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Serving the Campus with
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Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship |
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Outreach: Thanks for your prayers for us on this front. Since finals arrived for Harvard students on the earlier side of December, we had less programs. But some good conversations continue to happen. Kogos (senior, on Exec) says that he finds himself having conversations about God almost every day! With his non-Christian TA, friends, study group members, and other acquaintances. He asked me just yesterday to meet with a Japanese international student. Please pray for seeds to be planted and watered. Thanks for praying for Kelly and Janie (seniors) in their discussions on the significance of Jesus' birth. Several women with Catholic backgrounds responded with more interest. They'll be continuing in January when they return!
Missional and Formational Content: Staff volunteer Lisa Ober did a fantastic job talking about "Simplicity for the Sake of Generosity in Community" out of her experience with the Lazarus at the Gate material a few years ago. It brought up excellent and vulnerable conversations about how our families and we treat money. We want to continue this next semester as well. My friend and neighborhood ministry partner Dr. Dan Cagua-Koo then shared about "Prayer and Miraculous Healing". He highlighted his experience as a Family Doctor focusing on diet and nutrition in a lower-income area of Boston, and the miraculous physical healings he sees happening when he prays. Various folks said that this reawaked their desire to pray more boldly for people. For instance, Daisy (sophomore) said that, earlier in her life, she had valuable experiences of answered prayer for others that she wants to develop more. Please pray that the Lord would help us experience more of Him, especially to help make us more vulnerable and dependent on Him. I'm emailing various people my devotional reflections in Matthew's Gospel everyday during the break. It's been fun to be in Scripture together, even at a distance.
I'd love your prayers for a few people. One student has felt hurt that her romantic relationship with a non-Christian made others question her capacity for leadership. Another student is wrestling with sexual brokenness, but trying to justify it to me and others.
Concern for Few Frosh: Please be praying that the Lord would stir up more spiritual interest in frosh. Currently, HRCF has only 3 frosh coming out with consistency. I'm so grateful for them! But having a stronger freshman class is probably the thing that worries me most about HRCF. We are doing a shorter Winter Retreat in January 27 - 28, and asked the frosh to help us plan it. We hope that going for 1 night rather than 2 will be more attractive to students who feel busy. |
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Boston College Asian Christian Fellowship |
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Desire!: After our series on "Desire", we were very touched at the testimony night on 12/9, our last large group. Thanks for praying for that. Several frosh shared about how they've been encouraged spiritually and relationally at ACF. A few of the younger men were a bit preachy and less personal, but it gave me the opportunity to speak to them and coach them further (yes, I was reminded of myself as an undergrad).
Ministry in France: As I mentioned last month, Christine Kim, a junior, is studying abroad at a well-known college called Science Po. She's been leading a Bible study in the Gospel of John with a friend, for a bunch of non-Christian international students there. She will continue with a few of them who are staying for another semester like she is. Christine shared on 12/9 about how she's seen the Lord moving in her life and in others. It was awesome!
Winter Retreat, 1/20 - 22, on "Dreams and Ambitions": Core and I are modifying a retreat from 3 years ago that really touched Dasom: The Dreams That Refuse to Die from Romans 5:12 - 21 and 6:1 - 11. I'm excited that this will actually deepen the theme from this past semester, "Desire", in some ways. Please pray that the Lord would give us boldness in inviting people, and that He will help people to say "yes" to Him.
Missional and Formational Content: After Winter Retreat, we will continue on the theme of Dreams and Ambitions. We'll address issues like calling, and working for social justice in whatever field one chooses. In the meantime, I've started emailing all the Core, worship team, frosh mentors, and frosh mentees my devotional reflections in Matthew's Gospel everyday during the break. This gives the mentors and mentees something to talk and email about even while we're apart. A few days ago, I saw one frosh post to Facebook, "Who wants to talk theology with me right now?" |
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Other IVCF Staff News |
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Uganda and South Sudan: As I mentioned last month, I will participate in InterVarsity New England's summer missions trip to Uganda this coming summer! We will partner with Ugandan college students in various ways to serve their country: in middle schools and high schools teaching from Scripture, in a hospital, in a slum, and in a Christian ministry helping women recover from being abducted child soldiers. The 2 Harvard students I thought were interested wound up not being able to apply, but the 2 BC students (Connie Bahng and Sang Yang) did apply and were accepted. More students from MIT, University of New Hampshire, Wellesley, and other New England schools were also accepted. There is a possibility that I could also head up to South Sudan, the world's newest country, to help lead college students and IFES staff in Bible study. But there is still some warfare going on on the border between the Republic of Sudan and newly formed South Sudan. Please pray that the Lord would continue to bring peace, by his Spirit and through his people, to this difficult situation, and that we'd be able to go to South Sudan by next June. |
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Impacting Global Poverty Through Lazarus at the Gate |
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No updates here this month! |
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Serving the Boston Urban Community |
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The Gathering had a leaders meeting on December 2, and we are continuing in the three branches to study Matthew 8 - 10. One young man, LG, who lives at 5 Nightingale and comes to the service there on Sunday evening, recently gave his life to Christ and is having all kinds of conversations with people, including another young man "J" who just moved into 5 Nightingale. Please pray for the Lord to give LG wisdom and words to share! I recently was studying the conversion of Saul in Acts 9, and felt like LG could very well be a "Saul".
Our friend and housemate Cesar Espinosa moved in mid-December back to Los Angeles, to spend time with family until the next major leg of his life journey. He hopes to teach English abroad and is looking for more opportunities to do that. Cesar has been a valued friend to many in the diverse interests he has: music, playing guitar and djembe, worshiping, enjoying culture and traveling, biblical studies, appreciating art, talking about history and social issues, skateboarding, engaging youth, and the list goes on and on. He'll be sorely missed here!
One point of major celebration that I don't think I mentioned last month is that our friend Laura Mitchell, who currently lives with Leslie at 5 Nightingale, closed on purchasing a house on Esmond Street, which is only 2 streets down!! We're not sure the time table of repairs and such, but soon, Laura and Leslie will move over there. This will give us a new area of our neighborhood to get to know, and new questions (for them, at least) about new housemates at both 5 Nightingale and also Esmond Street. We hope, of course, to manifest more of God's presence in our community. There are new developments for Dan and Liza at 65 Nightingale as well, but I'll ask them to write their updates and prayer requests here next month. |
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Family News |
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C.S.
Lewis Class: Dr. Gary Deddo, who has been
my professor of systematic theology for the past 3 years, will
be teaching a 1 week intensive class on the writings and thought
of C.S. Lewis, January 4 - 11, 2012. I'm taking the class
for credit as part of my degree with Fuller Seminary. Ming
will audit the class, so we look forward to doing the reading
together, learning and growing through the class. Our son
John will also be with us in Colorado Springs, where the class
is, and may even sit in, too. Our daughter Zoe, meanwhile,
will be with her friend Maia Armitage and the Armitage family in
New Mexico on a Navajo Reservation.
In
early December, Dan and Liza Cagua-Koo, Liza's mom Rosa, and Ming and I
went to see an on stage production of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape
Letters. It was a one person show! Well, two because
they gave Screwtape an assistant, a scribal demon who sent his letters
to Wormwood. It was fabulous, and gave me a new appreciation of
that book, which I had started 20 years ago, and put down. Chris
Tsang and our non-Christian friend TG also went and now Chris and I are
discussing the spirituality of that book with him. How does
temptation work? What is the relationship between the spiritual
world and the physical world? And so on.
We
had a nice Christmas, and hope that you did, too! On Christmas
Eve, we had a dinner with friends and housemates. Ming made roast
beef with a very tasty sauce of dijon mustard and horseradish. I
realized how adept she is at making multiple dishes - she also made
mashed potatoes, roasted squash, a rice dish, a gluten free lemon bar
dessert, and a gluten free tiramusu! Having much less
multi-tasking talent, I only made cranberry sauce and collard greens. 
On
Christmas morning, we unwrapped presents with our dear friends and
housemates (Donna, Carla, Justin, Sukhai). Justin's dad Leon was
also there. And our friend "T" also shared in the moment with us.
We gave ourselves and others tickets to go see Les Miserables on
Saturday March 17th. My additional gift to Ming was to get her
website up: Lifewise Counseling at