Creative LLC's for Kingdom Expansion | Case Study - La Mesa Ministries | BONUS

Each podcast confronts real-time struggles facing the local church in a post-Christian culture . Step into the action with the ULC at unitel leadershiporg . This is Leigh Time .

If you want to reach new people with the gospel , a lot of times new things are needed , and La Mesa was the right thing at the right time for the Holy Spirit to move this congregation up and outside of our own anxious spots to serve and to learn from and love and be loved by the least in the lost alone and the hurting , the marginalized .

This story is so crucial , really , to even the United Leadership Collective journey , jack , I don't think we would even be on this journey apart from the leadership lessons we learned with this amazing group of people who lead voluntarily sacrificial servants in Jeff , rick and Lori .

Anything to add , though , jack , as way of set up to this conversation , to tell the La Mesa story .

What does it mean to be a church that multiplies churches , a ministry that multiplies ministries , a ministry that's willing to be bold and spin things off or create a greater umbrella of ministries , to reach a community in ways that you don't normally get to reach ? And that's something that churches have to think about .

Is all you do is run worship on Sunday in a neighborhood and you're basically saying we are here to hit a certain demographic , and as long as that's , all you want to do is just hit this one demographic with worship , ok , that's fine , but the Great Commission is greater than that . There's a wider focus .

When you say , go make disciples of all nations , if you're just hitting a certain demographic in a community , that is an expression of the Great Commission . But we ought to have permission as a ministry to think of the Great Commission in a much , much broader sense and actually have that as a source of inspiration for the church .

And so it's important that the church is a community that's on fire and on mission for people that are not in the church , and LaMesa has been a great story of how Christ Greenfield has been able to do that .

To get all of his kids back right and to make everything that's wrong right again , which will be complete at the Eschaton of the last day when Christ returns . Until then , we get to be about bringing the fulfillment of the crucified and risen and reigning Jesus to people who are hurt and suffering in need of the gospel .

It's not just about meeting felt needs , it's getting them through felt needs to hear the greatest need of all time , our spiritual need for Christ . If you happen to be in our audience too and you want to leave any kind of chats , chat questions as we move into the conversation today , please feel free to do so .

First question , though we gave a little bit of our very high level understanding of what La Mesa means to us , is meant to us , over the last decade or so .

But Lori McClellan , one of the greatest storytellers I have ever met , kingdom storytellers I've ever met Sister , you've been a part of this story for the last 10 years Tell us the origin story of La Mesa .

And for me that was the biggest gift you could have given me for sticking it out in a broken church waiting for that gift . So that's how I always start the La Mesa story .

I don't know how self-aware I was in those days . I knew I had a lot of fire and I hope I wasn't a jerk . I'm just going to be honest . I hope I was kind enough and also courageous enough . My wife , sometimes she says , tim , you can be a little harsh , you can be a little overly frank .

So anyway , sometimes that's needed , but I hope it wasn't too much . Lori , thanks for going on the journey . Tell us what compelled you . More specifically , what is this thing going to look like , this new thing that we're going to start ?

So it was just the surrendering to the Holy Spirit and trusting in your fellow leaders that God was communicating with them as well . The nice thing about our team is we do not all share the same gifts . Our gifts are very different , yet all work so well together .

So tell us what we dreamed about at 5-2 and what it has evolved into today .

5-2 really did give us the tools that we had to build a non-profit ministry that I don't think we could have gotten anywhere else , and the things that are on our boards , that we did at 5-2 , have really come to fruition in a lot of ways .

We dreamed of a resource center and then the Holy Spirit moved upon 1st Christian and they said do you guys need some space ? And the resource center was born shortly after 5-2 . And the dream to have Eden Village really goes back to the blueprint business plan . Who's your customer ? Who's your funders ? Who do you ask ? How do you ask ?

All goes back to the 5-2 training that we all received during those two years . I think it's fundamental to the success of La Mesa because we don't take church leadership's time to build this ministry . It's being built by volunteers and just a lot of people are joining in God's purpose for La Mesa .

I just praise Jesus for it . A lot of people would know La Mesa by okay , it's a meal and worship Tuesday night , now maybe Thursday night in Tempe . That's inclusive of , but not exclusively for , the working , poor and homeless . I think you know I and we have shared that many times . But , rick , what do people maybe not know about La Mesa as a LLC ?

expand and get grants and get funding and get people to come on board versus the LLC , and we created John 1334 ministries and we have the DBA as La Mesa ministers under that 501c3 and under that . That's where we operate the resource center , and at the resource center , our goal is to help people who are ready to get off the streets and make a change .

We help them with housing , with shelter , with employment . They might need an ID , a social security card , a birth certificate . They may need assistance with some of our social services or some of the local government . Social services , like food stamps and their health care will help them get that taken care of .

We even will take people to their doctor's appointments and show up in court for individuals that are dealing with misdemeanors and or felonies and try to help them move past . That . We also under John 1334 , is we have a mobile loads food truck .

The mobile loads food truck goes out into the community on Monday and we go to the encampments , we go to the bridges , we go to the parking lots and we find those who are on the streets and we invite them to come to the foundation of this ministry , which is La Mesa .

Come and have a meal , come in here and see and witness Jesus on campus with us and let's be , let's get to know one another . And then , of course , our newest and latest venture is also under the John 1334 , is Eden Village , and we'll talk about that .

But we're in the family . And why does poverty exist ? Right , it's because of the breakdown of the nuclear family and the church gets to step into that gap . It's an amazing calling , jack , anything to add to that and then talk about even the governance of how La Mesa operates .

It may take a few minutes to actually understand what's going on there , but Rick did a great job understanding that there's parallel entities that are going on and so the LLC is formed because we wanted an entity that we would say is most definitely a church , and that's exactly what you experience when you go to Tuesday or Thursday events that we have in the

evenings . It is a church for a community of people that would not normally come to church , although some of them have started coming to church here at Christ Greenfield on Sunday and it's wonderful to have them , but they wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable coming here .

We've created an environment I would say they've created an environment where poor , working , homeless people are able to build a community . They're able to come and experience communities , start to build a family and it's a safe environment for them .

They experience a meal , they experience hospitality and they get an opportunity to have Word and Sacrament worship , and that is the core of it . It is a church these people , to the extent that they're comfortable , are able to participate in that .

We have people in the community that are participating in the Liturgy , get a chance to do their readings , and it's lead Bible studies if they're able . So it's their church community that they get to be blessed by , in that family of believers . Lameisa Ministries differentiates itself . We're not calling Lameisa Ministries the John 1334 Corporation .

We're not calling that a church . It's a religious nonprofit . So it's a nonprofit with founded under Christian values to provide additional types of care that are above and beyond what we would just normally call church work , which is sharing the gospel .

And the whole purpose of that , then , is to create an entity that maybe businesses feel more comfortable giving money to . As Rick said before , all of a sudden , that's an entity that maybe a home builder would feel comfortable giving a grant , but maybe they've got a policy saying they don't support churches . Well , great , it's not a church , it's a nonprofit .

You can support that . And there's a parallel mission that exists between the two , a shared brand that exists between the two , and there's a shared governance structure that exists between the two . So in both cases the LLC and the corporation the LLC has a board of managers , the LLC has a board of directors . It's the same people filling both roles .

I happen to be kind of serving in a chairman type role for both of those entities right now and in both cases the owner of those entities is Christ Greenfield . So it's the member slash owner of both entities and in theory , if needed , christ Greenfield can appoint or remove .

Actually the corporation can appoint its own board members , but it's subject to the approval of the owning entity , which is the church . So there's always kind of a veto authority that exists there .

So it has the ability to exercise boundaries as needed based on the people who are serving in both entities and make sure that there's always alignment with the visions and values of Christ Greenfield as he thinks about the broad family of ministries .

In that right , jack and we get to tell the metrics of life transformation .

So when we do our annual financial audits , then subsidiaries like La Mesa and John 1334 , they roll up and they become part of our consolidated financials and so ultimately the governance of the church does have to impact the governance of these subsidiary entities , which I think are a very good thing because the governance is designed for long-term sustainable health .

And so sometimes there's a learning curve . There's been a bit of a learning curve we can talk about as we think about trying to purchase property and who gets to say yes and no to that . Would it be required ? Like talking to some consultants and figuring out which set of bylaws is that ? Do we have to .

But we're able to work that out and move very quickly on these things .

lay-lettered leader driven , which was great . And so , if you look back 10 years ago , none of us had any idea how to do a homeless or working poor outreach .

So we started off in a Bible study , reading a book called when Helping Hurts on Friday mornings and I was trying to understand who we were talking to and going to outreach to , and then watching it just change and grow and evolve as we learn things . Because over that first nine months , we did a lot of guerrilla marketing , research .

We were going to have soup kitchens and ministries just to see how they were , but we didn't talk to them as much as we did talking to the people . And boy , listening to those people and saying , hey , you know what ? Here's what we like about this , but here's what we don't like and here's how this makes us feel really shaped the ministry .

So when you use the family metaphor , that's exactly right . When you come to Louisa , no matter what your past is , we're going to love you and you know we're not going to judge you . Families have fights . We know that families are messy and

we still love one another . And I think you know that thread and the thread of it's all about Jesus has just consistently led that ministry and I think that's the coolest part . And just watching everybody you mentioned raising up leaders boy , we have had , and still do have , some amazing folks .

Just step up and be willing to be a part of the ministry and then , you know , lead the ministry . And it's just . I think it's just amazing how , whenever we don't know where we're going and we just trust where Jesus is going to take us , he brings the right people in and we start going down another path . And it's just been .

You know , when you ask me , you know what am I most proud of ? It's all the folks involved . I mean there are community people who just lead their portion . Whatever their role is , they own it and lead it and we are quick to just give that up .

If you want to be a part of it and leave something , just say the word , or if we notice that and ask you people are great about either stepping up or stepping back , and I think both of those have their value .

And just watching the growth of not only the ministry but just the people who have both attended and been involved and led in that ministry , I think is just a tribute to what you talked about a lot , where the church has the people you just got to put them out there and put them in the right role .

And I think a lot of the leadership of La Mesa has blossomed just because the church is there to support us but not overseeing it so much , you know , and letting the lay folks just run with it .

And so you mentioned it being like a well oiled machine and boy , that's just because the people who are there love what they're doing and they're empowered to do it . And you know we have like maybe one or two hard rules at La Mesa . Everything else is a guideline .

And so if as a server there , you see an opportunity to show some love and we don't have a specific rule or guideline , lead with love and we'll figure it out and that's what people do and that's my favorite part , I think . Longer answer .

Now it's two locations Tuesdays and Thursdays replicating itself , replicating its brand , replicating its community experience in two different locations . So now in Mesa and now in Tempe , with all of that infrastructure in place , being able to replicate .

That is so cool and that you guys are really taken seriously , the idea of what does it mean to build , you know , multiple teams to be able to replicate teams and create a sustainable , replicable model .

And I think one of the things I'm really excited about is the future , when we think about Christ Greenfield's 20 and 20 vision that there would be multiple , perhaps a dozen or a half a dozen Lomasis throughout the East Valley and maybe even broader than the East Valley , as we can continue to partner either with more Christ Greenfield campuses or more other churches

that would be willing to sponsor that .

For those of you who don't know like scale , lomasa launched out of a worshiping community of about 60 feeding about 150 people . So sometimes churches may say unless we're big , we can't , we can't launch .

No , no , you can't launch if you don't have a leadership development culture , if you don't have structure set up to replicate yourself , to allow people to step on and off the right bus , to go onto a new bus , to launch something new . I think it's a beautiful thing .

I think it's in some , in some respects , if you're a smaller community , it's easier to cast that vision . With a smaller group of people who are all like super , super , geeked out on fire for serving in this space and then dreaming , man , we can go reach a different part of our city with with the gospel . I mean this is very , very inspiring .

So , jeff , talk about the future vision of Lomasa and even go off a little bit more on the necessity of kind of casting that leadership development vision .

It's been now that we've kind of Jack mentioned we've got a lot of processes in a replicable model . The way we see it , about 80% of Lomasa is duplicatable and you take that wherever location you go . That other 20% it's going to differ based on the environment

and the location . So there's a lot of like . For example , there's a lot of similarities between Tuesdays and Thursday nights , but then there's also some unique differences based on the setting , the amount .

The community is a little bit different there too , and just being able to have that ability to adapt to those changes and still keep the heart and consistency of Lomasa is a very cool thing . So as we look to do the next , you know three more of these over the next few years .

I won't say it gets easier and easier , but now the logistics of it are easier and easier because we've got , you know , some process stuff and so just some . Now we've learned the lay of the land . Now it's just about identifying the players . So , to be honest with you , we went into Tempe before we were ready , and I think that's the whole Lomasa story .

We don't wait until we're fully prepared . We just trust that God's going to be with us and he put it on our hearts for a reason . So we'll go do it and he'll be with us and help us through it and we'll figure it out . And so you know , we see that in Tempe which you know , because there are some folks that said , oh , maybe you should wait .

We're like we don't think . So we're going to try . So and then , you know , found a great partner with the beautiful Savior folks . And to your point about the smaller churches they are a smaller church but they are all in . Okay , we're doing ministry together , which is a beautiful thing . And one of the cool things about Lomasa is there's multi faiths involved .

It's not just an LCMS type thing that we're doing . We've got a lot of different religions and other groups that love to be a part of it . And you know , anyway , we can expose more people to Jesus through word and service . We love it .

So praise , praise God , jeff , for your leadership and your courage to go before . Here's the thing too . Like you're never , it's never perfect , like we're pursuing this ideal , which is only found in Christ . He's our ideal , he's already so launch , try , try to fall .

I mean all of that , all of that is so , so important for a culture that is on mission to reach . I don't exactly know what it's going to take . Only only God knows . He just asked us to be faithful with what he's put on our hearts . Like we want to control . We're trying , if you get right down to it , jack , I mean what we're trying to do is be God .

I want to know all the details . Right , let me . Let me dot every , I cross every T and tell me how . It's not a no , just trust him , just go and leader , if you have influence to cast vision , release people , and you have Jeff , rick and Laurie's in your congregation waiting , just waiting . Could , could the Lord have something , rick ?

I'm coming to you now in my story that has been on the back burner now for a while . And could it ? Could someone just tell me with leadership influence ? Let's , let's try it . Let's try it . Rick , you and I are our barbecue lunch .

I'll never forget I'd been here about a month and you had you had a dream about a diner that welcomes those that are recently experiencing incarceration , and and I shared a little bit of the table that I was coming out of . And then we're like well , there's this new , young Vickr here that may have some energy to partner to get it done .

And and we just we just tried it Say , hey , what the permission was given . And and you've now moved into this executive director role and you've got some big plans , not just future La Mesa's , but tell us about Eden Village , rick . And what do you remember about that lunch ? That was so much fun , right ?

When we first came out of five two , that was one of the things we were focused on , and we finally decided we can't focus on two things . We needed we needed to focus on La Mesa . The one thing and that's where God led us and we were willing to follow his lead and force our hand by kids and Eden Village .

I want to be perfectly clear If I get a little soft here , it's just because I'm an old man , but this is God's project . God put this on my heart , but he also put it on the heart of some people out of Missouri , and they created Eden Village with an older couple way back in 2016 . And they created an Eden Village in Springfield , missouri .

They now have two completed Eden Villages .

Now , before I go on too much further , eden Village is for the product of homeless disabled , one of the toughest , toughest groups of people to house , but Eden Village has now expanded into 11 states and 13 cities , of which we are now one of their cities that we're expanding , and we signed a licensing agreement with them so that we didn't have to do this and

recreate the wheel . They've already created a successful and sustainable community for our brothers and sisters , and the very first sign that we put up on a project when it gets developed is hashtag God's project . If God doesn't want this to happen , it won't happen .

But if God does want this to happen , it's going to happen , and I'm getting on to training and I'm going to do whatever I have to do to follow his lead . You know we've been seeing God reveal himself during this whole process . It just , it almost is freaky to say wow , I can't believe this is happening . But we have .

We've been working on this for a couple of years now and you know , through the Mesa , I mean we love these people . You know we serve them , we worship with them , we feed them . We got to do more . They have .

You know they would come and do projects with us , paying houses and whatever , and when we're done , they push their cart down the road and find a dumpster to go to bed . We got to help them get some houses . Housing is a major , major problem . All across the country there's such a shortage of housing and then and then these type of people .

They don't have any income , they can't even afford a place to live . I mean , the average single one bedroom apartment is $13 , $1400 . Their income , if you're lucky , is $1,000 . So we have currently , after a year's worth not more searching we've located a piece of property in Mesa .

It's an acre and a half , it's all the school between Maine and university on the east side of the road and we're going to be putting in 21 tiny houses . We're going to be putting in a community garden , a community center slash clubhouse . We're going to have a dog run barbecues . We are creating a neighborhood where we can have neighbors .

I mean this is just and it's all going to . It's a faith-based it's . I mean we'll do church services out of that community center , we'll do Bible studies , we'll do whatever . I mean the other structure that we're going to be putting in the center of the garden are the three crosses . That has gone before us here in Mesa and in Tampa .

Each one of those campuses had three crosses and that's not by accident , it's just almost something . That's just incredible and uh , yes , I can tell .

I don't have to wear with all , but God does , and when he shows up , he's showing up big and people are going to know and they're going to want to serve and they're going to want to be involved and they're going to want to see .

This is just the first of many that they're going to want to be involved with , because they're going to know God's behind it .

I mean , we have I don't know if anybody's heard of Blandford Homes , but Blandford Homes is all in . They want this to happen and they've helped us with the zoning attorney . They've helped us with some big donations . They want to build the houses . This is incredible . I mean , lori just got a donation the other day for all the payers .

Phoenix Papers says you got any payers ? We're bringing them to you . We've got three members of Christ Greenfield that are totally involved with this . We have an architect who's a member of Christ Greenfield . We have a civil engineer that's a member of Christ Greenfield . We have a landscape architect that's a member .

I mean , this is the church is hearing and seeing the direction that God's pointing us in and they're willing to give their time and their money to make this happen . It's just amazing how God's revealing himself . Yes , so , rick , why don't you ?

And they're coming up and you've got to have 20 feet between buildings . So they were throwing up all kinds of roadblocks . At the end of the day , over the Christmas holiday we got information that they found a way for us to make this community happen .

We had a meeting with them before Christmas and when they heard our story we had our zoning attorney there , who they know . They know love and hate and when he was there in our court at the end of the meeting they said we hope this is the first of many Eden villages in Mesa . They're like now finding a way . Don't worry about it .

Don't let parking get in the way . This project

is going to happen . Don't worry about the setbacks . We found a way that we can get around those setbacks . They want to see this , especially when we're not using any taxpayers' dollars to do this . This is all privately funded .

For them to get an additional 21 units of housing and they don't have to deal with it and they don't have to spend any taxpayer dollars . That are loving it .

So , leader , if you're struggling with dreaming big dreams because you're just what happens if it fails Jack I've heard this so many times Like we can't do that , we've tried that , we've done like , this is the time for entrepreneurial gifts within the church to just come alive for and for the Pentecost . Reality acts to reality .

Your old men will dream new dreams . Young men will dream , you know , and Rick , you're not an old man but you do . You got a lot more years on , you , bro , but you are dreaming some new dreams right now to reach people with the gospel , and it's humbling it really is humbling to hear the story and to fan into flame what the Lord is doing . Jack .

Anything to add on that before we send it to Lori for the last question ?

And , you know , I want to just kind of put my you know , tip my hat towards the work that's been done by the Lameisa team . It's , you know , if anybody has any questions about the speed by which they're moving , just know that they're actually , as they're , casting great vision .

They're also being extremely diligent in their work and making sure that we're doing things in a responsible and sustainable way . So I just wanted to give that assurance to folks .

We'll give you a tour , we'll give you an explanation , we'll get you plugged in . On any given Tuesday and Thursday . We need cook teams . We've got very loyal cook teams , but they've been cooking for years . So if you would like to sponsor a pizza night and give the kitchen staff , the cook teams , a night off , that would really help .

If your Bible study or your family would like to learn how to become a cook team , that would really help . You could always continue to donate your clothes . We go through in a week probably 200 , at least men's shirts a week . So when we say we need men's clothes , we need men's pants , shoes , shirts , ladies clothes . We get a lot of ladies clothes .

We always take ladies clothes , but we're always in need of men's shirts , shoes , belts , hats . I encourage everybody that tours or goes on vacation to grab the shampoos , the lotions , the conditioners , because that's the perfect size for La Mesa .

If you see men's or women's underwear on sale , can you imagine being homeless , especially as a woman , and not having undergarments ? We do get donations of used bras , but other than that , we rely upon the community to donate underwear for the community .

When you hear their stories about what it's like on the street , we also give them toilet paper , paper towels , because living on the street is just not easy Jackets , tarps this time of year is getting really cold . If you have blankets , gloves , hats , those types of things , it's easy to drop it off at the church .

You can drop it off on Rick and I's patio . You can bring it to Tuesday night . You can bring it to Thursday night . If you'd like to play music , sing , we could absolutely use you . If you want to lead a Bible study , we could absolutely use you . If you would like to take the food truck out , imagine this food truck sits six out of seven days a week .

The reason why it sits is we don't have enough people to make sandwiches on a different day . We have a fabulous sandwich team that makes sandwiches on Sunday for the food truck to go out on Monday , but for the food truck to go out on Tuesday , somebody would need to make the sandwiches on Monday . That would be a great way .

You could also get checked out to be on the insurance and you and your family or you and your Bible study could take the food truck out . We'd like to utilize that food truck a lot more . The Resource Center has some opportunities where you could even work from home . If someone needs help and they go to infoatlemasonministriesorg , we would love to have you .

We have somebody that responds to that quickly . We have somebody that has a cell phone that answers all of Lamisa's phone calls , no matter where she is on vacation . She answers all of our phone calls from wherever she is .

But we could definitely use somebody to respond quickly to those emails because the Resource Center sees about 40 customers or clients a month so they can't always get to those emails . I know the Resource Center could use help taking people to the doctor , taking them to the Social Security Office . There's a lot of little ways to get plugged into .

Lamisa , we would absolutely love for you to come and maybe shoulder tap for a leadership position , be in charge . Like Jeff runs the Liturgy for both communities . I'm sure he'd like to shoulder tap someone to help him with that , because he's also going through Vickers School and runs a business and then as a family man . There's so many ways .

If you would like to be on the launch team for Lamisa Ministries , eden Village of Arizona , we would absolutely love that . We're to the point that we need people to spread the story of what is happening with Eden Village , arizona . I wanted to share about the community that we serve . It's true there are urban campers .

We have several of both communities that love living on the streets . Their family life is fine , they're in communication with their kids . They just like to not play by the rules . We call them urban campers . Then there's the big percentage in the middle that loss of a job , kicked out , broken , divorced . Something has gotten them on the street .

It's the love of Lamisa , the Resource Center , teaching , financial piece , helping with a job , getting them a planet fitness membership to get a shower . We can walk those people through the brokenness of homelessness and help walk them out . We've got a great track record for that .

But Lamisa found that there's that small percentage the disabled , the severely mentally ill that we can't hand walk them out . We can't get them a job and a planet fitness membership . Hand them a key to an apartment with a voucher , they will not thrive , the community will reject them and they'll be back in the streets again .

That's the reason why Eden Village is so necessary is within that community they're accepted with their disabilities , with the things that God's left them with . That's why Eden Village is so important , because on Tuesdays and Thursday nights we love that community , they love us , but we don't have an option for them until we can build Eden Village .

Eden Village is not for every homeless person to have a roof over their head . Eden Village is for those that society says there's no answer for you . And I've been at an Eden Village community and I've seen the community support one another when they have bipolar and they're schizophrenic and they don't have their legs , they're in a wheelchair .

That community needs a home and an advocate and I'm so proud of Rick for the work that he's done . I'm so excited how God is showing up and showing off . I mean to have someone knock on your door and give you a check and you open the envelope and it's $100,000 . And they say go , make your dream come true . That's God showing up and showing off .

So when people ask , how can I help Lameza ? Where ever God leads you , let him lead you to Lameza .

And to recognize all of our brokenness , all of our poverty , our universal , desperate need for Jesus to make us rich . And what does rich really mean ? It means relationship . It doesn't mean monetary stuff . It really doesn't .

That comes and that goes . If you really want to get super theological money , while it has a purpose and a function , we don't take it with us . It really is meaningless unless it's stewarded toward the things of God . And so there may be some of you here your net worth could be multiple , multiple millions . Is that how you're defining your life as significant ?

Or could the Lord invite you to define significance in sacrificial generosity , giving to the least and the hurting and the lonely a gift that would go far beyond , far beyond this life , your life , and radically impact eternities ?

Because the ripple effect last thing here the ripple effect of what La Mesa does , what Eden Village does , is it is an active evangelical tool , especially in a secular society where people look at the church and say they don't , this is just business man , these guys , they're just here for your money .

They don't want something for you , they want something from you . You know , I mean , these folks are crooked . You can't look at La Mesa and see anything other than the present . There's no other explanation for the fact that you three , and then dozens and hundreds others , say you know what La Mesa has changed my life ? Who really has changed your life , lori ?

It's Jesus .