Engaging Downtown through The Bridge
A few months ago, I visited “The Bridge: Los Angeles,” BAPC’s satellite campus in Little Tokyo, the heart of downtown. The worship service ended early to allow time for us to go on prayer walks around the city. We set out in groups of four or five. Passersby might have thought we were in a tour group – Jim Kermath took the opportunity to tell us more about the culture, the relationships that are already being developed, and how the area has changed recently.
As we walked, I said breath prayers—the short one or two sentence prayers about whatever we were seeing or hearing at the time: “Lord, please bless that woman and giver her comfort for whatever she’s going through,” “Lord, please give us insight into how to reach these people,” “Lord, may this store be known not for their yogurt, but for the lives of people in its walls that are changed because of conversations that are had about you.” These short bursts of prayer enabled me to listen to Jim and immediately seek God’s impact on the neighborhood.
At one point, my chest started getting tight (and not because it’s been so long since I’ve gone to the gym). I felt overwhelmed for a moment and stopped walking. When I realize the group had continued, I caught up with them. Those three steps forward revealed a Buddhist temple at the end of the road we had just intersected. That moment resulted in more than a breath prayer. As I looked down the road, I began praying specifically for the people who were entrapped by this faith, who were seeking something and found only the religion of their culture and family, who had yet to hear of the freedom and grace found in Jesus. As I continued to pray, the tightness in my chest abated, I was able to breathe normally again, and my fervor for helping support The Bridge intensified.
In moments like these, I thank God that he’s available to us for longer periods of meditation as well as for shorter prayers when our need for him becomes apparent in a moment. Through these kinds of prayers, our awareness of His presences increases so that we can gain insight into the spiritual struggles that our neighbors are experiencing, find our reliance on God increasing, and hopefully so that the reality will finally sink in that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
Jen Hurst
Associate Director of Small Groups
jen.hurst@belairpres.org
