Barrio Prophets (c)
EVENT — CUMBRE de ALABANZA
TIME — Friday at 7pm
LOCATION — Community Baptist Church (map)
1120 McDonnell Ave. East Los Angeles, CA 90022
Yesterday, after taking Bus Line 71 to CSULA, I met up with staff partners from USC to pray over the campus and invite students to the “Cumbre” event this Friday.
Students along Library walkway at CSULA
To the students that I met, I asked, “If God were to come into the barrio, what issues would God have to address?”Brenda, a frosh student from West LA that I met at the bus stop, said, “Teaching people peace and how to love one another.” I asked her what she meant by “peace.” “You mean the opposite of stress?” “No,” she replied, “opposite of violence.” Another woman that I talked with, Maritza, a third year Catholic student from South Los Angeles, talked about God needing to explain all of the division between Christians, who all claim Jesus. I met another woman on the walkway who responded, “I’ve never really thought about that, but now that you ask, I’m really interested to know.”
What I realized is whatever the specific question, there is a hunger in this generation to experience truth in flesh, God walking in the barrio. Maritza and I talked about the incarnation of Jesus as the picture for us of what our invisible God looks like. We didn’t use the word ‘incarnation’ but that was what we talked about - God among us, actually invested in the barrio issues that affect the people God cares about. While I don’t know who will show up this Friday, it is confirming to know that the hope for a prophetic voice in the barrio is what this generation of students hopes for.
Lastly, when asked “what does barrio mean?” by my students, they helped me fill in the answer - “ghetto, da hood, the city, urban center.” Urban center prophets just doesn’t flow the same.