Why Compton?

After beginning this blog I have been asked by a few different people, "Why are you living there?" I am always slightly hesitant and uneasy about giving an answer, because it is somewhat convoluted in my head. There are so many reasons why I have chosen to live in Compton, but I shall do my best to summarize a few of them here.


Firstly, I have chosen to live my life following the way of Jesus Christ. This means that every aspect of my life I am regularly surrendering to Him (or at least striving to, I will always be a work in progress). This includes where we live, where we work, what we buy, what we say. My husband and I had known for a while that we wanted to live in a diverse place. We did not want to follow the upward bound path of settling in a nice upper class White neighborhood. We believe that WE are in desperate need of diversity. Both racially and socio-economically. We need to be around people that think differently than us, look differently than us, and have different life experiences than us. We as a community are made whole when we embrace our differences and challenge ourselves to grow. We had this desire as we were getting close to being married, but did not know where this would lead.


We were attending a church at the time that was focused on supporting and building up the city of Compton. We were approached by a friend, our now pastor, to consider moving in to the city. We ended up meeting regularly with a group of people who were praying about moving in. Needless to say, we were beyond excited with the vision, the mission, and this community. We knew that God was up to something. We were scared. I was terrified. But we were also falling in love with the city of Compton and what God was starting for us there.


We spent time driving through the city, going on walks up and down streets looking for apartments and getting a feel for the community.  We were often stared at and felt very uncomfortable.  For the first six months after we were married we lived in the city of Paramount.  After our new church got started, City Church of Compton, we decided it was time to move in. We were ready. Our doubts were gone, but we were still apprehensive. Yet God opened up a perfect apartment for us to move into, one block away from where our church was and our pastor lived.


So we moved in February of 2010.  Our first night at our apartment, we received a phone call from our pastor around 10:00 pm.  I told Chris, "Answer it, what if something's wrong?" We were already on edge living in a new place in a foreign community.  Our pastor was simply calling to give us a prayer and blessing for our first night in our new home. We both sighed with relief. I didn't sleep much that first night. But as time has gone by, this apartment complex has become our home. We feel safe. We feel connected to our neighbors. And we feel we are in the hands of God. We know that this is where He wants us, and we wouldn't choose anything else.