The Hope Center is a food program that prepares and serves over a thousand meals each week to those in need in the East Hollywood and greater Los Angeles area. Overseeing that food program is Chef Cesar. Cesar arrived at the Hope Center in 2018, homeless, addicted to drugs, and with no hope for the future. He desperately wanted to take control of his life and refused to give God the reigns. But little by little, God loosened the grip of fear on his life. “I don’t have to be in control because I know God is!” says Cesar. Today,…
Read Story
A prisoner’s bones ache. He sleeps on the hard ground because there aren’t enough beds in the facility. He awakes to the excited chatter of one of his cell mates. “Care packages,” his cell mate announces. The prisoner gets up. His stomach growls. There’s never enough food; just beans. The care packages are a nice treat – toothbrushes, toothpaste, toilet paper. It’s funny that a pastor would want to send these gifts to some of the worst criminals in Honduras. But then again, four of these prisoners are now pastors themselves because of the prison ministry. People are getting baptized…
Read Story
“I’m converting to Mormonism.” Bailey Palmer’s heart sinks into the ground. He could barely recognize Jeremy*. Jeremy came to Campus Ambassadors as a new Christian, ready to be discipled. He was curious and excited, diving deep into God’s word with Bailey every week. “Are tattoos a sin? What about marijuana?” he would ask. He wanted to know everything and anything. Bailey always challenged him to find his answers in God’s word, to think critically, and to study different perspectives before coming to any conclusion. So, when Jeremy told him that he’d been contacted by a couple of Mormons, he didn’t…
Read Story
Hot bright flames pour out from a city bus, swallowed whole by molten-orange clouds of smoke. Steel drips like candlewax onto a floor of shattered glass. Clouds of gray climb to the sky, painting the vehicle an ash-black. It looks like a volcano, erupting and spewing lava right in the middle of an El Salvadorian street. Nelson Juarez watched behind a bush, still feeling the heat on his face. Communist guerrillas had stopped the bus he was on dead in its tracks, demanding that everyone on board get out. Their torsos were strapped with large weapons and ribbons of ammo.…
Read Story
Ben Joseph was the son of a Hindu to Christian convert, born in Kerala, India. While he was raised going to church, he wasn’t interested in any spiritual matters. In the 70s, he began working for a businessman who assisted in sending people to the United States and Canada. The man promised Ben that he would send him to America one day, and true to his word, he did. The businessman wrote Ben’s Christian testimony, sent it off to American Bible colleges, and pleaded on Ben’s behalf for a scholarship to attend their school and enter ministry. Ben was accepted…
Read Story
Edwin Colon is the co-founder and pastor of the Recovery House of Worship in Brooklyn, New York. He describes his church as a refuge for the marginalized and his congregation being filled with murderers, prostitutes, and drug addicts. But Edwin tells his church regularly that he’s the worst sinner of them all. Edwin’s downward spiral to addiction started when most children were still watching cartoons. At eleven, he began his relationship with alcohol, dropped out of school after 6th grade, and started using cocaine before he became an adult. When he turned eighteen, he qualified for a twelve-step program. It…
Read StoryHow Can You Help
The Great Commission is what spurs us to do indigenous ministry. Around the world, Christians are making disciples in their hometowns and bringing the gospel to their people. How will you be a part of that?