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| Mesa IV leaders 2012-2013 (from left to right: Flo, Sy, Evan, Myles, Logan, me John) |
Mesa IVCF, a
Reflection
Have you ever noticed that much of
life is a mix of good and bad blended together? Everything has some good
aspects and some bad aspects. Nothing is purely good or purely evil. Of course,
God is completely good and Satan is completely evil. This up and down, good and bad,
marked my journey through staff life as well. I wanted to share my journey
on staff so that you get a closer viewpoint of some of the action
and lessons I learned. In this entry you can expect to uncover some of the hard
reality of sin, some of the ways trials and sufferings has brought growth in me,
transformations of people from death to life, the stories of young people
becoming leaders in the move to see Jesus’ Kingdom come, and some numerical
highlights for the ministry this academic year (2012-2013).
The reality of the
strongholds of sin
I always feel the need to define
this term and so before I begin I will. Sin means to miss the mark and as a
friend’s definition goes, it means also to fail to be human as we were
created to be. Through the campus work, I saw the stronghold of Satan over
people’s lives. At our spring retreat I heard one girl responded by learning
about the Kingdom of God and the other Kingdom (Satan’s) that she was fine with
being in Satan’s Kingdom. She was later healed of heart problems and hurt leg
and a strange phobia of medical personnel (where I learned later was rooted in
her previous physical abuse via some sort of medical person) and delivered from
Satan by Jesus. She literally was delivered from a demonic possession, no joke.
Remember Kendra (click “Kendra” to read her version of the story)?
Then there was Matt, he was another
student who when I first had met him always had a strange demeanor of anger.
When we finally had a deep conversation, I learned that he just found out he
was a dad and this struck me (because of my son Nicholas). Over the course of
knowing him, it seemed like he lied all the time and none of us knew if he was
actually telling us the truth. On another note, there was a time he told me a story of his life and
said that God was trying to kill him. When the reality of his statement finally
caught up to me I immediately challenged this viewpoint of God (Ezekiel 18:23,
33:11). First of all, God doesn’t enjoy death but life (Ezekiel 18:23, 33:11, John 11: 33-35) and two, if God wanted
to kill him, what would stop him? Even more happened with this guy. He made
girls in our community feel unsafe because of sexual approaches he would make
towards them. This guy stood up to receive Jesus, but struggled with lying and
sexual addiction almost all year, which even led to his temporary
banishment from the community to seek healing with a local ministry.
It’s crazy how junk has a grip on us and we hold on to it,
Christian or not.
Trials and suffering
Much of my journey can be stated as
learning to trust God through people. I have been stretched so much in this
way. For a lone ranger, independent, and middle born child to rely on others
was a huge change in lifestyle for me and I knew this was a huge personal
growth edge. What happened through this journey exposed both the beauty of team
work that the Body is meant for and also the hard ship of enduring broken
promises. I experienced the great fruit of partnership with staff, student
leaders, and donors and could never have reached places I have reached without
you all. While at the same time I have felt the disappointment, pain, and uprising
internal distrust as people have left their words unsupported through action.
Have you ever had this happen? Have people let you down? While the pain is real
and for me at least has the potential to drive me to self and God reliance
only, God wanted me to rely on people. I believe He wants us to live in community and
forgive sin as we have been forgiven. The broken vows can be mended through
forgiveness and understanding and ultimately through the actions of Jesus. He
is the ultimate community builder and has called all of us, even me, to rely on
each other. Relying on community has brought up deep pain, but taught me to see
the big beautiful picture of partnership in the Body of Christ.
Have
you ever loved through hurt, bitterness, resentment, and being misunderstood?
God does; every day, every moment. Does this then surprise you that Jesus leads
the way in forgiveness (Luke 23:34) and challenges us to (Mathew 6:14-15)? It
shouldn’t. On the campus, between my relationships with donors, with my
supervisors at Intervarsity, and surely other places God has taught me to see
people as He sees them and speak forgiveness over them. They will indeed
hopefully extend the same favor. Through these moments of loving through the
residue of sin’s fruit (death), we learn about God’s heart. I've learned more about Him and His love as I've attempted to love through sin. Question for you: how
bad do you want to know God?
Transformations through Encountering Jesus
Two of my
favorite stories of transformation from the campus Kingdom work has been Logan
and Sy’s stories. Logan’s is a story about God meeting him where his faith
level was at (almost non-existent at times) through prayer. Sy’s story is a story of
rapid growth and radical grace that spread into his family and is spreading
into the world already through artistic means.
About a year ago,
Logan came with his girlfriend to a retreat and he left with the same
disposition towards Jesus, probably indifference. At our first large group in
the fall, Logan stood up to receive the Love of God. He was pumped to take this
risk, but nothing happened, at least in his mind. I challenged him that night
to believe that though he didn’t feel anything, something substantial happened
(Esther’s wisdom). He would take that as I think a second faith step.
Throughout the year, he attended the prayer meeting that I led right in the
middle of the day on campus. We would see God build our faith as He answered
our prayer for a faculty advisor by the time we needed one and in a miraculous
way I might add. Logan needed a job and prayed and had several interviews he
had to turn down to get a job. His dad needed a job and we prayed for that.
Guess what, his dad received a job offer. Finally, Logan’s faith in God’s
ability to hear him and answer prayer turned in to him praying for people at
this year’s spring retreat, seeing 4 people get physically healed. Want more?
About 2 years
ago, a nominal catholic student stood up to receive Jesus as his Lord and
Savior. In 2 years a lot has happened. Sy was a leader in our community on
campus and reached out to other students. But before the year even started God
was at work in this guy’s family. He told us all later that his dad left his
mom. As a Filipino family this was a huge offense (it is for any family but
Filipino cultures are very family
oriented. His mom was devastated. Sy and she started to study the bible
together and she was inspired to stand in response to a message at a local
church. Next, determined to get her husband back she went from San Diego to
Victorville to stake her claim on their family. He received Jesus too. In more recent months, he
invited his childhood dance friend to our retreat with SDSU where she gave her
life to the Lord. Sy has been choreographing biblically based videos and sharing them at charity events and even online. Don't hesitate to get more of Sy's story and a video of his dance by clicking on the link above ("Sy").
Young people become Leaders in the Kingdom
If you were to
look at Florence before, you would’ve thought of her as maybe a nuisance or
really broken (and rightfully so based on her childhood). At a powerful moment
in her faith journey, she came out of the water she had been immersed in
yelling, “freedom” with her hands raised up in the air. She was so excited
about the Kingdom of God and when she came to discuss becoming a leader with me
I was interested in serving Jesus with her because of what she was saying. Her
whole reason to become a leader was so that she can see people meet Jesus.
Despite some uncertainty, I saw that God was bringing her in to our leadership
team, the place where us staff have our most influence with students. These are
the students who bring the kingdom to their campus. These are our partners in God's work, who happen to be current students attending the school. Florence loves Jesus and seeing His Kingdom come. She invited people to
so many things and challenged many of our girls in the community to take risks
for Jesus. At the end of our time together, I heard something from her that
shifted a bit of my perspective about what we do on campus. When I asked her
about her leadership experience she said, “You believed in me when I didn’t
believe in myself.” This was awesome to hear and I was reminded that when we partner with students we develop them in to leaders. In choosing leaders, I found it best to find those who God is raising up (another lesson learned).
Jesus
chooses the seemingly unlikely in this world to do His will. Thank you God for
that.
Some Numbers Measuring a bit of What God Did at Mesa College through
our work (yours, the students and mine) for 2012-2013:
·
We reached out to over 180 students during our New Student Outreach
event.
·
We had over 40 students in our community at least half of the
time.
·
We had about 4 bible studies per semester, 1 prayer meeting, over 5 prayer outreaches, served a local homeless
shelter, and shared the gospel through the four circle diagram.
·
We saw 8 people give their lives to Jesus in some capacity, either first
time or a recommitment.
·
We mentored 10 student leaders in knowing more of who God is, who
they are, and how to be missional.
This marks the end of our push to see His Kingdom come on Mesa..
Now to Him be the glory as He was
at the forefront of all the good that came from our work on campus. I
appreciate each of you and felt so many of your prayers. I realized more the
reality of working as a team, as partners in the gospel because of you all. You
have been my team, my partners for eternal things. Therefore, I would treasure
your feedback. Namely, I would love to hear what you’ve learned through your
giving to this ministry through all the means you have. I believe and hope our
Mighty God will be blessed by the offering of our emotions, our prayers, our
time, our finances, and our energy!
You may not know
this but this is my third year of asking and pursuing this question: Here is my
life God, what do you want to do with it (Mathew 6:33)? With this question in mind, I have
been trying to seek long term plans that would glorify Him. Though I strongly desire long term direction all I know are next steps. My next steps are taking
a year to discern long term career, to work at UCSD, and to pursue an
internship at my church, Coast Vineyard. The church internship is exciting to me
because of its focus and getting to do ministry for work, which is basically my dream job. This internship is where
you can continue with me in prayer and giving if you feel led as I will be building up a support team. So the good news
is that we can continue doing bold things to see His name lifted high and His
Kingdom to come! What is the focus of my internship?
How about
reaching arguably some of the most difficult people to reach, those that
identify as people of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community.
There are at least 4 main positions basically at work within the church. The camps could be categorized as those who
hate on these people and want none in the church or seemingly any where near God (you’ve
seen the signs “God hates fags”), those who think a same sex monogamous
relationship is a perfectly legit and biblically accepted life style, those who
never want to talk about the issue/reality of the struggle, and a small
minority looking to see the LGBT people loved and brought into the Kingdom
while at the same time learning to walk out what it means for these people to
follow Jesus along their unique path of sanctification. I belong to the latter.
It is my opinion that reaching people that identify themselves to be members of
the LGBT community with the message of grace will be a divisive issue in the church in these last days. I
want to share the Gospel in its fullness with these people and walk along with
them through what could be a long process of surrender (probably as long as any
other lost sinner). With the support of Coast vineyard and its community of
leaders, Esther and I plan to be on the front lines of God's Kingdom recapturing more people who are ultimately God's most desired treasure (study Mark 3:20-27). We want to see Jesus get crowned in Hillcrest as the King
of kings and one who desires relationship with the LGBT people.
