Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Friends ("Lefties") from LA

With Edgar Esqueda at Fuller Seminary.
Edgar and I met last year at the Billy Graham Institute for Emerging Evangelists, and this summer he co-led a team of nine interns from L.A. that worked at Xcel for six weeks. It was great to hang with him on his turf! First he joined Brian and me (and three of Brian's friends) at the U2 concert, then he hosted me on Thursday at Fuller and toured the neighborhoods where he grew up (Pecoima and San Fernando) and ministers now (Compton). We shared struggles and encouraged each other in faith, and he inspired me with more of his testimony, including: hard working immigrant parents; summer vacations in the mountains of Mexico; gang banging as a teen with Pecoima's Pierce Street Boys; and being introduced to Jesus by his roommate and a campus minister as a college athlete.
With blog compatriots Abner Ramos (l.) and Scott McLane (r.)

Abner and Scott are friends of mine through the magic of cyberspace and the shared experiences of InterVarsity in college and Rudy Carrasco's graduate school of networking. They're also IVCF staff colleagues of Edgar's, as the three of them wrestle with the challenges of campus ministry on largely urban, commuter schools. Thanks for taking the time to grab some coffee and hang for an hour or two!

Not pictured: Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs. We parked ourselves in Pasadena at Fuller on Thursday to crash a morning meeting Prof. Bolger conducted with students to preview his upcoming book (co-authored with Prof. Gibbs) called Emerging Chuches. Then Brian, Edgar and I hung out with Profs. Bolger and Gibbs for over an hour and a half exploring ways to connect the various conversations (some "emerging" some not, many coexisting side-by-side and not even knowing of the other) about how to transform the church in the next century. Thanks to Scott for the pictures. More pics to come.

posted by Jeremy Del Rio @ 11/08/2005 09:41:00 PM

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