Winter Break Preparations

Winter break comes at a good time for me. This past semester was challenging and I was beginning to feel the drain of work piling up. I thought my first year was tough enough as it was. It was a sweet feeling to see God's strength push me through the finish line and come out the other side of my "rookie" year with Epic. 

Since my summer was pretty jam packed with raising support and overseas missions, I didn't have much time to sit and prepare for this upcoming year. Thankfully, my team has been great at picking each other up and encouraging one another. I'm totally grateful for the three other interns on the team and a mature student leadership team. All that to say, winter break is finally here and I'm jumping into it head on. 

Winter break is similar to how I would imagine a pro athlete approaches his offseason. My high school basketball coach always told me the most important season is the summer, because that's the time when a player improves his skills and gets into shape. If you're trying to do those two things when the season starts, you're already playing catch up. In the same way, this winter break will be crucial in preparing for my upcoming semester. We have a lot of great pieces in place - a Bible study of men hungry for the Word every week, a student leader group willing to be teachable, and many pockets of unreached groups on campus. My hope for this break is to have small group content prepared already, and a few ideas for outreach. Most importantly (and most needed) is a deeper relationship with Jesus. Because understanding and experiencing that will be the biggest key to a winter break well spent.

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." - Ephesians 3:17-19

Back from Big Break!

Just wanted to make a quick post about returning from our Spring Break trip. I'm now back in Amherst with a bit of tan, feeling refreshed, and ready to tackle the last 4 weeks of school! I'm shocked my freshman year of campus ministry is about to come to an end.

I'll be sharing more in-depth soon about the entire trip. It was so enjoyable and had a lot of faith-stretching moments. I'm excited to put them into words. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from Big Break 2012!

The main conference room filled with 800 students worshipping and celebrating together.

Some of our Epic women

Olivia sharing about fully accepting Christ into her life! What a celebratory moment!

Group picture on the beach. Can you count how many people we brought from Amherst?

T minus 1 hour

In about one hour, 53 students from UMass Cru and Epic will board a coach bus and begin the 27-hour long trek down to Panama City Beach, FL (PCB). We're joining up with 800 other Cru students for Big Break, Cru's annual Spring Break missions trip.

Why PCB? Because it's an amazingly popular destination for thousands of other College Spring Breakers. And because the Gospel is relevant to the students' lives in PCB! What better place to share the Good News of Jesus Christ? I'm pumped just thinking about it. The Gospel...... it gets the people going!!

For an entire week (Mar 16-25), we'll learn how to share our faith and put it to practice on the beach. Big Break is near and dear to my heart. I learned how to share my faith at my first BB. This will be my third trip down. I'm excited to see what God will teach me this year! Additionally, please pray for great teaching, boldness, and divine appointments with other Spring Breakers on the beach. Check out the Big Break website for more information!

Beauty in the Process

My name is Cheeia, I come from a traditional Hmong family.

This is the story of Cheeia, a student whose life was transformed by God in college. They showed this video at Epic Conference. I'd highly encourage you to watch this!

Cheeia's Story from CCCNEHQ on Vimeo.

This story touches me for many reasons:

1. Cheeia finally found what she'd been looking for all her life. She tried to find satisfaction in so many different areas in her life, but ultimately it left her empty. And now here she is, deeply satisfied!
2. She realized it was important to not just keep this to herself but to share with others, specifically with the ones she loved the most - her family. So she took a step of faith. And continued taking many more steps of faith after that.
3. She persevered through many trials, especially with her family. I can't imagine how difficult the process must've been for Cheeia. Yet she continued praying. And looked for opportunities. There's so much beauty in the process. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." - Matthew 7:7
4. She couldn't do it alone. For the family to be impacted, it took a total team effort - all the people that shared the Gospel with her, the friends that helped her grow, and the ones that supported her through the tough times. It's evident that God placed a strong community in her life for a reason.

Thank you God for Cheeia's story! And all the ways you changed my life in the same way you changed hers.

Winter is here

It's snowing outside! I've realized over the past year or so that snow doesn't necessarily = fun anymore. Especially when it comes to maintaining my aging 2005 Honda Civic (affectionately known as Francine). But snow is certainly one of the highlights of the winter season and it makes New England so special and beautiful. I wouldn't trade it for anything else... unless you're talking about an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii.

Along with the snow, I wanted to share some other recent highlights with you as well. This past weekend was our annual Epic East Coast conference held in Morristown, NJ. There were~120 students, 30 staff members, and 10 volunteers from Epic movements all over the East Coast (to name a few... SUNY-Buffalo, NYC colleges, Penn State, George Mason, Florida International). Umass brought 24 students from our area, a huge blessing considering our "faith goal" was initially 10-15 students!

The conference was refreshing on many levels personally. I had a blast talking with the staff from other campuses, sharing stories and learning from their experience. A lot of them have been serving in the ministry for many years, some even at the start of Epic in the 90s, and through them I gained a bigger perspective of the ministry. One staff pointed out how the conference size has doubled over the years. It's a peaceful reminder that as far as God wills our ministry, He will continue to provide laborers and students. It also brings me confidence to know that He is already ahead of us working and we are called to follow faithfully.

But by far the biggest refresher is witnessing people's hearts change for Christ. The theme of the conference was Transformed, appropriate because God is in the business of transforming lives. What made the conference stand out in my mind was seeing how God transforms us individually AND culturally as Asian-Americans. It's one of the first times I've seen the speaker address specific Asian-American issues and how the Gospel brings healing and change to it.

For example, the speaker addressed the issue of Asian-Americans' perfectionist mindset. He said that it's not an entirely bad thing to pursue perfection. After all, God is perfect and the pursuit of perfection would point us towards Him. However, when our culture twists it and points it to ourselves, we experience impossible standards, inevitable failure, insecurities, high pressure, and stress. But the Gospel is able to point us back to Christ - to know that where we've failed, Jesus has succeeded. In this way, we experience freedom from performance and we are restored as a culture.

That's just a snippet of what I experienced from the weekend! It's weekends like these that remind me of why I chose to join staff for Epic - growing in my walk with Christ and journeying with students through their walk. I'm amazingly blessed to serve the students and work alongside them to reach the rest of campus. Spring semester here we come! Thank you for your continual support!

Group picture at 2012 Epic East Coast Conference

100% and Onwards

It's official - I will be interning with Cru this upcoming year! It's been a very long journey but I'm thankful for this summer. I didn't predict the support raising to be this challenging, but I also didn't predict how rewarding this whole process would be.

I've never been the type to take risks, especially in situations that I know I might fail in. But trusting in God and witnessing Him pull through (even at times when I couldn't see it) taught me it's worth persevering. So as I learn more of what it means to "step out in faith" I'm looking forward for the school year to finally begin.

Students return to campus on Sunday! Let's get everything started.

Living Through the Cycle

This summer, I've been reading from the Book of Psalms during my quiet times (one-on-one personal time with God). I've been very encouraged by it especially in light of my support raising process because the Psalms capture the emotions and feelings of this roller coaster ride so perfectly.

Why?

As I read them, I noticed the same 3 themes constantly appearing over and over again. Here's how it usually plays out: the author desperately cries out for God's presence in a dead-end situation (Psalm 22), discovers peace and refuge in God's comfort (Psalm 23), and joyfully rejoices in God's strength and deliverance (Psalm 24). Isn't it interesting how it's always in this cycle?

What's odd is that I find myself going through this same cycle! Not just once, but all the time. I always fear that I will never get through this situation, always doubt that God can bring me out, and always amazed that God actually delivers me through. Well, I'm glad that God is greater than my fears and doubts combined!

But it doesn't end there. What is most interesting isn't how often I doubt God (though you'd think I've learned my lesson by now right?) but how faithful God is. Just listen:

"God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,

though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble at its swelling."

Psalm 46:1-3

A promise that never lets me down or disappoints. So powerful that He promises to be there, even past the time our Earth crumbles. Think about that! I'm learning more and more that there's nothing in this world that won't disappoint me. And it might take something beyond this world to not let me down. So if God does in fact promise these things, then I think I just found the greatest joy that can ever be offered.