You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2008.
[Disclaimer: Actually, I probably won't bungee off the Eiffel, or climb a mountain, or ride a camel, or see a tiger, but I'm sure I'll see something / do something worthy of the show.]
I’ll be off to Asia for the first time in my life with my mom, dad, and sister tomorrow until June 8/9. Hopefully I’ll catch some good wi-fi hotspots in the hotels and get to writing/blogging. It should be an interesting experience going to the motherland for the first time. In the meantime, please pray for traveling mercies, the people we’ll meet, and the conversations we’ll have.
On Friday, I watched Prince Caspian with my sister Christine, and Gloria. If you haven’t already, go watch it! It’s a little longer than the first [about 2 hours] so I wouldn’t encourage you to drink a medium coffee and large soda during it [like I did but I guess that's your prerogative]. If you loved the first one, you’ll love this one. It’s a little darker [thematically, more battle scenes, more killing (but no blood), more ...evil, and etc.], and it has a little less character development [Christine pointed this out] than the first, but I thought it was brilliant [and maybe even better than the first].
[All the AACF leaders + some alum.]
For the short time I was at Basileia, it was incredible. I got to sit in with AACF’s new core/exec team [Vivian Mah, Eric Wang, Travis Wong, Wesley Mui, Priscilla Wong] during their team time and I’m excited for all 30 AACF servant leaders and for what God is going to do at NYU and AACF. Specifically, I’m excited about their plans for strategic evangelism & chapter growth, a focus on our brokenness & where God is in the midst of it, leadership development, corporate prayer & fasting, missional and targeted small groups, and setting up intentional discipleship relationships. Whoa that’s alot. How are they doing that? Well they’ve commissioned leaders to head up specific ministires: i.e. a prayer and fasting leader, someone who sets up discipleship groups, and etc. Would you take a moment to intercede for the AACF leaders and ask that God would answer their prayer, “God break my heart for the things that break yours.”
Below is the NYU portion of the prayer wall at Basileia…
Tomorrow, I’ll be going “upstate” to Saranac, New York to serve as a volunteer at Basileia, InterVarsity’s end-of-the-year-week-long-leadership-training “chapter camp.” I love InterVarsity for many reasons…I won’t get into it now, but for one, student leadership is one of their core values. And one they do extremely well [maybe the best in the game. Ahem, if ministry were a game].
They give students the opportunity to engage in ministry at all levels: form leading small groups, worship, prayer meetings, and evangelism, to vision casting, putting together a themed series of messages, preaching & teaching, administration & logistics , setting up discipleship and accountability groups, and on and on and on. It’s all student led. Literally.
Not only does InterVarsity give students great opportunities [and thus awesome responsibility], but IV equips students by providing world-class leadership training at places like Basileia, resources for spiritual development, and constant support, encouragement, and guidance from campus staff workers.
If you’re a college student, I encourage you to check out your campus’ InterVarsity chapter. If you’re at NYU or anywhere else in New Jersey or New York [especially NYC!], feel free to shoot me an e-mail and I can hook you up with peoples.
I visited my ‘home’ church, NJ ChoDae Church and I noticed some “sleepy” christians. Actually lots of them. It got me thinking. Now, if you say to me, “sleepy christian,” I think about … 1) ‘christians’ who believe that the only point of Christianity is to get to a place called heaven [it's part of it], 2) people who haven’t realized the incredible call of God on their lives [let's just take one...caring for the poor] and the power & anointing of the Holy Spirit on them to DO good works and to be DOers [and not just hearers] of the Word, and 3) christians who believe in Jesus, but don’t follow him. Ouch, I said it.
I’m not to sure where the term originated from but I’d guess that it’s biblically rooted. Check out for example 1) 1 Thessalonians 5:6 “So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controled.” and 2) Romans 13: 11 “The hours has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Y’all should check out the context and study it for yourselves.
But today, there were sleepy christians. Literally. It seemed like 1 out of every 6 guys [I actually didn't see any of the women fall asleep] nodded off at one point or another during pastor’s sermon [which wasn't boring at all.] Now I’m not saying that dozing off during service is sin, BUT I think it provides a good analogy to the spiritual life. Like those guys today missed out on some great teaching [and some Willowcreek style preaching a la Pastor David Chae], as sleepy christians, we can miss out on life.
Here’s what I mean. When you’re asleep, biologically, you’re living. You’re breathing, your brain is fully functioning and actually quite active, and your senses are intact [lthough your brain turns those signals down]. But as we know, when you sleep, you don’t fully experience life. Imagine if you spent your whole life sleeping. You’d miss out on life. You’d be alive, but you wouldn’t be living.
That’d describe me as a not-so-young Christian. I was alive [saved and such], but I wasn’t living my faith out. I just let life happen and didn’t get to experience the life God had intended for me. Thank God, I’m awake now. How terrible would it be if at the end of our lives, as we gave an account of how we lived with the cross, God just looked at us and said, “I called you to do this, but you fell asleep. Welcome home Rip Van Winkle.”
God help us not be Rip Vank Winkle Christians. Who’s in with me?
I graduated this past Wednesday at Yankee stadium with 13,000 others [we're the largest private university...there are 16 schools/colleges/division]. Congratulations to the Class of 2008!
Thanks to my good friend, fellow AACFer, and faithful brother, Henry Huang, our friends sat on the 1st base side at the bottom portion of the Yankees dugout. I could literally touch the dugout without getting out of my seat [which I did, just because I could]. Here’s what it looked like from up top:
And what is a the first, last, and only college graduation at historic Yankee Stadium without a streaker?
He rounded third, the crowd went wild, and he made a dash for home plate…
Then he got pummeled.
And arrested… and later charged for trespassing at his own graduation. Ouch.
Finals craziness is [almost] done here at NYU. Still, with most undergraduates finished with their semesters, I’ll be taking my last exam at the last time-slot available. Tuesday, 6-8 PM.
That being said, I’m taking a quasi-mini-sabbatical [is there such a thing?] from blogging. During this time, I intend to 1) take my exam on Tuesday night, 2) wish my Mom a Happy Birthday, 3) attend NYU’s commencement at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, 4) move-out of my apartment on Thursday and 5) move to Washington DC on Saturday.
Until next time, I leave you with www.vladstudio.com. As a senior, I confess that I’ve picked up some bad time-wasting habits. One of them being a passion for quality wallpapers for my macbook. Vladstudio is the project of Russian digital artist Vlad Gerasimov. As a self-proclaimed wallpaper connoisseur, I think Vlad is one of the best in the wallpaper game. It started out as a hobby, but now he creates interfaces as his full-time job. In a few words, I’d describe his work as “extremely creative, vibrant, intelligent, prolific [he's created 486 wallpapers], and mostly just fun.” Check out my latest wallpaper:
”They Stole the Moon” by VladStudio
[http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpapers/]
I’ve been reading up on Burma and my heart breaks. The last death toll “count” [the idea of a count makes me shudder] is 23,000. The UN fears/estimates that up to 100,000 people have been killed and the up to 1,500,000 people have been affected - people whose homes have been destroyed and are in desperate need of food, water, and medical care.
The situation is more complicated with the political history / atmosphere - they haven’t fully opened doors to foreign aid. The aid they’ve been accepting, like from the World Food Programme, they want to distribute themselves. Unless things change and aids go through, we’re looking at a situation potentially worse than the tsunami in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Pray for 1) the people who make decisions in Burma - that they would allow aid, 2) the people of Burma and 3) the aid workers on the ground.
Give / Support Aid Efforts. Don’t know an organization? … That’s cool, I found one for you. World Vision has 500 workers on the ground, and you can donate to them on their website [www.worldvision.org].
Talk & start something. Spread the word about Burma. Pray. Give. It’s our responsibility. Don’t turn your eyes away from the brokenness of this world.
what will you do?
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Do you know of any local aid relief movements [benefit concerts, prayer gatherings, relief funds, missionaries]? Leave a comment.
Unapologetically, I love incredibly entertaining, give-me-what-I-want, summer blockbusters. Here are 4 I’m looking forward to…
1. Iron Man - Released: May 2, 2008
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Release Date: May 16, 2008
3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Release Date: May 22, 2008
4. The Dark Night [Batman] - Release Date: July 18, 2008
Special thanks to fellow AACF 08′er, Janice Chau and NYU SEED Magazine- NYU’s first on-campus Christian publication that is run by and for NYU students - Ashley Jung (NYU AACF staff worker) and I made it in their April 2008 publication in their “What Inspires You?” section. [www.nyuseed.com]. Pick up a copy at NYU Kimmel 7th Fl.
For you non-NYUers, I’ll just give you the run-down:
Jeff Kim. Book: Shane Claiborne’s Irresistable Revolution. Shane’s faith is lived out. Check it out. | Blogger: Jeremy Del Rio [www.jeremydelrio.com] - has a great blog with great insights on what God is doing in NYC | Preacher on my Ipod: Judah Smith, youth pastor of Generation Church in Washington - part of the City Church [www.generationchurch.org]
Ashley Jung. Devotional: One Year Bible NIV (Paperback) by Tyndale House Publishers. Book: Just walk across the room by Bill Hybels. As a servant team, we went through this book for a semester - it’s as good as Out of the Salt Shaker & into the World by Rebecca Pippert in terms of how to “do” evangelism.
These two books might the best out there in terms of evangelism training - they don’t just convict you, they show you practical ways to live out and share your faith, and they inspire and excite you to actually do it. [which is amazing, if you're tired of knowing that you need to "do" evangelism, but don't really know how to do it]
Check them out today!
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What inspires you? [books, blogs, preachers, albums, bands, books, etc.] Drop a comment and share some of the things that have influenced and impacted the way you live.
The fire alarm went off 20 minutes ago in my private apartment building. I, my sister, no one up stairs [we can hear everything], the neighbors across the hall - we all didn’t leave.
I thought it was fascinating. Here are my initial thoughts:
1. 6:20 AM. Saturday. Awaken to the most unwelcome, high-frequency sound. Thoughts: “What the freak is going on? Am I dreaming? …. OH HELL NO, a fire-alarm? are you kidding me?”
2. 6:22 AM. Saturday, fire alarm continues. “Maybe I should leave, nah. … No, I should leave, this might be a real one. Nah, can’t be.”
3. 6:23 AM. Saturday. Go to my sister’s room, fire alarm continues. “Yo, you hear that? Should we leave?” Sister replies, “No, I’m not going out,” and resumes sleeping.
4. 6:25 AM. Saturday, “What should I do?” I actually go out into the hallway to check if anyone is leaving. No one is leaving. This adds more to the confusion. “Is this a real fire?”
5. 6:28 AM. Saturday, fire alarm is at piercing level. I look outside my 3rd story window. A fire truck comes. “Oh shoot, this is more serious than I thought.” “Why did they take so long?” “Maybe we should leave.” “Nah, don’t leave.” “Why am I not leaving? What is everyone else not leaving?”
6. 6:30 AM. A F.D. SUV - the kind the Captain drives around shows up. ”Alright, if there’s a fire, I’m sticking it out.” “Greg Jao told me about how new buildings have fire proofing between their floors.” “If there’s a real fire, I’ll make it out on my own.”
7. 6:31 AM. WHAT would happen if I were to run down the hall, screaming, knocking pounding on people’s doors saying, “FIRE, FIRE, THIS IS FOR REAL PEOPLE. GET OUT.” “Alright, bad idea, terrible thing to do, I’m evil.”
8. Fire alarm continues to 6:40 AM. Nothing happened. No fire. Just a fire alarm.
9. 6:41 AM. Shoot, I gotta blog about this.
Why I didn’t leave:
1. I’ve grown up with a fire-alarm, boy-cries-wolf mentality. In school, we have fire drills - LOTS of fire drills. But I’ve never been in a building actually on fire.
2. This is a private building. It’s Saturday. It’s 6:20 AM.
3. The FD trucks came. It alarmed me - I thought it could be serious - but I didn’t change my course of action, I just stayed up waiting. Only one FD truck showed up. If more had shown up, maybe more than 4 trucks, I’d probably haul out. At this point…
4. The only way I’d leave is 1) if a firefighter asked me to leave.
5. The other way I’d leave - and probably the fastest way. If I heard other people leaving, if one of my neighbors knocked on my door, or if I heard people running out. I would’ve jetted. I’d be the first person to go. I’d wake my sister up, take our laptops, and get us some early morning breakfast.
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For some reason, I thought about evangelism, Christianity, & “outreach.” Some initial thoughts.
1. Fire alarm = the feeling we get [Christians, non-Christians, whoever], when we see this broken world. It’s the feeling that something is radically wrong at the core. You can’t put your finger on it, you can’t locate it, and you can’t figure out where it comes from. But you feel it in your soul, in your spirit.
2. Fire = sin. But I didn’t go out, cause I wasn’t sure if there really was a fire. Kind of how like people don’t really know the reality of the consequence of sin. Some people, like me, are awake and nervous, and concerned about the whole thing. Some people, like my sister, are so conditioned to it, are so comfortable with where they are - they sleep through it.
3. Fire fighters = “Christians”
4. The need for an invitation to faith. I wouldn’t have left - unless someone with authority [a firefighter], someone who knew a little about what was going on told me AND invited me to leave. They’d have to 1) convince me that this was not a fire drill and there was an actual fire in the building and 2) there was eminent threat if I stayed where I was, 3) you’d have to convince me that I would be led to safety.
5. Why groups of people come to faith at at time. Because making that “leap of faith” is huge. It takes courage, and it takes jumping out without knowing where you’ll land. Especially that first step. Even if a firefighter didn’t tell me to get out, I sure would’ve done so if my neighbors were all running out.
