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!!

A Wonderful Woman in my Life

So over this past year, I have dropped hints about a special woman in my life.  Well, I just wanted to let you all know that I am officially in a relationship for the past 6 months.

As I think about the people God has blessed me with in my life, I can't help but give praise to God for bringing April in to my life.  April is in her last semester of her Masters in Counseling at Trinity Western.  Her heart and love for the Lord is absolutely amazing and it has been such an amazing experience being able to walk together in our continued growth with Christ.  Not only have we been able to sharpen each other like iron sharpening iron, we have also been able to experience more of God's character and love through each other.

Christmas Time!!

April Painted this for me for our 6 month!

I really wanted to include this specific section about April because I want to invite you all to pray for us and our relationship.  As we are heading into a place where we are asking more serious questions potentially leading to marriage, we are really in need of your prayers all that much more.

Upcoming Events & Prayer Requests

Upcoming Events

• Mark Dig-in (Emily Carr) - March 16
• Mark West Pacific - April 26 - May 1
• VUP - May 2 - June 1
• Urbana 12 - December 27 - January 1

Prayer Requests (please pray for...)

• the upcoming Mark Dig-in Taster
• VUP Recruitment (Deadline is March 15)
• planning for VUP
• preping for Mark West Pacific
• recruitment for Mark West Pacific
• students who are still praying about VUP
• mine and April's relationship
• community dinners on residence
• our future leadership team (Don, Dan, Lida, Anika)
• my fundraising.  I still need 30% annually to be fully funded
• opportunities for residence ministry to continue next year
• the upcoming SFU Community house
• more creative ways to engage the campus as a whole

A Creative God

Me at the IVCF Booth

So for those who don't know.  I was at the Canadian Chinese Christian Winter Conference (CCCWC).  It's a Chinese Christian Conference that has been around for now 51 years!!  I have gone in my first couple of years of University and then went again these past couple of years.

The difference between the University years and now is that I am now a full-time minister and went for the purpose of promoting IVCF (and Urbana) among the Chinese Church Communities.  Leslie (UBC Staff) lead worship with his very musically talented students at this conference.  When Leslie and I arrived at Winter Con, we started to wonder about how we would be able to promote IVCF (and Urbana) without being disrespectful.  We couldn't just tell people to join IVCF or go to Urbana and all we had was a booth that nearly no one goes to.  To our surprise though, God brought some really creative ways in promoting IVCF.  The following are a few of the creative ways.

1.  Urbana style worship.  Some in different languages (Hakuna Mungu Kama Wewe)
2.  Pastors, speakers, and newly made friends advocating for IVCF and Para-Church organizations (C4C, IVCF, Navigators, etc).
3.  Main Speaker being a product of IVCF and responding to the call of Full-time Vocational Ministries at Urbana 79.  He shared his experiences with IVCF while he was in University!!

These are a few of the things that God was able to do and provide for IVCF at Winter Con.  I feel that after this Conference, the participants now know what IVCF is and what we are all about.  All I have to say is... Praise The Lord!!

PS. For those who don't know what Urbana is, it's a HUGE missions conference put on by IVCF North America (Canada & US).  Imagine 20,000+ students from all over the world congregating for the sole purpose of global missions.

Praying and getting ready for Worship

Having a good chat with speakers and leaders