I don’t write often about our family’s personal life. Many of you may not even know where we live (unless you’ve read our bio).
We’ve done and seen quite a bit for as young of a family as we are, but I don’t write about it primarily out of respect for the privacy of not only our family, but those we’ve worked with.
But since our church is in the middle of our annual two-week Evening Bible Camps (EBC), I thought it could be a good time to give you a sneak peek into the work we are privileged to be a part of here in LA.
Back in 2008, before Teresa and I got married, my family moved to Los Angeles from Northern Minnesota to plant a church. In 2012, I married this beautiful girl I found stumbling around the mountains of Southeast Asia–where we ended up living for three of the first four and a half years of our marriage.
Well, we didn’t live in the mountains.
Neither was my wife stumbling around in them.
We had met during our time at IGo (Institute for Global Opportunities) where we took short term missions trips into other countries, which included one into the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. The program was eight months long and we got to know each other pretty well through our time together. A few months after returning to the States I asked her out.
A few months after that she asked me to marry her.
I’m kidding.
It didn’t take long, however, for both of us to realize we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, stumbling around whatever mountains God sends us through. When I asked her to marry me in June of 2012, we both envisioned we could likely end up back in Asia doing international mission work.
If you know us, or have followed my blog for a while, you know four days before our wedding my mom was killed in a car wreck. I’ve written more about that experience here, here, and here. Clearly, her death catastrophically changed the landscape of my family, and of ministry here in LA.
Our little church was just starting to get “off the ground,” as it were. The vision behind the church plant was to plant a network of house churches throughout the city. We had been meeting in our home with a core group for about two years, and God seemed to doing some really good things in our community.
But then Mom was killed.
Church began meeting in the back patio of Jose and Ana’s house, and our small church family rallied well around us as we grieved as a family.
Four months later, Teresa and I were asked to move back to SE Asia to teach at a small international school for children of missionary families. We accepted the opportunity to return to Asia and in 2014 moved, with an eleven month old son and another one on the way, to Chiang Mai, Thailand where we taught school for three years.
Somewhere during 2016, I began feeling a deep need for more training.
I had taught for a year and a half, was in the middle of writing my first book, and envisioned spending the rest of my life making disciples one way or another. Yet, the more experience I got the more I realized the value of good rigorous training. When it comes to teaching the Bible, standing between heaven and earth explaining God’s Word to his people, I want to know I’m doing it well.
We lack theological training in conservative Anabaptist circles. Far too often, we’re teaching as doctrine something we’ve kind of assumed based on how we’ve done things. But where did we get it? How do we derive the principles and doctrines we do?
This all led Teresa and I to move back to LA to pursue a Bachelor’s in Biblical Studies at Eternity Bible College. Living in LA, we’d be with our home church and could continue in ministry with them. This is where we’ve been ever since the summer of 2017.
A lot has happened here in LA since our family landed in 2008. As with any church or organization, there are always growing pains–some we are going through even now. But in the middle of it all, God continues doing his work.
So, let me tell you about some of it.
Choice Books
When our family first moved to Los Angeles in 2008, it was Choice Books that got us here. They needed someone to come and help expand the branch in Southern California. One of Dad’s close friends who knew of his interest in LA also worked for Choice Books and suggested Dad as a good option. They asked, Dad accepted, and Choice Books became not only the vehicle to get us into the city, but it also became the first ministry. Now, 2019, Sam Kurtz and have taken leadership of the Southern CA district.
If you’re not familiar with Choice Books, it’s a book distribution company that aims to get wholesome, inspirational reading material in the common marketplace. They don’t compete with bookstores. Instead, their focus is pharmacy waiting areas, grocery stores, airports, hospital gift shops, and so forth. Choice Books currently has over three hundred book wracks throughout Los Angeles metro and continues to look to expand as God allows.
LA ROAD Thrift Store
Jared and Carmen Stoltzfus joined the church planting team back in 2011 and early on developed a vision for ministering through business in the local community. That vision eventually evolved into a thrift store which services the North East Los Angeles communities of Eagle Rock and Glassell Park.
Evening Bible Camps & Thrive Family Church
In every city there are hundreds and thousands of children who need something to do with their time outside of school. These kids also rarely know about Christ.
We have had various forms of kids clubs over the last ten years. Sometimes we wonder if they do any good, then we get blindsided by random glimpses of fruit and hope. Already, God has allowed us to see lives being changed as we’ve had the privilege of baptizing two young adults who have come through our kids ministry. Several more are on good journeys getting closer and closer to Christ.
In the last couple of years, we’ve shifted from calling them “Kids Clubs” to calling it “Thrive Family Church” as we seek to engage whole families, not just kids.
Early on, my two older siblings developed the vision for doing a two-week vacation Bible school event we call Evening Bible Camp (EBC). Our church has had the privilege of running EBC for nine consecutive years. As many as three hundred kids have come over the two week period, but what has been most exciting is seeing the few who have been a part of all nine years.
LA ROAD Christian School
Benji and Maria Beiler joined the team here in LA in 2015. It didn’t take long for God to lay on their hearts a burden for starting a Christian school. The public schools are a mess here in the city. Not only are they hostile toward Christianity, but so many children fall through the cracks, so many youth get involved in drugs at school. We have several parents in our community longing for something other than public school–something better.
In 2017, God opened the doors to start a school. It’s small. It’s still getting off the ground. But this past year there were seven young lives touched by the Gospel, and by the care of teachers who love them and truly long for them to thrive in life.
People’s Daily Lives
Sometimes the most meaningful ministry doesn’t happen on stage or during the big annual events, but in the middle of the mundane, daily grind of everyday life. Making disciple’s is a call for every believer.
My wife and I help out as we can in these different ministries, but we’re also honored to have a Bible study with our neighbors.
My friend Matt has been mentoring a young man in our community for about two years now, pouring so much of his life and energy into him.
There are different people and stories I haven’t highlighted here, not because they aren’t worth mentioning, but because it’s normal daily life. And in many ways, it is best if they are left that way.
The biggest reason I don’t write about the work we’re involved in is because I don’t want to play up or dramatize ministry. Every one of us is presented with daily opportunities to take someone by the hand and introduce them to their Maker and His design for life.
This is a peek into how we do that in LA.
How do you do it where you live? You can share in the comments below.
