Adventures at OC '72!!!!!

OC '72: Spring Break March 8 - 13, 2009 "After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'" Luke 10:1-2

This past week our Campus Crusade for Christ went to Orange County for spring break. All together about 95 students came, and we definitely saw God move in powerful ways. The theme of 'OC 72 came from Luke 10 in which Jesus sends out 72 disciples to go out "into every town and place where he himself was about to go." We went to the beach, the homeless shelters, the parks, the neighborhoods, and the universities. God showed up for us everywhere we went, and it was definitely a week that I will never forget. On the last day of the trip, we wall went to Knott's Berry Farm to get some well deserved rest and fun! It was good stuff here is a picture of our entire group below!




The most memorable experience I had at OC '72 this spring break was being able to go UC-Irvine on Wednesday. Even before I went on the trip, I was so eager to go on to campus. Many of friends who I went to Japan with this summer go to school there, so I really wanted to see them and do ministry with them on campus. Since we had to draw from a mystery box each day to decide where we would, our destination was totally up in the air. Our team was so eager to go on campus, but Monday and Tuesday we were sent to feed the homeless and minister on the beach the next day. Our teams prayed together that we would be able to get on campus because we knew that there was something special that God had for us there. When we went to draw from the mystery box on Wednesday, the last day of ministry, we were all so excited to finally get to go to UCI!!!!

As we prepared to go to campus, we prayed together about what God would want us to do there. We were assigned to set up a table on campus and write up some signs that would allow us to engage in conversation with students on the campus. Together our team decided to make a sign that said, "Need to Vent? No Judging here" On the other side of the sign, we would write, "We are here to listen." It would later turn out that the sign our team made would be pretty prophetic.

As we got onto campus, we had lunch with the director of Cru at UCI, and I got to meet up with one of my friends who was leading his Epic prayer group that day. After lunch, we set up the table together, and he was blown away by what the signs said. He told us that during the fall quarter, one of our friends named Colin had a vision for outreach on the campus. Colin envisioned a table on campus in the area where our table was at with a sign that read "We are here to listen." It was like an amazing prophetic confirmation that God truly wanted us to be on campus on this day!

From that point, our team split up. Half of the group stayed at the table to listen to students, and the other half of us went out to share on campus. My friend Jacki and I paired up and went to go share together. My friend Albert also came with us to help show us around the campus. Jacki was super excited to share that day, and I was as well, but I really wanted to make sure to soak in more prayer before we just went for it. So Albert, Jacki, and I started to prayer walk together. As we walked, we ran into a member of another member of our group named Jordan. Jordan was at his team with UCI prayer walking around campus. When Jordan ran into us, he asked if he could pray for us. We were definitely down for more prayer, so we said yes. As Jordan prayed, he was so on fire and filled with the Holy Spirit. I haven't been around him that much, but I know that he probably doesn't pray like he did too often. He was feeling it, and he imparted that excitement and passion onto us. There definitely was a lot of excitement because I was already super excited to be there. I kept telling Albert something big is going to happen today! We were feeding off each other's energy, and we were being fueled by the Holy Spirit!

We continued to prayer walk around campus, and Albert took us to the area where much of the spiritual battling took place. He took us to a huge rock formation in the middle campus where different religious groups would pray and where others would study or smoke pot. As we stood there, we looked into the distance to see who God was leading us to share with. I saw two different people sitting on benches ahead so we walked in their direction. As we approached the benches, Albert said that he was going to stay back and pray for us while we approached students to talk to. As we got closer to the benches, I didn't feel comfortable talking to the people that were sitting there, but I saw a guy sitting by himself on a bench a little ways down. I told Jacki we should go to him, so together we went up to him and approached him.

We introduced ourselves and asked if we could ask him some questions. He introduced himself as Kevin and said that he would be okay with answering some questions. We had a picture survey called a solarium with us. But even before we got to that, I already shared a little bit about my testimony because we found out he was studying to go into medicine and that was what I as doing before God called me to do something else. So we went through the picture survey and heard a little about his spiritual background. It turned out that Kevin was raised up with Buddhist beliefs, but recently he was becoming more and more interested in Christianity. He had talked about Christianity with his neighbor and had even begun reading the book of John.

After hearing some of his story and his interest in Christianity, I asked him if he had ever heard a clear presentation of the gospel before, and if he had not, if he would like to hear a clear presentation (it was really cool because this was one of the questions I had learned just earlier in the day from meeting with other leaders during our evangelism training time). He said that he had heard it some before but would love a clear presentation. From that point, we described to Kevin the good news that God loved him and had a plan for his life. However, the bad news was that we are sinners and are separated from God. But the good news is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again so that we could be with God. All we had to do was choose to become one of His children! He seemed pretty into the gospel message, and so we asked him if he had any questions.

From this point, he began leading the conversation the entire way, and it was truly a remarkable thing. He asked Jacki and I what we did when we struggled with doubts. From that point, Jacki and I were able to share some pretty powerful parts of our own testimony. You could definitely sense the Holy Spirit moving in our midst. I was even moved by hearing Jacki's story. I had never heard it before, and it really impacted me. You could tell that Kevin was pretty moved, and so the next question he asked was how to become a Christian! It was like he was totally setting up each question for us!

Kevin was really confused because he had heard conflicting messages. One of his friends said all he had to do was ask Jesus, but another friend had told him that he had to go through a process of conversion that included baptism. So we cleared up all the confusion for Kevin and told him all he had to do be saved was admit that he was a sinner, believe that Jesus died for his sins and rose again, and choose Him to be his Lord and Savior. From there, we asked Kevin if he would like to do this. At first, he said, "Yes, I would like to do that, but I want to wait for the perfect time." He said that it didn't feel right with finals coming up and everything. Upon hearing this Jacki responded by saying that wouldn't right now be the perfect time with finals coming up and everything? After thinking for a bit, Kevin responded by saying, "Ya you are right, let's do this!" We were so excited to hear this! Later, Jacki told me she almost began tearing up as Kevin decided he would like to follow Jesus.

I then asked Kevin if he would like to say a prayer himself to receive Jesus or repeat after me. He said that he we would like to repeat after me, so at that time, I led Kevin in praying to receive Jesus into his life! It was such an amazing moment. Kevin's countenance visibly changed upon finishing the prayer, and he said that he felt really great! We told him that angels in heaven were throwing a party for him in heaven, and that He was now a child of God and no one could ever take that away from him! It was such a powerful and awesome moment to relive and remember!

After recomposing himself, Kevin realized he was 20 minutes late to class! He assured us that he knew what the lecture was about though. We exchanged contact information with one another and gave him a Knowing God Personally booklet for him to look after. We promised to stay in contact with him and hook him up with others who could help answer his questions and grow in his faith! We prayed for him, and then he headed off to class!

Jacki and I jumped for joy and met up again with Albert to tell him what happened. He was so excited! He also had just run into Colin and told him about the crazy signs that fulfilled the vision he had in the fall! As we marveled about what God did that day, we began to see the crazy work that God was doing even before we approached Kevin. While we were sharing with our team later that night, we found out that one of our team members named Ben was praying in the area where we met Kevin. He prayed over the area and asked God to bring another child into His kingdom that day! God answered that prayer in a mighty way! Later, we also got to meet up with a friend named Tiffany who is a student at UCI. Tiffany has a passion for prayer and simple churches. When we met here, she introduced us to some of her friends who were doing open air worship earlier that day. We found out that they were worshipping at the exact same time we were talking to Kevin.

It was crazy to think that our friend Albert was praying for us as we spoke, Tiffany's friends were praying and worshipping, and one our other teams was prayer walking around UCI asking God for salvation for the students there! I definitely came to an understanding of what a group effort evangelism really is!

Spring Break: OC '72 PART 2

Our adventure on day one was pretty cool. From the mystery box we drew an envelope that led us to some parks in Santa Ana where we were to feed the homeless. We were given $45 dollars to go shopping for the necessary food items. We went to Ralphs and bought supplies to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We went back to the hotel and made 30 lunch bags with oranges, cookies, and chips, and another bag with extra sandwiches. We drove toward the Public Defenders Office to look for parks nearby where we could give out lunches and eat with the homeless.

After getting lost a few times, we finally made it to a park and began passing out sandwiches. We were immediately bombarded by a group of homeless people eager for food. By the time we knew it, we had passed out all our sandwiches and almost didn't have any left for ourselves. Everyone took bags and went in their own directions so we had the challenge of finding some of them and asking if we could eat with them. We ended up eating with a guy named Tyrone. Tyrone was 51, but surprisingly he looked much younger. We got to talk to Tyrone for a while and ask him his story. At first he was hesitant to be real with us because he was surrounded by a lot of his friends. They were joking around a lot, but their conversations revealed a lot about the reality of their situation. There jokes revolved around prostitution, drugs, and jail sentences. It was a chilling reality of life on the streets.

Eventually, we got to have a personal conversation with Tyrone. He said that he normally doesn't tell people his story, but I let him borrow my phone and he said that he liked us, so he went ahead and told us about his life. Tyrone told us how he used to be a manager of a chain of restaurants and had a pretty successful life. However, he got into a problem with drugs which got him into trouble. He said that unlike many of the people on the streets he had not burned the bridges with his family. He told us that he had family back in Texas that would send him money or a plane ticket the next day, but he didn't want to go back or receive help from them until he got his drug problem under control. It was hard to see the pain that he was going through. He had missed one of the meetings the court had sentenced him to for drug rehab, and he had to call to make another appointment to get into another program. He told us how he had been set up by an undercover cop for assisting with selling drugs. Overall, it was amazing to hear Tyrone's story. He was very intelligent and insightful. He told us that his dream was to one day get off the streets, get an education, and help the homeless community. It was a very eye-opening experience.

On the second day, we went to Balboa Beach to go share. The Beach was pretty empty, but there were some people that were here and there. We walked a pretty good distance until we approached someone, but it was cool because I got to hear about my partner Sara's story. Soon we approached a guy named John. He was here staying with his parents looking to get a job while also working at a gym. We went through a survey with him, and then we got to pray for him.

The next conversation we had was one of the craziest moments I have ever experienced going sharing. Sara and I saw a man sitting by himself on a bench with his dog, so we went up to him. I asked him if I could ask just one question. He said sure. I asked him this question: "If you could ask Jesus any question, what would it be?" He sat there for a second and thought about it, and then he responded, "I would ask him why he let my wife and child die in a car accident."

I didn't know how to respond. This man had just let out all his pain and difficulties in one simple response. I asked him if I could sit down and talk to him about it, but he was hesitant because he was leaving soon. He said that he didn't really want to get into it that day because he was having a good day. So we asked if we could pray for him. He said that his name was Johnny D and that he was a believer, and that he would appreciate the prayer. So we prayed for him. As we prayed, his phone started to ring. He went to silence it, but he was holding a cup of coffee and his dog on a leash, so he ended up spilling coffee all over himself.

Overall, it was a kind of a traumatic experience for both groups. I have no idea what Johnny was thinking after our encounter or what happened after that, but that memory is definitely something that I will never forget. I think it really brought a clearer reality of the pain that people around us experience on a day to day basis. I have come to realize that Jesus truly has a heart for all those people I crossed paths with at the beach that day. He has a heart for all people. I am realizing more and more that there is a lot of pain in peoples lives, and as we go out in share we must begin to be more sensitive and aware to the deep rooted pain of those around us.

Spring Break: OC '72 PART 1

This spring break trip has probably been one of the most impacting experiences of my life. I don't even know if I can fully express the magnitude of what happened in the last week. It really has been life changing and inspiring. I don't even know where to begin. A group of 95 students from Campus Crusade for Christ went to Orange County California from March 8-13. It was a last minute trip after our plans to go to Rocky Point and Los Angeles were disrupted. It was clear that God really wanted us to go to Orange County this year.

We left early Sunday morning around 10 am. I was so exhausted because the night before I was inspired to pray and blog long into the night....the whole night actually. After my Group Investigating God with my new Chinese friends. I talked to my brother and Sara for a little bit, and I ended up blogging until about 5 in the morning. I also had to do some hw for one of my online classes so I ended up staying up all night before I was picked up at 8 am. So I was exhausted on the trip up to Orange County.

Once we got there, we checked into this really nice hotel and got ready for our main session. It was almost overwhelming to see so many people on this trip. It's crazy to think that at our spring break trip last year we only had 95 people. This year, we almost doubled. It definitely is not about the numbers, but it is just evidence of the crazy things God has been doing in Campus Crusade for Christ at ASU this past year. The trip is called OC '72 because one first off we were going to Orange County. Secondly, the 72 is taken from Luke 10 where Jesus sends out the 72 to go to cities all over Israel to bring the gospel and move in the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke 10 is one of my most favorite chapters in the Bible because in this chapter God lays out a very clear model of evangelism and church planting. So it was so amazing to go with a group of college students from ASU and do evangelism and loving on people Luke 10 style.

So what did we do there? We did lots of crazy things! The first night we were there all the staff and seniors dressed up in different costumes and we all went to Downtown Disney to try to find them in their disguises. Our large group was separated into 10 families of about 8 to 10 people. It was a lot of fun to hang out with our family and look around Downtown Disney.

The next days were when the real work began. Each morning we traveled from our hotel (where we had free breakfast buffet....sooo good!) to a mega church called Mariners that let us borrow their facilities. This church was so nice! It was ridiculous how fancy and resourced it was. It had its own bookstore and coffee shop, it had a lots of fountains and an outdoor baptismal, it had playgrounds and cool stuff for kids, and their student center where we stayed had basketball courts, video games, pool, ping pong, and all this other crazy stuff. So we were pretty spoiled to stay there.

Anyway, each morning we go to the hotel had devotional time with Jenny D, quiet time, than evangelism training. I got to help lead Evangelism training each morning with Alex Logue for students who were going on a spring break trip for the first time. I had a lot of fun leading this evangelism training. It was challenging teaching a group of maybe 20 to 25 students for the first time. But I had so much fun teaching about the basics of evangelism. It has been something that I have been very passionate about especially in the past two weeks. So I was able to talk about many things that were really close to my heart.

After evangelism training, we gathered together again with our families to draw from the mystery boxes. The mystery boxes were three boxes with the themes of compassion, sharing, and adventure with Jesus. There were different envelopes in the boxes with different things to go do around Orange County. The idea was that our families would all be given different tasks to go and impact Orange County. Some of the things included helping out with Orange County Rescue Mission, feeding the homeless, prayer walking around the city, sharing at the beach, riding the bus system and sharing, or going to UC-Irvine and sharing there. It was a just a bunch of different things that we could do to touch the Orange County with the love of Christ. I didn't know what to expect, but God truly blew all my expectations out of the water this past week. Like I said this past week has really changed my life and opened up eyes to see a greater picture of God's heart for evangelism and for loving other people.

It was good stuff!!! Stay Tuned....

Groups Investigating God

Now that I have laid somewhat of a foundation for the experiences I have been through the past few weeks, I can explain one of the coolest things I have been a part of in a while.

The past couple of weeks on Wednesdays, a group of students in Cru get together on Hayden Lawn to pray for the campus. This past Wednesday only three of us showed up. We prayed for a while, and after a while, one of the guys asked if we wanted to go and share the Gospel with some people of campus. I was definitely excited to go. I had just experienced a cool opportunity open up the night before just by approaching a girl after prayer. However, before I could respond the other guy with us told us that he was going to preach. In my mind, I was thinking that he was kind of crazy. We have had a lot of street preachers on our campus lately who have experienced mixed results. But we fully supported him and knew he had a good heart. We prayed for him, and he took off to the middle of campus to begin to preach.

I sat with my friend Zach as our friend Joel began preaching to those passing by on campus. I told Zach to be on the lookout for people who we could possibly approach and follow up on in response to Joel's preaching. Zach pointed out three students that were sitting on a curb close to where Joel was preaching. I was pretty eager to approach them because they appeared to be international students, and lately, international students have really been on my heart, yet I have never taken a step of faith in responding to that passion.

As we approached them, I awkwardly tried to initiate conversation with them by asking them what they thought about the street preaching. I kind of botched the opening statement, but lucky the international students were very gracious and very open to conversation. I introduced myself and found out that they were international students from China. I was very excited to find this out because I am planning on going there this summer. There were very receptive and open to talking about things. The conversation was not one way, and they were very eager to communicate. I believe that Joel's preaching cleared the spiritual atmosphere to give me the opportunity to approach these students.

As I was talking to them, another individual I knew approached me and tried to have conversation with me. Luckily, Zach was able to talk to him while allowing me to continue to talk to the Chinese students. In the middle of the conversation I was having with them, the individual that just approached us all of a sudden said, "You guys need Jesus, you need to repent, and accept Him now." It was kind of awkward and intrusive. However, luckily the students couldn't really understand what He was saying, but it gave me an awesome opportunity to transition into a spiritual conversation. I was able to ask the students about their spiritual backgrounds. I eventually was able to share my testimony with them and share the whole gospel with them! It was really excited. The students seemed interested in learning more about spiritual things, and even more so, I was able to connect with them on other things as well. I found out that they like to play basketball every evening from 8 to 11, and they usually at lunch together every day. So I exchanged contact information with them agreed to meet with them the next day.

The next day I woke up extremely exhausted. I had to cancel a couple of appointments I had in the morning so that I could sleep in a little. But one thing I was looking forward to was having lunch with my new friends. I called one of my friends after class to see if he was still down to have lunch. We ended up meeting in front of the MU and going to the cafeteria together. I was so excited to meet up with my new friends again. Just a week before, I had told my discipleship leader how frustrated I was about my inability to go out and share. That day, we went out and shared on campus. I wanted to go speak to an international student, and we ended up running into one. We shared with him and got his information, but when I tried to email him later, I realized that his email address didn't exist. It was very disheartening. So the fact, that I was able to meet up with these new friends this time was super encouraging to me.

When we got to the restaurant we met up with two other Chinese students. One of them was a guy I met from the day before, and another was a new student. We sat together and got to know each other a little bit. They asked me about my major. I told them about how I was a Religious Studies major and how I was involved with churches. As I was talking about some of my experience with church, one of the new students asked me if there were any churches around. I told him that I knew of some Chinese churches. The student said that he was not interested in Chinese church but more so other churches.

This question really got my attention and made me excited. I explained to them about how I saw church as group of people who come together and study and learn about Jesus. I told them that church is when anybody comes together to learn about Jesus and asked them if they would like to start a church together and study the Bible together. They all agreed and seemed pretty excited about the opportunity. We agreed to meet on Saturday to study the Bible together! I also invited them to hang out with us on Friday and check out a spoken word and dance show.

On Friday, they came and hang out with us and had a good time being with other American students. Then the next day, I met up again with them in the afternoon to study the Bible. I bought some desserts, and we met up in Danforth chapel to talk about the Bible. A couple of the student showed up a little late because they had just come back from the mall but everything came together nicely. It was really cool too because my friend Lydia just happened to pass by, and she was able to join us in the Bible study too.

We walked through the study together and read Luke 10:25-37. It was the story about the Good Samaritan. It was crazy because this was probably one of the first times these students had ever held, opened, and read from the Bible! We read the passage together. It was really hard at first because I was really trying to find out where they were coming from culturally. We were studying things together that they were hearing for the very first time. However, as we met I definitely could sense that the Holy Spirit was in our midst guiding the meeting. The Chinese students were very insightful and asked a lot of good questions. We went through the study and Lydia and I once again were able to explain the gospel to them once again.

It was really amazing to hear some of the questions and insight they students had. They really were able to grasp the Bible at a certain level that many Americans even myself tend to miss out. One of the most powerful moments I experienced was a comment that one of the students had. He was commenting on the way that levite and the priest passed by the man on the road while the Samaritan helped him. He couldn't understand how churchgoers like the levite and the priest could ignore the man who needed help while and enemy like the Samaritan chose to help out. We were talking about how Jesus' most important thing was that we must love God and love others. In response to this lesson and the situation of the priest and levite, the Chinese student said this, "Maybe the churchgoers understood what it meant to love God, but they didn't understand what it meant to love their neighbors." It was such a simple statement, but it was so powerful because it convicted my heart and spoke to the process God has been working in my heart the past few weeks. Even as I type it now, chills run down my spine. Here I am as a supposedly "super-spiritual" person, and yet a Chinese student reading the Bible for the first time caught on to an important principle that I am still struggling with until this day.

I was able to use that comment to share with them the struggles I had with that very issue, and I got to share a dream I had last summer that spoke to that very issue. But it was so amazing to see their curiosity and insight. They definitely had an amazing grasp and hunger for the scriptures that I have not witnessed too often. It was super exciting!!!

To make things even cooler. I texted Lydia a little later, and I found out that she was really impacted by the whole situation as well. She was struggling with God over some things earlier but coming and explaining the Gospel to the students really opened her eyes to the true meaning of the Gospel for herself! It was so encouraging here her speak to the Chinese students because she was explaining the Gospel to them in such a unique way! It was soo awesome!! And to think, that she might be going to East Asia this summer too! So cool to see what God is doing!

So ya, I'm super excited to see what God is doing in our midst. He has opened up so many doors by just being faithful and taking an initiative. Successful evangelism is taking the initiative in the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to God! Amen for that! Jesus showed up big time for us this past week! It has been so crazy and encouraging. Keep these Chinese students in your prayers!

I have so much more to write but I'm growing weary, and I'm heading on spring break trip in a few hours. I need to write about our crazy encounter with Japanese students, South Korean and North Korean students, and our crazy Epic run-in at a spoken word show that opened our eyes to our unique diversity and differences. I have been learning so much about God's heart for restoring the church and recognizing it's diversity. I've even had some insight into my calling and testimony is seeing the Church restored. So much good stuff, and only more and more to come! Yay God!

Prayer Walking Cholla

Wooo.... So I'm currently on a blog tear. I've written about 5 blog posts in the past few hours. I just really feel like what I have experienced in the past few weeks is important to document. I have learned a lot in this past week and it's important to hold on to the truths that God has been revealing to me. As you have seen, God has really put on my heart to step out in faith and love both God and those around me. This week God has given me the unique opportunity to walk out his heart of prayer and evangelism.

I'll start on Tuesday Night. My friend Michael Buster and I went out prayer walking around our dorm. We both were really convicted of the need to pray for our dorm and ask God to give us a movement within our complex. We walked around the dorm and prayed for nearly an hour. At one point, God really put on my heart to pray for those needing breakthrough financially. So we prayed for financial breakthrough as we walked around the dorms. We got to the parking lot, and we saw a friend we knew. We approached him and asked him if there was anything we could pray for. Crazily enough, he said he needed prayer for financial breakthrough. He had accumulated some debt and needed some financial breakthrough for God to provide for him so that he could go on mission trip to Africa over the summer. So we got to really pray for him and encourage him.

Next, we went back inside the dorm complex and prayed inside for a while. We saw a girl sitting by herself and we decided to approach her. We told her that we were praying for Cholla and wanted to know if there was anything we could pray for her for. She said that we could pray for the midterm that she had coming up. We agreed to pray for her, but before we prayed another friend came down, and we asked if we could pray for her too. It turned out that the friend was involved in one of the campus ministries. We got to pray for them both and talk to them. We found out that the girl we first approached had just gone to church for the first time in a really long time at the request of her parents. She had been questioning a lot of things, but it was really encouraging for her to be approached by us!

We ended up sitting and talking to these two girls for a while. We talked about the need for Cholla to have more of a community people. There were so many people that lived in the dorms, but no one really connected with one another. Yet it was really cool because we got to connect with one another and pray for them. It was a really cool opportunity that God brought to us out of a little step of faith we took. It was really encouraging for me to see though in seeing the faithfulness and creativity of God. I realized that it only took a little step of faith and initiative to see God do creative things. This gave me a lot of hope for the next day when I would take another step of faith that has turned out to be one of the most influential experiences I have had in a very long time.

Dream Part 2

In the past few months specifically the past few weeks, I feel like God has been showing me what it means to love again. It's weird because last summer I had this crazy dream in which God really convicted my heart for the need to love my family and those who I have often overlooked and forgotten. Yet despite this eye-opening experience, I still found myself caught up in my own selfish ambitions and desires. I found myself radically pursuing after God but alienating all those around me. I didn't understand what it meant to truly love people for who they were. I was looking out for myself even though I thought I knew how to love others. Being in a relationship with Sara has really opened up my eyes to the ways in which I really must step out of my comfort zones to love not only her but those around me. It definitely has been a learning process because I definitely don't have it down. As I was reading Sara's latest blog tonight, I was reminded of a dream that I had this past week that God used to really open my eyes to what it means to love others.

It's so crazy to think about how much we take for granted being loved. For instance, just last night at our Epic meeting, our group had a discussion about how we like to receive love and how we give love. It was amazing to see the different ways people desire to receive love from others. It was interesting to think that many times people don't feel loved because they do not receive love the way that they expect or truly need. For instance, I really like to receive love through being appreciated and being encouraged. I like to give love by making time and effort to be there for people in ways that are more subtle and unseen. I am an introverted person so I really like being alone and separating myself to think about things. At times, it is really hard for me to make time to talk to people and be with them. So spending quality time with people is a way that show I love. I am beginning to become more physically affectionate as well and show love through touch. Yet, I only do that to certain people who I am really close to and really care for. So all this to say, I am learning a lot, but I have so much more to learn.

Anyways, to the dream... So last week I had this crazy dream that really disturbed and confused my spirit. I woke up not knowing what the dream meant, and it was so creepy that I i felt really uncomfortable. In the dream, I was either watching a movie or reading a book. There was a father and a daughter. The daughter was a cute, little girl. If you have seen the movie Bella, she reminded me of that little girl. She was so young, naive, and innocent. The father was trying to teach the girl how to say the alphabet. The girl kept messing up and getting the letters mixed up. The girl would start off well, but she would switch letters around like she was dyslexic or something.

Soon the father began to become frustrated with the daughter. He began to try different methods to help his daughter learn the alphabet. Everything he tried didn't work. He got more and more frustrated. As I was watching this unfold, I decided to fast forward to the end to see what happened. As I continued to watch the story unfold, I saw the father becoming so frustrated with his daughter that he began to take drastic measures in trying to teach her to say the alphabet correctly. He soon resorted to shock therapy in order to "shock" his daughter into the right mindset. It was as if the father thought that electrical shocks would cure his daughter's dyslexia and her difficulty in saying the alphabet.

However, the shock treatment had devastating affects. Instead of curing the daughter, the electrical treatment caused her to become delusional and crazy. The daughter began to act schizophrenic and behaved as if she was demon-possessed. She had become disillusioned by the father's tactics to teach her the alphabet that in anger she began to create her own alphabet. She named random things and even mentioned things like the Church of Christine (which was her name) and communism. She basically went to name off a list of things that represented rebellious institutions or occultic activities that were caused by the forceful treatment.

I woke up from this dream, and I was seriously disturbed. I was so troubled in my spirit, but I had no idea what the dream meant. I pondered the dream for most of the morning than during one of my classes I couldn't pay attention so I started to right the dream down. As I began writing, God began to give me a lot more clarity about what the dream meant.

I realized that the father represented the church and leaders in the church. The daughter represented the people under the care of church leaders and even the unreached. The alphabet represented Christianity and the teachings of the church.

In the dream, we see how the church has moved with good intentions in trying to teach those about Christianity. The church has treated those under its care with love and respect. However, when the church has encountered difficulty or bumps in the process of conversion, they have turned to forceful means. We see historically examples of this in the ways that colonizers forced Christianity upon Native Americans and how other missionaries have forcefully asserted their beliefs onto others. As a result of this forceful action, those under the care of the church have retaliated by growing cold and bitter towards the church and creating their own institutions in opposition. As we see in the dream, the church's forceful actions have actually opened up the door for demonic attack and oppressive institutions as a result of the church's actions.

What God was really impressing on my heart is that we must begin to see those we come in contact as our own children. We are spiritual fathers and mothers to a generation, and we must treat them as so. No parent in their right mind would shock their children to teach them the alphabet, but then why do we do this everyday with those we supposedly "love." If people don't meet up to our standards whether Christian or not, we begin to force our value system upon them rather than understanding their situation. However, we must learn that God is at work in the lives of those around us. We cannot force the situation because in doing so, we only end up hurting those we love even more. We must ask God to open our eyes to see those we love as our very own children because when we think about it everyone we come in contact with is a child of God. You would never mistreat a child of another parent, then why would we even consider mistreating a child of God.

What God really impressed on my heart through this dream was the need to know the Father's heart. God loves all His children with an everlasting love, and we must begin to love with the same kind of heart that God does. We cannot force our Christianity upon others, but instead we must truly love others as if they were our own son or daughter - brother or sister. We must begin to see people as the way God sees them. We must begin to love with the love of the Father's heart. God wants to restore our generation by turning the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the hearts of the children back to the fathers. One of the most important thing our generation needs is spiritual fathers and mothers who will love with the Father's heart.

Dreams Part 1

I'll save the first dream I had for next post. But I'll talk about one of them really quickly because it deals with with the response God has called me to make in learning about prayer, evangelism and intimacy....

The night before I met with Erik Fish on Campus, I had this dream. It was a dream that really disturbed me. In the dream, I was going to hang out with some friends, but before I got to far, my brother called me back. He had some bad news. He said my mom might have cancer. It was devastating. I went back to the place where he was at and approached him. I didn't understand how this could be happening. It was hard to believe, but I remained cool and collected. I knew what I had to do. We must respond....

This dream really disturbed me and stirred my heart. I didn't know what it meant, and I couldn't believe this was happening. To give this dream context, I have to rewind to the summer of my senior year of high school. During the summer of my senior year, I went to a summer camp with my church. After the camp, I was on fire for God, and I came back ready to light the world on fire for Jesus. However, as soon as I came back, my family and I were attacked right away. That night my mom and dad got in a fight, and they were talking about getting a divorce. The next day, my dad had left the house, and I didn't see him for much of the day. To make matters worse, my mom got some devastating news in the mail.

She got a letter saying that she would have to come back into the clinic for testing. She might have cancer. Cancer? Upon hearing these words, my heart sunk. I had been asleep the whole day, and I didn't hear about the crazy events that were unfolding before me until my brother broke to me the news both about the divorce and now... cancer? I broke down in tears and fell to the floor in a state of confusion and powerlessness. I was on the verge of possibly being part of a broken family in more ways than one. What was I going to do?

I had two choices.... I could either hate God and turn back on Him for allowing something like this to happen especially I had been on fire for Him after coming back from summer camp or I could trust Him and put into practice everything I had learned all my life and especially the things I learned at this camp. At camp, the theme was Faith Works. But you see, I had grown up in a Christian home all my life. God and Faith and all those terms had become meaningless cliches to me. I had never experienced the realness of who God was. But now, I was faced with the choice of putting into faith and practice what I actually had been taught and supposedly believed.

I resolved in my heart that I would trust God. I said, "Okay, God I believe you are real, and I am going to trust in you." I found my brother and told him we were going to go find my mom together. My mom and left the house and walked away by herself, so we decided to go after her. We walked together until we found my mom at a bench by the park near our house. She was crying and looked devastated. Things were not going her way. As we approached her, we began to talk to her and see how she was feeling. We encouraged her and began to tell her some of the things that God had put on our heart. The moments that proceeded were all things that must have been inspired by the Holy Spirit because I know in my own strength I could not have said the things I said that day.

As I spoke to my mom, I began to comfort her and tell her that things would be ok. I remember telling her that I believed God was truly at work in our lives and His will would be done in our lives. The verse that came to mind was a verse that I had remembered at summer camp. It was James 1:2-4.

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I always had heard this passage used many times especially the phrase "consider it pure joy." I always heard how we should have joy in all situations especially during the trials of our life. I could never understand it, but I decided that now more than ever was probably the best time to find out what it really meant. In that moment, I resolved that I would have faith that God would use this situation for the God and that I would find joy. I remember for one of the first time ever really responding in prayer with my family. I had prayed with my family before in the past. But this was one of the first times I had really ever responded in prayer. It was a powerful moment.

It ended up that the letter about cancer was a blessing in disguise. It brought to light the frailty of life and it allowed my mom and dad to realize how much they really loved and cared about each other. They were able to work things out. A few months later, my mom found out that the cancer results were a false alarm. God had preserved our family, but in the process, he had taught us a valuable prayer. The first response is prayer. We must truly believe that God is sovereign and working out the tiny details of our life. He really cares and is molding us for something greater, but first we must respond.

So almost 3 years later, I found myself reliving that moment all over again. Yet in my spirit, I sensed God was calling me to the next level He was calling me to respond to. He called me to pray and seek God in the place of prayer, but that was not enough, we must take that to the next level and respond to God in sharing the power of prayer with others. We must respond by allowing God to take down our barriers of fear and step out in faith that He will show up for us as we speak to others.

I have been learning a valuable lesson about myself. I have faith that God will do big things in my life and bring to pass the big visions He has placed in my heart. However, I found myself missing a huge part of faith. I firmly trusted that God would bring huge breakthrough in terms of the big picture, but if I believed this why didn't I have faith that He would come through in the smaller things. Why didn't I have faith that He would bring people to me to share with? Why didn't I have faith that He would give me the words to speak or that He would take away my fears? I realized that for the big things to happen God first called me to be faithful in the smaller things. He first wanted me to step out in faith and share his love with others.

In the past few weeks, God has really called me back to the places of what is my next response. He has reminded me of the past and the huge things He did when I responded in the place of prayer. But there was a next level of response. The response to share - the very heart of evangelism and one of the closest things to the Father's heart....

Oh the Father's heart.....

We'll save that topic for Dreams Part 2

Evangelism = Intimacy with God?: A Shift of My Personal Paradigm

This past week has been kind of crazy. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have been compelled to step out in faith and actually walk out the things that have been on my mind and heart the past few months. So I finally began to start taking the initiative for prayer and evangelism.

For the past couple weeks, I have been meeting with my friends Chris and Heidi to pray for the campus each morning. However, as the weeks drew on my frustration was mounting. I couldn't stand just praying each morning. I needed to take the next step. I needed and wanted to go out and share, but I was experiencing a lot of fear. But I knew I had to take a step of faith...

A few weeks ago, I went to a conference called Take My Life. It was such an awesome conference now that I look back on it. At the time I was so burn out and jaded with conferences. I had become a disillusioned, constipated Christian. I was so tired of going to Christian conferences and hearing the same messages that tried to fire you up to go out. I had been to some of the most "radical" of conferences. But it just wasn't doing it for me anymore. Then, I went to this conference, I re-learned a realized some things that really opened my eyes to the steps I needed to take next.

What was cool about this conference first of all that my girlfriend Sara and her friend Skyy got to come from Hawaii and hang out with me! It was so fun getting to hang out with them and connecting with other influential student leaders across Arizona. It was an amazing time to step into a greater revelation of what God had in store for us. It was also amazing to get to meet some of the most passionate and inspiring Christian leaders moving forward in what God has called our generation into today.

At this conference, I got to learn somethings about intimacy with God and evangelism that I just didn't get before. Last summer, I had been so consumed by my passion for God that I had isolated myself and went on an extended fast to seek God's kingdom. It was an amazing time to grow in intimacy with the Father and learn His heart. However, after a while a became disillusioned because I tried to replicate this experience from time after time. I tried to increase my intimacy with God by isolating my self more and more. However, what I realized at this conference was that sometimes having intimacy with God means going where He is already hanging out.

I realized that God has called us fishers of men. He has called us to GO those who need him the most and not to merely stay in one place. When we look at Jesus' life, we see that Jesus hung out with prostitutes, tax collectors, and the worst of all sinners. Yes, Jesus took time to isolate himself and pray, but that was not the only thing He did. He went out and shared the love of God with those who needed it the most. We must realize that sometimes having intimacy with God means going to where Jesus already is hanging out. Jesus is already hanging out with those who need him the most. Our time in the prayer closet is great, but we cannot stay there. We must experience intimacy with Jesus by being joining in on the journeys of the lives of people that God is already working on. Sometimes, we make the mistake that when we go out and share the gospel it is our wise words that make the difference. This is far from the truth. God is already working in the lives of the people around us, and we are simply coming along side what God is already doing. God doesn't need us, but He has chosen us to be a part of His bigger plan.

I began to realize that intimacy with God was so much more than extended prayer times. I realized that evangelism was at the very heart of intimacy with God as well. But we must be careful here. Evangelism and personal prayer time must go hand in hand. Once we lose our quiet time and communion with God, we lose our energy and our power. We must move out with the foundation of prayer each day. But realizing that evangelism is such a big part of intimacy with God has been such a big realization for me. When we go out and seek those God has placed on our heart, we are able to experience in Jesus in ways that we would have never thought possible.

One of things that really inspired upon going to this conference was meeting Erik Fish. Erik is the new director of Campus Church Networks. The organization Jaeson Ma started which desires to see simple churches be planted on every campus, city, and nation. Erik has an amazing heart for evangelism, and he really encouraged me to continue in stepping into the calling God has placed on my life. On one of the days he came to ASU, he taught us how to do creative open air evangelism. Basically, we would do skits on campus that would engage the campus to think about the gospel in ways that were less abrasive and direct. These skits were like the parables Jesus told. For those who really were interested, they dug deeper into understanding the message. For those who were uninterested, the message went right over their head. It was such a cool way to do evangelism that really inspired and excited me to want to step out in faith in new and creative ways. It showed me that evangelism wasn't a boring, mechanical process. It is a creative, life-giving, relational process that is exciting, fun, and relevant!

One of the most encouraging times was getting to talk to Erik one on one about his passion and his calling. It was amazing to see a man of God with a family and children, yet so on fire and sold out for God. It was so different for me because I had been use to the radical, "fire-fall down" personality of Jaeson Ma. I had strived to be like Jaeson which made me at times miss out on who I really needed to be like: Jesus. But seeing the way Erik was so normal, yet so focused and intentional was amazing. He really encouraged me to see that being who God wants you to be is more important than trying to step into someone else's calling. When we realize that who God made us to be is more important than trying to be like someone else, we are affirmed of just how much God really loves us and has a special plan for us. I got to share with some international students with Erik and he really encouraged me in stating that we had similar hearts. Erik has an amazing passion to see people come to experience the love of God, and he truly has a heart for evangelism that encourages me to chase more after God's heart for loving the world.

In the end, God really was showing me that part of having intimacy with Him was stepping out in faith, sharing the love of God with others, and finding out who Jesus was already hanging out with.

What is even more crazy was the things God was showing me in dreams....



To be continued...

Don't Just Take Pictures.Take Pictures with Pictures...

The Faceless Generation emerges...



http://campusamerica.org/

God is raising up a Faceless Generation. It begins in the place of prayer. Each of our stories is like a puzzle piece. As we begin to put them together, we begin to see a greater picture of what God is doing in our generation. When we put aside individual differences and come together in unity, we see a bigger picture of what God wants to do. We each hold a key, but only when we bring them together do we unlock the treasure chest that is the destiny of our generation. We are faceless as individuals, but as a community we are all individually known.

So what's the vision? Take a look at this?



If you look closely, you see that each individual holds a picture. The pictures describe what each person will do today. If you pan out even further and focus on the bigger picture, you see the letters MLK emerge.

This is the picture of the Faceless Generation. God has placed a unique identity on each individual. But when we come to see the bigger picture, we find that our picture are but just a small piece of the greater vision. We are faceless, but we are known. The body comes together to work in unity for the greater good. It is a picture of pictures within pictures.

Don't just take pictures. Take pictures with pictures....

A Glimpse of God's Heart

This past week has been a breakthrough of sorts in my life. Never in my life have I been so consumed and compelled with a heart for evangelism. I never really understood it until this past week. Lately, I have been frustrated with myself because I have been too afraid to step out in faith and have intentional spiritual conversations with those around me. I have been upset at myself because I have been a constipated Christian - one who has been filled with knowledge from conferences and week to week meetings but has not put much of it into practice. I have held in all the knowledge and passion in my heart and I have not known what to do with it.

I have had this passion in my heart like which is described in Jeremiah 20:9

⁹ But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord
or speak in his name,
his word burns in my heart like a fire.
It’s like a fire in my bones!
I am worn out trying to hold it in!
I can’t do it!

There is something burning in me that is frustrated with holy discontent when I am not doing what my very heart burns to do. I believe that there is a desire that God has placed in each and everyone of our hearts that compels us to desire something more than just the mundane. There is a unique identity that God has given to us that breathes life into our incomparable destiny. For me, God has put a desire on my heart to see the restoration of the church.

I can't explain, but ever since God has been revealing His heart to me about seeing the church restored there has been no turning back. I remember in my sophomore year God putting on my heart to reach every club and people group on the campus. I didn't understand it then, but something was kindled in my heart. Later that year, I went to a conference and heard a guy named Jaeson Ma speak. I had heard about him before, but I didn't really know who he was. Later, I would read his book the Blueprint that talks all about planting simple churches on our campuses to reach every people group on the campus. It blew my mind away that what God had put on my heart, He had been revealing to others all around the world. God was revealing to me that when we reach the campus, we impact the world. We have a sign in our Campus Crusade meeting room. It says, "What happens here changes the world." I firmly believe that what happens here at this campus changes the entire world! We come in contact with so many students from all over the world each day on this campus. Imagine what it would look like if we reached every student group on this campus who would likewise go back to his or her home, city, or nation and win their families for Christ. I can't even imagine what that would look like.

But it starts with prayer. Luke 10:2 says, "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Pray earnestly for the Lord of the Harvest to send His labors out into the harvest." We need people to respond to the calling that He has placed on our generation. But we must first respond in prayer. Prayer is the very desire of God for His people. He desires to commune with us and be desired himself. When we pray, we ask God to release His power and His spirit to set us free and step into the fullness of who he made each of us to be. There are so many things I would like to say right now, but in the past few days, as I have moved out into action in responding to God's call to share the good news with others, my eyes have caught just a glimpse of God's heart for the nations. He desires His people to know about Him, and He has chosen us to take part in telling them about Him. What an honor!!!

Thank you God!!! You have set us free!