Why I moved to LA

Moving to LA was a big decision but something that has been in process for about 4 years now.

First, caring for the poor: In 2006 I participated in a 6 week internship in South LA called the Los Angeles Urban Project. This experience taught me a lot about poverty in the city and systems of injustice that are present in schools, health care, government, housing, etc that make it almost impossible for people to pull themselves out of poverty, especially minorities. I also learned that are dark spiritual forces and powers in the city that have a very deep hold on people. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12 Because of this experience, I felt called my God to be in the city and care for the poor and combat the spiritual forces that trap and enslave people. I am not sure how God want to use me to care for the poor. I do not know how to combat the spiritual forces. I know I am not here to fix the city or come in and be the solution to these problems. Right now I am here to build relationships with my neighbors and care for them the best I can. I expect more to learn from them and care for people as God leads me.

Second, children: I have always loved children. I think growing up around my 15 younger cousins I have always loved caring for and being with small children. As I worked with different types and groups of children throughout college I have found that my heart just melts for every child I have a relationship with. In the preschool that I worked at, I loved singing songs and reading books to the 2 and 3 year olds. I even loved the ones that threw tantrums and would never take a nap. When I taught theatre in a second grade class I saw these kids just be hams onstage, still young enough to not be too self conscious. When I was in Ghana teaching a 3^rd grade class I loved the children’s energy and desire to absorb everything. I have worked with all age levels, many ethnicities, many socio economic backgrounds. My heart easily melts for all of them. During the two years after college that I worked at an insurance company, I went through withdrawals without children in my life. I really missed them so deeply. I would go into bookstores and read children’s books to myself. I would sing Raffi songs to myself in the car. When I would see children I would almost want to cry because I missed having them apart of my life. So I have felt for a while that in some capacity I need to be working with children.

Thirdly, theatre: Many of you know that I was a drama major in college. Although I love the performing aspect, right now I feel like pursing acting for myself is not something that is beneficial for myself or the kingdom of God. That could change later in life, but right now I don’t feel like I want to audition in LA or anything like that. However, I do love to teach theatre to children. In college I was a part of an organization called Artsbridge America. In this program we would be assigned an elementary school classroom for few months and we would take theatre and bridge that to a subject in school they were already learning about. I really loved this program. Love how theatre and art gives kids a voice and the freedom to express themselves in a creative and unique way. I also spent a summer working with a program called When Justice and Peace Kiss in which we helped youth write their own poetry, spoken word, monologues, music and dance that we incorporated into a performance. There was one girl in the program who was really hesitant to be there because she was a bit older than a lot of the other students. She had an amazing voice. On the day of the performance she really didn’t want to be there and didn’t want to perform. We encouraged her that she was going to do great. After the performance, she was GLOWING. She absolutely loved it and wanted to perform again. I can’t fully capture the moment in few short sentences but it was an amazing experience to see this girl really be given a voice and be excited to share a part of herself through music.

S o to sum that all up, I am in LA to pursue those three things: social justice, loving children, teaching theatre (hopefully they all overlap). Why LA? It was the least scary city to move to in my mind because it was the closest, I have lived here for 2 summers, and I had people I could live with. It’s also a city full of art and a lot of opportunities for me to learn. That was a really long explanation to why I moved here but I feel like God has a lot more to teach me about why I am here. I am hoping that this blog will be a way for me to reflect and share more of why I am here.