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.  

Josh's Reflections on Radical Hospitality

1. What have you been learning about Radical Hospitality this summer that you didn't know before?

IVCF SFU Welcome BBQ!!

I think a lesson that shocked me as we learned about radical hospitality is how simple yet, how difficult it was to demonstrate radical hospitality. In many ways it was simple because hospitality could include inviting people to join you for lunch, offering to buy someone a coffee, going to an event someone has asked you to join or opening your home to people. Yet, this simplicity is complicated by so many excuses that stop us, and I believe this is where difficulty arises because there are so many excuses to why we should not be hospitable. One thing I have always wrestled with was meeting new people. I always worried about giving off the right impression, not wanting to associate with certain people or worried about awkwardness that it stopped me from even trying to approach the person. However in our meetings with Servant Partners they taught us about their openness to welcome strangers into their home and to accept them lovingly, the joy it brings but also some of the challenges. One thing that really stuck with me after our meetings with Servant Partners was realizing how caught up I was about my self-image and my own possessions that I valued it over a relationship with another person. It is not easy to value the human connection amidst all the worries one can have, however I believe that this is when we lean into trusting in God and love as Jesus loved others.

2. How have you been applying Radical Hospitality in the way you serve and also in your everyday life?

Denman Island Leaders Retreat

I think the way I have applied Radical Hospitality to my life related to a prayer I asked before this summer semester. During fellowship at my church I prayed with one of my friends that God would move me from a life of convenience. It was one of the big excuses I was using when it came to why I did not want to be hospitable. I live about 2 hours away from campus by transit and so I only go up to campus for class and that was how my schedule worked. However this semester as I have been serving on the executive team for InterVarsity at SFU I have had to come up on days when I do not have classes, come earlier or stay later than my class schedule requires me. It means late transits home when I sometimes do not even get home till midnight. However the times I spend with other people whether it be through meetings or simply eating lunch together reminds me of how unique and fascinating each individual can be. Whether it be their personality or their stories, I am intrigued over and over again by the differences each person brings to the table yet we can still connect together in those moments. Now, I am excited for each lunch time in which I get to spend with friends and whoever decides to join around the table that week.

3. Where does Radical Hospitality fit into the bigger picture of God's Kingdom?

Hosting Servant Partners.  I wasn't allowed to help.

I believe that Radical Hospitality fits into the bigger picture because Jesus demonstrated it himself. I believe that Jesus demonstrated an unconditional love to those whom society would deem the lowest of low. Jesus loved the children (Mark 9:37), the women (Mark 10:1-12), the crippled, the blind and those with diseases. These were the outcasts in the time and culture when Jesus was around. Going through the book of Mark, Jesus does something incredible for those whom society would ignore or glance over. Jesus acknowledges their presence, accepts them and loves them, and in turn gives their humanity back to them. Therefore I believe we are called to do the same, I believe there are many people that are outcasts, and as we learn and develop the gift of hospitality, we will become more aware of those who do not fit in. I believe that radical hospitality requires us to extend to places where we may feel uncomfortable, and sometimes unsafe. However, the desire to feel wanted and loved are things that everyone desires and if we have the desire to demonstrate Jesus’ love for others it should be more than enough to give us reason to push through the uncomfortable situations and love those around us. There are those who are on the fringes, or fallen through the cracks of society. I believe as Christians as we continue in radical hospitality we are called to love those around us whether it be simply talking to them, giving them a meal, or letting them sleep at your house for the night.

4. Where do you hope the community will be at the end of the summer around Radical Hospitality?

I hope the community will be at a place in which even in the uncomfortable situations we will push through to love and accept those around us. To notice those who fall through the cracks and are in need of community. Amidst all the worries or concerns people would have, to push through and lean into trusting God and to be able to set aside judgment and love those others would deem weird, awkward or disgusting and to just love them and see them for who they truly are just as Jesus loved and accepted them. 

My Reflections on Radical Hospitality

Since coming to Vancouver, I came hoping for the expectation of being able to show and receive hospitality in the same way that I experienced back in Saskatchewan.  Yet, to my surprise, it was extremely difficult to practice and receive that.  A great majority of people kept to themselves and I was rarely invited to anyone's home to just hang out or even invited out to coffee.  I was really confused of this and thought that the Christian circles would change this, but to my surprise, it didn't.  In fact, I felt it was somewhat worse.  Also, to throw another challenge into it, SFU is a commuter campus so no one stays around long enough to build community.

After living here for 4 years, I have come to realize that Vancouver (along with the rest of Canada) suffers from hyper individualism and loneliness.  In short, the depth of friendship just isn't here.  This plays into the fact when I (and others) invite people into deeper community, they tend to say "No" and not for any good particular reason.  Most of the reasons are:  "It's too far to travel" or "I'm too tired", which I completely understand, but it doesn't help with the loneliness and these excuses are getting a little old.  With this in mind about Vancouver, how is it that we as an SFU community can properly witness to our friends when we ourselves are not willing to extend hospitality to others?  In my opinion... it is impossible to witness effectively without hospitality.

I had a chance to attend IVCF's GROW Training in Toronto and learned that the pillars of growing a community/fellowship is Vision and Hospitality.  I evaluated where the SFU community was and noticed that the vast majority of my students understood the vision, Yet, even though they had vision, that vision was not being put to action because hospitality was not being practised on a regular basis.  I knew that the next cultural focus of our community was going to have to be on Radical Hospitality.

For my students though, I have a feeling that this is going to be even tougher than sharing their faith with their friends.  The reason is that everything about Vancouver, SFU, and sometimes ethnic culture could go against the Kingdom value of hospitality, especially if it inconveniences them.  In the context of scripture, there is an underlying assumption of Jewish culture that has hospitality built right into it.  When hospitality is extended, it is very rarely for the benefit of the one hosting.  In some cases, it requires great sacrifice, risk, and cost for the host to help and include the guest/stranger as a part of their family.  Extending hospitality will most definitely inconvenience us in some way.  It is one of the best ways we can be showing the love of Christ to the friends, strangers, family, etc.  So as Catherine and I prayed and brainstormed around what this could look like, we realized that it was going to be very difficult because this goes against our very culture and everything seemed to be working against this.

With the help of Servant Partners (http://www.servantpartners.org/), the SFU Core Witness Team have taken leaps and bounds in understanding and practicing Radical Hospitality over these past couple of months.  The leaders are now hosting the weekly Core Witness Team events by taking turns hosting and regularly thinking and wrestling with how to be more hospitable with the gifts God has given them.  This also challenges the other student leaders to have to travel (and sometimes very long distances) for the sake of the community.

Please continue to be praying for our community as they wrestle with how to be hospitable and how to put the Radical in Radical Hospitality.

The Challenges of Change

When I think about change, I would like to think that I enjoy change.  Yet, when I see how I respond to changes, see how families respond to their kids growing up, and observe how the world engages with change, I realize that no one likes change.  Change is something that we need and is part of the natural progression of life despite the discomfort it causes us.

Barron's Last Hurrah at MARKwest Pacific

This season in ministry has not only been a season of lament, but a season of change.  Barron, who was my ministry partner of 4 years has now officially concluded his time with the SFU ministry.  He will be pursuing his Masters in Architecture at the University of Toronto.  Julianna, a student who I have been mentoring and who has had a profound impact on our ministry has now graduated.  Catherine, who has had to step down from serving in IVCF to better care for her family.  Transferring supervisors from Mike to Dave.  Interns coming to SFU.  These are the changes that have happened and are going to happen over these next couple of months.

Initially, as I reflect on all of these changes, I realize that my reaction is that of only thinking of positive things.  I was really happy to hear about the opportunities God is giving Barron, I was really happy to hear about Julianna graduting as an Extraordinary Kingdom Leader, I was really happy to have Dave as my supervisor and SFU getting interns.  I could only think of the positive.  Yet as I sat in it more and thought about what changes this would bring, my joy seemed to turn to despair and sorrow.  I had to now think about all the loses and changes that will have to be made in ministry and life and it was painful to think and act on these changes.  

I honestly thought with all of my experience in moving to different cities that I was immune to the effects of change.  This past year has proven me wrong about that.  Change is a part of our lives and anything that challenges us to step outside of our comfort zones, it will always be challenging.  Change is normal and it is difficult.  I have to accept that especially as someone in a ministry that has such a high turnover rate (both in students and staff).  

An ever changing Exec Team.  Celebration Time!!

So as I share with you in this update.  I can update you on the joys and positives experiences in ministry, but if I am honest, I can't say that everything is alright.  What I can say is that I am navigating through these changes the best way I know how and I want to invite you to walk with me in navigating through this.  Also, if you are also navigating through change as well, I would love to hear and journey with you through this.  The joy about being a follower of Jesus is that our family is not restricted to just our blood family.  Jesus has called us to be family for each other and I want to extend that invitation out to all of you.  

While you are praying for me in how I navigate these changes, please remember to pray for those who are also going through changes as well.

Pray for...

Barron as he transitions from ministry to student life again.

Julianna as she transitions from school life to employment

Catherine as she transitions from leadership to family

Mike and Dave as they transition from being my supervisor
Dave and Kim as they look to move closer to the Emily Carr and SFU.

The interns as they all relocate to Vancouver for a year long internship of constant change