Tangible God

"Before FUI I knew God. I knew who he was in my life, I knew his heart for missions, I knew his love for people, I knew his sovereignty. Well, 6 weeks engaging with the city of Fresno has shown me how ignorant I was and still am to the character of God. FUI has introduced be to the incarnate God and the incarnate gospel. It has introduced me the God who became flesh and dwells among us. I have been consumed by a gospel that is tangible and relevant. In the city its hard to see a tangible God, violence, poverty, oppression consume you. All you seem to see is ugliness in broken down infrastructure, malnutritoned children, and seemingly unchangeable circumstances. But God has changed my eyes from that of one out looking in, to one in looking out. He has shown me the world from this perspective. And I know God is here, he is present and he is working.

The first class of the project we talked about loving our neighbor. We spoke of the greatest commandments asked of Jesus in the Gospels, He replies to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. These by many are believed to be separate not in relation to each other, but Jesus was asked of one commandment and He gave one commandment. Loving God and loving your neighbor is one command. You do not love God if you don’t love your neighbor. God has shown a very minute part of his heart for humanity. I am learning to love my neighbor but in essence I am learning to love God.

My site has become my training center. Throughout the summer we have engaged in various service projects, we have volunteered at many places and this has definitely shown me how to love my neighbor. However, it has been the teens that I work with whom I have learned the most about what loving my neighbor looks like. My teens have been at times difficult. They are amazing but they are a product of their environment and the sin within it. I’ve in this process I’ve learned that most importantly they are children of the almighty, they are influenced by sin just as I am but God has shown me so much of himself through them, their nature of hospitality, their passion and compassion, and there willingness to serve they have a great work ethic which they showed by putting in insulation and painting at different FIFUL sites. They have shown hospitality by inviting me to their home and having a meal with them. And they’ve show compassion by their tears in love and sadness. He has through them shown me how to love my neighbor.

God is here, he is engaged in this city, in the prison walls, at the rescue missions, in the churches who praise him, and in the people who call him Lord. God loves my neighbor I love my neighbor. God loves the city, I love the city."

by Lawrence Lyons

Dying to Live

from Josth Stenner, a Cal State Bakersfield 2nd Year

"On Thursday we had class and the topic of the class happened to be about something that I really have a heart for, immigration. This politically controversial topic has proved to be a hot button issue on the minds of many Christians because many people don’t know what God says about it. The film brought up two very different emotions for me; it made me happy but angry at the same time. I was happy that people were learning the depth of this issue and that it made people think about it through Gods eyes rather than through some political lens. But to be completely honest, this film was frustrating. I love the idea that people are no longer viewing this as an abstract issue but that it now has a face for people, however the face that it has is not a completely accurate one. This film focused on illegal immigration from Central and Southern America and I personally feel that has been the face of immigration. 40% of the people who immigrate to the United States illegally are Asian but you never hear about them, you hear about the millions of Mexicans who cross the border, documentaries are made about the Mexicans who cross into the U.S. illegally. This is why this movie made me angry, even though you are getting people to think about immigration in a different way people are still subconsciously being fed this inaccurate idea that Mexican are the only people who are here illegally. You can see this with Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, there is no way to physically tell whether a person is illegal or not because there is no one type of illegal immigrant, with this bill, cops are left to assume that someone is not legal based on nothing. Because Mexicans are what everyone associates with illegal immigrants, they are going to be the ones who are more often ask for their papers, in Arizona. Overall, I’m glad that we watched this film, because I’ve gotten to have meaningful conversations with people about how this topic has impacted my life. 

To be completely honest, I understand that people are gonna have different opinions when it comes to this topic and I’m ok with that I just want people to understand that the people who come over are not here for any malicious reasons, they just want a better life. They don’t leave happily, it’s not an easy journey, and people die in search of a better life. The next time that somebody gets hung up about the fact that undocumented immigrants are illegal and therefore are bad people, invite them to see what Jesus say about loving your neighbor and help them see that people are literally “Dying to Live” ."