LAUP STM 2017 - One Week Until LAUP!
Only one more week until LAUP!
This will be my second summer at the Los Angeles Urban Program (LAUP), and this time I’m returning to lead a team as an Assistant Site Coordinator (ASC). Each LAUP team partners with an existing ministry site around LA; our team of four will be working at Harambee Ministries in Northwest Pasadena, helping with their summer day camp. Please check out their website to learn more about their work-- I was just paging through it and got really excited about meeting their students and staff.
On the topic of things I’m excited about…
As mentioned, having a summer to learn from/with the students and staff at Harambee
Recommitting to simpler and more communal living (before I move into the post-college “real world” this fall)
Quality time living and working with my team!
And at the same time as being excited about all that, I also feel nervous and entirely un-ready. But when have I ever felt ready? When I think about the significant times, events, and transitions where God has really met me, I don’t think I ever felt “ready.”
Coming off a rough final semester of college, I honestly still feel a little emotionally and spiritually shaky, and un-ready for LAUP much less leading a LAUP team. All this makes me think about one of the main things God was showing me at LAUP last year: as much as God is “everywhere,” we feel God’s presence more in the deeper valleys, where our deeper and greater need is filled with greater experience of God’s presence. There’s more space for God to take up.
So in my weakness, God will be strong; in my valley, God will be present. I have no idea what’s coming in the next seven weeks, but that much I think I do trust.
I’ll be away from phone and internet for the duration of LAUP, but you’re welcome to send snail mail:
Vivian Zhang (Harambee)
LAUP 2017
P.O. Box 31190
Los Angeles, CA 90031
This blog will continue to be updated periodically via mail, so check back soon!
With love & gratitude,
Vivian Zhang