Stephen grew up in a missionary family, spending his early formative years in a village in Nigeria. He attended college at the University of Southern California, studying civil engineering. He worked initially as a structural engineering intern at the US State Department in Washington DC, and later as a land-use entitlement consultant in Southern California. Sensing the Lord’s call into ministry, he has spent the last 10 years working with urban youth in Northeast Los Angeles while also travelling nationally for speaking engagements. He currently serves as President of Reach Our Community Kids, a non-profit community center and coffee shop whose mission is to provide a place of hope, faithfulness, and sanctuary to those seeking knowledge, growth, and peace. Stephen’s passion is for unity in the Church, bringing Christians together while reaching the lost with the love of Christ. He has been married to his wonderful wife Anna for five years now. They currently reside in Eagle Rock, CA with their two-year-old son, Connor Michael.
The ROCK Community works to manifest the Gospel of Jesus Christ by providing a place of hope, faithfulness, and sanctuary, available to those seeking knowledge, growth, and peace. Formed as a collaborative through several local area churches we are led to serve our community as we believe Christ serves and loves others. “…for they were drinking from a spiritual Rock which followed them; and the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
R.O.C.K. is an acronym that stands for Reach Our Community Kids. We are a faith-based organization that started as an afterschool program here in Eagle Rock in 1996 and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1998. We have operated out of our current location at the corner of Yosemite Drive and Townsend Avenue since September 2001. In early 2007 we undertook a remodel of the existing rec room and classroom in our building, and we added a health code compliant coffee shop in order to transform the space into a multi-purpose community center while still maintaining the afterschool program throughout the school year from 3-6pm weekdays.
After nearly three years of volunteer labor, ROCK Coffee House opened its doors for business on August 1, 2009. This social enterprise subsidizes our mission so we can remain self-sustaining as a non-profit, and it also allows us to offer job training to local youth to help stimulate the economy during this time of economic recovery. We are also able to provide the space and the organizational umbrella for various community partners who need a venue to meet.
