Boxcar

I’m currently on a flight back from Washington D.C. where I attended the Ecclesia conference with several pastors and church staff from around the country. We had three days of talks and breakout sessions where we shared ideas from our prospective churches and spent time praying for each other. There were also two speakers, authors Alan Hirsh and David Fitch, both of whom presented some thought provoking truths and insight into church planting. I could offer up the 10 pages of notes I took during these sessions, but I think I’ll just recommend you read their books.

In the three days I was there we had about 3 hours of free time. I’d never been to D.C. before, but it was freezing rain so we opted to see a museum during our break rather that go traipsing around to the outdoor monuments. I thought I’d share a journal entry with you that I wrote while I was at that museum…

Just got out of the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and I find it hard to breath. I want to grab the first guy wearing a yarmulke and just hug him and cry – tell him how sorry I am – want to hide my blue eyes and cover my blonde hair. I know I’ve got some German ancestry. Do I have a legacy in this story? Why do I carry this guilt of a genocide I wasn’t even alive during.


Something about this museum was real for me. I saw a woman holding a young baby with a musket pressed to her head just before she was shot and I thought of my friend with a son that age. There was a wall of ID shots that were taken when prisoners entered the camp and as I looked into the faces of each one I saw a boy that looked like my 16 year old brother, a woman who reminded me of my mom, a pretty girl my age. I saw a video of a tall young man being drug by his arms across the city streets and I imagined what it would feel like to watch my fiance being taken away…and I couldn’t detach. I stood there staring a the faces of people long perished and I found myself hating the numbers tattooed across their arms and chests…I wanted to know their names so I could mourn them with honor.


I’ve been to other Holocaust museums…I’ve even been to the one in Berlin. Most of them just allow me to look at pictures or watch videos, which is plenty, but this one allowed me touch the bunks where inmates slept and walk through a concentration camp boxcar.


I stood in that boxcar alone and instantly I couldn’t breath…my eyes welled up and I looked through tears at that dimly lit box that would have held 100 people (though it didn’t look like it could cram in more than 20.) I imagined what it would have felt like to sit on that rough floor board, freezing in thread bear clothes smashed between a screaming baby and a dying old man. If I’m lucky Ryan is still with me (though only until they tear us apart the moment we arrive) but likely I’m already alone – scared, starving, dirty, and hopeless, slammed against the wall as we rock down the rusty track. It’s too much and so I head back out to the exit of the huge museum where I’m writing this in my journal. I don’t hug the man that walks by in the yarmulke because I don’t know what to say…I don’t know what I’m thinking…and I remember something Andy said in church on Sunday and I realize I have no idea how to mourn.


They showed footage of German civilians touring the concentration camps shortly after the war. I saw how they cried in shock and disbelief and I thought, ”What did you think was happening? Did you turn a blind eye because it wasn’t you? Did you assume that the actions of your leaders were not your responsibility?” And then I realized I needed to ask myself the same questions presently


I read this quote on one of the walls and thought it powerful :


“First they came for the socialists,
and I did note speak out –
because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I did not speak out –
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I did not speak out –
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me –
and there was no one left to speak for me.”

-Martin Niemoller (German Lutheran Pastor)


I have vowed to open my eyes more to the injustice in the world and see if there is somewhere God would have me speak out.


The older man sitting next to me on the plane just asked to read what I was writing. I let him read this post so far and he started to cry and thank me. It turns out he is Jewish and several of his family members suffered in the Holocaust. Coincidence?

Novel Christmas 2007

Well here it is . . . the well overdue Novel Christmas 2007 update:

The Christmas party was a big success again this year. We had about 130 people come through the café to enjoy free food, drinks, and live music. The whole thing was funded entirely by donations (from members of the church and several of you from back home.) Thank you so much for helping to make this night possible.

I heard several responses from people about how much they appreciated having a place to feel like they were a part of a community.

There was even an article written about it in one of our local papers. You can see it online at : www.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words I think I’ll tell the story mostly through the faces of those who were there…

A view from the front (we decorated with fake snow and Christmas lights)

A view from the inside...the place was packed.

Volunteers assembled a beautiful food table that they replenished throughout the night.



There was even plenty left over to send people away with at the end of the night.

We had several local musicians play... as well as members of the church.

Kim (who sings during our Sunday service) graced us with her beautiful voice.

My charming fiance pulls clean-up duty.

Kim and Baby Gavin

A couple of Novel customers enjoy the company of friends.

In the main music room

Nenon is my first customer every morning and we share a bagel over coffee

Ryan and I with our friend and long time customer, Ralph.

Baby Gavin all decked out for Christmas

Another overhead shot


This is William, I met him while we were both getting our motorcyles fixed at the Yamaha shop and he came to the party.

Joe (our pastor) and Kim play Christmas carols.

Andy and Gavin man the sound board.

Joe's kiddos

Happy helpers in the kitchen

Jose and me

The guys hang out in front of the cafe

Ryan and Becky in the kitchen

Matt and Jose

Kairos Update

I just finished reading a letter that my pastor sent out to the church supporters. I thought it was a nice recap of things that have happend this past year...so I'm including it on here for you to read. Let me just agree with him in thanking you all for helping these things be possible.

This past year has felt like a roller coaster ride. It has been an adventure with some highs and some lows, and our triune God has been with us for the entire ride. Before giving you a little overview of 2007, I want to thank you on behalf of Kairos Los Angeles for your generosity this past year. Your gifts and prayers have enabled us to continue to partner with God to bring His goodness to the LA area.

First, I want to give you an update about finances. This past year member giving to Kairos Hollywood was $129,000, which exceeded the minimum budget and almost met the medium budget goal. Our new congregation, Kairos West LA, received $58,000 in member giving. Thank you so much for helping to meet these goals. Now to share a few highlights from this past year…

• This past year a new canvas group, full of people who just started coming to Kairos, was started in East Hollywood.
  

• ‘Artist @ the Fountain’ was born. This is a monthly concert designed to appreciate art, artist, and raise money to for causes like the Unembraced – a ministry to orphans in Kenya (that we also started this past year). Kendall Payne performed at the first concert, where she also hosted her CD release party. The first two concerts brought in over $1,000 for orphans in Kenya.
  

• God provided a fantastic community building at a local park in Santa Monica for Kairos West LA’s Sunday worship. The first 20 minutes of our church service is held outdoors enjoying refreshments and coffee, so it has been a great opportunity to engage the homeless, basketball players, and families visiting this park each Sunday. We have seen God use this to connect us together as a community and deepen our worship gathering.
  

• Many new people have gotten involved using their gifts and talents to serve in our weekly gatherings. In Hollywood D Minor built an incredible rendition of the empty tomb, which was an inspiring backdrop for our entire Easter Series. In West LA, five great new musicians have committed to leading worship every Sunday.
  

• Greg Christman led a team that helped inner-city kids train for a marathon, as well as life, with their program – ‘Students Run LA’.
  

• Members of Kairos West LA, along with Lane Coursen, hosted a Christmas party at a local Santa Monica coffee shop for those with nowhere to go on Christmas. Over one hundred people came through the doors of the small coffee shop to enjoy live entertainment, free food, and coffee on Christmas Day. Several warm blankets, coats, and other helpful items were given away to those in need.
  

• Because of the generosity of many, we were able to give micro-grants to help start ten new businesses in Lodwar, Kenya through the Solis Foundation.
  

• Kairos West LA, joined by a group from a church in New York, provided a week of fun-filled Music, Art and Drama (M.A.D. Week) for children in our neighborhoods. 40 children attended the week long event and ended it by performing a musical drama for parents and adults.
  

• We helped to see over 900 kids (several of whom have an incarcerated parent) have a Merrier Christmas this past year through our annual toy drive.
  

• Thanks to Matt Mabrey, Kairos West LA developed a teaching series and a class called Epic to draw our community more fully into God’s story. Several new believers that went through this class said it helped them deepen their relationship with God and understanding of the story from Genesis through Revelation.
  

If you would like a more complete recap of how God used us this past year, check out: http://www.jrwoodward.net/jrwoodward/2007/09/kairos-los-an-1.html Thank you so much for your faithful giving to God through Kairos this past year. You have helped us to bring a little more of heaven to earth.

Because He First loved us,

JR Woodward (Pastor of Kairos - Los Angeles)

Happy New Year! Faith Chapter for 2007

So every year we write a 'faith chapter' at the end of the year. It's a chance for us to look back, as a church family, on what God has done in our community over the last 12 months.

It's always encouraging when things seem to be moving slowly to look back and realize how faithful God has been and how much really has happened this year.

Here is 2007....

By Faith,

• By faith, the Kairos West LA church plant team started a neighborhood church with five canvas groups and a Sunday worship gathering. Through fasting, prayer and reflection, we have been discerning and pursuing God’s calling for us in this neighborhood.

• By faith, Allison has involved several members of our community with Healing Hearts across borders, taking medical care to the poorest parts of Tijuana.

• By faith, members of our church community have served the poor globally through mission trips, orphanages in Tijuana, and working with the Solis Foundation.

• By faith, members of our church community started volunteering at non-profit organizations such as Chrysalis, Ocean Park Community Center, Mathnasium, Pico Youth and Family Center, English as a second language classes and the Westside Pregnancy Resource Center.

• By faith, members of our church community have engaged our culture through softball, book clubs, mom’s clubs, dance classes, home-school groups and hockey.

• By faith, Melissa, with her canvas group, blessed the children and parents of the public schools by preparing backpacks for low-income students.

• By faith, Lane hosted a Christmas party for those with nowhere to go on Christmas.

• By faith, Becky, with the help of others in Santa Monica and Westwood, started serving a regular barbecue to the homeless in Santa Monica.

• By faith, we participated in Big Sunday, serving the oppressed throughout the city.

• By faith, members of Kairos, joined by a group from a church in New York, provided a week of fun-filled music, art and drama for children in our neighborhoods. 40 children attended the weeklong event and ended it by performing a musical drama to parents and adults.

• By faith, Theresa developed a ministry to equip the children of our church to faithfully follow Jesus.

• By faith, we walked through Jesus’ life as a community by engaging in the seasons of the church calendar.

• By faith we have integrated both the historical sacraments and creative expression into our worship.

• By faith, we developed a teaching series and a class called Epic to draw our community more fully into God’s story.

• By faith, Tim offered his gift of cooking and hospitality to cook brunches every week as part of our Sunday worship together. We have seen God use this to connect us together as a community and deepen our worship gathering.

• By faith, and despite health struggles, Jon served faithfully almost every Sunday teaching the children (and also the adults).

• By faith, Lane, Kip, Theresa, Josh, Heather, Matt, Joe and Andy have equipped the church to fulfill her mission by serving on the staff team.

• By faith, our community is discovering how to best pool our resources together to accomplish God’s mission.

• By faith, we have grieved as God has called several members of our community to other locations and we have rejoiced as God has connected new people with our community.

• By faith, three members of our church community gave another member a no interest loan to pay off a credit card debt.

• By faith, Ryan and Amanda were joined in marriage and God brought two healthy babies, Ian and Gavin, into our community.

• By faith, Lisa organized a women’s retreat that blessed and built community among the women of our church.

• By faith, we have sought to increase our natural connectedness and decrease our negative impact on the earth by living close to one another and our places of work.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Friends and Family!

It’s time for my annual Christmas letter recap of another year in ministry. Thank you for your continued support and prayer as we strive to show God’s love in the city of angels. Now for the updates…

Our young church has just celebrated its one year anniversary. This summer we moved our Sunday services to a new location, we are now meeting in the community room in a local park. There is a view of the city beyond the park and a lot more room to be creative with our services.

I also moved this year. I am now living in an even smaller one bedroom apartment with two other girls…and paying higher rent for it…gotta love LA housing. The good thing about this move is that it puts me about two blocks from the park where we have church services. On the subject of downsizing…I also sold my car this year and bought a scooter (much to my mother’s chagrin.) I love being able to park where ever I want and fill up with $2 in gas every other week.

I have made a couple of trips this year to the orphanage I helped build in Tijuana. The kids are doing well and love their new home…it is such a vast improvement over the small two bedroom place they were all living in last year. If you haven't seen the website you can check it out at www.thepurplepalace.org.

Over spring Break my little brother, Blake, went door to door in Kansas collecting clothing, food, and school supplies for the children. My family then rented a U-Haul and drove the collected goods down to Tijuana, where a few of us from Kairos joined them.

In April I was back in Kansas for a while, talking a small sabbatical to spend some time with my family there. It was refreshing for me and I enjoyed being able to spend some time with my younger siblings, since I sometimes feel like I’m missing their most formative years while I’m out in California.

This fall was a big turning point in my life as well. The man I’ve been dating for about a year, Ryan Slattery, asked me to marry him while I was visiting his family over Thanksgiving. For a much longer (and mushier) version of that story check out my previous post. Ryan and I are planning a summer wedding here in LA.

Now here we are in December. I can't believe it's that time of year again...it’s especially hard to feel very ‘holidayish’ when it’s still 70 degrees outside.

I have gotten a committee together to start planning for our annual Christmas party again at the Novel. If you'll recall, last year was the first time we tried this out and it was a big success. We hope to be able to serve even more homeless people in the area this year as the word has really gotten out. Again, we will be providing dinner, hot drinks, and a place where people can come to be with friends and listen to live music.

If you want to donate to the Christmas party there are a couple of areas that we need help. We will be giving out coffee mugs filled with warm soup and hot chocolate as gifts. So if you have or would like to purchase and send coffee mugs, travel mugs, etc. we could use them. We are also going to have a blanket drive this year. We are collecting new or slightly used blankets, quilts, sleeping bags, etc. to give away at the party. Of course, monetary donations are always welcome as well.

The whole event is funded entirely by individual donations. With them we buy food, drinks, desserts, gift mugs, and rent sound equipment for the music. There is absolutely no money that goes to administrative costs since I am the one doing all the organizing. If you are interested in helping out in one of these ways you can send things to my address or email me for more information.


Lane@kairos.la
Lane Coursen (apt B)
715 Pacific St.
Santa Monica, CA 90405


Thank you again for your prayers and support throughout this year!

I hope the holiday finds you happy, healthy and thankful for all God has given you.

I'm Engaged!

I have some news to report…I’m engaged to be married to a wonderful man named Ryan Slattery!

Ryan and I are currently writing ‘our story’ of where we came from and how we met which will introduce you more to my fiance, but since I’ve had so many people ask about the details of the engagement…I’ve written them out here. Read on if you are interested and don’t mind a little gushing.

Tuesday November 22. Ryan picked me up from the airport in Sacramento because he has been working up there for the past couple of months and I was coming into town to visit his family for Thanksgiving.

However, Instead of going straight home to his parents’ house he took me to a darling little town called Davis a few miles away where we had breakfast at one of his favorite coffee shops. After breakfast he said he had gotten me an early birthday gift and took me to a massage appointment. I would later come to find out that this was just a ploy to keep me occupied for an hour while he got some other parts of the proposal ready.

After an amazing massage I opened the card that he had left there for me. It had a little map of Davis in it…directions back to the coffee shop and a little note that said “happy hunting”.

So I followed my map through town and back to the coffee shop. When I asked the man at the counter if he had something for me he just smiled and said I’d have to look around. So I did until I found a big box in the corner of the room with my name on it.


I opened the box and it was full of little white packing peanuts. I dug through them for a good 10 minutes while everyone in line at the coffee shop watched and laughed. Finally I found a tiny white envelope (no bigger than one of the packing peanuts.) In it was a matchbook that Ryan and I had gotten at a restaurant when we first started hanging out. Inside the matchbook was an address.

By this time I had huge grin that I could not wipe off my face. As I walked out the cafe some kids sitting at one of the tables asked me if I’d gotten my box. It felt so surreal…I knew at this point what was happening…and yet I was in a new place and surrounded by people I didn’t know…on a scavenger hunt by myself….so I was just walking around by smiling and laughing uncontrollably to no one.

I half walked and half ran to the address through the little college town on what was a beautiful fall day…colored leaves, football in the park and the smell of BBQ. It took me about 15 minutes to get there and I took that time to really allow myself to feel what was happening and to think about what I was doing. Was I certain that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man? Was I ready for this to be the last 15 minutes that I would ever be single again? I was surprised at how quickly my heart responded with certainty to these thoughts. I knew that the man I was walking to now was the man I wanted to be coming home to for the rest of my life. (I came to find out later on that Ryan gave me this little bit of a walk in my journey to allow me the time to think about these things.)

When I reached the address I found myself at a beautiful old white house. There was a flower garden in front and a woman sweeping the porch. When I asked her if she knew who I was she smiled and handed me a key that said “the balcony” out of her apron.


I followed her directions up the stairs to a beautiful room with a wrap around balcony. My hands began to shake as a put the key in the door. I opened it to find roses, candles, champagne, a ring, and Ryan. Honestly, things at this point are kind of a blur…I began to half shake, half cry, and half laugh…somewhere in there he asked me to marry him and at some point I managed to get a out a shaky “yes”. There were some very sweet words said, but those I’m keeping to myself.


The whole day was very well planned on Ryan’s part. Later on we got to play in the leaves (one of the things I love and miss about falls in the Midwest) and go to a local farmers’ market (another one of my favorite things to do.) We rode the double-decker bus through Davis and rummaged around book shops and toy stores.










That night he had made dinner reservations at a charming little restaurant with a very ‘Bilbo Baggins’ house sort of feel to it. I read in an article on their wall that our table by the fire was written up at the ‘most romantic spot in Northern California’…but I don’t think we really noticed anything but each other.

Hello Everyone…

So sorry it’s been a while since I posted on here last. It seems I get so busy with everything that’s going on here in LA that I forget to pass on the stories to you all. So here’s some of the latest news since I’ve been back in LA. In the future I’ll try to be better about keeping this thing updated.

Most of you know that I have worked part time (to supplement my support for being on staff) at the Novel Café in Santa Monica for about two years now. Well, good news… when I returned from Kansas I was promoted to manager. There is one other manager that is ‘above’ me in rank, but he manages four different restaurants (all owned by the same man that owns our café) so he’s really giving me the reins to do whatever I want with the café in Santa Monica.

This means I am in charge of scheduling, hiring (and firing), training new hires, basic instruction and management of all the employees, paychecks, accounting, ordering, managing food and salary budgets, and booking artists for our gallery…not to mention all the things I do on the ‘customer’ side of running a business like fielding comments, suggestions, and complaints, managing menu pricing and customer behavior (aka; kicking people out.)

The manager that is above me will be leaving for two weeks at the end of this month so it will be my first test to really see if I can run the place entirely on my own. Wish me luck.

I am really grateful for this opportunity because it has been my dream for a while now to open up my own coffee shop. I want to have a place (like the Novel) that I can use to benefit the community around it. It will be open to the community for events like AA meetings, church services, community instruction classes, art openings, etc. I also want to make a point of hiring people to the staff that are trying to get back on their feet after homelessness or drug abuse. Maybe even have some sort of situation where the employees could live in apartments above the coffee shop while they are saving to get a place of their own.

So it’s great that I get to learn all the ends and outs of managing a place like this…make all the mistakes before it’s my own money behind it. ☺

I have started to try out a few of these ideas at the Novel already. I have made an effort to employee some of the homeless friends I have in the area to complete jobs small jobs around the café such as painting, repairs, cleaning, etc. This has given people a chance to work for food or compensation rather that bumming change outside the café door.

In the next couple of months I hope to start an open mic night that will serve to bring some of the artists in the church together with artists in the community and allow an outlet for music and poetry to be shared.

My pastor has also expressed interest in starting a ‘community discussion group’ at the café since there are so many of the philosophizing and creative thinking types that hang out there. This would involve having a guided (by my pastor) discussion about a predetermined topic; religious, spiritual, or some other current event of interest.

Anyway, that’s one of the cool new developments with my mission here in LA. And since that one took nearly ten paragraphs I think I will call that an entry and report more at a later time. Thanks for reading…