Somatra, volunteer leader for Kingdom Causes in Homeless Hospitality Group, shares her experience of collaboration with several local congregations to furnish empty apartments:There we were, local churches from all around Long Beach, gathering together to join in a city movement to house the homeless. I was thinking to myself, “REALLY! This is so awesome.” How that looks like and the details of it were beyond me at the time but I knew I couldn’t miss out on this opportunity. It was not just an opportunity to serve a homeless person but it was an opening to new relationships with local churches and a chance to show the city that churches can work together under the provision of Christ! It was a true delight to see the heart and excitement of people in the room and I couldn’t wait for our first move-in project together.
Susana Sngiem from Kingdom Causes gave us all a call about the first move-in. It was short notice and it was right before Christmas. This was a crazy time for everyone but that didn’t stop people from helping. So many different churches got involved despite a few challenges and we were able to officially house our first homeless couple! Becky and Anthony have their own home now. They were so grateful and enthusiastic with all the furniture and items we were able to supply for them in a very small time frame. God works fast and all things are possible!
Through these local connections we were able to help another man named Tony who just recently moved in an apartment also. He was living in his car and has been sober for a while now. This was another opportunity for us to work collectively and bless him with some items for his new apartment. What was great about this move-in was how we worked so fluently together in getting the items and how quickly we responded. Keep in mind this was all during the holidays so it was a difficult time for people to help. But people did help and now Tony has all the items he need for his apartment. He was speechless and was in awe of how amazing God is. He didn’t say how amazing we were…he said how amazing God is. This was a sign of hope to me that God is present in his life and we are doing a good thing here. I am so proud of everyone involved but what makes this so significant is that all the glory goes to God. It’s not about me, it’s about Him. I’m just in for the ride. So I am excited to be a part of this and I can’t wait for future move-ins. It was without doubt a big move for Becky, Anthony, and Tony, a big move with the churches and people involved, and certainly the one of many big moves God will do.
If you are interested in theses move-in projects contact me somatra.sean@lbfc.org
Somatra Sean
Kingdom Causes Long Beach Homelessness Volunteer
Long Beach Friends Church
Inner City Ministries
On Wednesday, December 9th 23 parents graduated from the Parent Institute for Quality Education at Hamilton Middle School. Parents learned how to prepare their children for college readiness by attending an eight week program. They were all Spanish speaking parents. Everything had to be translated. It was wild! Along with Principal Downing and Leticia, I was proud of the parents because of their courage to learn for the betterment of their children!
I was proud that they would do this for their children and the next generation. I was just honored to be there to represent Kingdom Causes and meet the parents. It was a privilege for Kingdom Causes to be a part of the celebration by providing snacks. Thank you to the parents, Hamilton Middle School, Parent Institute for Quality Education, and California State University, Long Beach for their commitment to youth education and development.
Principal Downing with parent volunteers
On Monday, November 23, 12 families received Thanksgiving boxes. Kingdom Causes Long Beach coordinated the donation of 12 turkeys and sides to identified families at Hamilton Middle School. Parent volunteers decorated cardboard boxes and assembled the meals. We are truly thankful to those who contributed to blessing these 12 families in North Long Beach!
Within the past year there has been many happenings in community development in Long Beach, so here are just a few highlights that Kingdom Causes Long Beach has been involved in. I was able to work in Linden Avenue between Market and South Street as an AmeriCorps worker. Through the Atlantic Corridor Project, I trained two interns from Victory Outreach and St. Athanasius Church in Asset Based Community Development. Together we surveyed the neighborhood to find out the top concerns of the neighborhood. At the first neighborhood meeting we reported back the neighbors and placed in their hands what they would like to do about things. The neighbors decided to attract more neighbors to the meetings by hosting a neighborhood clean up. The eighth district, Rae Gaeblich's, office sponsored the neighborhood clean up. Several neighbors donated their time, treasure, touch, and talent into the clean up. The clean up started at eight o'clock and by 9:30 AM the industrial sized dumpster was filled to the top. It was encouraging to see neighbors come together for the betterment of their neighborhood.
In Downtown Long Beach, Somatra (another AmeriCorps worker) has been convening a group of neighbors along 9th Street between Atlantic Avenue and Martin L. King Jr Street. Neighbors met, many for the first time, during barbecues at a local church parking lot. From there the neighbors starting a neighborhood meeting. Together they decided to work on neighborhood safety and wanted to become a registered neighborhood watch block. First they had their local beat police officer share about the neighborhood. Just recently, Lisa, coordinator of neighborhood watch for Long Beach, orientated the neighbors on neighborhood watch. The neighborhood is finally an official registered neighborhood watch block!
We spent the afternoon today serving all 104 staff members at Hamilton Middle School with a piece of "fan mail". Once the staff member got over the initial shock of being interrupted in what they were doing at the time and the fact they they did not recognize the person doing the interrupting they were thrilled to be getting a letter of thanks. If you can imagine because of the difficult economic season that we are in, the principal had warned us that there might be some initial suspicion when getting a note handed to them from a complete stranger. Perfect scenario for us! Our goal was to sow into their lives in the opposite way by giving them a personalized and hand written note of thanks from a member of a local congregation that was grateful for the hard work that they are doing. 
