Gathering to Training

So as some of you may know, both Barron and I made a 3 to 5 year plan for the SFU Campus.

Year 1        Gather
Year 2        Train
Year 3        Empower

We thought that once one of these things were done, we didn't have to go back to it.  So for example, once Year 1 finished we wouldn't have to gather anymore.  However, God revealed to us right away that this is going to be a constant thing where these all overlap each other.  So instead of this Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3, it will actually look more like this:

Year 1         Gather
Year 2         Gather           Train
Year 3         Gather           Train           Empower
Year 4         Gather           Train           Empower

Heading into Year 2, we have seen how gathering has been such an integral part in the training process in our students.  This year is a really good reflection of our students doing the gathering (or invitation) process.  If you remember the post about Community Dinners, that is one of the results of our students leaning into invitations.

I want to illustrate this gathering to training process with Don's story.

I remember Don when I first met him.  He came up to the IVCF table and shared about his desire to be more involved on the SFU campus.  He saw that there was more to school than getting his degree, he wanted to something more.  So he started getting involved in IVCF and was then invited to go to China.  This brought up a lot of underlying things for Don especially in his family but in the end, he chose to follow Jesus by saying "Yes" to China.  Him saying "Yes" to following Jesus completely changed his life.  He was no longer the little timid boy who was going to school, but a Man of God set out to make disciples of all nations.  His whole attitude has changed, even to the point where because of China, he had to miss school the next semester.  However, the way he looked at it wasn't, "Oh no!!  I shouldn't have gone to China!" but "Ok, so now I get a chance to be a witness in my workplace and get involved in my church more.  I am wondering though, how else can I be involved on campus at this time?"

Over this past year, Barron and I have seen such a huge change and shift in Don.  Here are a few things that he has been doing over this past year.

• He has invited his brother Daniel to follow Jesus in a much more significant way.  Daniel is actually going to be doing the Vancouver Urban Partnership (VUP) with us this summer!
• They have see how their family have also been impacted by their growth and their family situation has gotten better.
• The impact on their church is that they are completely changing the culture and the students in that church.  They are training the future leaders of their college group.
• Don has been leading scripture studies on the campus and inviting students to lead with him.
• He is constantly being a witness to his co-workers.

As this is the training process of his life in University, we are now moving to the Empowering process which will come next year for Don.

And there were 4

This year, we have had the privilege of having six student leaders:  Don, Dan, Lida, Anika, Tyler, and Carrie.  Each week we met up to do a Leaders Small Group where we studied scripture and continued to build community together.  However, their involvement did not start and end with the Leaders Small Group.  They were also doing a lot of other things to bring God's Kingdom to the Campus of SFU.



Tyler - Was one of the leaders heading up the Community Dinners and also started a study group.
Anika - Was another leader heading up the Community Dinners and starting to build connections with the Nigerian Community on campus.
Lida - Overseeing the Community dinners with Tyler & Anika and leading a small group with me.  Lida is coming on VUP.
Don - Co-lead a small group with Carrie & Barron and was very heavily involved in his church community discipling and mentoring students to be leaders.
Dan - Attended mine and Lida's small group and was very heavily involved in his church community discipling and mentoring students to be leaders.  Dan is coming on VUP.
Carrie - Co-lead a small group with Don & Barron and had a really good peer to peer mentorship relationship with each other.

All of our student were actively involved and constantly seeking for opportunities to witness to their peers.

Towards the end of the year, we as a team sat down and discussed numbers in our fellowship.  When we went through the list of those involved in our fellowship we were completely shocked and surprised.  Last year, we had a total of 13 students in our fellowship.  This year, we found out that 40 students were now involved!!  What makes it even better is that 2/3 of that number were not Christians!  It is amazing to see how God added to our numbers when were faithful in our invitations and our responsibilities, but most of all, faithful in our own personal relationship with Him.

One of the realities of this type of work though is that we have to see some incredible student go.  Whether they are transferring Campuses or simply just graduating, it is really sad to see these students leave us.  Please pray for the following students who will be leaving us.

Tyler will be going to UBC to pursue a degree in nursing.  Please pray that his transition into this field will go smoothly and that he will find a place in the community on the UBC Campus.

Carrie is now graduating so she will be looking for work and continuing to serve in her church community.  Please pray that God will continue to guide her in her career choices.

So now, we have four students:  Lida, Don, Dan, and Anika.  Barron and I are really excited to be heading into this next year with 4 student executives.

Coming Up and Prayer Requests

Over this summer there will be a number of things that are coming up.

Mark West Pacific (April 26 - May 2)
I will be leading alongside with U Vic Staff worker Christa Smith in 35 hours of inductive bible study.

• Please pray for the teachers:  Myself & Christa (Mark 2); Matthew & Jacqueline (Mark 1); Leslie & Mike (Mark 1)
• Please pray for the planning team:  Barron, Kim, Susie, and Brian
• Please pray for Transportation details and execution:  Justin (Me)
• Please pray for Prayer Ministry (Susan)
• Pray for the students that they will receive a hundredfold as they study the gospel of Mark.

Vancouver Urban Partnership (May 2 - June 2)

• Praise God for providing us with a location to stay during this month.
• Praise God for providing us with a meeting space for dinners.
• Praise God that we have internships (with other organizations) in place for this month.
• Praise God that we have a debrief location with a cook

• Please pray for a meeting space to study Scripture
• Please pray for booking speakers (people not the technology)
• Please pray for the staff team: Christa (director), Steve (co-director), Barron & Myself

Vacation - Toronto (June 9 - 23) & Regina (June 23 - July 2)

April and I will be taking vacation together to get to know each other's home communities.  If you would like to meet up and chat please let me know and we will try and schedule you in.

• Please pray for mine and April's relationship as we continue to learn more about each others communication styles.
• Please pray for our ability to listen to each other with an open heart and to resolve conflict well.
• Please pray for our own personal walks with God and that we may constantly be reminded that He is the source of our relationship.
• Please pray for open minds and hearts as we engage in each others communities this summer.  

Decide to Lead

Decide to Lead... before any Leadership training can take place, one must say "Yes" to leading in the first place.  This semester's Student Leadership Camp (SLC) we wanted to redefine to our students on what it meant to be a leader.  So we decided to look at Peter's story and did a movie study on Men in Black (MiB).  As we were planning this, Barron, Kim and I felt very excited at where this was going to go.

Throughout the training, we gave our students pieces of Peter's journey from which they then needed to come up with a creative interpretation of it.  Then, they were asked to preform it and teach the rest of the group on that section.  It was really exciting and entertaining to see what they came up with.  Some of them did games that got us to engage in the "feeling" aspect of how Peter would have felt, others did fruit theater where they used fruits as the characters.  It was really encouraging to see our students engaging in this and really having fun with studying & teaching scripture.

Walking On Water Game

Now it did not stop there.  We then went up to the SFU campus and then shared with students on the SFU campus what we just prepared on Peter's journey.  Now that was a huge challenge and risk for both us and our students and there were some negative responses to it ,but nevertheless, they still went for it.  The result... really surprising!  When we finished and debriefed our experiences, we were all celebrating and were really excited.  The fears that we had in people rejecting us were not really true.  In fact, it was quite the opposite, they were really receptive!

We all learned something very valuable.  The majority of people are not all that scary and most really want to hear that good news that Jesus has to offer.

Residence... Transform!!

Residence Dinners have transformed to Community Dinners.  It has no longer been a place where only residence gathers but our community as a whole.  It is hard to believe that it started off with only 6 people and has now grown to this extent.  With a mix of international, exchange, residence, and off campus students, every Thursday has become a big hangout spot for these students.  The exciting thing is... most of them aren't Christians, all the Christians are our leaders.

It has been good seeing how our students have taken ownership of the Community Dinners.  Lida, Anika, and Tyler have been so faithful in both their invitations and hosting for the Community Dinners.  It has been so encouraging to see the excitement they have around the Community Dinners.

The Community Dinners have also become a place for us to invite students into deeper encounters with Jesus.  Some nights we will study scripture and discuss about what Jesus' intentions were and understand his heart.  A main focus is around Jesus's heart for Justice.  One day, we invited our community to watch a documentary, Hope for the Sold, which talks about the sex trafficking in Vancouver.  We were amazed at the response this had.  The room was full and a good majority of them wanted to actually be more involved with fighting this injustice.  So it has become a central hub for us to invite to small groups, Urban Dip, Mark West Pacific, Vancouver Urban Partnership, etc.

Please continue to pray for these community dinners, especially in what will happen in the new semester.

Shared Experience, Shared Vision

It has been exciting to see our leaders small group taking shape and form.  This has been a place where we talk about visioning for the SFU campus and also how we are doing personally.  It has especially been exciting to see that our student leaders are friends with each other outside of the IVCF community.

As a way to galvanize our leaders, both Barron and I have decided to be a part of the Vancouver Urban Partnership (VUP).  This is where we will be living in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside for the month of May and engage in the community of the "poorest postal code in Canada".  This is an opportunity to learn about God's heart for Justice and what it actually means for us to bring "healing into this world".  We are hoping to bring at least 4 of our student leaders not only to learn about God's heart for justice, but to have a collective experience together as a team and to come out of it with a shared and united vision.  The ones going to VUP will hopefully be our executive team this upcoming year.

Please continue to pray for our students and particularly around their discernment on going to VUP.

Upcoming Things for Me

Vancouver Urban Partnership

From April 26-May 31, I will be doing the Vancouver Urban Partnership in the Downtown Eastside.  I have to say though that I am both excited and worried at the same time.  As a person who has not really paid much attention to Justice issues, I am a little worried of my ability to be a leader in this.  However, I said the same thing about China and look what God did with that.  The excitement comes with the potential galvanization of our future exec team and being able to have this shared experience with them.  Also, I am excited to see what God has in store for me during this time.

Mark West Pacific

As you may know, Mark West is a week of intensive bible study on half of the book of Mark.  However, because Mark West reached capacity, there was a need to expand it.  So now we have a BC specific Mark West called Mark West Pacific.  It's really exciting that we get to have our own now.  We have been coming up with creative ways to invite students and we are praying for 84 students from BC.

My role this year has changed from the past.  I have been invited to co-lead the Mark II track (Mark 8+).  I have to say like the VUP, I am both excited and nervous at the same time.  Even though I have gone through Mark numerous times, I have not really focused on Mark II.  So this will be quite the experience leading 35+ hours of bible study in 5 days.

Urbana 12

Urbana 12 is coming up!  I have been invited to be a part of the prayer team at Urbana.  I am really happy and excited to be a part of this because it was at Urbana 09 that I was able to experience the healing power of prayer.  So now, I get to be a part of that!!