The Advent Christian Conference of Southern California held its annual meeting Saturday, February 22, at the Advent Christian Church of Los Angeles. Approximately 30 people, representing six conference churches, attended the meeting, which was presided over by conference president Dave Crimi. Western region superintendent Rick Qualls, ACGC executive director Justin Nash and ACGC Latin America area director Craig Libby all gave reports to the delegate body. Leaders from various retreats and camps shared updates on the ministry that took place last year and the plans for 2025.
Brian Reeves, director of Camp Maranatha (the conference campground), discussed the successful year of ministry at the camp in 2024 and plans for the coming year. Officers elected were Dave Crimi (president), Gary Hogan (vice president), Linda Reeves (secretary) and Karen Schoenherr (treasurer). Young people from the Lincoln Heights Tutorial Program (LHTP) showed wonderful hospitality, greeting delegates and guests as they arrived and serving everyone during the meals.
While an Advent Christian church no longer meets in the building, Dennis and Trinh Ortega have run LHTP for more than 35 years. LHTP is a grassroots nonprofit organization with a mission to serve the underserved and overlooked youth of East Los Angeles. The program focuses on making a local and significant community impact through a combination of tutoring services to close the academic gap and youth programs to prepare teens for life after high school.
LHTP provides after-school homework and tutoring services to more than 500 K-8th grade children annually in East LA communities, including Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights, Chinatown and El Sereno. LHTP also provides youth leadership and development training to more than 600 teenagers each year through Youth United for Community Action (YUCA), Junior Youth Club (JYC) and the Increase the Peace (IP) youth advocacy committee. For more information on the program, visit www.lhtp.org.
The program has made a profound difference in the lives of hundreds of young people. Irma Gonzalez-Rios, an alumna of the program, shared her story of how LHTP affected her life. The program helped her escape a life of poverty and gang involvement, equipped her to finish school and enabled her to attend college. She now works for the Department of Mental Health, serving children who have faced various forms of trauma.
Perhaps the most important aspect of LHTP is the gospel impact it has had. Hundreds of young people have heard and responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dennis, Trinh and all the volunteers continue to transform the Lincoln Heights community through service to young people and the sharing of the gospel.
2 Responses
Wonderful work!
Our church in Maine gave $1,000 through Samaritans Purse to victims of the fires near LA. Could we have given through local AC churches?
As far as we know, our churches in the western region were not directly involved with fire relief efforts.