and is about to get off the streets and into an apartment. And, the people living under the 7th Street bridge are about to do a major cleaning up project. What this will do is instill some pride into them and also get them thinking about how it used to be when they lived in a cleaner environment. No doubt this will lead some of them to get off the streets. Please keep Pastor Tony in your prayers.

Life is hard for those living on Skid Row. These makeshift tents are their homes and the grocery carts hold all of their belongings. There's a lot of work to be done, but thanks to your prayers and financial support we are able to go across the country and reach out to these people and offer them salvation through Jesus Christ and help from great ministries like Azusa Street Missionary Christian Center and the LA Dream Center.




An amazing thing happened when we ministered in Echo Park, which is located directly across from the historic and newly renovated Angelus Temple. We handed out tracts and prayed with many people, and Love In Action Praise Team Leader Brad Garrett played his guitar and sang the Lord's praises in the park. As Love In Action Vice President Ken Tuck and Assistant Inner City Coordinator Justin Swasey walked around the park talking and praying with people they came upon a man who spoke no English. Unfortunately, they didn't speak hardly any Spanish, except to say "Jesus Christo" and a few simple conversational phrases. Then the miraculous happened. God sovereignly moved and sent Ken and Justin a born again translator, who just "happened" to be passing by. She had asked them for prayer when this man walked back up to Ken and Justin. Through their God-sent translator, they discovered he was homeless and was wanting to change his life. They explained through the translator that Jesus was the only way. Right there in the park, through a translator, this man received salvation through Jesus Christ and deliverance from the bondage of alcoholism. The translator then had to go back to work, but the job wasn't finished. This man desperately wanted off the streets. At that moment, God sent another born again translator to Ken and Justin. Through her, they explained how he could get off the streets and receive help at the Dream Center. He said he wanted to go, so they led him to a Dream Center bus and he was taken there and placed in a year-long program that will provide him with housing, discipleship, food, medical care, help overcoming his addictions and job skills. Praise God! Now that was a real miracle!

Justin Swasey (left) and Mark Tomberlin (right) stand with a new brother in the Lord, Tim, following Sunday morning service at Angelus Temple. Tim turned his life over to the Lord a day after Justin and Mark ministered the love of Christ to him at the Ford Hotel, where he lives, on Skid Row. Praise God!
Pictured below is Brad Garrett giving a precious child a ride on his shoulders. This beautiful little girl was all smiles as she and Brad played all morning at the Ford Hotel. Children at this Skid Row hotel live in horrible conditions and this was the highlight of her week. She won't forget that morning, and Brad won't either. Praise God for the opportunity to bring the love Jesus to these precious children.

Another miracle occurred when we went back to Skid Row with the Dream Center for an Adopt-A-Block outreach at the Ford Hotel. There, people live in small rooms and each floor only has one bathroom. It's horrible living conditions and many children live there. Life is very hard as the environment is filled with drugs and violence. Nobody, especially children should have to live this way. It was a blessing to distribute food and toys to the people and to invite them to Sunday services at Angelus Temple. It was also a real blessing to play with the children and to provide them with a morning of fun, something they rarely get to experience. Bro. Rowan, who heads up the Adopt-A-Block program for the Dream Center, said the only joy these children have each week is when the Dream Center takes a team out there to minister the love of Christ to them and when they get on the buses and come to the Dream Center and Angelus Temple for church.

Justin Swasey has a huge heart for children. Pictured to the left, Justin gives a child at the Ford Hotel a ride on his shoulders. The Lord used Justin to minister His love to many children that Saturday morning.

That morning, Justin and Love In Action Volunteer Mark Tomberlin ministered to a man named Tim for a couple of hours. The next day at church, Justin saw Tim walk through the doors. He met him and walked him up front to sit with our team. After an anointed time of praise and worship and a powerful message delivered by Pastor Matthew Barnett, Tim responded to the altar call to give his life back to Jesus Christ. Justin and Mark walked with him to the altar and prayed with him. After the service we introduced him to Pastor Clayton Golliher. At the Dream Center Tim can receive Christian love and support, safe housing, food, medical attention and job skills training. Praise the Lord! Another life changed through the power of God!

Ken Tuck and Laurie and Mike Shroades distribute food to people living at the Ford Hotel. The Dream Center provides food every week for these precious people. It's a way to show them that somebody really does care about them. We have discovered as we travel throughout the nation, if you care enough to meet a person's felt need, it opens the door for you to share their most important need - Jesus Christ.

Late Friday night and early Saturday morning, Love In Action went out on Santa Monica Blvd. with Pastor Clayton Golliher and Hope For Homeless Youth ministries. This ministry runs a free shelter and rehabilitation program for runaway kids, drug addicts, teenage prostitutes and gang members. That night we ministered the love of Jesus Christ to hundreds of people and a number of them received Jesus Christ into their hearts. Pastor Clayton and his ministry will follow up on them and our prayer is those we reached with the Gospel of Christ will get off the streets and go to the Dream Center to begin their new life in Christ. It was an incredible night of ministry, and later that night, Pastor Clayton and a team of volunteers rescued an 18-year-old prostitute from the streets. She is now living at the Dream Center and starting her new life in Christ. Praise God! That proves our point that no matter how far in sin somebody has gone, God has not given up on them. Many of us have testimonies to prove that fact. Love In Action travels throughout the nation to let people know that Jesus Christ hasn't given up on them and that He loves them so much that He died for their sins and came back to life to give them everlasting life. It's awesome to see a life radically changed by one touch of our Master's hand.

This article is a testimony of what God is doing in the inner city. And, it's not just happening in Los Angeles. It's happening everywhere we go. We thank you for your prayers and generous financial support, which makes all of this possible. You are helping change lives for the glory of God. We thank you and one day there will be many people in Heaven who will thank you as well. Because you care enough to take time out of your busy day to pray and to give financially, thousands of people have their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

If you are reading this and have never trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can do so right now. It's as easy as ABC. Click here for a prayer that will lead you in that most important decision. Then please contact us and let us know you have started your new life with Jesus Christ, so we can rejoice with the angels in Heaven and send you some free literature.

Ken Tuck (left) and Mike Shroades (right) take a photo with Pastor Clayton Golliher after Sunday morning service at Angelus Temple. Pastor Clayton is an awesome man of God who heads up Hope For Homeless Youth ministries. He has been doing this for 21 years. His ministry has an intense one-year discipleship program in which they reach youth with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, then make disciples out them as Jesus commands us to do in Matthew 28:19. The ministry has an incredible 90 percent success rate in which the youth go on to live for Jesus and keep their lives free from drugs, alcohol, crime and so on. Also, a number of them go on to be involved in ministry. It has been an awesome privilege to be part of this work the past two years. Pastor Clayton has invited Love In Action back out this year to further help him reach the lost youth of LA and Hollywood. He has also asked Mike to preach at one of their chapel services.