August 10th, 2010

From July 10-18, a team of 13 spent those eight days in Los Angeles where they reached out to the lost, homeless, addicted, and rejected in one of the most dangerous areas of the city. The team partnered with Set Free Skid Row Church, a congregation that daily ministers and leads to redemption and healing those mentioned above.

Kairos team members included: Matt Blinco, Keely Boggs (co-leader), Kyla Conlee, Christina Edgell, Derek Evans, Jerrod Guthrie, Mandy Hart, Ashley Lamb (co-leader), McClain Norman, Ana Liza Platt, Aletta Price, Jessica Siegel, and Lauren Whitaker.

In July 2009, Keely Boggs went for the first time to Set Free in LA. She said, "For nine days, I had the incredible privilege to serve the hurting, addicted, and homeless...And, unexpectedly, they loved and served me more than I could have ever hoped to reciprocate. There are truly no words to accurately describe how this experience impacted my life."

The rest of the team feel the same way about their 2010 experience. In the streets, relationships are crucial for accountability in keeping people off drugs and alcohol. That's what this team did—they built relationships with the world's most unwanted individuals.

Ashley Lamb, co-leader of the mission journey alongside Keely, said, "Everyone was new to this experience except four of us. The team camaraderie gelled really well. We all poured our hearts and souls out. It was the right people at the right time."

The team prayed over drug addicts strung out at every corner, fed people who were hungry and poor, passed out kind words like it was free candy, sat down and listened to their stories, and even went after Set Free members who had relapsed and were back on the streets. Their courage was evident, but evil lurked around every corner.

"If you want to experience what true, unconditional love is, you can see it there," Keely said, explaining the atmosphere they experienced. "These men [Set Free disciples] pray over people who are on drugs, drunk, boiling crack rock in the tin foil, a woman squatting with her pants down. It just shows you how far sin can take you, but how far God can take you out of it."

The reality of evil became evident in this year's trip. She said, "It was very dark and oppressed. Those streets are a whole different level of dangerous that most people have never even seen before. It was nothing short of demonic. There were so many moments that could've gone very wrong, but God showed His protection over us."

Ashley explained that the "disciples" of Set Free—those from the streets who are now ministering in the streets—live without anything. They solely live, eat, and breath Jesus. She said, "They don't have money to buy food, gas, anything. One guy came back from work while we were there and was so elated because he got a 25-cent raise. It's a cycle for some of them, though. They get frustrated with this way of life and end up back where they began. But others just want to share Jesus with those who where they once were."

The team left with a burden, but also a new, fired-up heart for the homeless and dejected. When they returned to Nashville, every member showed up to Set Free Nashville, which meets off of Shelby Avenue, on Sunday to worship. LA was just the beginning. Eyes have been opened. Hearts have been changed. A new way of life has set in for these Kairos attenders.

This is just the beginning of the partnership between Kairos and Set Free. But it isn't what you think it is. According to Keely, you go to Skid Row, you hang out with the homeless, and you expect to get dirty. You walk right into the scum, leaving at the end of the day smelling of drugs, urine, and filth. But that's exactly where Jesus walked during his ministry long ago.

Keely said, "Don't get me wrong. I'm all for purse-sized hand sanitizer... But, the dirt represents life on Skid Row. It was eight days of a living hell at best, but we lived. We touched. We hugged. We loved. We met unlikely people and formed God-ordained friendships that I can only hope will last a lifetime. We allowed ourselves to forgo our Purell mentality and jump feet-first into the muck and mire of the lives of those deemed unclean by much of society and, sadly, most churches—the drug dealers, addicts, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and other menaces. The outcome? Eternal stains. The precious people of Skid Row have forever stained us."

If you're one of the lucky ones, Keely says, then you'll have more than one salvation moment with Jesus: one in which your eternity is secured and another in which you experience His love in a fresh, new way that forever impacts and changes your life.

She said, "I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Never before have I experienced the presence and voice of God as I did on Skid Row. He used the precious, worn faces and inspiring stories of redemption of those I met on the streets to break and then enlarge my heart and challenge beliefs of who God is and who I am in Him. For someone who tries so hard to keep it all together, I found freedom in being absolutely wrecked and beauty in being broken."

To read the blog of one Set Free 2010 team member, Jessica Siegel, and her journey on Skid Row, click here. Then, click here to read more about Skid Row.

By Kaylan Christopher