A Transition I Hope You Don't Miss

So What is next for me?

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?

Your Kingdom Come in the LGBT Community!

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.

Building bridges to the LGBT in Hillcrest

As I have mentioned to many of you in previous ministry related meetings, I feel I have been called by God to build bridges to the lost. I have also mentioned that I cannot build a bridge alone. Moreover, building functioning and long term and God-glorifying relationships with the LGBT is no small task as there isn’t much of a precedent for doing this. I desire to be on the front lines but I cannot be there without support and I cannot do the work God wants to do without a team. Esther and I are praying and pressing in to live in the Hillcrest area. This is an area in San Diego known for tolerance  (except maybe to evangelical Christians) and rainbows (the common symbol used to emphasize diversity and I would say mainly people of the LGBT). I want to reach out to you all to invite you to continue to support Esther and I. I hope you are  as excited as I am, but I imagine there will be more questions and many I can’t and may never be able to answer. But I welcome those questions on your minds and so please ask. At this point I hope you are starting to ask yourselves,  "how can we support this bridge-building project"?

Next Steps:

I am not formally an intern yet, but I believe God is opening doors and believe God is longing to move in the LGBT community and in Hillcrest. I have been meeting with my Pastor and we have been forming the nature of the internship so that we can bring the internship before the board of the church. If they approve it, then I will need your help. I need prayer. I say again, I need prayer. Would you pray during this transition as the likely start date is coming up quick? See the prayer requests. Moreover, I plan on contacting current financial support team members and see if you want to support still. I will be raising 1500/mth to be a part time intern. Would you pray and consider your level of commitment?

 

Mesa IVCF, A Reflection: The Journey of My Staff Experience

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!

Discipleship: Good Soil

What can one life do? Jesus said that some soils (those hearts who receive the word) will produce 30, 60, or 100 fold (Mark 4:-20). What I’ve seen in Sy is the beginning of a life lived for others. Just the other day he was sharing why he has been a leader with Intervarsity and what has drawn him. He basically said that becoming a fisher of men has hooked his heart. Here are some of the lives who have been touched by this guy’s life.

Sy became a Christian upon attending an IV conference. After coming back home from the conference he started to read the Bible with his mom. She was in a tough place where her husband left her and the family for another woman and a different life. After being invited to church, she received Jesus in her life. She wanted her husband back and went to bring him home after that. She didn’t do it by force and couldn’t but rather she went several hours away to where he had been living and met with him and asked him to come home. He was moved by the love in her for him and he returned home. Later during the year, Sy led another student to faith and invited a friend from the dance community to a conference and she became a follower of Jesus. She had no Spiritual background. This guys doesn’t just stop there as he is using his passion for dance to spread deep truths to people and has been recording and performing biblically based and choreographed dances.

What I love most is not the numbers but his pure hunger to see people get touched by Jesus, just as he has. I see it in his eyes when he shares about inviting people to meet Jesus. There is a fire growing and blessed by the living God to reach the world.

Here is his video (Sy is the one who takes off the jacket):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7EOGpSAIoA&feature=player_detailpage

Discipleship: An Unknown Land

It’s always easier knowing where the next stop in one’ s life will take them. Isn’t it?

Evan attending our world mission conference last December and God seemed to be speaking to him in several ways regarding the nations. He had several moments with people there that we both recognized when he came home as divine appointments. He came back and mentioned to me that he made a commitment to pray over a nation who didn’t have the bible written in their own language (he has still been sowing into this nation through prayer to my knowledge). Through the course of his time at the conference and also interacting with Bible translaters there he started to look in to a Bible Translation Summer Program. It has streteched him to go to a different nation, to believe God for funding, and to press in to a sign that God is leading him there without really knowing why.

 

You might say, so what I know people who have taken risks for Jesus and I even have? I hope this is so because isn’t it like God to tell people to leave their “country, their father’s household and go to a land [He] will show you” (Genesis 12:1). God leads us on adventures and it is not easy to follow but this young man has said yes. I see God cultivating in this young man a heart for the nations. Is this the beginning of an onramp to the nations for this young man? It seems so to me. 

Discipleship: A Small Seed is Becoming a Great Tree

“I don’t feel anything.” Logan said at our first large group of the year. He had just accepted Jesus in to his heart. He seemed to be looking for some great sign from heaven or sensation. I didn’t know what was going on either and was hoping for a Baptism from the Holy Spirit. Why didn’t the Holy Spirit give him that radical sensation that I had once experienced? I thought maybe he didn’t quite understand the message of grace, and so I asked if he realized his need for a Savior. He didn’t say much except that he wanted to experience God’s love. All I could tell him was to walk by faith and believe that what he did that night mattered. That there was indeed a radical transaction and that God would meet him.

In the next months, God would continue to meet Logan and make him a pillar in our student population of believers. It’s been particularly great seeing God interact with Logan through prayer and how his faith has increased and is now encountering the Living God. In the past, I would imagine this guy would describe God as an unlikely possibility and not at all close if He existed at all. Now it is apparent, God has met him. Here is one brief testimony about where Logan is at today:

Every year we take students to Catalina to study the bible for their spring break. They actually spend around 7 hours a day studying the bible. Isn’t that crazy in of itself? Well, that is not the crazy part of this story. Logan told me that at the beginning of his trip, he was frustrated and had no faith. He admitted he was in a bad place at the beginning until some timely advice helped him to stay engaged and start to try and figure out what God wanted to do that week, in him and in his community. At some point he started to believe and said that his faith turned from that small mustard seed into the great tree discussed in Mark 4:30-32. He proceeded to say that during the week he prayed for people. I learned he didn’t just pray for people but he prayed for people to get healed from their injuries and illness. When he was telling me this story I was tripping out. He told me 4 people got healed!X#$#% when he prayed for them.

Who would’ve ever thought this guy would be praying for people to physically get healed. I sure didn’t.

All I can say is that God has met Logan. He has met him in spite of his doubts and through prayer. God has been meeting him and the once agnostic is believing. He is not just believing but he is living for Jesus and going more and more in with Him seeing His name lifted up and His Kingdom coming.

Spiritually Hungry College Students

       

Rebecca                      $70 to get her to camp

“I want to go to the spring break camp in order to experience God in a deeper level.  I also would like to study the Bible intensively and have fellowship with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  I would love to be a part of this trip at Catalina Island.  I believe that it will draw me closer to the Lord.”

 Rebecca (left) and Valentina (right)

 

Valentina         $90 to get her to camp

“I want to get closer to God and read the book of Mark. I think this is a fun and exciting way to meet people who are interested in the bible. Overall this would be a great experience to learn and create new paths for your life.”

 

Sam/Kap

Sam Hughes                $205 to get him to camp

I have grown so much in how I study the bible after the last Mark camp. Also I have already used what I have learned through Mark camp in a group I lead every week in Bible study. I also feel God has gifted me in pastoring and leading others in his word and Mark camp is a way to grow what God is already doing.

 

Florence, aka Flo on the left

 

Florence                      $45 to get flo to camp

“I want to go because I went last year and I got baptist in Catalina Island. It felt like a freedom to me as a daughter of God”

Tiffanie                       $140 to get Tiffanie to camp

“I have never been to one its my first semester and everyone has been such a blessing from the bible group I go to and I would to experience The Lord in nature.”

 

  Lynda

Lynda                          $92 to get Lynda to camp

“I want to go so that I can get deeper in the word of god and get closer to my community”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Thomas and Wendee

Thomas                                   $27 to get Thomas to camp

Thomas is a grad from Mesa now trying to thrive at his new school UCLA. He is coming back with us because of his connections to the community and his desire to encounter God through His word. (Patrick)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sy and Nicole, full of Joy. Need I say more? (Patrick)

 

 

Sy                                $92 to get Sy to camp

“I want to go to gain more scriptural knowledge while growing and bonding with my campus community. “

Nicole                         $250 to get our staff hopeful to camp

“I understand the benefits of attending Spring Break Camp and know how the Lord has met me and my peers there. I would appreciate financial support especially now because I am hoping to continue God's movement at Cal Poly Pomona, a campus where InterVarsity does not currently exist. I trust that I will be able to attend if it is in the Lord's will.”                                     

 

New Student Outreach, Winter 2013

This NSO was a special one and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Mesa College saw a lot of great stuff on campus and off campus. The hope of our organization is that these students pick up a passion for Jesus that transcends their college years and carrying on to any place the Lord leads them to influence. What sometimes seems like a distant reality or fleeting thought in seeing world changers developed through the mission on campus became a reality during our first 3 weeks of school. I wanted to highlight a couple of aspects of God’s movement on the campus and God’s work off campus in order to show a bit of what Jesus is doing with and through us at San Diego Mesa College.

On Campus Ministry, Mesa College

 

New Student Outreach or NSO is perhaps our biggest outreach to the campus of the year. We try to “blanket” the campus with our group’s name and to do this we had a table on campus Monday through Thursdays, 10-2p for the first 3 weeks. We collected over 100 new contacts, we shared the gospel many times through the four circle diagram, we creatively invited students on the campus to engage the Word of God, we held sporting events (one of our student leaders highlighted that we had the world’s smallest game of ultimate Frisbee) and a game day, we invited people in to service projects, we sweated and doubted our effectiveness, we pressed in to people’s lives to hear about their perspective on life and faith, and we saw fruit.

There were so many conversations we had. We had spiritual conversations with Christians and non-Christians, fiery believers and luke warm nominal believers. We discussed everything from organic farming to suffering in our world to God’s answer to restoring His creation, Jesus. I just want to share one testimony that outlines the types of things that Jesus was doing on the campus.

It was day 1 of our NSO and I had been in a meeting with my fellow SSD staff. Our students had gone to set up for the very first day, which is so awesome in of itself. Just think about it, these students were setting up to share the gospel with their campus. Later in the day, the staff joined the students, but before we me up we did what we normally do, we walked around Mesa and prayed over it. We were asking God to show us what He was doing and connect us with the people he wanted to connect us with. After we prayed this, we joined the students with about 40 minutes only for us to participate in the outreach. So that is when I met Tom (not his real name). Through the course of our conversation I was able to share the gospel with Tom and it was clear that he was a Christian who was feeling the damage of sin in his own life and wanted more. I took that moment to ask him if He wanted to come back to following Jesus. To my shock (I definitely get my doubt on at times), he said he wanted to re-commit to following Jesus again! It was so surreal.

I’m reminded of that scripture that the harvest is ripe and this was even apparent off campus. We actually saw 5 students recommit or commit their lives to Jesus for the first time, but this wasn’t all that the Holy Spirit was doing. We also saw more lives get touched off campus through the Mesa crew.

                                                                                    

Mesa Goes out into San Diego

As part of our outreach to the campus we wanted to invite the students of the campus in to some of the things we were doing all year. We called these outings: “community exposure” events. So we took them to a local homeless shelter we are serving at all year and also a local community center in City Heights.

We had a small gathering of mostly our leaders go to the community center, but there at the community center we had such a diving appointment. We were just checking the place out, playing with kids, when we met a young Muslim woman. She was brought to us by the founder of the center and we were told that she needed prayer because of family issues. So, we prayed for her. Our prayers were welcomed and appreciated but nothing substantial happened, at least that we could tell. It was after praying where I realized that this girl was open. I basically shared about Jesus, the forgiveness of sin through Him, and God’s love. Then, I asked her if she wanted Jesus. Again, to my shock, she non- chalantly said yes!! It was then that one of our student leaders shared more about what that meant and this girl prayed to receive Jesus right there!!! I only learned later of the magnitude of her choice to follow Jesus. It is no light decision, but it seemed so easy because of the love invested in her already from Jesus through that center. All we did was show her, as she put it, an “open door.”

Our next excursion took us to God’s Extended Hand, a local homeless shelter. It was about 2 hours before I planned to meet up with the students at the gathering point to head down there when Sy, a student leader, asked if I would be willing to give a 30 min talk down at the shelter. I was struck but saw the opportunity as God’s divine providence; even though I had never given a 30 min talk from the bible in front of this big of an audience. After praying about what I would say, I just felt the Lord wanted me to preach the gospel. My life verse came to mind (Romans 5:8) and I just went for it. God gave me an intro and I went right for it proclaiming the mighty demonstration of God’s love. I shared a lot of the deep issues along my broken journey to and with Jesus. Finally, at the end of the talk I invited the people in the room to raise their hand if they wanted to join the wedding party in heaven (Mathew 22). I don’t remember how many but more than 5 people raised their hands to receive Jesus. One of my favorite pieces of feedback was that this one man was stoked that a real person was sharing. This was so amazing and truly hard to believe. But, it really did happen.

 

And I have a question for you. What do you think this does in shaping the perspectives of a missional life for our students?