Staying on top of things

It's only been about 3 months in and I've been finding it hard to keep this blog updated, something that I'm going to definitely try to work on. I'm currently in Portland resting and catching up with friends and family for Christmas. On the 28th I will be heading to Campus Crusade's student winter conference. Something that I've never actually been to before... So It'll be a new experience for me. I'm just hoping it's not too overwhelming with everything else that I have going on.

So in the past month since I have updated there has been a lot going on. I really think there has been a big shift in the movement at UofO. The vision for the ministry is beginning to be caught on by students. Students are starting to see the ministry as something bigger then themselves. With everything going on lately, it has been really exciting.

I'm trying to get more pictures on here, but I keep on forgetting to upload them and sadly, despite telling myself to remember before leaving for Portland, I forgot the cable for my camera. Anyways, if you have still been following my blog, stay tuned for the next post.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm currently back in Portland until Sunday to spend time with family and friends. While I hope everyone who encounters this blog is having or had a amazing time enjoying the comfort of those who care about you. Since this is Thanksgiving after all, here are a few things that I'm thankful for this year:

1. God - His love, grace, and mercy... Because he first loved us.
2. Family - where you can always count on them to be there
3. Friends - For all of you who I've met in this journey. The impact in my life from all of you cannot be described in words.
4. For the ministry team that I have been placed in. I am learning so much from the examples that you have set on how to minister with a Christ centered mind.
5. All the Epic students, past and present. All of you who have made the ministry what it is today

Works Don't Fly

It has been a few weeks since the last time I posted something on my blog. I guess there is a lot for me to share with you, as there has been a lot of things going on with me in the last few weeks. The other day I was listening to a guy by the name of Jaeson Ma. It was a message did he did over a series of a few days at the University of Texas a couple of years ago (you can watch the videos below). One thing that has really stuck out to me lately is:

Romans 12:1-2
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The phrase "renewing of the mind" is what has been playing over and over in my head. I'm constantly asking myself, what is my mentality? Is it pleasing to God? And one thing that I realized from listening to Jaeson is that there has been something lacking as I've been ministering the past couple of weeks. I needed a passion that is not of my own. What I mean by that is that I have been going out there with a passion, but it was a passion that I instilled. What I really needed was to go with God's passion, his love for his people.

I saw that I not only needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit ought to be overflowing out of me. That nothing is done of my own will, but completely by God, his Spirit. What I needed to do was pray for and study his passion. I needed to wait upon him. I went to sleep praying and woke up praying. There is no, absolutely no better feeling then when the Holy Spirit is doing the work, and all we're doing is obeying.

Today's Golf Course

I noticed that it has been over a week since I updated my blog and there is so much to tell. I guess I will start with the beginning of the week. I have been going to a church called Ekklesia for the past few weeks. From the time being there, the impression that I have gotten from the church is a church that really preaches the gospel and seeks to share the word to the city of Eugene. But what really stood out to me was that the people there were really inviting as it was impossible for me to walk into the church without being welcomed by someone.

Apparently a lot of the Epic students still have to yet to find a church that they can call it their church while attending college. So to my surprise when I openly invited students during the weekly Epic meeting, the majority expressed interest in going with me.

Speaking of the Epic meeting, it was an intriguing meeting. While I had planned all week for a leadership dinner where we could as a group talk about the vision for the ministry, the goals for the year, and how students can be get their feet wet, the students spent an hour during the meeting discussing their desire to start seeing things happen on this campus. So I'm hoping the momentum from their passion continues into this leadership dinner Sunday evening and into the rest of the school year.

On Thursday we had a guest speaker by the name of Doug Polluck. He came to the campus with a message to the staff and students of our ministry by bringing to our attention the current situation of many ministries, not just Campus Crusade for Christ. It is something that I have been contemplating in my mind for awhile, but have yet been able to illustrate it into words. I felt for awhile that the way that we (as in the general body of Christ), lately have not been effectively reaching out to the non-believers. All I was able to put together in my head was that it was simply the tools/methods that we were using doesn't work.

Doug took that thought and put it into an illustration that is fairly easy to understand. He used an illustration of a golf course. The golf course represented where people were at in their spiritual lives, the golf balls are the people, the hole is where people are saved, and the golf club as the tools/method/approaches that we use to reach the lost.

The thing is that we have been using the same tool (golf club), to reach the lost for the past few decades. In the past it has worked pretty effectively, but in today's world we have seen a significant decline of reaching the lost. That brings us to wonder why aren't we reaching people like we have in the past? Is it that our approach simply doesn't work anymore?

The answer is both "yes" and "no". "How can that be?" you might ask? It's simple. In the past decades Christianity has been very favorable amongst your general Americans. Whether people were believers or not, they most likely were from a time where exposure to God was high. Talking about God in the schools, work, media, government, and even sports team was commonly acceptable by the general public. Because of that you could imagine that with the right tool, we could easily back in the day reach out to people and bring the ball home to the hole. Once again try to imagine a golf course, and you have hundreds, thousands, millions of golf balls all sitting on the green and not too far from the hole. All you need is to pull out your putter and putt people home.

However, today is a different story. Nowadays you will find people scattered across the golf course. While we do have people on the green near the hole, we have a much larger number of people in many different locations such as the rough, the bunkers, the fairway, the water hazard, and the tee ground (click here to see for definition of parts of the golf course). Here is the problem.

Back in the day everyone wasn't that far away from the hole, most of them sat somewhere on or near the green. The problem of today is that we are still trying to use the same golf club (the putter) that has been used for the past few decades to reach people. It's not that the putter is no longer effective, but could you imagine bringing someone to Christ by using a putter if you were in the fairway, tee ground, or other places on the golf course?

We live in a different culture now, and we must use the appropriate approaches to reach the lost. That doesn't mean that we should throw away our putters, as there are still uses for it for people who are lingering around the hole, but consider pulling out other clubs to swing at the balls.

Rain

I woke up yesterday and was excited because it was Tuesday, meaning that we were going to have our Epic meeting later that night. I had an appointment earlier in the day with a student that I'm trying to continue following up with after meeting him the first time a week ago, where I got his contact information when we went around and surveyed students. When I got out of the apartment and hopped on my bike, I made the simple observation that it had rained and thinking to myself that I should be careful.

As I tried to start peddling, my bike wouldn't move. The gear on my bike was stuck. I started to panic, thinking that I was going to be late with my appointment with this student. After about 10 minutes struggling with my bike, I eventually was able to get it back in gear. With my focus now being on time rather then being safe, I tried to quickly get myself to the memorial union where I was meeting him. As I was pedal to the building I noticed that my phone was ringing and I took it out (with one hand still on the steering bar) to see if it was him calling me to wondering if I had arrived yet. It wasn't him, and as I was about to put my the phone back, my bike's gear got jammed again and I found my wheels skidding and eventually myself losing balance and hurling off my bike. As embarrassing as it was, I was okay... just some minor scratches.

As I got to the meeting location, and finding myself about 10 minutes late, I gave him a call to see where he was and after not seeing him wondering if maybe he had left because he didn't see me. Eventually I got a message from him saying that he wasn't able to make it due to a class group project he had.

In my mind at that moment what seemed to be a day that I was really looking forward to, wasn't looking that attractive. However, towards the evening my outlook of the day was very much different.

With an extra hour on my hand, I now had extra time to prepare the Epic meeting; which I found out that I really needed. If you haven't seen a Nooma video before, they're quite good. The one that I chose to show during the meeting was called Rain (watch the video and you'll know what I'm talking about). But I noticed that during the morning, despite literally raining that day, it was raining in my life. However, through all the mess that happened to me earlier, I could have looked at it from a different perspective. Through all of the mess I was given the opportunity to spend that extra time with God, a moment that I wouldn't trade for the world.

First meeting today

So today was the National Day of Prayer. We as a team prayed as we walked around for a couple of hours. It was actually really interesting as we had a list of things to pray for from other people in the Northwest.

Today we had our first meeting. We had a couple of new students that we had never met before. So the day was ultimately good. Hoping that they would come again. besides our meet and greet, we did something very simple... It's called Soularium. Basically what it's a bunch of cards that have pictures of various things. Typically you could use it to evangelize by using to start conversations by showing people these pictures and asking them to pick pictures that they'd identify with and what pictures represents where they want to be. Also asking questions about their spiritual walk and where they want to be. However, instead we used it on ourselves.

We broke up into groups of about 5 and we asked each other those questions. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know each other and have an idea of where we are each coming from and what our desires are.

I like how things are starting out. We are building momentum for this coming year, and things look bright. I(we) just need to continue to focus and push forward for His kingdom.

I'm sick... but I'm Excited!

In the past week things have been interesting. I still have trouble remembering people's names as it gets even harder as I continue to meet new people. I have a little cold right now (I like to blame the weather for it); besides getting tired faster than normally, I'm still able to get around and function normally. Thank God for that.

Last Friday we had a little potluck at my place for the Epic students. Initially I wasn't expecting many students to come (maybe 6-8 students), but in the end there was around 12 of us. It was good being able to get everyone together before we start our first meeting this Tuesday. We've been in discussion about how to edify the student body as well as formatting our meetings so that it would encourage people to come and bare witness to the body of Christ. As of right now, I think we may have an idea of what that may look like.

Last night I went to my very first football game. One of the volunteer staff who happens to be also a financial supporter of the ministry here, gave our staff free tickets to see the Ducks play against the Washington State Cougars. After the first quarter the game got very boring as the Ducks had already taken a huge lead. On top of that, I don't think being in the out there was good for my cold either.

Praises this week:

1. God bringing excitement to students as they are beginning to see God's plan for the Epic ministry at UO. It has been encouraging for myself to see students starting to invite people to our meetings, taking up leadership roles, and willingness to go out there and reach the campus.
2. My apartment looking presentable and clean (at least every place besides the restroom).
   

Prayer Request:

1. That God continues to reach and transform the lives of students.
2. That God will prepare us for our first meeting
3. That we will continue reaching the students at the University of Oregon
   

People People People

In the last few days things have really picked up. Besides having a lot of the ministries technology responsibilities falling on me, something that I know very little about, I have been meeting a lot of new people. The last two days we've been trying to reach out to students. Our methods have been pretty simple. We would approach students and ask them if they want to fill out a survey about their spiritual background and needs, see if they're interested in getting to know God or becoming involved, and collecting their contact information so that we can follow up with them soon.

Despite not being in the mood to go out and do surveys earlier this evening, God allowed me to meet a few interesting students. I met a grad student who seems very interested in finding out more about the ministry. Just from our short conversation, I think he could be a potential leader in the ministry. I'm going to try to meet up with him again later this week. So if you're reading this, pray that God brings him our way.

Other than that, my apartment is still a mess... I've been either too busy or tired to clean things up. We're having a potluck this coming Friday so I will have to get my place in order before then.

Big Friday

So tomorrow and the next few days are going to be crazy as it is one of the most important times for us as a ministry to reach out to new students. It's almost 12am and I just finished the things that I needed to get done to be ready for a big day tomorrow (The university is having an event for students to find spiritual groups). Pray that God brings a lot of students our way and allows us to be able to reach out to them. I'll let you know how it goes later.

Recovered and Renewed

So the Summit was great. Although we weren't able to get all the students that we wanted to go to be there, but we had an amazing weekend. Despite the fact that half of the people who attended falling ill to some stomach bug that got around at the retreat (I recovered on Tuesday), God allowed us (both staff and students) to grow as a ministry as the vision was cast for the year we prepared ourselves for this coming school year.

I met a lot of students for the first time. There were a few students who I was able to get into deep conversations and able to hear their stories. I recently just ate lunch with one of them. He's an international student from China. It was just great to get to talk to him about God, life, philosophy, each other, and his interest in American culture.

this next few weeks is going to be a very busy and crucial time as we try to reach out to students. This coming Friday there are events in which we have the opportunity to connect with students through the university's events that they have for students.

As promised from a few weeks ago, here's a picture of my apartment. I really haven't had the time to organize things yet, so it may look a little messy. But this is home for me for the next year!

Meetings!!

It has been a busy busy week as we have been in staff meetings all every day. We are currently planning for "The Summit", which is a retreat that we are going to be using to align student leaders and Crusade staff with the vision for the rest of the year. The site that we are using is approximately an hour from Eugene, and we are getting to use the facility, which is owned by a church, for free.

Our meetings have been really long, around 5-6 hours a day; although, it has really allowed me to get to know the staff team a lot better by understanding everyone's character, strengths and weakness, and some background information about each individual.

If you're reading this and don't mind, I'd like to ask you to pray for "The Summit", that God will simply do his thing in the life of the student leaders as well as the Campus Crusade Staff.

Arrived and alive!

Hello All!

I made it down to Eugene and now I'm in my new apartment (it actually looks really old - I'll post pictures of it later). I have unpacked most things so far and did a little bit of shopping for supplies that I need for the apartment, but I still have yet go buy groceries...

Andrew Enders (Campus Crusade Director at UO), is allowing me to have until Sunday to settle in, find my niche, and get a little more familiar with Eugene before assigning me to do things. Something I am really appreciating because there is still yet so much that I have to do. I'll have another post later in the day, I just need to go finish getting my apartment in order.

The Big Move Down South

Earlier today I was browsing around for a church to go to. I came across one so far, Ekklesia. I don't know much about it so I'm going to look into it a little. If you happen to be reading this blog and have some churches that you know in Eugene that you think I should look into, by all means leave a comment.

So I am moving down south. Not the deep south, but two hours south of Portland. My car is all packed, and I am set and ready to go. I was surprised that everything fits in the car, it's so packed that I can't see outside the rear mirror... so pray that I will have a safe journey.

I'm excited, nervous, with all sorts of mix emotions that you normally get when you wait in anticipation of something great. I feel like a little boy on Christmas Eve, who can't sleep and is sitting there counting the seconds down, until he can open his presents the next day. In my case, my present is the drive down where the next stage of this journey begins.

Over the Labor Day weekend I went to the annual Northwest Vietnamese Christian Conference (a conference of churches from various denominations across the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Canada). The passage that set the tone for the conference was Romans 8:28-30:

²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

The reason that I am sharing this passage with you is that it was really affirming for me. How amazing is it that when we as people love Him, and by loving him, trusting in him, that he will use "all things" that happens in our lives, not "somethings" but "in all things God works for the good..." I just want to leave this post on that thought for everyone who is reading this; just to remember that God will transforms all things in our lives, whether it was a positive or negative experience for the good.

Crossing the Finish line....

I just wanted to let everyone know, that I am at full support! It is exciting, thrilling, amongst many other words that I cannot describe. I would like to thank everyone who has been praying for me during the time that I have been raising support, especially during these last few days, but most of all thank God. Surely I would not have been able to come near to finishing my support without his guidance and the things that he put in placed that made things possible. I will be moving down from Portland to Eugene in about a week. Keep on praying for the ministry with me, and I will probably update this blog again in a week.

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." - Jesus (John 15:4)

The Starting Journey

It is amazing what God does when we simply trust in him. After I heard God's calling for me to continue ministering with the EPIC ministry as an intern after being involved as a student, I felt like God had given me an assignment that seemed impossible. It was not a physical, mental, or spiritual obstacle that I was facing with this internship, rather I was facing a financial one.

This financial situation felt like if it was an immobile mountain that was sitting in my path. As many of you whom I had the opportunity to share with, know that I was facing the challenge of raising financial support for the ministry. It was a substantial amount of money that had to be raised in a very short period of time. I constantly asked myself "what have you gotten yourself into?" Because of the time frame that I was given to raise support, I was afraid of not being able to have it all raised on time. It was not losing an entire summer that I feared (from spending all of my summer raising support and end up not having enough to go), but rather it was the thought of letting my current supporters down, the thought of letting God down that I could not imagine bearing.

Regardless, I knew it was possible. Although I felt as if Jesus had asked me to feed a crowd of 5000 with only 5 loaves of bread and two fish, a couple of verses constantly rolled in the back of my mind reminding me that "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13); and all that I needed was to "...have faith as small as a mustard seed, you(I) can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you(me)" (Matthew 17:20, emphasis added).

God had called me to this, and I knew he has already paved a path for me to follow. All I needed to do was ask, seek, and knock. As days went by and I continued meeting with people for support, that mountain that once stood in my path started inching away. Faith... such a simple thing that God has asked of us; but because of our nature we make it something so difficult to the point that it may seem impossible. All we need to do is really be like little children (Matthew 18:3-4), and grab on to our Father's hand and allow him to guide us.

The Beginning

Hey Everyone! I recently decided to start this blog in order to keep people posted on what is going with the EPIC ministry in Eugene, OR; and also updates on what is going on with me as well. Feel free to subscribe or bookmark the page, I'm going to try to keep it as updated as possible.

I do have some request for you as readers, please note that your comments are public and others may view them. Please be respectful of other viewers and their thoughts and comments. If you have any personal things that you want to tell me, feel free to email me: trunam@gmail.com. Thanks.