Karla - Simple Church Planting in LBC

This story is from my good friend Karla down at Cal State Long Beach University. Not only are the contending for revival on campus, planting simple churches there, they are planting simple churches in the surrounding community, among the homeless and below the women's shelter...this rocks..way to go Karla, bring church to da people!

so guess what....
I started a simple church! yes, it really started...

my roommate valerie, and her sister Martha, and I have
been teaching art lessons at a women's shelter in down
town long beach, for about a month now.(its a residential
shelter for women dealing w/substance abuse and drug
abuse)
Since the beginning, God told me to start a church
there, and over the past few weeks we've been getting to
know each of the women more and really love on them and
talk w/them each week. and two weeks ago we were able to
pray with 2 of the women...and one of them told us three
specific things to pray for.
The next week we came back, and that woman came rushing up
to me, and was like, 'Karla, God HEARD our prayers!
Everything I asked you to pray for , was answered! God
answered my prayers!'. and i was like...whhhhoaa. Some of
the other women heard her excitement, and that night we
prayed with FIVE women....
Tonight we came back, and again after the art lesson, the
same five women were lingering around,and we were all
hanging out talking, and finally one of them was like, ok,
karla, we are WAITING to pray with you, can we get on with
it? haha. (they're all addicts, and a little demanding
sometimes..i love their attitudes.)

so we prayed again, and God's presence was so sweet, I
felt Him really strong and we just all had tears in our
eyes...and afterwards I was asking them if they go to
church..and some of them used to go, but not anymore...and
they were saying how they just didn't feel comfortable at
any church they went to. SO i was like, well, why don't
you have church here at the shelter? and they all cracked
up laughing. and i said, no really. and asked them what
what IS church? and we talked about what church really is,
and how we can have it right there, in the women's
shelter...so they were like, lets do it.
soooo...i asked if any of them had a preference, what book
of the bible we read together, and two of them chose
Isaiah. i was like, oh geez. couldn't we start with
something simpler, like John? but they were adamant for
some reason that they wanted to read isaiah...so we're
going to read some of it on our own during the week and
talk about it together next wed, after the art
lesson...and pray..and see how the Spirit leads :)
But I'm so excited!!! This is something I have been
praying about all yr..and really believe that God is going
to bring supernatural healing for these women- that he
will not only bring quick healing to their addictions, and
redeem them of their past, and bind up broken families,
but will come into their hearts as their Lord and Savior..

please please pray for us!! pray for us to have wisdom in
reading Isaiah together.
-pray that the other women at the shelter will not get
offended if they see some of us reading the bible (one of
the women has 666 tattoed on her ankle and a few others
are totally against God)


thanks for all prayers and encouragment!!

In Him,
Karla

posted by Jaeson Ma @ 10/12/2006 12:13:00 PM