importing post loop into custom template

Hi guys – I’ve just redone my home page and I want to load a loop of my posts into a div block on the right hand side of the page (in this red box).

I’ve tried pasting a PHP loop directly into the div box which is obviously not an intended function of the editor. I’m assuming I need to set up an include and feed it in or add a function to functions.php so I’m looking for a plan of attack unless there are better ways or suggestions. Maybe there’s a plugin that does this? I just want to output titles from my news page (blog) inside a customized div box that link off to the actual post.

I’m using the Lumen theme – I love the lookout but it has some frustrating limitations and I’ve had negative customer experience from a support point of view so I need to sort this out myself.