The Heart of Evangelism

At the beginning of December was a conference for all the IVCF Canada Staff.  The theme of this
conference was around developing a heart of Evangelism and Witness and to show us that it is possible for us to be doing this even without a particular "gifting".  Both Barron and I came away with a conviction that this needs to be true for the SFU ministry.  So we went ahead to prepare our students to receive the news of this direction for SFU.  Barron worked with Abraham in the small group leaders material and training around evangelism and I worked on communicating with the other exec around what the new direction is going to be like.  

As the student executive and small group leaders walked through my doors at the beginning of classes, all of them had differing ideas on what small groups looked like.  However, as Barron and Abraham have been planning and started sharing the vision, I could sense a tension of fear filling the air.  We were basically asking our small group and executive team to be stronger witnesses and to proclaim the Gospel to their non-believing friends.  A few of them expressed their concerns and reservations, but to our surprise, they all agreed that it needed to be done.

Them saying yes is a result of the faithfulness of the students who went before them.  They said "yes" even though they knew that they may be hated or labelled for it.  Despite that, they chose to step into this fear and discomfort which put their minds off of what they can do themselves to what God is capable of doing.

A couple of weeks later, we as a team went to Denman Island where Ian Elliot (Director of Evangelism) hosted our group.  Ian and his wife Naomi lead our team through the sending of the seventy disciples, got us to name our fears, and brought attention to the sin of tolerance in Canadian culture.  During all of these portions, he shared incredible stories of witness which revealed to our team the practical (and attainable) applications of Evangelism.  That week, we became inspired to be bathing this vision in prayer and to be fervently praying for the friends we are called to witness to.

As a result of that weekend, Anika our Spiritual Direction Coordinator lead us (the Core Witness Team) through an incredible prayer time of confession and repentance.  We were reminded of the truths of who God is and that if there are fears in us, it's because these truths were not active in us.  To help us with a deeper understanding of these truths, we started praying specific bold prayers.  Prayers of healing, prayers for God to intervene, prayers for God to create opportunities and open up doors to witness.  We saw God giving prophetic words and images for each other who were dealing with these fears.  The initial fears these students are having are starting to disappear as they come to know and believe the truths of God's character.

With the combination of fervent prayer and exceptional training for our leaders, one can only imagine what will happen this semester.  As a big bold prayer, we are praying for 20 students who aren't Christians to be coming out to the Ski Retreat.  We are praying that by the end of the semester that we will have 10 students who aren't Christians come and study the Gospel of Mark at Mark West Pacific.  But most of all, we are praying that our lost friends will be able to find Jesus this semester.  

Please join with IVCF SFU through intercession.  We are in desperate need of your prayers and know that your prayers are being heard and answered.

Pray for the continued breakdown of walls and fears that prevent us from witnessing to our peers and friends

Pray that God would open doors for them to explore deeper faith issues.

Pray that God would compel a large amount of students to say "yes" to the Ski Retreat

Pray for our current community of believers that they would receive the heart and passion for witness.

Pray that the Holy Spirit would penetrate deep into our hearts.

Upcoming Events and Prayer Requests

Upcoming Events

• Ski Retreat - Feb. 6-8
• Donor Visit (Regina) - Feb. 10-16
• Urbana & Mark West Pacific Registration Opens - Mar. 4
• GROW Training (Toronto) - Mar. 9-12

Students & Campus

• Pray for the continued breakdown of walls and fears that prevent us from witnessing to our peers and friends
• Pray that God would open doors for them to explore deeper faith issues.
• Pray that God would compel a large amount of students to say "yes" to the Ski Retreat
• Pray for our current community of believers that they would receive the heart and passion for witness.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit would penetrate deep into our hearts.
• Pray for my funding.  I am nearly fully funded in monthly donations.  Pray that God would place on the hearts of donors to come on as supporters
• Pray for Barron as this will be his last semester on Staff with IVCF.

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 our general finances.  We are asking God to allow us to break even each month.
• 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

Praise Item

• Praise that Lord for his work in our students lives and the exciting opportunity to be strong witnesses to our friends
• Praise the Lord that my health has been greatly improving and energy levels have been increasing.
• Praise the Lord that April was able to get some more contracting work.

Eat

Cooking is somewhat of a passion of mine.  I tend to have favourites I often order at restaurants so what I often do is decided to learn how to make those foods at home via the internet.  Once I learn how to do it, I add my own twist or combine multiple recipes together often making my own unique creation.

A huge part of building community at IVCF @ SFU revolves around eating a meal together.  So when we came up with the idea of doing a Taco Fiesta Night for our Welcome Event.  There were no complaints.

However, as I started looking at the sheer amount of food to cook, the cleaning of my home, and all the other logistics, things became more and more daunting.  I started dreading the day of the Taco Fiesta Night and the memories of many failed Welcome Fall Events came back.  I began to even doubt if it was worth it and if anyone would come.  As these doubts were racing through my head, I decided to share some of my needs to the Executive team.  To my surprise, everyone volunteered to help out with the logistics.  Julianna became my assistant chef, Catherine made a delicious guacamole and did incredible presentation of all the food, Abraham came to help clean up the home and set up the sign, and Barron planned the small group structure and presentation of the night.  In an instant, all of my fears and concerns were addressed and I sat there blessed and deeply encouraged by the commitment of our Executive Team.

When the day of the event came, Julianna was doing all the cutting of the vegetables and the general prep of all the food while I proceeded with cooking the lime chicken, vegan bean mixture, and browning the ground beef.  Later, Abraham and Catherine came over to do their respective jobs.  All during this time, I kept looking at the clock and saw the minute hand click closer and closer to the 6:30 mark.  As it got closer, I kept peering out the window hoping to see more people come.  However, I could not see any and the fears of the previous failed Welcome Events came flooding back.  The last 5 minutes seemed to last and hour, until I saw out of the corner of my eye people walking past my window.  I looked up and saw more and more people.  They just kept coming!  Some of the faces I saw were familiar while the vast majority of them were brand new.  It became VERY clear to me that this wasn't going to be like any other Fall Welcome Event.  Within 30 minutes, we had 40 people crammed into my little basement suite.  Thank goodness for a beautiful day so we could eat outside.

Surrey Small Group:  SUSHI!!!

We are well into the Fall Semester now and with 7 small groups happening over a course of 4 days, every single one of them either happens during lunch break of in the evening for dinner.  Food is an extremely important thing when it comes to building community and for some reason, our students really get that. Please continue to pray that as we converge around the dinner table that we can grow deeper in our faith and invite others into deeper relationships.

Pray

Praying at our Taco Fiesta

Prayer is a very important part of my relationship with Christ, and this year I wanted to be more intentional about incorporating mandatory prayer meetings for the executive team of IVCF at SFU.  We as leaders needs to commit our time, and our mission to Christ, and lift all things up to Him.  So we have been prioritizing prayer, and ensuring that it is a part of our firm foundation for our ministry.  We are trying to build a prayer culture within our community so that we will not lose sight of God's vision and will for IVCF at SFU.

Catherine Luu - IVCF SFU President

I can say for certain that I am deeply encouraged and excited at the passion and excitement around being a community built off of a foundation of Prayer.  Ever since I experienced the power of Prayer at Urbana 12 through the Prayer Intercessor's team, I have been praying that intercession be the culture of IVCF @ SFU.

Now Catherine isn't necessarily the one who is leading us in the prayer.  What she did was use her power as the upcoming President to create a system/structure that enables us to be in prayer more on a regular basis.  God has blessed us with Anika, who has been with us from the beginning, with the desire and passion to start building and forming what the IVCF @ SFU Prayer culture could look like.  Here's what her experiences are so far:

I've been involved with InterVarsity at SFU for 3 years now, ever since my first week on campus. I've seen a lot of changes in our community and in myself during this time; I'm now part of an exec. team that I never even imagined would exist. My role this year is Spiritual Life Coordinator and I've been tasked with guiding our community into a deeper understanding and practice of prayer - what we've called developing a prayer culture.

Practically this has looked like hosting the prayer-focused portion of our weekly meetings and taking on the planning of our recent prayer retreat. We've explored silence and listening prayer as well as prayer-walking around our campus. The topic of liturgy also came to the table, giving us the opportunity to discuss this historically rooted practice and try it out for ourselves. During our prayer retreat we renewed our vision and our values by writing short litanies for hospitality, leadership, justice, faith and other fruit that we long to define us as a community. 

I am still growing into this role with IVCF and learning what it means to create a culture of prayer, all I can say is that I am struck by the beauty and grace of Jesus. Constantly before the Father in prayer. Interceding on behalf of those he loves. Extending the invitation to do as he does and walk in a mindful creativity, expectant of the wonders that God will reveal. Pray for us at SFU, and let prayer touch every area of your lives as we long for it to do in ours.

Anika Barlow - Spiritual Life Coordinator

Please continue praying for us as we wrestle what it means to be a community of prayer.  Pray for Anika (and our executive) that we would grow in our own ability to pray and intercede. 

Love

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

1 John 4:18 

I often find myself increasingly placed into situations where I am uncertain of how to act, or what is expected of me. I am constantly challenged to stretch myself and place myself in places where I am incredibly uncomfortable, reluctant and even unwilling. Caring for people and being a part of people's lives requires me to step out of my comfort zone and be vulnerable. I believe that God will continually teach me how to be vulnerable and be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

 Julianna Lei - Pastoral Care

Over the month of October, God has been revealing to me more and more about what His love really is.  I had an opportunity to reflect on passages from 1 John and it has really challenged me in my way of loving.  Since the beginning of September, I have found simple things such as initiating and intentionality to be extremely difficult in my relationship with April and keeping up with regular meetings with my students because I was too "tired".  I was finding excuses not to love people (wife, students, friends, community). As I reflected on this more, I soon realize a common thing amongst all my excuses.  That common thing was fear.  There was an underlying layer of fear of being rejected that was paralyzing me from loving the people around me.  This fear comes from generational sin as well as experiences of being rejected over and over again.  In 1 John 4:18, he clearly states that love and fear cannot co-exist with each other.  I hit the fear wall of my own capacity to love.  

Since then, I have been noticing more and more about the IVCF community and the places where fear is paralyzing our community in truly loving God and loving each other.  I could see how the fear of change often prevents us from welcoming new students into our regular small groups, how the fear acceptance (or lack of) leads us to choose isolation instead of community during hectic times (exams), and how the fear not being provided for leads us into keeping our God given talents and gifts for ourselves and not sharing it with others.

This is the reality of our community.  These are the things that we as an executive continue to work on and wrestle with in our everyday lives.  Yet despite all the problems that are happening, God still finds a way to do incredible things in the midst of our brokenness.  Here is Josh's story as he wrestles with leading a Small Group:

Ever since joining IVCF I have felt right at home, felt like there was a place I could find community. The years at university can be a lonely place and it can feel like that for a lot of people. I loved being able to delve into Scripture with the small group at IVCF, it was a place where I was constantly reminded that it was a safe space where my ideas and answers will not be judged. Judgment is such a big barrier that keeps me pinned to silence when it comes to the Bible and Jesus. Why am I so afraid of what Christ has done for me? Because it’s crazy, it’s not “normal”, but that’s the thing about Jesus, he’s not “normal” to the world, in fact he’s backwards at times. In a society where we are taught to look out for ourselves, do everything for ourselves, it’s all about me, everything gained is all for me. But why are we silent about something so grand? Do we make a feast and invite only our close friends? No, not with something this grand. Invite everyone around, tell them about this wonderful feast, this great light, for Jesus is the bread of life and the light of our lives. 


I love food, I really do, I enjoy eating almost anything, and I know that when I eat something good I want to tell everyone about it. “Hey have you tried this place out? No? Well then let me show you.” It’s so easy, and yet it’s so hard when it comes to Jesus. But honestly it’s something I’m still wrestling with, the freedom that God’s grace is for me. That the delicious sandwich that is God’s love and mercy is for me. And for a lot of people it can be that way, but it is, this banquet full of whatever you fit your fancy to be whether it is steak, lobster, sushi, or spaghetti is for you. But it’s not just for you, it’s for everyone to enjoy and the more people the merrier.  

This idea of a banquet made it easier to lead a small group where small group didn’t seem like a teacher-student interaction but as a community of peers all gathered together “eating up” whatever the Lord had set for us that day. There’s always going to be fussy eaters, there’s always going to be people who don’t want to eat but at the end of the day everyone needs nourishment, and my job wasn’t to force the food down their mouth my job was to set out a plate and provide a place where they could feel comfortable sitting and knowing that no matter what they eat that we are all eating together at this wonderful banquet. This was my hope for this semester’s small group, to create a safe space and a place where anyone could come in and feel like they were included. Was it a success? Well, I’m not sure but I hope I’ve created a space like that. 

It is my first time leading a small group and doing it by myself is quite the daunting task. Thankfully there are people who can support me and help me through being a leader such as Barron and Justin and all the members in IVCF. It can be so easy to neglect it with everything else going on in life. But these are real people that I’m at the table with and some days it can feel like, “Alright God, I really need your help today to continuously love these people.” It’s so easy to love those who we really get along with and I feel like that the people in my small group are like that, that they are easy to get along, even though they have their own quirks and problems they are easy to get along with. But there are always days where I don’t feel like it. But just being able to connect with them and talk to them makes me realize it isn’t as much of a chore as I think it is, that I really do enjoy being with these people. Surprisingly one of them opened up very quickly to me, and it scared me, I didn’t know all the answers to his questions. Heck I was far younger than him! But my job as a leader sometimes isn’t to know all the answers to his questions, but to come alongside him and acknowledge that he isn’t the only one wrestling with issues. To be there as a place where he can feel safe and know that I am his brother in Christ and that whatever issues he is dealing with there is someone here who cares for him. It’s difficult at times to lead because everyone is at a different point in their walk with Christ, everyone is searching for different things. But it surprises me every time when someone tells me that what I said impacted them, and it’s in this way that I love leading small group because it excites me in the ways that God is going to use me!

 Joshua Wong - Small Group Leader

Upcoming Events & Prayer Requests

Upcoming Events

• IVCF Fall Fundraiser - Nov. 22
• National Staff Conference (Toronto) - Dec. 1-5
• AMMiC Planning Meeting - Dec.12
• Winter Conference - Dec. 27-31

Students & Campus

• Pray for our community as we continue to identify the fears that paralyze us from loving God and loving each other.
• Pray for the Executive Leaders as we learn what it means to be leading out of our brokenness
• Pray for the Small Group Leaders as they are trying to understand why they are leading small groups.
• Pray that we will have a base foundation of prayer and intercession as we continue to fulfill God's Mission on the SFU Campus.
• Pray that mine and Barron's funding will be fully funded by the end of this semester.
• Pray for the health of our community.  There has been a nasty virus going around and it's really affecting everyone.

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.  We have just crossed the One-Year mark in our marriage.  Pray for opportunities to be witnesses to our neighbors.
• Pray for more opportunities and clients for April in her field of work.
• Pray for our general finances.  We are asking God to allow us to break even each month.
• Pray for me that I will rest well during my Sabbaths.
• Pray for me that I will be exercising more regularly.
• Pray for my health as the has bee a really bad virus going around.

Praise Item

• Praise that Lord that despite the negatives happening that we still see fruit and light coming out of the negatives.
• Praise the Lord for mine and April's One-Year of Marriage.  We celebrated through a wonderful trip to Portland and the Coast.

Family, Food, and Mosquitoes

As I walked through an all-too familiar doorway, I was welcomed with the sweet smell of dad's home cooking.  As a family, we highly value hospitality and usually when people walk through our doors, they leave full.  This time it was no different.  Even though we had the company of all my uncles, aunts, and cousins on my mom's side (about 25) and in some cases up to 50 people, everyone still feasted on rice pot chicken wings, Chinese broccoli, home made BBQ pork, beef tenderloin, fish, sweet & sour salmon, ribs, and steak to their hearts content.   

Now, why would we be feeding 25+ people?  This trip to Regina was a bit special.  The celebration of my great grandmother's 100th birthday,  Along with that, to introduce my wife to my uncles, aunts, and cousins, and to celebrate with Saskatchewan friends who weren't able to make it out to our wedding.

The whole Family and Great Grandma.  Happy 100th Birthday!

Multiple celebrations were in order and with the company of family and friends, it made April and I feel really special and appreciated.  We are reminded that even though there are literally thousands of kilometers between us and our families, that they will always love us and care for us.  With my Regina friends, I know I am loved and appreciated and the acceptance of April into our friends circles, I am eternally grateful.  Finally, I want to give a shout-out to all the mosquitoes in Saskatchewan.  The MANY mosquito bites on April and I are enough for both of us to know that you also love us.  Can you do us a favour though?  Please love us less.  Thank you all for making our trip so memorable.

All the Cousins

Family doing all the prep and cooking for mine and April's Party

This is just the snacks...

The guests have arrived