Introducing Julianna!

Hello all,

My name is Julianna Lei and I am currently a 4^th year student at SFU. Right now, I am studying psychology and criminology, and I hope to complete a joint major degree in both by next year. I tend to describe myself as a homebody where I would like to read a good book while having a cup of tea. However, I do enjoy going out of the house and enjoy spending time with my friends - which leads to my passion. I would say that I have a passion for people. I like to listen to people – to hear about their stories and struggles. I believe that is why I initially majored in psychology. However, God has shown me recently that I have a passion for social justice as well. I feel strongly for those who are disenfranchised and find it rewarding to help others. For these reasons, I am hoping to become a counselor and help empower others.

However, this path is not without it’s own struggles. God has been truly challenging me and shaping me – especially in stepping out of my comfort zones and facing the brokenness of my own life. Recently, God has shown His redeeming love for me at MarkWest and He has been healing me and restoring the broken pieces of my identity and of my life. Being vulnerable has always been a hardship for me, because I have been hurt deeply in the past by the people in my life. God’s healing and restoration of these dark places in my life has been amazing, albeit hard. I had to realize that I am ill-equipped to empower and help others. I cannot minister and help others from a place of brokenness. MarkWest was the beginning of this healing journey, and I believe God will continue to work in me to restore me and the broken relationships in my life. As of September, I am currently co-leading an IVCF small group Bible study. Not only has this Bible study group and the community of IVCF further opened my eyes to God’s healing and power, I am also challenged by God to step out of my homebodiness and spend time with people outside of my regular social circles. I do not know what the future has in store for me, but God has been faithful and has shown me that He is in control. I am unsure of what the future holds for me in IVCF or in my future career, but I will continue to be faithful to God and see what He has in store for me.

I am in need of prayer for three things. Pray for God to continue to help me keep my heart open to His healing. Pray for me as I am currently reconciling with my family and with others who have hurt me in the past, to be able to let go of my hurt and anger towards these people. Pray for me as I continue my studies as courses are becoming harder and harder.

Thank you for your support and for your prayers. May God bless you and strengthen you.


 Julianna Lei

What are our "Talents?"

The Parable of the Talents, for most people can be VERY uncomfortable.  Especially at the end with the whole weeping and gnashing of teeth business.  It's also uncomfortable in a way that the one who receives this result did absolutely NOTHING with his talent.  Yet, the other ones who faithfully invested in them yielded a return and was able to share in their Master's joy.  So another question could arise from this then...  What are the "talents" that God has given me?

In the context of the parable, it specifically talks about being a wise steward of money, but the way we looked at it, was something much bigger than money.  For the application, we split the "Talents" into multiple categories.

Family, Time, Health, Education, Our Story, Networks, Passions/Dreams/Goals, Co-op/Job Opportunities, Gifts/Talents, and The Unique thing that makes us... us.

Now, when we ask the general question of "What are you gifts?" it seems to be all too general for me (and I'm older).  I couldn't imagine how difficult it would be to answer for a University student who's gifts are more formed DURING their University Years.  When we broke it up into these specific places, we started realizing of the MANY "talents" that God has given us.  A specific one that one of our executive members commented on was the idea of our Health as being something we need to steward well.  They were all young and full of energy, without any health conditions or concerns.  Their health was not a factor in what they can/cannot do.  This gave some new perspective in the types of gifts that God has already given to our students.

Please be praying as we are heading into Mark West Pacific and the Summer that we would be sensitive to the opportunities around us to use our gifts well.

"Digging-in" to the Gospel

Since we at IVCF SFU absolutely love studying the gospel, it's only logical that we also love Mark West Pacific, a 40 hour immersion in half the gospel of Mark.

As a way to leverage our invitations to Mark West Pacific, we always want to give a taste for people who may be "sitting on the fence."  This year, we decided to invite Melody Kwa and Lida Hellqvist to take the lead in teaching scripture for this event.  Together, we all decided to do Jairus & the Bleeding Woman (Mark 5:21-43).  During the study, as party of the interpretation, we were invited to reenact this story.  People took on roles such as Jesus, Bleeding woman, Jairus, mourners, Jairus' daugher, the messenger, and the crowd.  Acting out this passage really put a whole different perspective.

"I have always looked at this

  

 This opportunity was also Melody's first time leading scripture study.  Here are her thoughts on the experience.

...it was really encouraging to see how willing everyone was to help out and contribute to the planning and carrying out of the event. This helped make me less nervous about the entire thing, and it also reminded me in a very real way that God doesn't just leave us by ourselves to do things but He brings us other capable people who walk and serve alongside us to make the load lighter. It was challenging and a new experience for me to lead it, but it was definitely an experience that helped me grow and learn more about myself as well. I felt like I was stepping out of my comfort zone, which is something I unfortunately rarely do. But I learned that sometimes we just need that little extra push to do something. I'm really glad I agreed to lead the dig-in; it taught me a lot about leading bible studies and bringing other people into conversation about Jesus, which are two things that I really value and aspire to in my life.

Please continue to be joining me in praying for those who are still deciding if they should go to Mark West Pacific.  If this is where God is calling them to be, pray that He would remove any barriers that would prevent them from going.  Also, continue praying for Melody in her growth and development in her teaching gift.

Skiing? Retreating?

Skiing?

Retreating?

What happens when you put these two together?  You get a Ski Retreat!

Over this reading week (Feb. 9-14) we decided to run our own SFU specific Ski Retreat to Manning Park.

The vision for this is that it would be classified as one of your outreach events to invite our friends who don't necessarily follow Jesus.  In the past Ski Retreats, it has been a place where when students left they Ski Retreat, they would also leave their baggage about Christians behind.  It was a place to build trust and deeper friendships with our friends.

One of our previous students Garry has a story about Ski Retreat.

Me and Garry after his Baptism at Mark West Pacific

In my second year of university, I was invited to a bible study at school. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. Justin was the most welcoming person I have ever met and he has taught me a lot through these studies. Come February, Justin invited me to the annual ski retreat in Hope. It was one of the greatest experiences I've had to say the least; the weather was great, the people were great, and the church was great! That first year at the ski retreat I was going through some troubles in my life. It maybe because we were staying at a church, but it was the first time I really prayed about something in my life. At first, I thought God didn't hear me, but several weeks later, He did. A year later, staying at another church, I was reminded about the prayer from the previous year, and I thought, "wow, God has done some amazing things in my life." This is when I really began to count the blessings in my life and started to believe that God loves me.

This year, it felt a bit different.  Although we had the same vision as previous years, the number of "Non-Christians" from our community was lacking.  As Barron and I have been working at SFU for over 3 years now, we notice specifically that this year was VERY different with the number of Christian first year involvement in our community.  We have a lot of young Christians and the values of Justice, Righteousness, and Invitation that IVCF SFU is so well known for has not penetrated into the hearts of our newcomers.  That being said, I wouldn't call the Ski Retreat a complete "miss" but it served another purpose.

The majority of our Emerging Leaders Team were actually at the Ski Retreat and from that shared experience, we noticed a deeper sense of friendship and community being formed amongst our Emerging Leaders and overall community.  Ski Retreat may have been a miss in having Non-Christians there but it was a win in the step towards that overarching vision for our community on campus.

Upcoming Events & Prayer Requests

Upcoming Events

• Mark West Pacific (April 26 - May 2)

Prayer Requests

Students & Campus

• Pray for students who are still deciding on whether to go to Mark West Pacific.
• Pray for our next term Executive Leadership Team
• Pray for the 2 community houses we will be focusing on this summer.
• Pray for exceptional follow-up after Mark West Pacific
• Pray for the upcoming summer fellowship term.
• Pray for Lida & Esther as this will be their final semester with us.

Personal

• Pray for my growth as a leader and mentor.
• Pray for me as I continue to network and connect with other Chinese Churches in the Lower Mainland.
• Pray for the Next Generation Dialogue between 1st and 2nd Generation Chinese Pastors.  We are now communicating with the Ministerial in April.
• Pray for mine & April's relationship in our new marriage.  Pray for opportunities to be witnesses to our neighbours and landlord.
• Pray for more opportunities 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 my health.

Praise Item

• I am nearly fully funded!  Praise the Lord.  Please be praying for the rest of the donations to come in.

Introducing... The New Executive!!

From January 10-12, Barron, myself, and six students went to Galiano Island to receive vision and plan for this upcoming semester.  This is the first time since Barron and my arrival to SFU that we had an Executive Leadership Team.  This team holds the overall vision for the ministry, does the administrative work (planning events, etc.), is in charge of our core leaders team (training and passing of vision), and focuses on continued relations between IVCF and SFU.

Back Row:  Abraham, Justin
Middle Row:  Edward, Anika, Lida
Front Row:  Barron, Esther, Catherine

Introducing our Executive (In alphabetical order):
Abraham - Teaching & Small Groups Development
Anika - Spiritual Development, Pastoral Care, Minute Taker
Catherine - University Relations/Support & Partnership Development, Developing Emerging Leaders
Edward - Logistics, Outreach Development, Grant Requests
Esther - Generosity Development
Lida - President, leader of Executive Team.

During our time in Galiano, as part of our visioning process, we studied the life of Moses.  The idea of a man who was straddling the gap of so many identities and also one who was most unlikely to be a leader, God called him to lead what was the most glorious points in Israel history in the Old Testament.  We were amazed and shocked at this and we saw that Moses was also a man of incredible vision.  Our team took hold of this and after studying this, we felt far more empowered to go into our planning process and assignments knowing that God has chosen each and everyone of us to lead.

Praying after studying Exodus

The planning process in itself exhausting and tiring, but out of it came life and a leadership structure of what we can expect from each other and the hopes and dreams for the campus.  Specifically, a vision around our Clubs Days and New Student Outreach.  Clubs Days/New Student Outreach is primarily a place where we advertise our club and hopefully recruit and invite more students to be a part of IVCF.  We spent about an hour going back and fourth trying to determine what was going to be the "hook" for SFU students to come be with IVCF but we couldn't land in it.  It was then that Lida spoke up and invited the team to stop, listen, and pray.  After a few minutes of this we came back and in that short period of silence, we all felt the Holy Spirit say that the hook was "Us".  The hook was for us to be present there and for our fellow students to see what type of community we are.

The result of this prayer and planning?

Welcome Back Event

35 people crammed in mine and April's basement suite.  Both returning SFU students (~25) and brand new students (~10).  The biggest difference is that we had students leveraging their invitation power and inviting their own peers.

Emerging Leaders "Small" Group

Another new development is our Emerging Leaders "Small" Group (formerly Core Leaders Group).  This group we have decided to open it up to students who want to take their leadership to the next level.  Over this past semester we only had about 7 students coming out, this semester we have around 15.

This indeed has only the start of the new semester, but from the looks of it.  It's a VERY GOOD start =). 

A Snapshot of Esther's Experience

Last Semester (Fall 2013)

At the start of the fall semester, I was hesitant to be more involved in IVCF due to my future plans changing. Before the school year started, we had an SLC (Student Leadership Conference) which really helped me with my decisions about my involvement with IVCF. I realized that my decision of moving schools within the next year doesn’t mean that I need to step back as a leader in IVCF, but rather finish my time at SFU with IVCF strong. The guidance of Justin throughout this semester played a tremendous role in regards to my growth this semester. Being my mentor isn’t always the easiest thing but Justin definitely managed to break through to me in many ways. I’m so grateful for the leadership skills I have developed more of these past few months. Leading a small group with Justin also challenged me to get out of my comfort zone. He pushed me to trust in God for guidance and to be confident in leading a group of my peers. At the time, I was a bit reluctant in trusting Justin that I was capable of leading a small group but in the end I could see that all he was doing only made me into the leader I am today. This semester has shown me so much about trusting in God and that it is not by our own doing that makes us great leaders but rather through God and the Holy Spirit that we exemplify God.

This Semester (Winter 2014)


This semester I started out a bit hesitant about being on the executive team because I didn't really know what that entailed and if I would be adequate. Since our student leadership conference in the beginning of the semester, I have become more confident in the team we have leading IVCF SFU. As well, I've being very excited for this semester with the small group I'm co-leading and the student I'm mentoring. I'm learning so much about myself as a leader and the role I have as an SFU student. It's been great having Justin mentor me and help me through lots of things in my life that I'm wrestling with or trying to understand about myself or others. This semester is bringing so many good things and I'm so glad to be a part of it.