God Recycles Sin

Just about everyone knows this about me, but I used to be a pretty intense athlete in Judo.  I have my black belt, trained for 13 years, competed for 8 years, and coached for 8 years.  However, as Christian athletes have to wrestle with the idol of perfection and following Jesus at the same time, I didn't know how to hold that in tension.  I followed Judo and perfection instead of Jesus.  In the end, I decided to formally retire from Judo during my prime (age 23) and continued to serve Jesus outside of my athletics.

During my first VUP experience, I remember 2 distinct things.
1.  I have a deep heart for Justice
2.  God Recycles Sin - Al McKay

Little did I know, 7 years later, these two pieces that I learned from VUP has created an incredible opportunity for ministry.

Over this past month, I started to participate in an SFU Recreation program called Police Judo.  I stumbled upon this a few years back but I was unable to go so it slipped out of my mind.  Abraham, an SFU alumni, started to go and we began having Judo conversations.  During these conversations, I could feel the excitement welling up in my heart again.  I knew I needed to check it  out.

I went and introduced myself to the coaches and just watched the practice to familiarise myself with how they teach.  Police Judo uses traditional Judo foundations but applies it practically in law enforcement.

The following week, I decided to fish out my Judo Gi from storage and go to practice.  I was introduced to two black belts of Police Judo, who are police officers themselves, and they welcomed me.  I sat there seeing a lot of white belts and lower belts around me and no one really talking to me.  Class started and then the instructor started off the class by introduced me and honoured me in front of the whole class.  Aftewards, the tone of the students changed and I was in conversations with practically everyone.  All throughout practice, I was only seeing myself as a student yet the instructors were giving me coaching authority.  It didn't matter that I was out of practice for 8 years, they still honoured me as a coach.  After practice, I also asked what the fees were and they refused to take any fees from me because of my black belt.  I felt deeply loved and respected.

The following week, I went as usual, however this week was different.  The instructor asked me to take 20 min of the class to teach some of my techniques.  I was both excited and terrified at the same time.  Excited that I get to coach again and terrified if I have anything viable to teach anymore.  I proceeded to coach and it was as if all of my techniques came flooding back into my mind and my body was moving on its own.  People were having fun and everyone learned.  An instructor of Police Judo from the Justice Institute then invited me to come and train with their officers on other times of the week.

This level of honour is something that I am not used to but I am really enjoying.  When I was given this honour in the past, it would easily go to my head and I would flaunt it in front of everyone. This time is different though, I am constantly praying that God would keep my heart humble and the honour and respect that my black belt and experience offers me, gives me significant opportunities in this Police Judo world.

1. When students ask what I do and I share that I am a campus minister, they seem to have even more respect for me.
2. All of these students and instructors have a deep sense of Justice so there may be an opportunity for me to resurrect the Justice Bible Study.
3. I get to be connected with Police Officers in Vancouver which may give me connections to the Odd Squad for future VUP experiences.

It has only been a month and I am seeing some of these opportunities start to bubble up.

• Imagine if I am able to train with the same students 2 times a week for years.  The opportunity to share the Gospel is huge in this.  
• Imagine if I these students choose to explore God's heart for Justice and they come out with a bigger perception of Justice.  What if these students who are seeking after a Kingdom value of Justice go and become our future law enforcement?  What would our society look like after that?  

I don't know what God's plan is for this but what I do know is the sin of idolatry in Judo has now been recycled in my life.  It is not directed to myself, but to God and for furthering His Kingdom.

God indeed, loves to recycle our sin.

SFU Surrey Gets Upgrades!

Walking to SFU Surrey, I noticed that something was quite different.  I looked around and saw that there was a significant increase in law enforcement.  I walked into the campus mez to claim our typical spot for prayer only to find out that there was a stage, multiple cameras, and security personnel everywhere.  

I asked myself, "What the heck is going on here?"

With this question in mind, I find a spot to have our prayer meetings from which we continue to pray for this SFU event.  After an hour, Sam and I find out that the events at SFU Surrey was welcoming some exciting news for the campus from our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

I stood on the floor above excited and confused on why our Prime Minister is at SFU Surrey.  Not only was Justin there, SFU's president (Andrew Petter) and our Province's Premier (Christy Clark).  Something big was happening to have all three of these leaders in one place.  

As the speeches rolled through, Justin then came to speak.  He shared about how SFU has been a significant leaders in Mechatronics and technology advancement in Canada and announced that the Federal Government will give $45 million to help build a new research facility!  Afterwards, Christy Clark spoke and pledged another $45 million from the provincial government bringing the total of $90 million being given to build this research facility.  

This new research facility will be a part of the SFU Surrey Campus which will effectively double it's size over the 3 years.  It will be the home of new classrooms, new facilities to advance research for Mecatronics engineering and also be the home of a brand new Energy Systems and Environmental Systems Engineering field of study.  

This is a huge opportunity as it will effectively double the student population at SFU Surrey over the next 5 years.  I don't know what IVCF's involvement will look like on the SFU Surrey Campus, I just pray that God will bring passionate students to take on the mantle of ministering to the Surrey campus and hopefully some staff may eventually make it there full-time.

Upcoming Events and Prayer Requests

Upcoming Events

• Worst Christmas Ever Christmas Party - December 1
• Emerging Leaders Module 2 - December 4-9
• Staff Retreat and Debrief - December 14-16
• Student Leadership Debrief - December 17, 18

Students & Campus

• Pray for Alan Thorimbert as for the last 8% of his fundraising for the year.
• Pray that God would give the student leaders perseverance to keep following Jesus in the midst of final exams.
• Pray for my fundraising as I am about $1000/month short this year.
• Pray for the transition of new leadership to next semester.

Personal

• Pray for my continued growth as a leader.
• Pray for both April and I as we continue to journey together in marriage and pregnancy.
• Pray for our living situation as it has become quite volatile.  We will most likely need to move over the next few months.

Praise Item

• Praise the Lord for God's provision in the Community House!
• Praise the Lord for more full-time work for April this year.
• Praise the Lord for getting through the first trimester without any complications
• Praise the Lord for providing $500/month of new donors over this past month.

Simplifying Life

As some of you may have noticed, last year was a lot of themes around Lament.  I spent time reflecting on this previous year and I noticed that if I continued to head in the same direction, I would burn out.  Some things in my life needed to change.

It wasn't easy though.  I fought and justified all the reasons why I needed to do more and to keep doing things like gaming.  I used excuses that it's "restful" or "it's not that much more."  Well, a lot of "it's not that much more" = "a lot!"  It was tough and over this summer and into this fall, God has used many situations to strip me of my own pride.  People like my Co-workers, Pastors, friends, and most of all my wife spoke truth into my life.  Eventually, I couldn't ignore that I was heading towards the path to burnout.

The reason why I needed to simplify things in my life is so that I can be more effective in the things that really matter.  Things like Marriage (Family), IVCF (Work), self care, friends, are to name a few.  However, as any person who likes to say "yes" to good things.  I realised how much I needed to let go of good things.

Over this summer and into the fall, I started simplifying my life:

• I stepped down from my roles and responsibilities of two committee's, focused around the Chinese Church, I have been a part of for the past 2 years.  
• Stepped down from leadership at my church.  
• Am not taking any preaching opportunities this year, instead inviting others who don't get the privilege and give them an opportunity to preach.  
• Retired from gaming on my phone.

What I have picked up and am focusing on now is:

• More quality time with April
• Community Center membership with April to workout together
• Helping more around the house
• Being more present at my home church
• Nerding it out with my friends through the card game Magic The Gathering
• Spending more time being on the SFU Campus and hanging out with my fellow Applied Science students.
• Time to hang out with friends.

Me saying "No" to essentially good things has not only allowed me to say "Yes" to doing other good things for efficiently, it has left space now for others to say "Yes" to these good things.  

Please continue to be praying for April and I as we look to simplify our lives for the purpose of being more effective in the things that Jesus has called us to do.

Upcoming Events and Prayer Requests

Upcoming Events

• Common Dinner - October 20
• IVCF Fall Fundraiser - October 22
• BC Staff Days - October 24-25
• Joint Retreat? (UVic, UBC, SFU) TBD - November 11-13

Students & Campus

• Pray for Alan Thorimbert as for the last 15% of his fundraising.
• Pray that God would give the student leaders perseverance to keep following Jesus in the midst of exams.
• Pray for my fundraising as I am about $1000/month short this year.

Personal

• Pray for my continued growth as a leader.
• Pray for both April and I as we continue to journey together in marriage.
• Pray that I would be motivated to exercise more.

Praise Item

• Praise the Lord for God's provision in the Community House!
• Praise the Lord for the investigatory bible studies springing up around campus.
• Praise the Lord for the restful vacation and safe journey to Taipei and Hong Kong.
• Praise the Lord for more full-time work for April this year.

Introducing Alan!

Alan, my new Staff Partner

What can I say?  I'm really excited to share with you that I'm no longer alone on the SFU Campus.  After a year of interning at SFU, Alan has officially accepted the position to be campus staff at SFU.
Alan graduated from Queens University with a Major in Classics.  He's quite quirky and enjoyed good food.  Some of his responsibilities on top of being my staff partner at SFU will be to start up a community house (which has already started!)

Currently, he is still in the process of raising his full support so he is on campus one day/week.  Yet, even with him being on campus one day a week has allowed him to start leading an investigatory bible study with a Muslim student who has come to the community house.

Please join with the SFU Community and I as we pray for our brother to be fully funded.  He is still in need of $500/month before being able to be full-time on campus.

Common Prayer & Scripture

Bible Study at the Community House

Scripture and Prayer are key foundations to our Christian Faith, but if you see the reality of how we do church and fellowship, often prayer is the thing that is the first to go or we don't do enough of it.  

This semester, we did something quite different and risky.  Instead of having the traditional bible studies that are only full of Christians, we decided to let prayer shape our community.  

After days at a prayer retreat, we all felt that we needed to pray more.  So we decided to not formally offer bible studies at the beginning and lead multiple prayer meetings instead.  The result was that our students are spending more time in their classmates and friends lives.  It's bringing up more questions about faith and Jesus while creating a deeper longing and desire to be changed and transformed by Jesus for themselves.  It is from this that 2 investigatory bible studies have been started with students.  One is from a Muslim background and another who is Agnostic.  With the potential of a 3rd one for a PhD Engineering student.

Please continue to join us and pray that we as IVCF SFU will have all things in common.  Pray the common prayer meetings and pray for the common scripture that we would all be able to have "things in common" to be a witness to the SFU Campus.