Fall Retreat

Faithful supporters and readers-
Please pray for our team as we head out to our fall retreat this weekend. We have 25 students showing up, which is awesome. We've been trying to reach these campuses in New Orleans for less than 2 months, and we already have 25 coming to a retreat!!! Pray that it will be a great time of fellowship and growth for the students. Pray that it will be a time for them to really catch the vision of what God can do in their lives, and through them as they trust God to reach their friends and their campuses. Thank you for your partnership.

Big Wed and Thurs

From one of my teammates

"Wednesday and Thursday of this week will be two significant days for our ministry here in New Orleans/South LA. As I wrote earlier this month, we have been approved as a student organization at Tulane and Southern University. Each of these universities are very prestigious, and aside from LSU, they are two of the most visible universities in the state. Tulane, in the past, has been less than accommodating to Campus Crusade. It is a campus comprised of mostly out of state residents, a lot from the northeast, and it also has a large Jewish representation on their campus. Southern University is a prestigious African-American University in Baton Rouge. At this point, Tulane is, at best, reserved at our being on campus while Southern seems to be very excited. In fact, getting recognized at Tulane was a pretty long drawn out and very intentional process that took a couple of weeks. By God's provision, it took a couple of weeks less than expected. On the other hand, Southern was excited about us coming to their campus to start an organization. In fact, the drive from New Orleans to Baton Rouge took longer than it did for us to be a recognized student group there!

I am excited about both of these campuses for several reasons. One reason is because of personal ties to both universities. My grandmother worked for Tulane Medical Center for years, and several of my friends went to school there. And, one of my roommates in college was the starting quarterback for Southern.

Tomorrow we will be setting up tables at both universities. At the tables we will be handing out FSK's (Freshman Survival Kits). What that is, is a laundry bag w/ apologetic books, a Bible, a CD, a DVD, and other evangelistic materials. Scattered throughout the materials are links to an evangelistic website (if you want to check it out go to www.everyneworleansstudent.com). As we hand these bags out, students fill out spiritual interest surveys. Our desire as we hand out FSK's is two-fold. In our ongoing effort to reach lost students for Christ, our main desire is that the contacts we get from these FSK's would result in numerous appointments and conversations where we get to share the Gospel with students on these campuses. Our other desire is that we would find a few student leaders. As we look to work on 10 campuses this year, we need help. We need to find students who are committed to serving Christ and who have a heart to reach their campus for Christ. As we find those students, we have committed to coach and disciple them in ministry skills in order for them to help us reach their campus for Christ. So please pray that God would provide contacts for us to engage in spiritual conversations, but also that He will provide the student leaders we need to effectively reach these campuses.

Another reason I am so excited about these universities is because they are predominantly made up of out of state students. What that means is that as we win these students to Christ, build them up in their faith, and send them out in the world to have an influence for His Kingdom we will not only be sending these students back to scattered cities in Louisiana, but we will literally be sending these students, equipped with the Gospel, all over the country, and all over the world. We know that not everyone is called to full-time ministry, but we know that everyone Christian will have a ministry wherever they end up for their future vocation whether it be as a pastor, missionary, or even a doctor or engineer.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for your prayers for us here in New Orleans!"

Couldn't Have Scripted it Better

Events happened two days ago...

Typical day. Wake up and head to campus. Except today, instead of hitting campus alone, my director called and invited me along on one of his appointments. When I get to campus, he informs me that the guy we were supposed to meet ended up having to reschedule. In my mind, I'm thinking...it's going to be one of those days. Things one after another are probably going to go wrong.

Oanh. We decide to catch up a little (I just returned from a week long conference in Colorado) and to spend some time prayer walking on campus - praying that God would raise up laborers and student leaders on this campus. After we prayed, before he had to run off for a conference call, we decided to approach some students and do a few spiritual interest surveys. We talked to this one girl, wasn't expecting a whole lot since we were a little short on time. Turns out, she seemed to be a pretty strong believer, a freshman, and very interested in being a part of epic!!!

Saul. I come back to UNO at 2 to meet up with the guy that we had to reschedule with, and proceeded to have the most "textbook" evangelistic appointment ever. He's a student from Honduras (UNO apparently has some kind of partnership with Honduras since there's an insane number of students at UNO from there). He tells us about his spiritual background - grew up going to church, but was never really "into" it. He even made a distinction that he believed in God, but didn't have a relationship with Him. He also tells us that his father became a believer a couple years ago, and has seen drastic life change, which has caused him to be a lot more open. We go through the gospel, and what do you know, he prays to receive Christ as His Lord and Savior!!!!

Demetris. After that appointment, me and Antonio (one of my teammates) meet up with another contact we made from when we tabled. We've been praying that we would find a key Impact (African American ministry partnered with CCC) student to lead at UNO...and as we met with her, it seemed very apparent that she was the leader we had been praying for. After we shared the vision for reaching the campus, we asked her if she would consider being a part of it, and possibly leading...to which she replied, "I'm glad you asked, cause as you were talking, I was already thinking of ideas"!!!

God is at work!!! It's such a privilege to be a part of what He's doing!

Thank You

The eye is doing a lot better. I'm still having to do eyedrops, but the doctor says it should all be cleared up by the beginning of next week. Thank you to everyone who called me, emailed me, and prayed for me.

But the battle continues. The original plan this week was to launch our ministry at Tulane and at Loyola. But we ran into road blocks at both schools. In fact, it doesn't look like we're going ot be able to be at Loyola at all this year. The administration has specifically stated it doesn't want Crusade presence at its school for now. Please continue to pray against the strongholds in the city. Please continue to pray for the lives on the students on these campuses, and that God will open the door somehow for us to bring the gospel to the campus.

I still can't believe that a uear has already passed since this city was hit with Katrina. The city is still devastated and there is so much work yet to be done. Click here for a perspective from one of my teammates (who is originally from Louisiana).

I had the opportunity to attend the Presidential address to New Orleans yesterday. And it accomplished two things. It caused me to develop a greater respect for our President, and more importantly a greater compassion for the people of New Orleans.

Strange Things...

strange things keep happening...

BUT before we get to those, here's an update on how our first week of launching on campus has been going. We spent the first two days passing out FSKs (Freshmen Survival Kits - laundry bags filled with a New Testament, a DVD, a CD, and a book...something like More than a Carpenter or Blue Like Jazz, etc) The purpose is two folds, we want to sow broadly (each kit also has a link to NOLAstudents.com), and to surface potential student leaders who have been called to reach their campus.

I have to be honest, as I've been praying this week, I've realized that I don't truly believe that God has raised up students who can start movements on these campuses. But as I've continued to pray, I sense the Lord giving me greater and greater faith.

Yesterday, we had a meeting for all those who were interested. We had 12 students show up to be potential leaders!!! I don't like to read into things, but as I was praying with one of the students who is interested in starting epic, the thought occured to me that Jesus started with 12 disciples!

But as we continue with our starting up on all the campuses, I'm continually reminded of the spiritual war that we're in. I'm not one to quickly attribute things to spiritual warfare, but I can't explain these things in any other way. In hte past couple weeks, we had two different people on our team fall down some stairs on different occasions. The little 2 year old girl of one of the families dislocated her arm. People are having technology problems with their computers and their cell phones. Monday night, both my roommate and I have really bad headaches. And then yesterday, halfway through the day, my eye started hurting really bad. I could barely keep it open. It was really sensitive to light, was really red, and kept tearing up. I managed to get an appointment with a doctor to find that somehow, I developed a really bad eye infection. And because of that, I had to miss being on campus today, and I won't be able to travel with the team to Southeastern Lousiana University (about an hour away) tomorrow...the doctor wants to see me again tomorrow afternoon.

Satan is trying to discourage us and will stop at nothing to keep us off campus and away from these students. PLEASE join with us in praying. We desperately need your prayers cause we must be doing something right, and satan is not excited.

A Call to Arms

definition - A rallying term used by proponents of a cause.

***warning***
this entry is a bit long, but continue reading if you desire to respond to the "call to arms". We need people to join with us in prayer!!!!


After being in New Orleans now for about 3 weeks, most of it spent in meetings with my new team discussing team values, vision, dynamics, and planning for the year, we are finally hitting the campus today.

I wanted to ask each of you to consider joining our team in ministry over the next three weeks through your prayers. When Campus Crusade initially started at UCLA, it began with a prayer chain. We are asking staff and friends to join us in prayer. Today is our first official day on campus and for the next three weeks, all of our our major campuses will begin. The first few weeks of the fall are some of the greatest time of momentum and to gather student leaders. The spiritual battle is still very evident here in New Orleans. We need your prayer support. Here is a list of things you can be praying for us:

Our launch days (those are days that we try to launch ministries) - that God would open doors and bring us committed students to lead movements all over campus. For the University of New Orleans we have tables set up for the 21st - 23rd. Pray for key leaders with Epic (the Asian American ministry) , IMPACT (African American ministry) and regular Crusade. We hope to launch the next week at Tulane and Southeastern Louisiana. For every campus but UNO, we still need to get permission to set up tables. Pray that God would open doors.

Loyola - we were denied as a campus ministry at Loyola even though the summer project had many interested students - pray that God would give us favor there!

Tulane - our petition to become a recognized organization is out - we think Tulane was denied in the past (5 years ago)so pray that God would give us favor now

New Believers - pray that we would get to share the gospel a lot and see many new believers.

The Relief Team - they are helping us with campus ministry and we are trying to incorporate the efforts - pray for wisdom and lots of student involvement.

Pray that we would get connected with other believers in a prayer network.

Pray for our team to continue to get along well and work well together. For good relationships in the community and wisdom.

Lastly, pray against any forms of spiritual attacks. New Orleans is a very spiritual place. Its history includes many forms of spirituality that is very much against what the gospel represents. Many have come through the city and sensed spiritual strongholds. Strongholds that can be broken through only through prayer. Just a few days ago as I was spending time in the Word, praying for the semester, I was reading in the gospel of John. I distinctly read the words "do not pray to God". It caused me to stop and reread the paragraph several times thinking...there's no way what I just read is really in the Bible. And of course, those words weren't really in the Bible. But those words had come into my head so loud and clear that I knew that the evil one was trying to feed lies into my head. Satan doesn't want our team to share the gospel on these campuses. Satan doesn't want us to help usher in movements of believers that will transform the culture of these campuses and the culture of the city. And so we must pray. We must fall to our knees and pray!!!

Please join with us in praying for these next three weeks.

Another summer project came and went

Life has been a bit crazy. I got back from project on July 23. Flew into Houston, spend the afternoon and evening with my parents. Drove back into Austin late that night around 2:30 am. I then had about a week to pack up my house to move to New Orleans. I still can't believe I moved. But before I get into my move to New Orleans, I feel I still need to wrap up summer project.

This summer was another one of my more enjoyable summers. Eight students and 11 staff participated on the project. Four days out of the week, we did ministry on college campuses - trusted God for new simple movements to start up in our short 4 weeks there. Each Saturday, we headed up to San Francisco and participated in more mercy/compassion type ministries. And to be honest, these days were a lot more stretching for me. God really used the days to grip my heart for those that are different than me. One day, we ministered at a place like a "half-way house". We passed out lunches and prayed for those staying there - many of whom were strung out on alcohol or drugs. Through my interaction with them, I was reminded of the hunger and thirst of the woman at the well in John 4. Another day, we ministered at a youth center for trans-genders. I must admit, I didn't know what to expect, not having interacted with trans-genders before. But I must say, it was one of my more enjoyable activities of the summer. The whole time I was there, God continually reminded me that He died for them as well. That He loved them and that though they may be different, they are people too. It's such a simple thing. And even as I write about it, I think, uh...duh, but it really was a profound experience for me.

I could go on and on with the stories, but check out some of these links to others blogs:
http://www.xanga.com/Truongalong/507700598/wow.html?nextdate=last
http://denchen.blogspot.com/ (read the epic bay area project posts - there are 9 of them)

Okay, more about my transition to New Orleans later.

from the eyes of a student...

from the perspective of a student on project...he sent this out a few weeks back. We're actually in week 3 now.
Truman

HELLO from san jose

it is day 3 of week 1 here on the missions field.

these past 2 days have been jam packed with God and missions stuff.

on friday i got acquainted with the team in an official meeting, total
there are 20 people (i think its 20). we went around the group and
shared a brief testimony of our lives and what brought us here to san
jose. it was such a blessing to see how God has worked in all our lives
to bring 20 people from around the US to one place for a specific purpose.

attatched is a picture of the main team leaders, from left to right -
Carita and Dennis (they are married) and Truman (Carita's brother).
please keep them in your prayers, that god would them grant them wisdom
and a servant's heart. Also, Truman has a broken collar bone that is
taking a long time to heal. Essentially the bone is broken and one part
is resting on top of the other. please pray that God would heal Truman.

after the team meeting, Cenia (a campus crusade staff member from Boston)
gave a brief history of the bay area and san francisco and then split the
team into smaller teams for each car and sent us out to the surronding
area to explore. the three college campuses that we will be focusing
upon this summer is De Anza, San jose State, and Evergreen. Our team
went to Evergreen, however when we pulled into the parking lot we saw
that there were only a handful of cars in the empty lot. Our goal today
was to go out and just measure and get the sense of the campus' spiritual
atmosphere and I was discouraged to see that there was such a small
amount of people on the campus. We walked onto to campus and didn;t
encounter a single student, but i began to pray to God asking him to show
us a place where students congregated. What happened? God answered! We
found the library and went inside and there our team of 5 encountered and
talked to many different people. two team members, Abe and Lo-Ling,
encountered a buddhist and hindu student who were both very opened to
Jesus and God. The buddhist student was so open that she even wanted to
meet up and do a bible student, praise the LORD! Abe got to share the
gospel with hindu student (please pray for both of them) and even got to
pray for her (she was sorta taken aback that someone asked to pray for
her). For Lo-Ling, this was the first time she went out to share her
faith but afterward she told me how awesome and easy it was to share.

I got to talk to some people but most were christian, but i did get to
talk to to young vietnamese ladies and even share the gospel with them.
Evyette and Michelle, juniors in high school, were very open to the
gospel but did not accept jesus, however when i was praying for them my
teammate, truman, said that evyette was taking in every single word i was
praying. i know god is pursuing both girls and loves them both.

please pray for the people we met at evergreen, especially the buddhist
girl Amy tran, the hindu girl - Sachim, evyette, and michelle.

AND THAT WAS ONLY FRIDAY!!

saturday was a cool day. we met in the morning for teammeeting and then
went out to san francisco to visit CHINATOWN! it was an awesome to get
to walk around and see the city in all 5 senses. we learned that day
that today - sunday june 25 - there was going to be a gay pride parade.
in my heart and head i knew that a gay pride parade is going to attract
those 'christians' who preach a message of hate. it hurt my heart to
know that God pursues every single person in SF and its so called
christians that really blur and distort the love, grace, and message of
God, Jesus, and the gospel.

Today we went to GRX - the great exchange - a New Song church plant. it
was your average contempory young professional church filled with asian
people (not that that's bad or anything).

its a long email i know and if you got this far i'm happy for you because
i want to share something God has taught me recently.

in luke 5 Jesus asks Peter to cast his net into the water even though
peter told jesus that the he and others had fished all day and night but
had caught nothing. nonetheless peter obeyed and in when he did he had
net caught such a large number fish that net began to break. When he got
to shore he fell at jesus' feet and said "go away from me Lord; I'm a
sinful man!"
this is probably one of my favorite stories because peter has the chance
to say the savior of the world anything or any question, but instead
because he saw the power of God and knew his own sinfulness he tried to
push God away. But what is wierd Jesus donesn't forgive his sins or say
something profound he just says "Don't be afraid; from now on you will
catch men." Jesus wasn't interested in Peter's sins or what he had done
in the past. he didn't tell him to forgive those who wronged him. but
what jesus did say seemed to impact peter in such a profound way that he
left everything to follow jesus.
it seems that sometimes i really acknowledge my own sinfulness to much to
acknowledge jesus' love and desire for me to become a fisher of man.


thanks for reading this long email and thanks for praying for me.

with peace and thanksgiving
Enoch

What it's all about...

Yesterday was baptism Sunday at our church (soon to be Vox Veniae) It so easy for us dusty, experienced, "mature" Christians to forget or not even know what it looks like to "know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (Philippians 3:10)

But for the 8 that got baptized yesterday, the joy of crossing that line...having passed from death to life and now making that a public proclamation....there's a fresh understanding. Check here for pics - my roommates blog.

What was so beautiful about yesterday was the stories...not about the individuals, but about God and how He pursued each one of them in such a unique way. Some grew up with a Buddhist upbringing, some an atheist background....but each person was pursued. Either through friends, or through finally breaking down and having to pray...and God clearly speaking saying "Trust me".

This is what it's all about...praising God as He pursues humanity to shower his grace and mercy upon individuals. For those that got baptized and for all that claim to follow Christ, I pray that Paul's words will be true for our lives..."that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

A Whole New World

I've gone almost a whole week now with limited use of my left arm due to a broken collarbone. It's definitely given me a whole new appreciation for my arms. The first night, I actually had to have someone pretty much tuck me in to sleep. I haven't had to require help showering, but needless to say, it's a chore.

It's frustrating going through this whole process. I feel like there's so much to do, but my life has slowed down tremendously cause of this injury. Now I'm wrestling through how one continues to be thankful and consider all things joyful.

Epic Retreat Recap

Beyond my expectations. God definitely heard the prayers and wanted to bless this retreat. The impact of the retreat was most evident the last morning we were together. We ended our time in prayer. The prayers that morning consisted of honest pleading that God would use them greatly back on their campuses; that they would see radical change in their own lives as they pursued to have more passion for God. No longer was it just about school and tests that occupied their minds, but it was about God and His kingdom. I thought it would last about 10 minutes and I would have to close out the time of awkward silence...but the prayers just kept going, until I eventually had to end it so they wouldn't miss their checkout time.

One student, the week after the retreat was a little bummed wondering what exactly she got out of the retreat. But as she continued to pray, she realized that more and more, she felt a burden for the lost.

God is still answering the prayers. I pray that we will see a rippling effect - as these students' hearts are transformed, their peers in epic will be changed, and the friends who don't know Christ will radically be changed.

Desperate Need for Prayer

This weekend is our epic retreat down in San Antonio. Originally, we had an Epic conference planned for Jan 13...a full blown conference, flying in a speaker, bringing in a band, having hired guns to give seminar talks, etc. But we had to cancel. Can't really have a conference with only 5 students attending.

Thus the epic retreat was born. This weekend, we will have a "small scale" retreat with students from Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. It's nothing huge, but I'm praying that the impact will be huge. It'll be a time of reflection and renewal for the students. All the "talks" will be given by staff.

Pray that we will be able to communicate God's truth in a way that will impassion these students for the Lord like never before. Pray that this simple weekend will lead to a stirring revival back at their schools.

I'm currently having a really hard time working on these talks, and it's only a couple days away. So, please be praying for me.

New Leaders

We started the new semester the only we knew how...over some food! Last Monday, we had our existing leaders and our new ones over for a vision casting time. And of course food - taught them all to make their own spring rolls. It's been really exciting seeing the Lord's hand at work. Having our leadership team grow from 3 to 8 is definitely indication that students are beginning to own the vision.

"Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God's goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it."
William Law