On the Anniversary

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Starting Year 6

When I first went to East Asia in 2003, several people told me that it would take a couple of years to adjust to life and ministry in another country. After a year and a half I was finally able to communicate, get around town, and enjoy some of the deeper relationships I had made. Then I left to become a full time staff member here in Oklahoma.

When I first came to Oklahoma, again, the advice was the same, “After the first two years you’ll start to feel like you know what you’re doing.” It is now year four in Oklahoma, and I think I’m behind schedule! In fact, at the start of every year although I grow increasingly confident in the ways that God uses me, I grow even more aware of how much I need to learn. As I was planning for the semester and becoming a bit anxious over the gap between what I hope for and what I feel competent for, the Lord reminded me of Paul’s reflections in 2 Corinthians 3:

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life . . . Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

What Paul expressed about his own ministry is equally true of all of us, regardless of the shape of our calling, the substance is still the same: we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for the works he has prepared for us. Yours and my competency to fulfill our role in his kingdom comes from the Father himself, who gives the Spirit without measure, and Jesus his Son, who promised to be with us with all authority in heaven and on earth.

I am excited for the future, looking forward to this new school year and all that the Lord has for us. I am thankful for the past, looking back at all that the Lord has done these past five years. And, I am encouraged for the present, looking around at the fulfillment of the promises of God in the lives of friends, family, and students. His word does not go out in vain. His Gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all the nations before the end. His glory will be declared among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.�

Papers from Summer Classes @ Fuller Theoloigical Seminary

MO507: Power Encounters
How Speech works in Power Encounters

MC500: Church in Mission
Ethnic Church Paper

MN520: Encountering the City: An Introduction to Urban Ministry
Ethnography of a Chinese Restaurant

MC575: Catalyzing Faith Communities
A plan for my Missional Community

Beatitudes w/ Pawan & Meagan

Until I can figure out how to put the video on the blog, here's a link to somewhere else that you can watch it.

Song w/ Pawan

You can listen to a mastered version of the song here. (You can right click and pick "save target as" to download the song if you want.)

February Outreach: Pics and more

February, for many campus staff, is what my director calls “Funky February”. This is because staff and students are just settling into the semester, and there’s not a whole lot going on. There’s usually not much to plan and not many new students to follow up with, not to mention the weather is drab and unpredictable. Well, to remedy this (but really for other reasons) we decided to organize five different outreaches in the month of February! We finished them all this past week and now have the task of follow up with all the students that attended.

The most recent outreach we did was an event called “Porn Nation”. It’s a nationally-renowned event where recovering sex addict Michael Leahy gives a 90 minute multimedia presentation on the effects of pornography and a hyper-sexualized culture have on students and their relationships. He weaves in aspects of his personal story of sexual addiction, and after giving attendees a four minute intermission during which they can leave, he shares how a relationship with Jesus Christ brought him out of sexual addiction and enabled to fulfill his greatest need, to love others as Christ had loved him. Working with our students and partnering with many organizations on campus, we hosted Porn Nation at three of our campuses last week: the University of Central Oklahoma, East Central University, and Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Over the course of three days there were about 1000 students in attendance with almost 600 staying for the Gospel presentation and 8 students indicating that they prayed to receive Christ during Michael’s presentation.

Two weeks before the Porn Nation outreach, we hosted two other outreaches at the beginning of February at the UCO and at Cameron University in Lawton. At both of these campuses we hosted The Millionaire’s Forum, a formal dinner event where 30 of the top student leaders on campus come together to hear priceless business and life counsel from two accomplished businessmen who have built businesses with revenues in the millions. During the day of the event, the speakers spend time on campus as guest speakers in many of the business professors’ classes, sharing their business stories as well as some important life wisdom. Many of the students in the classrooms commented on how meaningful it was for them to hear personally from an accomplished businessman how to live well and make good ethical and financial decisions, and many of those student leaders who attended the dinner remarked on how encouraged and challenged they were by the speakers sharing not only about business practices, but also about their life and relationship with God. In fact, several said “Now I know that I can be a Christian and a successful businessman and that it’s okay to be successful as long as you use it to bless other people.” The Millionaire’s Forum was a great opportunity to reach out to the student leaders and to the faculty, and I’m looking forward to how the Lord will continue to grow those relationships recently established.

If you want to see some pictures from Porn Nation, or The Millionaire's Forum, just click on the links below.

Porn Nation @ SWOSU
Millionaire's Forum @ UCO

International Praise Festival

Last night we had the International Praise Festival at the University of Central Oklahoma, in partnership with a few different Christian organizations on campus and several local churches in the area. It was probably one of my most favorite events I've ever been a part of!

One of the worship bands from a local church here played throughout the evening, while we had some Latin American students sing a couple praise songs in Spanish, two Nepali students and three Japanese students share their testimonies, a whole group of African students and performers sing and dance, and the student director of Impact (a ministry for African American students in partnership with Campus Crusade) shared his testimony and a brief Gospel presentation. We had over 200 people come, and at one point in the evening everyone was out of their seats, dancing and singing with the African band!

Through donations we were able to give out about 150 New Testaments to everyone that came, and we had about 30 international students say they wanted to celebrate Christmas with a Christian family in the area. But, by far, the most exciting part of the evening was to hear the five international students share their testimonies of how they came to believe in and follow Jesus, especially with all the Japanese and Nepali students in the audience!

Please pray for these students and for God to use last night to bring many international students into new life in Christ! Also, pray that the Spirit would continue to move in many of the Christian's hearts to reach out to international students more and more!

*We filmed the whole event, and I will put some of the video up as it is available.*

2007 Oklahoma Catalytic Summer Projects

A slideshow of pictures from our students' summer projects. They went to Branson, Santa Cruz, Breckenridge, Thailand, Italy, and South Korea.