LA Fires + 2025 Reflection
One year ago today, the LA fires started. Today, I found myself reflecting on that moment and on all God did through our church in 2025.
WOW! 2025 was a year of extremes. We started with the fires and the unthinkable devastation that followed. But God! We responded as a church and opened a day shelter and resource center. I will never forget a mom and daughter who came in from the Palisades. Their home had burned down two weeks earlier, and they stopped by for some clothes. Before they left the mom said: “We have been so lost and heartbroken the last few weeks, but today when we came here to the church, we felt so loved and cared for.”
Through our amazing partnership with FoodCycle LA, over $600,000 of fire-relief resources moved through our parking lot and the Love the City Center. FEMA even joined us one week to love and support our community. And we are still serving—just recently we gave out $60,000 in gift cards to CalFresh and EBT holders. It’s been amazing to see how God used our church during one of the hardest times in LA’s history.
Another story worth telling happened one Friday when I got a call that a police officer was looking for me at the Love the City Center. This hadn’t happened since my rebellious teenage years. As I was driving over, I was wondering if I hadn’t paid a parking ticket or hoping no one had gotten hurt on our property. When I arrived, Officer Lopez said, “Are you Ashton Fish, the pastor who runs the food drive?” I hesitantly said, “Yes, I am. How can I help you, officer?” He replied, “I want you to baptize me.”
Officer Lopez attended our church and was baptized on Easter Sunday. He has since been transferred to Simi Valley. This past year, we had 41 people baptized on Easter and at our special church-at-the-beach service.
Every Sunday, a wonderful lady named Allison brings people from a recovery home a few blocks from the church. One Sunday she brought John and Tammy. John and Tammy gave their lives to Jesus that first Sunday and then went on to serve with our fire-relief team, be baptized on Easter Sunday, and become sober from their addictions. We had over 120 people give their lives to Jesus in 2025, and John and Tammy are two of them. We serve a God who saves people—and we are saved people. God is so good!
During the Easter season, God gave me a vision for expanding our ministry to the city of Carson. God confirmed over and over again that He had been planning this for a long time. Zion and Calista Phillips had been in our congregation for a year, but God told both the Phillips and me that they needed a year to wait on Him and be filled up. Exactly one year later, we became the pastors of Carson Hope Church. We had no idea He was preparing us to serve the city of Carson.
Seeing a young couple—both 25 years old—with this much faith and dedication has been amazing. The Carson church is in a mini-revival, and the congregation is healthy and starting to thrive. Not to mention, we serve over 800 people a week at the Carson food drive. Between the Love the City Center and Carson, during the government shutdown, we were serving over 1,500 families a week with food. All glory to God!
This has been an amazing year for Vintage Faith. Our church is healthy and growing. Our kids ministry has doubled over the year, and our youth ministry is on fire for Jesus. Just last week, I was at the park talking with Micky and Caroline about their questions in the Bible. I love seeing the hunger our NextGen has for Jesus. Our kids, youth, and young adults continue to be one of my highest priorities as your pastor. We don’t have a church in 10 years without continued investment in our NextGen.
Without your faithful partnership, we could not do the ministry at Vintage Faith. Your faithful giving has provided the foundation for all this incredible ministry. I know these are hard financial times, but as we obey God with our tithes and offerings, He promises to sustain us and bless us. Solomon says it best in Proverbs 11:25: “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” I pray that God will prosper you and your family in 2026 and that you will be refreshed like never before.
I am so overjoyed to serve such a beautiful, generous, and loving church.
In Christ's love,
Pastor Ashton Fish