Fall Quarter 2010 Evangelism #1

This past quarter I got to share the gospel with my friend Rodney. I knew him before because he's a friend of a friend from Yukai (my taiko group), but this past quarter I had Math 103A (my awesome math teaching class) with him, and so I've been able to get to know him more through that. He said he used to go to church before college but it's been hard for him to "keep it up" since then, but he says it's something he's been wanting to do and he does still call himself a Christian. So we went to go do classroom observations at University High School one day, and on the ride back from the high school I got to ask him about his salvation testimony. He said he decided to become a Christian a few years ago when he saw and admired how passionate his older sister was for Jesus and knew then that he wanted to follow Him too. Of course, without any mention of sin, guilt, conviction, repentance, etc., I was prompted to do a little more investigating. But somehow, we got on a tangent, and I started to see that his doctrine was pretty mixed up and tainted. He didn't recognize the spiritual significance of the local church and believed in being his own "personal church". He also believes in... well... aliens. And aliens' faith and aliens' salvation. Yep. When I first heard that, I was definitely like, Seriously... ? to myself. But anyway, eventually we settled down at a table in Ackerman Student Union (a building at UCLA) and he took out his books and started studying, and there was silence for a few minutes while I was trying to think of what to say next... (Aliens? Really?) ...but I couldn't think of a good segue, so then I just burst out, "Do you ever feel guilty about your sins?" I think he said something like, "Uh, yeah, I guess so..." and then it was like I had something caught in my throat and was awkwardly at a loss for words again as he went back to studying, so then I just burst out again, "Can I give the gospel to you right now?" and so he looked at me kind of confused, and then was like, "Uhhh... yeah, sure." So then we spent the next 30 minutes going through the whole bridge illustration. It didn't seem like he learned anything new, but he did acknowledge at the end that he still sees himself in the rebellious relationship against God even though he's "trying" to be in the relationship of submission to God, and he said everything was a good reminder, and it looked like he was thinking a lot more. So I wanted to keep poking at his thoughts, but I kind of had to go to class, so I just invited him to Titus, and he said he'd think about making it out...

So clearly, I had no idea what I was doing, and I still really don't, but it's all God. He brought this opportunity to me, allowed me to speak forth the power of the gospel, and it's Him to Whom I pray for Rodney with expectancy and excitement. So we'll just have to wait and see what the Lord does because it's really all up to His sovereign will. The comparison came to my mind yesterday at Titus Men's Small Group between Jeremiah and Jonah. Jonah was possibly the worst, most stubborn prophet ever, trying time after time to avoid doing what God wanted Him to do, and (although perhaps arguably) never actually repenting of his stubborn, hard heart. Yet, God (somehow) used Jonah to save all of Ninevah. On the flip-side, there was Jeremiah, who was one of the most humble and dedicated of the prophets, faithfully prophesying for decades. And yet, his ministry yielded no converts. God just does what He wants, and we love it! Our "success" as Christians cannot be measured as the world measures, in results and numbers, but in our ability to simply submit to the Lord and follow in obedience... wherever He leads... daily. Amen.

A Testimony of Joy in 2010

In Spring 2010, I was going through a few weeks in which I was feeling really busy and just overwhelmed by all the stuff I had to do: going to some 12 hours/week of Yukai practices ("Spring Quarter madness"), keeping up with academics, several music performances at church: orchestra, men’s acapella, children’s choir, Youth Worship leading). As a result, I was becoming outwardly unpleasant to be around. During this spring quarter Spencer Sun was carrying on his annual spring FCBC men’s book club, which I was a part of, and we were going through Forgotten God by Francis Chan. At one of our weekly meetings, my unpleasantness was being evident, and so it was put on Spencer’s heart to specifically pray for me (even though I was initially taken aback by his offer) that my joy would be restored. During the next week, I was reading through the book of Philippians and was struck by Phil. 2:1-2, which says, “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose” (NASB). Paul’s joy came from God, but it was completed by others, by his fellow brothers and sisters in the church. By God’s sovereignty, in the chapter of Forgotten God that we were reading together that week, Francis Chan touched on that same point in Philippians. Referring more to Phil. 1, Chan notes that the only thing that kept Paul tied to life on earth, rather than immediately going to be in the presence of God, was the church. He stayed on the earth for their benefit because he had such a great love and passion for them. They were his joy. Upon considering these things, I realized that I had been somewhat distant from the church. Physically, I was still attending Sunday service and seeing people and talking with people, but I wasn’t receiving the deep sort of fellowship that Paul constantly longed to have with the church in his epistles. My accountability group had been failing to meet up regularly as we were all a bit overwhelmed by all of our demanding schedules. And so, in my busyness, even though part of my busyness was the hope of sharing the gospel with my nonchristian friends at school, I was falling apart because I neglected the foundational role that the church plays in supporting me and my evangelisms (Eph. 3:10). Reconnecting with my church did not instantly, practically happen, but somehow just understanding the role that they played and what exactly I was lacking – having that proper perspective – renewed my spirits. I think a lot of it was just being reminded that God is faithful as He spoke these things to me through His sovereignty. Even this partial restoration of my joy was apparent to Spencer as we met up again. But this was only the beginning of everything that God wanted to teach me about joy.

Summer and Jr. High Camp planning rolled in, and who would’ve guessed: our Jr. High Camp theme was “iov” AKA “incomplete joy”. I ended up on the devotions committee and paired up with Matt Louie to work on the Wednesday devotion about finding joy in others. Having to write a devotional on this topic forced us both to really dig into God’s Word and study it vicariously until we knew what it had to say about joy inside-out and could accurately relate it on paper to these junior high students. It was a blessing to work with Matt, study and discuss joy together, and put that devotional together. Then I headed off to India for missions (and he headed off to Thailand, also for missions) where I (and he) learned even more about joy. Experientially. We saw joy. On a couple of occasions in India I had the privilege of worshiping with the local Christian Indians. They spare no detail to praise the Lord. At the church service, they spontaneously sang out songs of praise with their strong voices. As one song would end and trail off, someone would just jump in and start a new song, and with clapping and enthusiasm, everyone else would quickly join in. As we celebrated with our national helpers and translators on our last day in India, they drummed and sang and danced like no tomorrow. There was so much joy in their voices and their faces and their bodies! They were undignified before the Lord! It was incredible!

Then came Jr. High Camp. Unexpectedly, the cabin of 8^th grade guys (which I was counseling) was so loving towards one another and towards others. Every time I heard them pray for each other and express concern for each other, I was so encouraged. And especially as I saw their worship grow and expand and become more free and undignified throughout the course of the week, these guys became my joy. As awesome as it was to see older, seasoned Christian brothers and sisters whole-heartedly worshiping the Lord in India, it was even more amazing to see these younger, less mature Christians begin to trek along the path in that direction. But it still gets better! If there was one of my campers who was the exception to this super sweet, loving, concerned stereotype that I’ve been speaking of, it was Henry Wong. Henry was from Calexico, had a tough-guy exterior, and exclaimed profanities several times throughout the week. But by God’s grace he really opened up to Austin and me during our individual counseling times with him. He was able to speak freely about how difficult he found it to grow at FCBC Calexico and about his family divisions, especially because of church/God/Christianity. After Austin’s time with him, Austin especially developed a heart for Henry. After Thursday night’s Testimony Time, we were walking back to our cabin when Henry began tearing up a little. He wanted to share his testimony, but was afraid and intimidated. It would have been something new for him to have his faith and his spiritual walk exposed in this way. But Austin encouraged him to think of this Testimony Time at camp as practice. Here, he was amongst fellow brothers and sisters who love and who would love to hear what God was doing in his life that week. Later back at home, his testimony might not be so well received. The next morning, the Lord put an inkling in Austin’s heart to pull Henry aside and share the gospel with him. To my pleasure, he brought me along with him. While all the guys were having their private devotion times outside, Austin and I went up to Henry and began asking him questions about his faith and about the gospel. It seemed like there were many things he wasn’t sure about, so I shared the Bridge Illustration with him. He asked a good number of questions as we were going along, which told me that he was really paying attention and was hanging on every word. By the end of the illustration, his eyes were watery. His heart was convicted and he wanted to accept Jesus into his heart to be his Lord and Savior! So I gladly led him in the sinner’s prayer. Right afterwards, he asked for Austin and my contact information. I took that as a sign that he wanted to stay in contact and receive spiritual support from of us. He was serious about the decision he had just made and truly wanted it to change the way he lived. And this was possibly the single greatest joy of my life so far. Being used by God to lead someone to begin a new life in Him… it finally made my joy complete.