The Light...

...at the end of the tunnel. Yes, I can finally see it. After being "homeless" as newly weds for the past 5 months, Amber and I finally have a date set to move into a house. Well, assuming everything goes well from here on out. After looking at all our options to renovate the house I actually own, we decided it was best to sell, and find a house that was move-in ready. With much thankfulness, and full of praise, I gladly report that as of Sunday, we are now under contract to buy our first home and to sell my first home (not suitable for a married couple).

There have been many lessons I've learned since being married. But the one that has been the most "in-my-face" (one that I've been learning since I put my trust in Christ), is ironically how to trust Christ. In this case, it's trusting Christ with providing for my family. Especially with my wife's sickness (she has fibro), my tendency to control and provide is more apparent.

God sometimes speaks to me through my dreams, and recently, I don't think I've been listening. Since we've been back in Austin, when we first started looking to remodel, to most recently looking for and selling a home, I haven't slept well. Pretty much every night is filled with stressful dreams. And it continually got more and more intense. Pretty much a sure message of "HEY! You need to ease up. Stop stressing about things and trust me. Know that I am God and have rest!" But I didn't listen.

This past Sunday was the Chicago marathon, in which our friend Jen successfully finished. She decided to pray for someone different each mile, and we were mile 6. When I first learned that she wanted to pray for us, I was thinking, "Wow! That's a really cool idea, and really nice that we made the list." I had no idea how important mile 6 was really going to be.

If you're reading this, I don't know what your take on prayer is, but at least consider that God really does hear our prayers and responds. After waiting a week of negotiations on the house we were trying to buy, and listing our house for just a few days, on SUNDAY, God heard the prayers during mile 6, and the sellers accepted our offer, and we received a full price offer on the house we're selling.

God knows the very number of hairs on our heads (Luke 12). God is intimately involved in our lives, every detail he cares for us, and will love us. Will I finally learn that I truly can trust Christ?

A Different Beginning

Every fall for the past 8 years have been marked by a new group of incoming freshmen, their hearts a blank slate ready to be written on by the influences of the college campuses. As a collegiate missionary, my prayer and hope is that every freshmen that steps foot on the campus will have an opportunity to hear the message of Christ. They will decide to surrender the lordship of their lives to Jesus, and experience the fullness of the joy and blessings of being a child of God.

But this fall is different for me. Instead of getting on campus and meeting these freshmen. Instead of meeting with staff and planning on how to plant on grow spiritual movements on these campuses. Amber and I are busy raising our financial support. It's an odd fall for me not being in the thick of all the high momentum of the start of the school year. But it's also been a blessing.

Amber and I have been on the road since we got married back in May. Yeah, that's four months of living out of a suitcase, staying in a dorm, sharing space with other people. Not counting our honeymoon, we've had maybe 2 weeks total that we weren't sharing space with other people. Through all this transition, however, we've had to learn quickly how to communicate well. We've had to learn how to still find rest and joy in the Lord even when everything is less than ideal.

The transition continues as we are finally back in Austin. In addition to working on raising our financial support, we are having to settle into our house. Unfortunately, that's not without some challenges. I know I've made my mistakes in the past, but forcing my wife to move into a flea and rat infested house will not be one. So, until we can rid the house of those pests, and gut and redo the kitchen and bathroom, we will be sharing space yet again. This time, with my cousin and 2 little boys who apparently only have two voice volumes-loud and louder.

Stay tuned as our journey towards normalcy continues.


yeah, this hole in my home actually opens up to the outside

Conference update

(This update was taken from a friend and fellow epic staff from Oregon...with his permission, of course)

Thank you so much for laboring with us in your prayers for the EPIC conference [Feb 16-19]! It was so awesome to fellowship with about 150 students and 50+ staff from all over the country. It was such a momentus and historic time. And as you know, this conference was not without obstacles & opposition. Sherry Slaughter's [staff woman] house flooded just as she was leaving to drive up and set up registration on Friday, Jaeson Ma [one of the main speakers] got intense abdominal pains on Saturday morning and almost headed to the ER instead of coming to San Jose for the conference, Tommy Dyo [Epic national director and speaker] (who was still recovering from fever/sick symptoms) delivered his first talk to the EPIC movement with incredibly loud and distracting party music next door making it nearly impossible for students to concentrate on what was being said, Sunday morning we woke up to find some kind of convention next door to our main meeting involving tarot cards, sensual dancing, palm reading, & the like. Strange things were happening, and indicative of the spiritual warfare & deep strongholds that are engrained in AA communities. But despite all this, the reality of spiritual warfare brought people more to their knees in prayer and more proactively attentive to what God was doing in our midst. We prayed and were reminded that He who is in us, is greater than he who is in the world.

Students were challenged by Vivian Mabuni (who saved the day big time and delivered the first 2 talks when Tommy was sick), Tommy & Jaeson to connect with our Father in an entirely new way unlike how they'd been treated by earthly fathers, to realize our uniqueness of being bi-cultural & how God wants to use us to reach out to others through this new understanding of our identity, and to be committed to prayer & a passionate love for God. Students were challenged to take the gospel to our partnerships throughout the world on summer projects, STINTS and internships. Students were trained in seminars to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, to make wise/godly decisions for their futures, to plant spiritual communities, and more. Students who had never been hugged by their parents received hugs from their "spiritual" family during a powerful session Sunday night, which then ended with an awesome last worship set with students literally rushing the stage to dance, jump, and shout out in praise to our Father. Students & staff celebrated the Lunar New Year with a festive party filled with egg rolls, rice crackers, karaoke, boba tea, Asian candies, & more.

On our day of outreach, we went to the Vietnamese New Year festival (which was expecting over 60,000 people & represents the least reached subculture in the Bay Area) and saw:

323 spiritual conversations/exposures initiated
164 shared the gospel with
16 people accept Christ
81 people prayed on the spot for
8 people rededicated their life
Praise God!

Jaeson Ma said that we can't be passionate (& in love) with God until we realize just how much He is passionately in love with us. We love because He first loved us. What a great take away for all of us as we leave this conference. Please continue to pray for our EPIC students as the story is just beginning for many of them.

Pray:
- that the things the students learned will take root in their hearts
- that many of them will decide to be on a summer project
- that many of them will go back as missionaries on their campuses