Like the mural depicts, the heart of a Barrio Prophet is not sheltered from pain and the thorns of life. Anyone in the barrio knows that through personal experience. “The Heart of a Barrio Prophet” is the topic and theme for the CUMBRE de ALABANZA this Friday at 7pm at Community Baptist Church (map) in East Los Angeles. One goal for this gathering of Latino/a college students from campuses and churches across Los Angeles is to create a place to encounter God - the great healer - through worship, prayer, fellowship and the Word. In this encounter - encuentro con Dios - God works to heal hurt and then lead students not away from the pain, but into facing & conquering it in order to usher in God’s transforming power.For many, one source of pain is the experience of the barrio. This was true for our speaker, Abner Ramos, who grew up here in East LA, and planned for his education at UCLA to be his ticket out of the barrio forever. But then the his encounter with God changed Abner from a barrio victim to a barrio prophet:

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t want to come. I thought that going back to East L.A. was against everything I had been working hard to accomplish, that is, to stay out of the ghetto and make a lot of money… But something interesting happened that day.As we were unloading the pizza Brad told me that someone had been shot on campus the day before. “Yea, some guys got in a fight in the parking lot. One of them pulled out a gun, and now the other dude is dead.” I didn’t think much of it then.

I went home to visit my family that weekend. That’s when my brother asked me what I had been up to. “I went to ELAC this week, it’s a cool place.”

He looked at me with a sad look on his face. “Guess who shot someone on that campus this week?”

“Who?”

“Marcel Narro.”

Marcel was by best friend growing up. I saw him go downhill when we were freshmen at Montebello High School. We did everything together. The day before I came to ELAC he pulled out his gun and emptied the clip at point blank range into another man’s chest. It’s a sad thing to see your friends make stupid decisions.

At that point I heard God’s voice say, “Abner, your best friends are killing people on that campus. You have to go and tell them that I bring hope, you have to give them my gospel.”

Yeah. Wow. Come on Friday to hear Abner speak. Bring your Latino youth, friends, leaders and future barrio prophets to experience this transformation from the God of Barrio prophets, Jesus himself.

READ: Barrio Prophets (a) and (c)