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."