Find Your Blank

When it comes to the question, "What are you looking for?" most students on the first week of class will often say, "My class" or "food."  Others may give more serious answers like, purpose, identity, and self-worth.  All of these are valid answers to this semester's IVCF SFU theme:  Find Your Blank.
#FindYourBlankIVCFSFU

With Urbana 15 quickly approaching, we wanted to come up with a creative idea to better engage the campus.  After hours of planning and discussing, the Core Witness Team decided to get more involved in Social Media and come up with this Find Your Blank New Student Outreach.

To say it reached out to a lot of people would be a long shot, but we were able to engage numerous individuals who normally wouldn't connect with a Christian Club.  Through this initiative though, it challenged each of our Core Witness Team Leaders to step outside their comfort zone in interacting with complete strangers and also invite their friends to deeper Christian community including our welcome event:  Find Your Hunger.  One student particularly stands out when this event happened.

This 1st year Christian student came by the Find Your Blank table and expressed interest in joining IVCF,  We talked a little bit, he puts his contact information down and goes on to his other classes.  Throughout the weeks of tabling and clubs days, we continue to see this student and proceed to invite him to the Find Your Hunger event.  At first he was excited, but later, he lets Alan (Intern) know that he won't be coming anymore.  Upon hear this news along with many other No's, we couldn't help but feel discouraged heading into the event.

In response to the number of No's, we decided to come together as a Core Witness Team to intercede and pray for our friends and new people to come out.  I remember as we were praying that Alan prayed specifically that this student would come out.  As the event started, and people trickled in, almost every person that we prayed for who said "No" came out, including this student.

When he came by, I greeted him with a smile and a full plate of vegetarian perogies (He's vegetarian).  He then said, "I can only stay for 30 min."  I responded, "That's fine, enjoy yourself and eat lots!  It's really good that you are here."  30 min went by and I walked out from my cooking responsibilities to see how the conversations were going.  To my surprise, this guy was still hanging out and chatting with people.  I went back and another 30 min later and he was still there!  This student who originally said "No" came to the event and stayed the WHOLE time including the after-event bubble tea.  Since then, every invitation we have given to him, he has been there.

Personally, I am extremely excited for this first year to see what God will do in and through him.  The power of prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit is enough to change a "No" into a "Yes" and beyond!  We all learned a very valuable lesson that the Holy Spirit does a far better job in convicting/convincing than we do.

From Lament to Joy

Having to navigate the transition of 2 of my Pastors from my church, my ministry partner Barron transitioning out of IVCF, and my student president Catherine suddenly needing to transition out of IVCF SFU, it has been a rough and difficult year for both April and I.  I think it was especially difficult for April as she often felt helpless during this whole process.

What we learned though is that during these times of sadness, no matter how bad they seem to be, there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel.  In the moment, it felt extremely difficult to see any form of joy.  Yet, when we chose to sit with it and acknowledge the pain that we were feeling in situations within and beyond our control, we realize how much we couldn't do it on our own and started coming back to the one who has full control over every part of our lives.  Jesus.  The more we chose into lament, the deeper our reliance became on Jesus.  

Eventually, as we continue to acknowledge our pain, suffering, anger, frustration, and sadness, there came a tipping point where April and I could look at our situations and say, "God is in control." and experience an immense amount of joy knowing and believing that to be true.  

I think that tipping point for us happened a few weeks back.  Despite the crazy business and tiredness that we have been experiencing, we have still been experiencing a depth of joy that nothing can take away.  Through provision (finances and opportunities), encouragements from friends, and opportunities to lead deeper, these are the beginnings of the joys we have been able to encounter.  

So to leave you with some encouragement.  If you are in a slump, do not be afraid to acknowledge your frustrations, sadness, pain, etc, in front of Jesus.  This is an expression of showing your weakness in front of Jesus (2 Corinthians 12:9).  As you reveal your true self and feelings to Jesus, His power and strength will become manifest in you and followed that will be joy.

My dear friends, lament well and experience the deep Joy of God's presence.

Fear vs Faith

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.

-- Matthew 25:21 --

Matthew 25:14-30 has got to be one of my favourite passages in the bible.  It talks all about being faithful with what little God has given you and not being motivated by fear.  As our Core Witness Team studies the Gospel of Matthew in preparation for Urbana, this theme of fear vs faith keeps coming up.

A time of fear for out community can be best shared through this story.  I presented an opportunity for the community to help support one of their own to go to Urbana.  This would mean that they would probably have to each invest $100/person to help this person to go.  Indeed, it was a high call.  However, I expected that they would jump at the opportunity because of what we have been learning around Radical Hospitality and what we have been studying in Matthew.  Instead of receiving excitement, I was met with fear filled why's and reasoning's around why they can't do it.  If there wasn't talking, tension filled silence filled the room, even from the ones who agreed that it was a good idea.  This community has hit the wall, and they hit it hard.   I tried to hide the disappointment in my face but that was near impossible.  The team saw it and we proceeded to do a couple of weeks of tension filled bible studies and events.  The dryness and deadness we were experiencing over the next couple of weeks was a result of both midterms and fear.

Two weeks later, I confronted the team after the bible study regarding this situation and said,

"During that moment, we let fear dictate our actions.  If we choose into fear, what sets us apart from the others?  We didn't fail as individuals, we failed as an IVCF SFU Community and we failed to represent the Kingdom of God to even our own.  We need to choose into faith.  It doesn't mean that we will be getting it perfect all the time and we will probably fail more that we succeed.  That's why we are doing this together, so that we can better represent the Kingdom of God as a community.  Let's choose into faith together."

Their response, silence, but it was truth being spoken.  I don't know how much it sank in.  I guess only time will tell.

After, I shared of times when we as a community did choose into faith together.  The fundraiser, the party train, ski retreats.  We had lots of experiences of choosing into faith together and then experiencing our master saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant."


A time of faith our community stepped into faith literally happened the day after our community chose into fear.  It was the Find Your Life Fundraiser for SFU/Emily Carr Scholarships.  This was a vision that we decided to do in the summer and it was organized and lead by the students.

After the disappointing Core Witness Team, I was unsure of how this fundraiser event was going to go.  Prior to the event, Sam rallied a group of students (all going to Urbana) to my place to prep the food.  It was amazing seeing 6 students investing their afternoon to organize and help with the food prep.  Afterwards, we went to Willingdon Church to set everything up.  The majority of the SFU/Emily Carr students going to Urbana came early to help out.  From decorations, to food set-up, to worship.  All hands were on deck.

7:00 rolled around and the attendees were starting to trickle in.  We were hoping for the range of 200 people but ended up with a disappointing 40.  However, we wanted to steward these people well so we trusted that God would provide.  The event started and as I looked around the room, I didn't not recognize about 3/4 of the room (which is pretty cool).  I'll save the specifics but between the worship, MCing, and preparation.  I saw the SFU community rally together.  I saw the Holy Spirit impressing on the few people that were there to give generously, and I saw the students experiencing the joy of being faithful.

Out of the 30 people that gave that night and including the unknown amount of online donations, we raised over $3000!  On average, each person gave over $100!  That was better than any of the other Metro Vancouver fundraisers that we as staff put on.  God choose to bless us for our faithfulness.  God is indeed good!

Upcoming Events & Prayer Requests

Upcoming Events

• IVCF Fall Fundraiser - November 21
• Fran in town for VUP Site Visit - December 9 - 12
• Urbana 15 - December 26 - January 1

Students & Campus

• Pray for the SFU Interns (Alan, Sanjana, & Xenia) as they are pioneering new ministries on the SFU Campus
• Pray for Urbana recruitment for SFU.
• Pray for VUP recruitment for SFU.
• Pray for students to not choose into fear but to choose into faith.
• Pray for open hears for our leaders to receive the deeper calls into faith.
• Pray for the change in culture of our Core Witness Team and some of the tough calls that will need to be made
• Pray for more student buy-in to lead
• Pray for the IVCF Party Train and for students to choose into it more.
• Pray for the scholarships that are being raised for SFU/Emily Carr students ($15,000)

Personal

• Pray for my growth as a leader and mentor.
• Pray for me as I continue to network and connect with other Churches in the Lower Mainland.
• Pray for the Inter-Generational Dialogue between 1st and 2nd Generation Chinese Pastors.
• Pray for mine & April's relationship in our marriage and a deeper understanding of God's Love for each other.
• Pray for more opportunities and clients for April in her field of work.
• Pray for me that I will rest well during my Sabbaths.
• Pray for me that I will be exercising more regularly.
• Pray for the regular rhythms of time with God for both April and I
• Pray for wisdom and discernment around us being more missional in our everyday lives.

Praise Item

• Praise the Lord for providing my full support in monthly donations
• Praise the Lord that April and I are coming to a deeper understand of God's love for each other.
• Praise the Lord for a really successful AMMiC Conference.
• Praise the Lord for April's short term missions experience in Cambodia & Vietnam.