A Strategic Withdrawal

September 18-20, 2009 ended up being quite the memorable weekend.

USC Cru Fall Retreats have a tradition of being awesome weekends where students really get to grow in their spiritual journey with God and develop a tight community of fellow Christians to live life with at USC. And they each have their own special nuances that make them stand out. But in my six years involved with USC Cru, I have never experienced so much satisfaction and awe at watching God work at a Fall Retreat as I did this year. There was soooo much that happened that I could write about, but what really blew me away was how God answered specific prayers that Christina{1} and I were praying as we planned the retreat.

**-Side Note- Speaking of our planning, Christina and I had three major planning meetings for Fall Retreat, and each time, one of us fell pretty ill. Whether it was sudden digestion problems, nausea and vomiting, or a debilitating cold, at least one of us was always feeling really unwell. It wasn't until the day before Retreat that my friend Beau{2} told me that it was probably spiritual attack and that God was likely planning some big things for our weekend. So once I had my eyes open to that perspective, I got so much more excited for what was about to happen!**

Prayer #1- That not everybody at Retreat would be a Christian
I'd met Andrew Chen (AC) at the Involvement Fair where he stopped by the Cru table. It was after Fair hours, and all the other groups had packed up and left, but because it was such a miserably hot day, and we'd brought a tent for shade, we were feeling far too lazy to pack up and leave. AC and I only talked for a little bit, as I gave him all the main info for Cru and said that I hoped to see him at the Wednesday night meeting. He came to Wednesday meetings on and off, but showed up in one of the first cars to arrive at Fall Retreat. The first night, as discussion groups were going on, he explained to his group that he wasn't really a Christian but was checking things out. One of the girls in his discussion group came and told me that right after, and Christina and I rejoiced that one of the prayers was already answered!

Prayer #2- That people at Retreat who don't know God would enter into a relationship with Him
After the meeting on Friday night, my buddy Derek took him aside to explain things about God to him. Another guy, Jason, joined the conversation, and soon they were sitting outside at a table on the porch, talking the evening away. Jason eloquently explained the full Gospel to him, and AC was ready to accept it, so he prayed right there and invited Jesus into his life, to be his Lord and Savior!!

Prayer #3- (Ok, so this prayer was more personal, and wasn't exactly about Retreat, but I was just praying it for myself, four days before Retreat, as I was on a prayer walk with two of my staff teammates) That I would soon have the opportunity to baptize someone
I don't know why I prayed it. But it was a desire God placed on my heart and so I verbalized it. Well, two girls from Christina's sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, were planning on getting baptized{3} at Retreat during Saturday afternoon free time, and so we announced at men's time on Saturday that if any guys were interested, they could be baptized too. As we were hiking (sliding) down the hill (near vertical slope of soft soil and leaves haha) Andrew Grace, a junior in Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, approached me and said that he wanted to be baptized, and asked me if I would do it. WOW. A few minutes later, Derek (who had just helped lead AC to Christ the night before) also decided to get baptized, and when we were by the river, asked me to baptize him! So Saturday afternoon free time turned into a blessing beyond blessings as Kelsey, Holly, Derek, Andrew, AND AC decided to be baptized. Most everyone who was at Retreat left what they were doing and came to the river to watch the five of them be baptized. People spoke words of encouragement to the students who were about to make this public declaration of their decision to follow God. The five were baptized one by one.
Kelsey


Holly


Andrew


Derek

Derek, a minute after getting out of the water himself, turned right around and helped baptize AC.

AC


Kevin (the worship leader during Retreat) brought his guitar and we all worshiped for a long time. Then during worship, three more girls decided to be baptized! So Kristy, Annalisha, and Cassie did!

Kristy


Annalisha


Cassie


Kristy also got out of the water, turned right around and baptized Annalisha. More worship. It was a most beautiful afternoon- lots of beaming smiles, tears of joy, voices raised to our King...


Prayer #4- That students would be excited about the adventurous life God has called us to
I guess you kind of have to have been here for the last few years to realize the true bigness of this prayer being answered- but our students were at Retreat so excited about God, and so excited to bring His Kingdom to our campus. On Sunday morning we had an "open mic" time of sharing what God's doing, and we found out that freshmen are getting together at 1am on Thursday in the main quad to do some worship, that Greeks are getting together and praying for the row, that students are pairing up and going out on campus talking to people about God, that our students led 4 people to Christ the previous weekend, crazy stuff! AND on Saturday, when we found out that USC had lost to UW, we were in the middle of worship following the baptisms, and everyone decided to keep on partying! Greg, our campus director, put it best on Sunday morning when he said to the group, "You guys were more excited about 8 people getting baptized than you were bummed about a USC football loss!" That is a MIRACLE here.

It was an amazing weekend, full of God's blessings- big and small. But the best part about it was that we knew it wasn't going to be a mountain-top experience where everything we learned gets left up in the mountains. The students came back excited to take on the campus and impact it with Christ's love, and they are still doing so.

Christina and I, having planned and run the Retreat, couldn't be happier with how things went- because, in the end, it was ALL God. :)

Group Pic


Footnotes:
{1}- Christina Carey is one of my best friends at USC. She is a Senior in ADPi, and serves on Shepherd Team. We got really close when we both went on Tokyo Summer Project back in 2007 as teammates, and ended up being assigned as the team leaders for one of the campus teams, and so we bonded a lot through that.
{2}- Beau Wirick is one of my best friends. He was in AGO with me, we were roommates our Senior year, and we also both went on Tokyo Summer Project back in 2007 and were roommates there as well.
{3}- Baptism is a symbolic ceremony where one declares his choice to follow God by being immersed in water. The dunking symbolizes a "death" to our old ways and our sins and our old life, and the coming back out of the water symbolizes the new life we enter, as we let Christ's sacrifice wash away our sins and our old selves. Of course, baptism is not saying that we will never ever have a single sin again, but it is a way of publicly declaring that we are repenting/turning from sin and turning towards God and accepting His free gift of salvation. Wanna know more about that gift of salvation and how you can have it? Interested in learning more about being baptized? Talk to me! :)
ALSO, special thanks to Andrew Chia for his awesome photography at Fall Retreat. Check out his Fall Retreat album on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=108609&id=504471444

Welcome!

So this is where I'll be posting updates and thoughts as I go through my second year as an intern here at SC. If you're on my support team, you'll still be getting my prayer letters which will be a digest of the major goings on, but this is where you can come to get more of my thoughts as I experience full-time ministry again.

To start off, here's a journal entry from 9/17, where I was reflecting on this year so far (parenthetical explanations added, clarifying footnotes at the end):

4 Weeks In...

Insane, isn't it? I blinked and now we're finishing up week four of the semester, and Fall Retreat is TOMORROW! But as much as this first month has flown by, it also makes sense that it's felt this fast considering how insanely busy a semester it's been.

Last fall, I was coaching Community Team, helping
Matt (Potter- now a senior on Shepherd team{1}, he was one of my pledges when I was pledgemaster of AGO back in Fall '06) and
Matt (Pfaff- now a senior, he's been on our Shepherd team since last fall and is currently pledging AGO, so his name{2} is "mowgli") with frosh guys' study, and discipling{3}
Nick (Rice- now a junior in AGO, also on Shepherd team) and
Eric (Dressler- now a junior in AGO, on lead team{4}). Oh! and helping plan
Fall Retreat with
Heather (Brainerd- one of my closest friends, I knew her from her freshman year and she is now raising support to intern with me) and
Laura (Reynolds- was on staff with us last year, has moved on to lead the team at Cal States Fullerton and Long Beach). This semester, I'm coaching Greek Life, leading soph guys study with mowgli, overseeing/coaching small groups as a whole, discipling Nick, Eric, Andrew, Trevor and Teddy, meeting with mowgli, planning Fall Retreat with Christina, and serving on the Winter Conference{5} planning committee!

I have indeed let it overwhelm me some, which is no good at all, but the truth is, I absolutely love it! (which IS great) See, I loved my job last year but there was so much that was undefined and difficult to figure out then. Now I feel like I've found my groove a lot more. And I love being busy. I'm just having to relearn finding rest int he LORD and letting Him carry my burdens.

But yeah, it's a blast. My meetings with my guys are going fantastically well. It seems like God is giving each of my d-ship (discipleship) relationships a purpose, and that makes it exciting. I LOVE IT! Each one is so different and yet God totally shows up.

I wanna talk about Greek Life, Small Groups, Fall Retreat, and Winter Conference too, but I gotta head out in a minute so for now, I'll just leave it with a shout out to my Abba, Father:

I LOVE YOU

Footnotes:
{1}- Shepherd team is a small group of students who are basically the leaders of our leaders. They meet with the staff every week to help set direction for Cru with us, and are almost a sort of "junior staff". This year, there are 7 Shepherd teamers- 4 guys and 3 girls, each of whom oversees a different part our movement.
{2}- In AGO, when you are going through pledgeship, you are given a name that you have to go by throughout the 9-week pledge process (except with professors and in legal documents). Mine was "spandexstrider".
{3}- Discipleship is basically the name we use for spiritual mentoring. We meet with younger students of our gender and guide them along in spiritual growth and train them in evangelism, discipleship, other forms of ministry, etc.
{4}- The lead team is a collection of students (juniors and seniors) who lead specifically areas of Cru. Bible study leaders, Community Team leaders, and Greek Life leaders are just some of the examples of lead team roles. They are led by Shepherd team members and staff.
{5}- Each region of Campus Crusade puts on a Winter Conference at the end of December. Ours is in the last four days of the year, leading into New Year's Day. This takes place in San Diego and we gather hundreds of students from Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Las Vegas (together they form the Pacific Southwest Region of CCC). This year, I have been asked to join a team of about 8 staff and interns who will plan and run Winter Conference! SO EXCITED!