Reality LA

Category: Ministries

  • Digital Summer Camp

    Digital Summer Camp

    TODAY’S SCHEDULE

    9AM – Morning Check-in

    ANYTIME BEFORE 12PM – Morning Devo and Reflection Questions
    That’s this page! After watching the devo video above on your own, consider and write down your answers to the following reflection questions:

    1. How do you normally eat meals (e.g. alone, with family or friends, while talking and hanging out, while watching TV, or anything else) and why?
    2. Do you have any memories that involve shared meals? Share one or more of those memories.
    3. Why do you think sharing meals can be a significant way to connect with others?


    11:30AM – Squad Bonding

    ANYTIME BEFORE 5PM – Practicing Our Posture

    6PM – Sharing a Meal

    7PM – Evening Worship Gathering

    8:30PM – Evening Activity

  • Maggy Wong

    Maggy Wong

    Maggy Wong was born in the Netherlands (a country whose name literally means “the low countries”) and raised in Long Beach, California (which literally means “the long beach in California”). Though her family professed Christianity, Maggy’s home life was often a dark place of turmoil and instability. During high school, Maggy first heard the good news of Jesus Christ and received it with joy. But the despair of her home life continued to weigh heavily upon her – enough so that she attempted suicide at 18. While recovering in the hospital, however, God spoke to her heart, assuring her that he was her loving Heavenly Father who would protect her and never forsake her.

    As a young woman, Maggy faithfully served the Lord in her church and on mission trips. In her early thirties, she married a man named Terry, and they had a son together, Travis (through whom they would also gain a daughter-in-law, Christine!). During their thirty years of marriage, Maggy and Terry managed their own insurance business and also ran multiple Chinese restaurants (Terry’s family actually opened one of the first Chinese restaurants in LA!).

    In 2009, tragedy struck when Terry was diagnosed with bone cancer and told he had only a few months to live. Watching her husband endure great pain and deteriorate before her eyes was the hardest season of Maggy’s life. But through it all, she continued to experience God’s comfort and peace. He had not forsaken her, just as he had promised many years before.

    After Terry’s passing, Maggy decided to visit Reality LA and instantly felt right at home. She has been deeply involved in community groups and the prayer ministry, and having a longtime passion to help people facing homelessness and other struggles, Maggy jumped at the opportunity to serve as RLA’s Benevolence Coordinator. And we jumped at getting her, too!

    In her free time, Maggy loves reading Charles Spurgeon books, watching NCAA basketball (go Bruins!), and dancing to Earth, Wind, and Fire (the musical group, not the basic states of matter).

  • Jonathan Fitzgerald

    Jonathan Fitzgerald

    Jonathan grew up in the City of Orange in Orange County, and now lives in the delightfully-walkable neighborhood of Chinatown with his wife and three kids. He currently studies at Talbot School of Theology. Jonathan met his wife at a Reality LA Sunday gathering when she visited from San Francisco and a mutual friend introduced them by saying, “Avila, this is Jon. Jon, this is Avila. You both have two nose rings!”

    He grew up attending church, but his perception of Christianity was that it was a lifestyle to make you more acceptable to God and better than others. Then he began attending a new church at age 17, where he realized he wasn’t as good as he thought he was and that the consequences of sin were as just much for him as anyone else. He didn’t have to be a better person for God to accept him, but through faith in Jesus he could receive his righteousness as a gift. Receiving this good news was the most freeing experience he’s ever had.

    Tim Chaddick, who planted Reality LA, was like a big brother to Jonathan in high school: he was a pastor at Jonathan’s church and led a discipleship group for boys in high school. When Tim moved to LA to plant a church, Jonathan never expected to move as well and get involved, but a bizarre series of providential events led to just that. At Reality, he started serving as an usher, then in the prayer ministry, then as a community group leader. After a year and a half, he was hired onto staff and now, sixteen years later, has assisted pastors, coordinated gatherings, arranged travel, edited videos, served as youth director, become a pastor, led our faith and work initiative, and currently oversees our discipleship pathway and leadership development. He hopes to be a pastor until he dies, but expects it will continue to be expressed differently in different seasons of life.

    While Jonathan has perhaps grown more introverted as he’s gotten older, he loves experiencing God through other people (and verbal processing with them!) He enjoys reading about other people’s experiences with God and Scripture and making complex truths simple and digestible. He enjoys writing and recording music and hopes to continue. Because he played guitar in metal/hardcore bands in high school, he still sometimes likes listening to that genre, but finds himself mostly listening to Disney classics with his kids.

  • Kevin Weiner

    Kevin Weiner

    Kevin was born and raised in Manhattan Beach, California, which you may recognize as the backdrop to CSI: Miami (the similarities end there, however). Though his family was entirely nonreligious, he grew up in a generally happy household. Kevin played various sports from an early age, and after high school was offered a shot at playing soccer for UCLA (GOOOAAALLL!).

    In college, Kevin fully embraced the party lifestyle. Yet despite being surrounded by popularity and pleasure, true satisfaction always seemed out of his reach. He felt a deep loneliness and sense of inadequacy no human recognition could fulfill.

    At the invitation of a friend, Kevin attended a Reality LA gathering and heard the Gospel for the first time. Intrigued by the biblical concept of God’s grace, he began regularly attending RLA and studying the Bible. One day, while deep in the midst of a conversation about the Gospel, Kevin realized that he truly loved Jesus and was indeed a Christian.

    After college, Kevin got a job at the UCLA Center for MEMES (which, despite its title, did not involve creating hilarious internet sensations). Through this role, he discovered a passion for coordinating and planning, which led him to his first position with RLA as Event Coordinator. From there, his growing passions for making disciples and connecting to and fostering growth in others led him to his next role as Reality LA Kids Director and then on to the Director of Missions and Mercy. He was ordained as a pastor in 2024.

    In his free time, Kevin loves hanging with his wife Alexa and their two kids, playing all the sports, doing all the puzzles, and attempting all sorts of gardening and woodworking projects at home. Indeed, a man of many talents.

  • Nathan Potter

    Nathan Potter

    Nathan grew up in Kansas City, Missouri (not Kansas). He spent his Sundays watching the Chiefs perpetually remain one season away from a championship. It seemed to him that Jesus was one interpretation of divine goodness in a world full of cultural traditions, ancient writings, and temples. Girls were the true pursuit.

    In college, his need for approval and a shifting moral standard led to binge drinking, promiscuity, and a spiraling GPA. Somehow, he made it out with a degree and headed west to build an acting career out of the dust.

    In 2008, exhausted with a lifestyle of hookups, blackouts, and loneliness, he reached out to a girl from his hometown and asked to go to church with her. What he found was the unstoppable love of Jesus Christ. One year later, he married Stephanie (AKA Stevie), that same girl who brought him to Jesus.

    Surrendering wholeheartedly to the Lord, Nathan dove headfirst into Christian community, eagerly learning to love people, study the Bible and pray. He also started showing up every Sunday at 7AM to serve the church, and soon accepted the calling to vocational ministry. In 2018, he was ordained as a pastor.

    He and Stevie currently live in Valley Village with their three children.

  • Jaslyn Dixon

    Jaslyn Dixon

    Jaslyn hails from that most-famed cultural epicenter of the Western Hemisphere, fabulous Orange County. Growing up, she attended private Christian schools – not because her family believed in Jesus, but simply for the quality of education. In 9th grade, she began attending a church with a friend and first grasped the beauty of the gospel. She realized that being a Christian wasn’t about being a “good person,” but was instead about receiving the love, forgiveness, and grace of Christ. Soon after that, Jaslyn’s parents also came to know Jesus and commit their lives to Him.

    Shortly after deciding to follow Jesus, it dawned on Jaslyn that she wanted to be a Christian counselor, as it combined her passions for loving God and loving people. In the years of education that followed, God opened doors every step of the way as she pursued this goal. After much hard work, she received her Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy and became a licensed MFT, followed by a Master’s in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from BIOLA’s Talbot Seminary. She spent several years working in government programs and a community clinic before coming on staff at Reality LA as Gospel Care Director.

    A few fun facts about Jaslyn: her favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, she loves Southern California summers (other members of the RLA staff are not as enthusiastic about perpetual sunshine), and she could happily eat just Mexican food for the rest of her life.