How does a young woman go from living below the poverty line to a prestigious university to helping build the next generation of leaders for her church and community?
Londa Bradshaw is the Youth Coordinator for S.A.Y. Yes!® for the Cru® Inner City team in Los Angeles. S.A.Y. Yes! is the after-school discipleship curriculum Inner City offers to ministry partners in cities around the country. In that role, she provides training and hosts events for local S.A.Y. Yes! Centers™, and volunteers at three of the centers.
There are two teen girls Londa has mentored for about three years at one of the S.A.Y. Yes! Centers. They have hard situations at home complicating their lives so when they come to S.A.Y. Yes!, "if they're not crying, it's a good day." Londa knows what they are going through and remembers how she needed more positive role models as she was growing up in a disadvantaged home and community.
Her family lived below the poverty line, struggling to meet their basic needs. From seventh grade on, Londa lived with a foster family but maintained a relationship with her parents.
"Both families kept me surrounded by the Lord," she said.
"One morning after a night of partying, Londa made a life-changing decision."
Her foster mom was a leader in her church and a godly influence in Londa's life. Londa spent her childhood as a cultural Christian for whom church was a normal way of life.
Desiring to be an agent of change in her community, Londa attended Purdue University to pursue a degree in public health as an epidemiologist, addressing critical health issues in underserved neighborhoods. Despite her Christian upbringing, she got involved in the college social scene going to parties on campus. One morning after a night of partying, Londa made a life-changing decision.
"I just remember feeling so empty when I got home," she said. "I wanted to not feel that way, so I asked God if he was real would he fill, take away my emptiness."
In her junior year of college, Londa attended a Winter Conference, sponsored by the campus ministry of Cru. She heard about the prison ministry and went to a prison with other students and staff. Later, an informational meeting was offered, and she decided to go.
"I went for the free pizza," Londa said.
Along with her free pizza, Londa got a vision of how she, through Cru Inner City, could be a part of restoring and rebuilding families and communities similar to her own.
"... she was impressed that the ministry was backing up words with action."
"I really loved the heart for the marginalized," she said. "I grew up low income."
She realized working in neighborhoods like hers would be less of a culture shock than working with college students. When she saw the Compassionate Products™ — Boxes of Love®, Homeless Care Kits, Easter Bags -— she was impressed that the ministry was "backing up words with action."
The Inner City outreach that connected with Londa's heart was S.A.Y. Yes! Acutely aware of the challenges, struggles, even dangers children and teens face in the inner city, Londa welcomed the opportunity to be a friend and mentor to young people trying to navigate adolescence in an environment devoid of hope. She is working to provide the same loving support she received from both her families in her teen years, to be there for them, nurturing their growth in the Lord.
Londa's path to joining Inner City started in 2019 with a one-year stint as an intern with the Los Angeles team after college. During that year she was involved in vocational ministry, learning the different ways Inner City partners with churches to meet immediate needs, preach the gospel to the poor and bring justice to underserved communities. She joined as a full-time staff member in 2021.
Veronica Palma is the co-director of the Inner City team in Los Angeles. She supervises and trains the staff women. She takes pleasure in her relationship with Londa, noting the ways Londa brings her own strengths to the team.
"Londa joined the team at a challenging time," Veronica said, adding that four of the six staff members were away, leaving the two women to do the work of six.
Veronica was impressed by Londa's commitment, saying, "She is faithful; she shows up."
Veronica has observed that in her work with S.A.Y. Yes!, Londa takes extra time with the teen girls, taking them to lunch or out for treats. She also has a goal of learning to lead adults. To that end, she was assigned to give direction to the adults working on the assembly line for a Boxes of Love packing party.
"I really loved the heart for the marginalized."
"Londa has a heart to work with the partners, she enjoys that part of the role," Veronica said.
As the only black woman on the Los Angeles team, Londa adds an essential point of view to the team and ministry.
"She brings perspectives that can be easily overlooked," Veronica noted.
In addition to her cross-cultural experiences at Purdue, as an intern Londa lived in a Hispanic neighborhood. Now she is living in the same apartment Veronica had in another Hispanic community. She has become a valuable resource to the team on current issues of caring for the outcast and marginalized, finding podcasts and other materials on race, gender and poverty. She is deeply concerned about fostering unity in their ethnically diverse team.
"I love her wanting to have fun with the team, for it to be a good place for people — healthy," Veronica said.
Taking the long view, Londa's vision and goal in working with S.A.Y. Yes! is to "continue to pour into the next generation of leaders in the church and in the community." She is grateful for the many ways God has blessed her and given her the chance to invest in others what He has given to her.
Cru Inner City is blessed and grateful that the Lord is raising up gifted and committed young staff to pour into the next generation of leaders.
Michelle A. Melchor is a writer and lead editor for Cru Inner City. She has served with Cru for 48 years.
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