Sunny beaches, palm trees and breezy days full of warmth and movie stars.
Isn't that what you think of when you hear "California?" As we poured out our hearts for missions, you may have even thought how convenient it was that God would call us to missions in the vacation capital of the world besides Florida, however......
let me paint you another picture.
In Stockton, summer days are like walking outside into a furnace, which is wonderful if you love heat, I however do not like 100 + degree weather with no breeze. It is not uncommon to hear of someone finding a homeless person expired. Usually from heat exhaustion or dehydration. With intense heat comes less clothes and decency, and also less courtesy from the average person. Not that the majority of the population has decency for one another anyway.
Several times I have gone to the store, or gotten gas and accidentally locked eyes with someone, which was usually immediately met with a hateful look or colorful comments, referring to me as a female dog because I happened to accidentally glance in their direction. This has also been ground for shootings, because someone got angry that someone else was "mugging them" (giving a distasteful glance)
The gang violence is worse as days go by because with Stockton being bankrupt, they are incapable of paying all of their police force. They have laid off many state employees, and many cops, so much so, that it seems as if there is a homicide on a daily basis in Stockton, if not several. Parties are no longer a place of safety, (or fun) as fights break out and people end up dead. Same with bars, and clubs... the only activity there seems to be for native Stocktonians.
The year we left, someone was stabbed several times at the DMV, and my youngest brother lost several friends over the course of a couple years to random shootings and etc..
At any time of day, as you drive down Wilson Way (best known for the prostitutes that walk up and down it) there are prostitutes out, and during the night some of them migrate under the bridges. There are several bridges in Stockton, all filled with tents, boxes and mattresses where homeless people set up residency and try to get by day after day.
You cannot go to the grocery story, gas station, auto zone or etc... with out being asked for a hand out. Angel and I tried to counter that with bibles, and bottles of water but they need so much more. Its a growing problem that doesn't seem to get better. There doesn't seem to be programs in place that can actually counter the homelessness issues in Stockton.
Its a city where Iphones are more important than basic neccessities, where everyone competes with everyone else and materialism is a religion. There are some who are poor, just trying to get by, but the majority of those who say they are poor say it because they cant buy the newest phone, latest electronic etc.....
Minus the homeless, the real poor, the real lack is the spiritual poverty that has encompassed the city as a whole. The majority of the churches teach materialism, and everyone seems to be okay with it. The majority of the churches teach prosperity gospel, when in reality, our Jesus and the Christian gospel was the opposite of that. So that's the city we go to. Not a vacation property, but an angry, spiritually lacking, culturally diverse and desperate city.
With all that being said, there are people in Stockton whose fierce loyalty to Stockton makes them good people, tough, but good. Some of my dearest friends are there, and I can only hope that somehow I can unite them, and share the vision of evangelism and house church planting in the City.
Our plan of attack is already in place, we have been praying night and day for the right hearts to be opened to us as we begin our mission in that city. We have been praying that God has been laying the foundation and preparing the doors that will be opened as go back.
We know that perfect love casts out all fear, and the only one that can bring perfect love is God, and if we do not go in the spirit of power that he gives us, than we are lost. We will never see change, and there will never be hope. However, we trust him. We trust his heart, and his heart is that none would perish but that ALL would come to repentance.
If God can deliver the Israelites
If God can part the seas
If God can heal cancer, dying children, broken relationships and broken hearts...
If God can draw us to him in all our disobedience and selfishness and rebellion...
and If God can die on a cross.... in human form, rise from the dead and keep the balance of the universe in his hands....
Then God can redeem a city.... he can turn around the perversion and the anger and the apathy that has settled its way into this place, and he can bring forth a harvest of people who will love him and serve him with their hearts. People who will not allow Stockton to be unchanged. I believe this will be the beginning. I believe he has so much more in mind! and I pray for it! I pray for REVIVAL! I pray for REVOLUTION! I pray for HEART CHANGE!
Please dont shrug your shoulders, or close this blog without allowing God to stir your hearts, if you do nothing more this day than pray for your relatives or family... just add Stockton to that list. Pray that God will do something great and mighty, and so wonderful that no one else but Jesus could take the glory.
Love you guys... see you in a few weeks. <3
