Meeting Darkness

Addy comes from a broken home, and missed four years of school due to unpaid tuition. But God had a plan, drew Addy to church where he met Jesus, and began a life commitment to help others without hope or help.

An act of angry vandalism leads to opportunity.

How does one decide that God is calling to go somewhere? For both Jim and Judy Larson, the story starts all the way back in childhood.

Jim grew up on a farm in Illinois, Judy the child of missionaries in Argentina. We met at Wheaton College, having both been challenged away from middle-class comfort and safety. We got together as a couple via reaching out to chronic mentally ill and others in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Here we discuss our introduction as young adults past the usual hurdles of fear and discomfort, into the joy of caring for folks at the so-called bottom.

Bpop and Dao know brokenness, having experienced childhood trauma and its effects carried into adult. They now have a ministry to those at the bottom, the ones Jesus says his sheep normally care for. Jim sat down to interview them about their work and motivation.