No one should be bought or sold. Ever.

Even if there is precedent.

Even if we are desperate.

Even if the person consents to it.

Even if the transaction is legal.

Even if the person doesn't see themselves as being bought or sold.

Even if one calls it a "job".

This is not what we were made for. This is not part of the plan. It has come about over time. But, it doesn't have to be. Nothing has to be the way it is just because it is. We can always dream. Always hope. Always persevere. Faith is the belief in things unseen.

Jen-Kha

It's been almost two months since our dear friend, Jenni B, passed away. She passed Sunday evening on August 15th after a long battle with cancer. Her family was around her and a group of friends from church were able to gather and worship and pray with her in the final moments before she passed.

Jen hadn't been able to join us for over a year at GLO or at Warehouse as her physical health deteriorated each month. We made many attempts to visit with her and bring Warehouse to her over the months; some of these visits worked out and produced lasting memories for those of us given the opportunity to fellowship with her and her mother, Sharon. Many of our plans did not work out as she was sleeping or sick or not up for visitors.

Jen-Kha was a servant to the end - one of our last visits as a GLO group to see her in the hospital in July had her telling us about ministering to a patient in the room next to hers - a mother with terminal brain cancer and 3 young children at home. Jen was always on the lookout for how she could serve others and how she could show them His Light. Even when she was struggling herself.

We had the opportunity to be a friend to her and of her and serve alongside her and learn. Jesus showed up in some amazing ways this summer. As we embraced the idea of breaking bread together, praying and worshipping and seeing God show up, He did. He showed up and He moved in our lives, the Bloch's lives, and in ways that won't be revealed to us for a long, long time. He taught us about waiting and about asking in faith and about worshipping in the face of the confusing and about loving and serving together and about letting go of control. He is the one who heals, not us and our amazing prayers.

Her service on Tuesday night was a testimony to her life. Her mother was so moved by God that she spoke compelling all to heed the call of Christ to be fishers of people wherever we are and passionately desire to do so. To seek Him and be filled with His Light so that wherever we go, others see that light.

Four Years Later, A Reflection

These photographs were taken by Rachel Snodderly, who is now working with refugee children and their families on the Thai-Burmese border. She was born with a big heart that gets bigger every day.

In 2006, a group of us went to Cambodia for the first summer of the World Relief Cambodia-U.S. Church partnerships Summer ESL Program. We went to serve as English language instructors for the World Relief staff in the provinces of Kampong Cham and Kampong Thom. There were 10 of us from our church and at the end our Global Outreach Pastor and a video team joined us in Phnomh Penh to create a video storybook for our church back home.

Part of our journey that final weekend was to the Tuol Sleng Prison in central PP and then on to the Killing Fields Memorial site outside of town. The photograph you see is from Tuol Sleng- a former school turned detention facility that the Khmer Rouge army set up to imprison and torture people they believed to be traitors or enemies of the new regime.

These are children. Some of them were the exact same age as I was when they died (2-4 years old). Most likely brought here with their parents/family members. The KR took photographs of all detainees that came through their facility. Most of the people are believed to have died there, at the hands of the KR or by starvation, disease, and malnutrition. Those who died were then taken by trucks out to the site of the Killing Fields memorial, Wat ???, and buried.

Today, you can pay a small fee to have a survivor take you on a tour of either site. They will show you pictures and tell you stories in graphic detail about what one human being did to another, in the name of some fabricated ideology.

That day we went by van outside the city on the bumpy dirt roads, we encountered a young boy, one who looked like the many children in this photo. He was trying to sell us soda, all in Khmer of course. He had no shoes on and was very thin. But, he was smiling. At one point, one of the team members suggested we form a prayer circle. This young boy came up behind us, staring quizzicly, when two of the team members quietly unjoined hands and rejoined behind him and then we prayed in English for this boy. Another woman on the team, who had survived that period in Cambodia with her family and made it to the U.S., slid off her sandals and gave them to the boy who smiled at her.

We then headed off home, my teammate rode piggy back across the field on another teammate, smiling at the young boy, sharing the bit of Khmer that we knew with him.

This photo and this memory are what came back to me this morning and prompted me to write. For it is in those moments of connection, of looking in to the eyes of another person, and knowing that we are joined together, we are unified, sharing a common bond despite all those things which seemingly separate us. And, in the simplicity and quietness of our connections, we are powerful beyond measure because we have the one who created us all holding us together, connecting us, unifying us.

May we continue to seek to be fishermen, who go about their duties with familiarity and loyalty and consistency and know that the one who first loved us loves all of His creation. He even loves that which was in those KR soldiers that was not corrupted, that part of their heart no matter how small or broken.

Cambodia: From Killing Fields to Living Fields - Pasadena Prayer & Praise Walk

Join Lake Avenue Church as we pray for & celebrate the work God has connected us to in Cambodia since 2004!

PRAYER (& PRAISE) WALK THROUGH PASADENA!

Take a short walking journey with us. We'll pray for the Cambodian people and nation at symbolic places throughout Pasadena, and conclude with a Worship Celebration and Cambodian Meal together! Meet up in FL 202 at 9:30 am.

After we walk we'll gather in FL 202 for worship and lunch.

April 17th marks 35 years since the people of Phnom Penh walked out of their own capital city on the promise of renewed life, only to experience death and destruction. Since then, God has been rebuilding thepeople of Cambodia, as we’ve witnessed through our partnership with World Relief.

Please RSVP here for the Walk so we know how many for lunch. For more information contact Global Outreach at globaloutreach@lakeave.org or 626.844.4887.

The 4th Day of Christmas

My true love gave to me- Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtledoves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree. And, to quote the folks on, "The Office" this season, "that's a lot of birds".

Pastor Waybright at Lake Avenue Church shared a message at the Christmas Eve service regarding the giving of gifts that inspired the following meditation:

Giving comes from the verb, "to give". It means to hand something over to another person or being. To give food, shelter, a gift, etcetera, is the act of giving. To be a giving person, we must practice this action regularly. In addition, we must practice it selflessly. We give to benefit another person, to honor them, or to fill a need they might have and not our own. In like, we have our needs met in the process but that does not prompt our actions or thoughts.

To give is the ability to say, "No" to The Self and "Yes" to The Other. For the 12 days of Christmas, True Love practices the art of giving increasingly elaborate gifts to the Beloved. These 12 days are the Magi's Travelling Days. If they were flying to Bethlehem, it would be their in-flight time plus their airport wait time. 12 Days for those guys to walk across the wilderness following some bright star in the sky just to give gifts to a poor baby an angel had told them was someone important. These guys sacrificed to give their gifts and nowhere is it noted that they did it out of reverence to Self and what they would get out of it but in reverence instead to the baby and the desire to express their truest feelings about His entry in to the world.

It's this that we can meditate on this holiday season. What does it mean for us to do things in deference to The Self that consumes our days and instead pay homage in gift-giving kindness to The Other that we are thankful for, hopeful for, happy with, and do it for that reason alone. What does it mean to worship God because He is God and worthy of our Praise and for that reason alone? We surely can't do this alone and it is only by the grace-gift given to us by God first that we are able to do so. May we worship Him, may we fall on our knees, and may our sacrifices and hardships be negligible in comparison to the opportunity to give we are given.

"Whoa! Slow down there girl..."

Yesterday was a beautiful November Saturday morning in Southern California and a group of us gathered at 8am in the Lake parking lot to head on out for our 2nd of what will hopefully be many Slow Downs.

This time around we headed up to Eaton Canyon Reservoir for an hour hike up the canyon to the waterfall. Though deceived early on by what was a waterfall- a very short one over a concrete wall- we continued on to our destination where we prayed, then scattered to our own spots to reflect and pray in this beautiful area 20 minutes from the Pasadena city limits.

My decision to join the others, some I knew and some I met with for the first time, was one of necessity yesterday as I found myself in the midst of a pretty tough struggle of my own and some troubles with some people I love dearly. Escaping in to nature has been a constant in my life, a way to talk to God and clear my head. I've just traded the banks of the Columbia River and Leslie Groves Park for the foothills and beaches of So Cal.

For me it is pretty clear way to be with Him as one notices the vast slopes on either side of you with shrub and tree jutting out at different angles, some in good shape, others not. The striations in the rock and dirt showing where water once rose to. The falling water and the still water downstream. The group of birds taking flight from their perch above you. The tumbling rocks down the side of the mountain next to you that makes you nervous, should I move?

As I look around, it hits me that I am in the presence of things man had no control over. We maybe created the hiking trail up there and some of what is seen around us there but by and large the foundation of it all was put there by something bigger than any of us humans.

So, on this journey yesterday, in my desperation, I cried out to Him. Jesus, guide me. Tell me what to do and how to see this present situation I and my family are in. Speak to me. Pleading with God. He was silent.

At least in English he was silent. I kept on crying out until my body was too tired and my heart was angry. Why do you not say anything? Then the birds took flight and the rocks came a-tumbling and I raised my head and felt the warmth of the sun on me and knew that God heard me. In an inexplicable way, I knew in my heart, deep down inside, that He heard me. And His answer for right now, was to just listen to me.

Flash Forward to tonight at Warehouse and the sermon from John 15. A scripture I have heard taught many times before and yet I still can't receive well. Not all of it at least. Jesse Oakes, one of the High School Ministry Staff, shared his observations on us, the branches and God, the Vine.
God calls us to abide. To sit in the La-Z-Boy recliner. To simply sit there.

For me, there is a breath that finally is released upon knowing this, to be encouraged that what God wants for me to do is sit in His presence. To not get stirred up by troubling circumstances by feeling some compelling need to say the right things or make the right decision. To not miss out. To hit all the gophers in the Chuck E Cheese arcade. There is this feeling that I need to be able to "do" it all. But, God at times just wants me to be there. Sitting in the recliner. Or in yesterday's case on the big rock in the middle of brush and bugs in a canyon. He just wants me to sit and listen and look and wait.

I confess though that it is so hard for me to do or remember to do and often go through much heartache and stress before being able to stop.

It's really like God is John Wayne up on his horse (which is me) and he is gently pulling the bridle in his gentle all knowing voice soothing me to stillness with the words, "Whoa there girl! Slow down. Slow down."

We soon hiked back out, chatting our way to the cars, gathered at a restaurant for lunch, shared some bits and pieces from our experiences, and soon headed out on our separate ways home. I hope that we are able to make this a consistent practice to allow God to be John Wayne in all those movies where he rode a horse and help teach us to slow down and be still before Him. Amen!

Upcoming event at L.A. Public Library (Central)

[ALOUD] at Central Library
Wed, Oct 28, 7:00 PM
ALOUD and Vesper Society present

IRENE KHAN
The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights

In conversation with David Kaye, Executive Director, UCLA School of Law International Human Rights Program

Khan--the first woman, first Asian, and first Muslim to serve as the Secretary General of Amnesty International--sheds a much needed light on the rights and powerlessness of the poor.

Irene Khan, the first woman, first Asian, and first Muslim to serve as the Secretary General of Amnesty International, has brought a strong focus to socioeconomic rights and violence against women around the world. She spent 20 years at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was appointed in 1995 as the Chief Mission to India, becoming the youngest United Nations representative. Khan was awarded the Pilkington “Woman of the Year” Award in 2002, as well as the Sydney Peace Prize in 2006.

www.theunheardtruth.org

David Kaye is the Executive Director of the UCLA School of Law International Human Rights Program. He teaches International Human Rights and directs an International Human Rights Clinic. For more than a decade, Kaye served as an international lawyer with the U.S. State Department, responsible for issues as varied as human rights, international humanitarian law, international litigation and claims, nuclear nonproliferation, and U.S.foreign relations law. He was a legal adviser to the American Embassy in The Hague, where he worked with the international criminal tribunals and acted as counsel to the United States in several cases before the International Court of Justice and the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. From 1999 to 2002 he was the principal staff attorney on humanitarian law, handling issues such as the application of the law to detainees in Guantanamo Bay and serving on several U.S. delegations to international negotiations and conferences. The State Department honored him with four of its prestigious Superior Honor Awards.