Focus on the Family: Hector's Story

Our partner and brother in Christ, Pastor Hector was featured on Focus on the Family, this past Friday's broadcast. In addition to the ministry at MacArthur Park, Pastor Hector has been a featured guest speaker at Love LA this past year.


(Below text from July 20, 2007, Focus on the Family broadcast)

The Urban Ministry Institute describes how Hector Cedillo went from a life of drugs to a life of ministry to the inner city.

The Urban Ministry Institute equips church leaders. Among America's urban poor, there are thousands of leaders called and gifted by God who have not had an opportunity for traditional theological education. The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) meets this need for theological education at more than 30 satellite campuses in America's inner cities.

Rev. Hector Cedillo is the type of leader being raised up through TUMI. For years Hector had been heavily involved with alcohol and drugs. He had been homeless and lived as an addict on the streets. When Hector finally surrendered his life to Christ, he had been selling drugs to support his habit in MacArthur Park, a center for all kinds of crime in Los Angeles. One night, completely broken, Hector prayed with his wife, and turned his life over to Christ. From that night on, he was completely freed from alcohol and drugs. He had a new hunger for the Word, showing up to church hours early, and could not stop reading the Word of God.

Read the full article over here.

Also featured: Keith Phillips, President of World Impact on Focus on the Family- check it out over here.

Here we go again

For more info, please contact us.
info4lovela(at)gmail.com

LA Times Story re: Union Rescue Mission Opening Hope Gardens for Homeless Familes

A gift of new beginnings for the homeless

Far from skid row, women and children settle into a transitional residence that had faced local opposition

A tranquil retreat in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley gives Olga Koleshchuk the chance to rebuild her life after fleeing an abusive boyfriend.Koleshchuk and her 8-year-old son, Daniel, are among six mothers and their 15 children — as well as nearly two dozen elderly women — who are living at Hope Gardens Family Center, a transitional housing site for women and children that opened two weeks ago north of Lake View Terrace.Each family is assigned a one- or two-bedroom apartment with a bathroom. Freshly painted and clean, the rooms look onto a wooded hillside where residents can see deer and raccoons scrambling in the underbrush.A former senior citizens retirement home, the 71-acre complex is worlds away in mood and character from their former lives on the street. Under the shadowing trees, lodge-like buildings house apartments and offices. Footpaths wind past lush gardens, a gurgling brook, a koi pond and a new playground.For Koleshchuk and her son, Hope Gardens most simply means no more temporary shelters."You have no privacy" in those, she said Tuesday. "That's the best thing about being here. You have your privacy."In the next year, the Union Rescue Mission on skid row, which runs the center, plans to move as many as 225 homeless women and children to Hope Gardens. The mission bought the property a couple of years ago in an unincorporated area for $7.5 million.

For the rest of the story, go to over here.

A Story About Central City Community Church

Here's a story about Central City Community Church and Pastor Jeff Thomas on a American Bible Society TV show.

Check out: http://www.bibles.com/abspresents/video/?ep=37