Meeting New Pastors

We were at Pastors Garon and Betty Harden's church last Wednesday for the Kingdom Causes Leadership prayer meeting. What shepherd's hearts they have for their community! One of pastor's passions is education for young people and he has started a Bible College just down the street in order to provide opportunity for young people in the area. He also has a pre-school thru 8th grade on his premises for the same reason. Pastor Harding was telling about his building project and he has completed the permit process with the City - and he still has a smile on his face!! They are such an engaging couple and you feel welcome in that place. Prayer seems to be high on their agenda as they have a prayer meeting every day except Sunday and sometimes two. They had just finished one when we got there for our pastors meeting and as we were finishing people were coming in and going into the prayer room and getting on their knees. No wonder he's gone from 30 people to 3 services on Sunday and needs a bigger facility! They are strategically placed in the northwestern-most corner of Long Beach and I'm thinking the Lord has some amazing things in store for this congregation.

Connected Corridor - North Atlantic Corridor

Kingdom Causes was one of eight organizations that were given a grant by Long Beach Leadership and The Knight Foundation to transform North Long Beach area around Atlantic Avenue.  There are and will be great opportunities in North Long Beach to take advantage of.  It was great to meet people with a heart for North Long Beach and a vision of creating community.  I cannot wait for the stories of transformation from these different organization.  One story of hope and transformation I heard from this first meeting was from Margaret, who is a member of Long Beach Leadership Steering Committee.  The nursing home in front of Carmelitos Apartments saw Carmelitos as the worse thing to happen to Long Beach.  A young woman who grew up in Carmelitos wanted to change their perspective and started to volunteer at the nursing home.  She broke down the barriers between the nursing home and Carmelitos and how they see each other.  Currently she still volunteers there along with other residents from Carmelitos.  I am very excited to hear more stories of neighbors connecting and building relationships with each other.