Searching the Ashes for Hope

Spared by looters and arsonists, L.A.’s churches and ministries look for lasting solutions to the city’s woes.

Like millions across the country, Benny Newton gazed with alarm at the televised images of rioting in Los Angeles. But unlike many, he knew he had to do something to stop the violence. Newton returned to his South-Central Los Angeles home on April 29 just in time to see the live broadcast of truck driver Reginald Denny being beaten by an angry mob. He watched for only a few minutes before he grabbed his clerical collar, hopped back into his car, and raced to the nearby intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues.

“When I arrived, the intersection was an orgy of anger and violence,” he recalls. “I exhorted the people to stop, but everyone was out of control.” The 59-year-old pastor of the Light of Love Outreach threw himself on top of a Hispanic man who had already been beaten into unconsciousness. Newton shielded the man with his body and prayed that God would sustain the unfortunate victim until medical attention arrived. When it didn’t, Newton drove Fidel Lopez to nearby Daniel Freeman Hospital.

While Newton risked his life on the streets of South-Central L.A., other Christians were ministering to the city’s political, business, and entertainment leaders who were gathered at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church near downtown. Speakers expressed outrage at the Rodney King verdict while counseling calm, even as rioting flared across the city.

The human explosion would ultimately kill nearly 60 people and cause property damage estimated as high as $800 million. Yet, in the midst of the chaos, the church stood as a beacon of love and hope. “The response of individuals in Los Angeles and across the nation was very impressive, indeed,” says Bishop Charles Blake, senior pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, and bishop over his denomination’s churches in that area.

Even before the fires stopped smoldering, an army of Christian workers joined other volunteers to begin cleaning up debris and distributing food, clothing, and water to people who had lost everything, or who did not have transportation to reach distant markets that were not burned or looted.

Despite the widespread destruction, churches and ministries reported only minor damage. “God, by his grace, is telling us that we survived unscathed so we would be structured to immediately serve,” says Blake. Only one storefront church was destroyed.

However, serious damage was sustained by Teen Challenge of Southern California, which lost its thrift store valued at $75,000. “The loss is an incredible blow,” says director Dennis Griffith. The facility trained recovering drug abusers and raised funds for ongoing substance-abuse programs.

Network Of Care

The Sunday after the riots, Jack Hayford, senior pastor of Church on the Way in Van Nuys, told his congregation about the needs expressed by some of the inner-city churches associated with the Love L.A. Coalition, a group of about 1,000 area pastors chaired by Hayford and Lloyd Ogilvie of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, which convenes regularly to pray for Los Angeles. By the end of the day on Sunday, individual members at Church on the Way had donated more than $250,000 in cash and supplies for riot victims. Ogilvie noted that the bonds built around prayer prepared the way for practical aid. “When the riots struck, there was an immediate network of care and mobilization that was in place to provide food, clothes, and money, with strategic distribution points already identified.”

Meanwhile, other churches and ministries went into high gear. World Vision responded with a $100,000 relief package, while it explored ways to boost its $1.2 million annual funding for ministries helping L.A.’s poor. The Young Nak Presbyterian Church, one of two large Korean churches in L.A., raised $100,000 to help Korean, African-American, and Hispanic victims. When President Bush came to Los Angeles to survey the devastation, his schedule included a meeting at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church with its pastor, E. V. Hill, and a group of local leaders. News reports captured pictures of trucks emblazoned with banners from the aid group Feed the Children parked at the church.

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