Comida

#31
The last time that my post-a-day's number is the same as the day of the month...

Today was a day full of meetings/training. It was all really good- talked through some really important updates for our staff this morning, had discipleship with Shaun (processed through really challenging stuff), and did some more work for my New Testament Survey class (which I just LOVE). But in-between that might've been my highlight: Jamie and I were walking after meetings to get food and we ran into Philip and Amy (two of our Cru students) on the way, and Philip ended up inviting us over to his apartment for lunch. It was a very casual but sweet time of hanging out and getting to know each other better over some deeeelicious home-made quesadillas. I MISS MEXICAN FOOD!

Church-Hunting Continued

#30
Got to check out another church this morning. It's called One Love, and it's AWESOME. It soooo reminded me of Reality LA, which is the church I was going to for the last few months that I lived in SoCal. Rock-solid, verse-by-verse biblical teaching, emphasis on small groups and missional living... it was great. We'll see where the Lord leads me, but I'm hoping to get plugged in here and find community and a place to grow in my walk with God. (Also, bonus: the pastor is white, but SUPER local- throwin around pidgin words left and right- there were a good number of words and phrases where I had NO idea what he was saying! haha. It was great.)

Chillaxin

#29
Just got back from a sweet time at our Winter Retreat. It was just a simple overnighter time with our students, up on the North Shore. We've really been sensing the need for deeper community within our Cru movement here, and this weekend was a great way for students to get to know each other better in the context of Christ-centered fellowship!

Late night chats...


Chill time on the beach (at Waimea Bay)


Trying some free climbing


Bonding over food (my favorite) in Haleiwa town

Heading North for the Winter

#28
Super productive staff meeting this morning! Now a bit of a break before heading off tonight to the North Shore for our Winter Retreat Overnighter up in Haleiwa town- spending the day at Waimea tomorrow too. Praying for a refreshing time where students and staff can go deep with each other and experience Jesus through community!

Yogurt is Yummy

#27
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear friend Heather Brainerd!

I went out onto campus with Steven (UH Manoa student with whom I will be starting discipleship next week!) today and initiated a conversation with a guy sitting by himself on the edge of a planter. We used a tool called Soularium, which uses cool pictures to stir up spiritual conversation- he was super hesitant at first but he ended up really opening up and we had a really cool conversation about his life, dreams, purpose, and I got to share the Gospel with him- it was really fun! Pray for Mike, that God would keep chasing after him!

In the evening, we had our weekly gathering for the entire island, where God totally spoke through Jamie as she gave a talk on "Jesus Loves to Make People Whole" (a follow up to my "Jesus Loves People" talk from last week). We are taking our Cru movement through a three-part series on the DNA of Campus Crusade for Christ, with each week focusing on one of the three aspects of our DNA: Win, Build, and Send. Tonight was about Build, which is all about life-changing community, and how God uses it to make people whole. It was a great evening, and we ended the night by continuing "community," hanging out at Yogurtland!

News from Home

#26
More firsts today, as we had our first small group at Campus Center, and I had my first discipleship time with my director, Shaun. Both went super well- exciting stuff. But today's spotlight went to CA. My mom and I got to talk for a few minutes and she told me some really encouraging stuff about the situation at home, which I'm praising God for. AND, the MAZE, which is this awesome illusion/magic/truth/lies/testimony hybrid show that was previewed at Winter Conference, was performed at USC tonight to a full house at Bovard of like 1200 students! Can't wait to hear what all God did through it.

More New Beginnings

#25
OOH! Almost missed it. Less than half an hour left of 1/25/11 here in Hawaii...

Today was a day of beginnings, ministry-wise. Went back to Kapiolani Community College for our first day there this semester. It was fun! A good number of students came out to our weekly gathering time and a few of them stuck around afterward to grab lunch and just chill. After that, Jamie and I had our first official planning time for Tokyo Project! Exciting stuff! LOTS of KCC and Tokyo Project planning to come, but it was really fun to get things started today!

Early to Rise

#24
6:30am. That's when our work day started today. And 6pm is when I finished(ish). Long day. But really fun day. Our super early morning meeting with our UH Manoa student leaders was a refreshing time of connection, as we got to do a lot of reflection and Spirit-led planning together. Our Soul Care time as a staff team (together for the first time since December 9) was deep and encouraging, as we got to hear from each other how we're doing personally and in ministry. My monthly coaching visit to Leeward Community College was exciting, as I got to train our first student leader there on how to lead small groups, and as we found out that we were now an officially recognized student organization at LCC as of today! My training and development time was spiritually significant and moving, as I got to listen to my "Romans" lecture podcast for my New Testament Survey seminary class. And I got to finish the night with a sweet skype catchup with my buddy Nick, whom I got to disciple for a couple of years back at SC- God's doing some sweet stuff in his life!

Productive Sunday

#23
After taking a restful, Jesus-filled Sabbath yesterday, I've been having quite the busy Sunday today. All good stuff- got to check out a church this morning, cooked a yummy lunch for myself, and now I've been spending the last couple of hours at Starbucks catching up/getting ahead on prep work and admin for this coming week. It's our first full week of ministry for the semester, and it starts bright and early at 630 am tomorrow with a UH Manoa student leaders' meeting... Yikes!

I've been spending a lot of time at Starbucks lately- whenever I'm not on campus, it's been my spot for getting work done, whether it's planning Bible studies, taking care of admin/logistics/finances for ministry, writing my prayer letters, listening to lectures for my New Testament Survey class, etc... But today there's a bonus- Jamie and Nat joined me to get their prayer letters done!

(sorry the lighting's so bad... it's right at that point in the afternoon when the Sun's slapping us across the face)

Hungering for Community

#22
First of all, happy 24th birthday to my AGO little bro, Jonathan Langley!

I got to spend some time with the two other singles on our staff team today- Jamie and Natalie. Jamie just moved so we were helping clean out her old apartment. It was really fun! I still haven't really found friends or a church or community here in Hawaii, so these two have been a huge blessing. And I've especially gotten to hang out a lot with Jamie through a lot of different ministry-related circumstances... AND now she and I will be directing a summer project together so even more connection! So yeah, very thankful for both of these girls. Huge blessing. But later in the afternoon I also had an hour-long phone chat with Beau, who is my accountability partner, fraternity brother, co-best friend- it was so refreshing and encouraging, and it made me really miss having bros to do life with. I used to hang out a lot with another AGO, Justin, while he lived out here in Hawaii (pictured here with Jamie),

but he just moved back to the mainland. So yeah, I'm praying that God provides a church and some dudes to enter my life with whom I can have mutually encouraging relationships... and a mentor/discipler figure would be awesome too! For now, I thank God for the sweet times I'm getting with Him, and the blessing of people like Jamie and Nat in my life.

Kickin off a New Semester

#21
First, today was a big spending day. I filled up my tank for the first time ever in my new-for-me car. Hawaii gas is SO expensive. And then this evening I went grocery shopping for the first time here. Hawaii groceries are SO expensive. Haha. Seriously, it kinda made me wanna cry.

It was a tiring but productive afternoon of planning as a staff team- next week is when all of our main ministry things like discipleship groups, small groups, campus evangelism, area outreaches, etc, all get started. I got excited cuz after the weeks of traveling around going to different conferences and trainings, we finally get to kick off another semester full of steady, but hopefully Spirit-led and unpredictably awesome, ministry! Let's DO THIS!

Jesus Loves People

#20
My first day back on campus. Got to do the talk at our weekly gathering! I really don't know how it went, but I'm completely trusting that God communicated what He needed to communicate. It was the first talk in the "Jesus Loves..." series, starting with "Jesus Loves People." Got to talk about how love is selfless and sacrificial and how that was perfectly manifested in Christ's gift of salvation... and how that should be our model, and that the best way we can love someone is by introducing them to Jesus. It was fun to talk about!

First Talk! EEK

#19
Quick note: Today was a crazy day. My first full day back in Hawaii, and I've now opened an account with a bank here, changed my address to my HI one for everything CCC-related, and completed a title transfer for a car so now I have a car officially owned by and registered to me, in Hawaii. Crazy. I'm becoming a legit resident.

Right now I'm sitting at Starbucks in Kahala working on my talk for our weekly gathering tomorrow. Pretty excited- it's my first time speaking in Hawaii, and I get to speak on truly loving those around us by sharing Christ with them. Please pray that it would be GOD speaking through me and that the students would hear from Him what they need to hear.

BACK!

#18
12/12-12/26 was a relatively quiet two weeks of working on my New Testament Survey class, planning and prepping for Winter Conference, and spending time with family (especially for Christmas). But 12/27 through yesterday was an absolute whirlwind of travel and conferences, during which I spent 16 of the 22 days out of town, in a hotel, at conferences (San Diego, Dallas, San Francisco). God did awesome things at all three, and I feel very blessed and encouraged, but it's SO good to be back in Hawaii. I just got back to my place, and I'm excited to REST. And then get right back to ministry at UH and KCC- which is really exciting! I'm so looking forward to having a few months of uninterrupted time to develop relationships with students and establish a strong, Spirit-led movement here. For now, here's to a reaaaaaaally good night's sleep.

All It Takes

#17
Right after conference ended at 11 today, we got together with our campuses and shared with each other about what the Lord taught us/did in our lives this weekend. Almost every student from Hawaii who talked mentioned that they are now so excited to live a life of sharing Jesus with others. Seriously, it seems that all it takes is that first time of doing evangelism to show students that it's really not scary or terrible- in fact, it can be really fun, and is a huge blessing (beyond it being a command from Christ, of course!).

Worthwile Conversation

#16
Day of outreach today was intense. I got to have a few really good, intense spiritual conversations, but they were in really unexpected settings with unexpected people. I won't get into how each one went, but every conversation did point to the way Jesus perfectly fits every need ever. At the same time they also showed me that the gospel we proclaim is absolute folly to outsiders. It's always a reminder that successful witnessing should be defined the way Bill Bright defined it: "taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God." And a reminder that these conversations are so valuable and worthwhile in light of eternity.

Outside Looking In?

#15
YIKES. It's past midnight. So my #15 post isn't on 1/15. :(

I'm really starting to learn Asian-American culture. And it's fascinating. Again, I know I'm half Asian-American myself, but I so feel like an outsider here, and it's been eye-opening to see students here relating with each other and having community with each other and joyfully interacting with each other... it feels so intimate and safe. People who are awkward are just awkward, people who are outgoing are just outgoing- it's raw. Of course, this is just my personal observation. But it's been very interesting. And this morning's talk was fantastic- about our being honest with oneself and God about our emotional and spiritual health. Very convicting. And apparently very relevant to the culture represented here, because students seemed to be rocked by the message.

Diversity

#14
The first main session of Epic Conference is now over. It's SO different. Part of it might be that I'm running on 2.5 hours of sleep (on top of the mother of all conference schedules that I've had these last three weeks), but it just feels so different. I know this sounds ridiculous because 1) I'm half asian and 2) this is Epic so I should've been expecting it, but I just kinda kept thinking "...there are so many Asians here..." It's a slightly out-of-my-comfort-zone experience, but at the same time it's so cool that there is a place where Asian-American students can come and grow in the Lord in a context they understand and relate to, even if I may not. (Plus is great having a bunch of UH students here!)

Back to LAX

#13
LOTS of driving around to tie up loose ends with stuff here. Now finishing up laundry so that I can pack, because in just 6.5 hours, I'm headed to the airport once more! Tomorrow is the start of Epic Conference (Epic is the branch of CCC's campus ministry that focuses on Asian-Americans), which I'm excited about, since I'll get to see a lot of our Hawaii students, and since it'll be my first real exposure to Epic. Plus San Francisco's just beautiful.

All-Around a Bit Overwhelming

#12
I had a bit of an emotional overload last night when I got to visit AGO's Tuesday Night Worship, which was being led by my best friend Beau and my little bro Jonathan, and I was surrounded by his little bro Josh, guys I discipled, guys I'd seen come to Christ, juniors whose freshman Bible study I'd led, while standing in the room where I'd led meetings as President every Monday night, etc. So that, combined with the data overload from SP Directors Training, and the intense schedule of Dallas and Winter Conference, meant waking up with a splitting headache today. But God is always so faithful, and He gave me strength to get through the day, and He even took the headache away out of nowhere. I got to communicate with the CCC volunteer we have at Leeward Community College on the west side of Oahu, and got to talk planning for what to do on that campus (I'm the distance coach for Hawaii campuses that we are not directly on). Looking forward to visiting LCC in a couple of weeks! So I'm still beat, but I'm excited for what happened today and what's waiting for me in Hawaii.

Seat Buddies

#11
1-11-11. I know, I know- everyone's pointed that out already. Today, after an absolutely exhausting but awesome Summer Project Directors' Training conference in Dallas, I took a flight back to Orange County with seven other fun staff people. We all sat separately spread throughout the plane, and it was exciting because Casey, Matt and I each got to share the Gospel with the person we each sat next to. So at least three people on that plane got to hear the truth about Jesus!

Victory in the Midst of Fatigue

#10
A lot of people are sick. We've been reminded over and over during this conference that the enemy doesn't like that we're doing these summer projects. Maybe the ridiculous spread of sickness has been a tactic of his to slow us down. But in the midst of that, God's grace has been sufficient and most of us have been able to fight through a productive day today that ended with a super encouraging and challenging commissioning talk by Keith Bubalo (oversees international sending for all of CCC's campus ministry in the US) based in Joshua 1. Good stuff.

"I Love Japan, But..."

#9
Got to meet with all the other people leading trips to Japan today- to share our vision for Japan with each other, to tell each other the story of how we came to be project directors, and to pray with each other. It was really encouraging, and I got to a new level of being excited about going to Japan. That said, today has also been the day where I've wrestled with God most since agreeing to lead this project about the fact that I won't be doing a stateside project this summer. Good thing He knows better than I do about what's best.

Why Do It?

#8
Just came from a fantastic night session where we got to hear from Mark Gauthier- the National Director of the US Campus Ministry- and learned four main motivations for doing Summer Projects:
1) for God's glory
2) because we recognize that SPs play a role in fulfilling the Great Commission
3) because we take seriously the stewardship we have of our ministry
4) for the sake of those who don't know Christ.
I know that's super simple and somewhat vague... Ask me about what, specifically, he talked about relating to each one! It was so encouraging and exciting.

Totally Fried

#7
It's been cool meeting summer project directors from around the country... but I won't lie- today wasn't the easiest day. It was basically 9-5, straight through, learning nothing but logistics of how to do finances, how to use the different forms and sheets to record absolutely everything about anything ever, what the tax laws are about what kind of expenses, etc. It was info overload to the max- I'm BEAT.

The Stars at Night Are Big and Bright

#6
It's great to be in Dallas- Texas is one of my favorite states. Getting here was awesome too, as Matt and I got to talk about why we do what we do, and what it means to know God personally, with the woman we sat next to on the plane- awesome convo. Then my AGO brother Cameron, who now lives here, picked me up and we got to hang out for a few hours- also awesome. Then the Operations Director for my summer project, Jimmy, and I, went and grabbed dinner and I got to hear his testimony. Feelin pretty blessed after a sweet 1st day in the Lone Star State.

Quick Breather

#5
Spent a few hours at Disneyland waiting for my buddy Beau to pick me up so I could spend the night at his house, because he lives right by John Wayne airport and I have a flight out from there early in the morning tomorrow to get to Summer Project Directors' Training. Exciting stuff, but I sure hope I have the energy for it. Been a refreshing day though- lunch with my AGO little bro, hanging out with my grand-little bro and my co-best friend, and chillin with some staff friends at Disneyland.

You've Got Mail

#4
Really encouraging day of emails. Some were from supporters (some to encourage me about how they've enjoyed being part of my ministry, some to let me know about ministry opportunities they are having), one was from a student on the east coast who's interested in Tokyo summer project, two were from CCC staff overseas whom I am praying for. Getting to respond and share about what's been going on in my ministry, what project in Japan is all about, etc, was a blast! And I got to finish the day by having dinner with a few AGO guys- three of whom I'd discipled while at USC. Good times!

Encouragement with the Mouse

#3
FANTASTIC day at Disneyland. Got to spend time with a couple of SC students who went to Winter Conference, hearing from them how their experience was. Then I met up with our Hawaii students who were also at Disneyland and they were telling me all about what God was doing in their lives, especially through Conference. Then I got to see one of my best friends, Beau, and catch up with him a bit. And finally I got to spend a few hours with Bob and Jill Fuhs (my Winter Conference bosses) having some fun and encouraging conversations. GREAT hearing from different people how Winter Conference blessed them :)

No Rest

#2
Just a day after I leave SDWC and I'm already fully in Project Director mode. Spent a good while on the phone with different people figuring out logistics for our PD Training Conference coming up in Dallas this weekend. Then had a chat with Jamie (my APD) about how this semester's going to look with being full-time on campus but also being PDs and trying to have a life outside of Cru. It's all super exciting!

Much-Needed Chill Day

2011 Blogging Goal: one post a day about something I did, related to ministry.

#1
I could've sworn it wasn't any later than 6 when the alarm rang at 10. Even though I had been feeling tired all week because of the crazy schedule of emceeing/helping run programming for Winter Conference, I guess adrenaline had masked just how tired I truly was, and it didn't fully come out til Conference was over and I could wake up later than 630. But it was a really pleasant New Year's Day as I got to have a chill afternoon/evening with staff friends Matt (Pomona), Heather (USC), Casey (USC), Cindy (UCSD), Courtney (UCSD), Ashleigh (UCI), Jeff (UCI), and Jon (UCI), brunching at Pipe's in Encinitas, watching the Rose Bowl, and dinnering at Yardhouse.