Hello from Colorado!

Hello from Fort Collins, CO! We just finished the Epic National Staff Conference portion of our time here. It is so encouraging to gather as an Epic family to celebrate what God has done this past year, and be challenged to serve with faith and boldness from our national leaders. Some highlights:

* Hearing the history of the Epic Movement: how it started with 4 staff and has grown to about 70 (including interns), how it was almost called GenerAsian, and how Tommy Dyo joined to become our first Epic Movement National Director.

* Hearing the mission, dreams, plans and possibilities ahead

* Getting into working groups to strategically plan for topics like, “How can Epic bring the gospel effectively to lost students in the Asian-American community?”, “How can Epic develop and empower Asian American women in leadership?” and ” How can Epic mobilize laborers for humanitarian ministry and justice issues and integrate Epic’s mission with these other significant Kindom callings?”

* Being reminded that our mission is: “Mobilizing the untapped to the unreached.”

One thing that strikes out to me about this conference is how everyone demonstrated incredible transparency. Tommy Dyo talked about his “rats and trash” theology: how if we have trash (sin) in our life, rats (consequences of sin) will naturally follow. Take out the trash, and the rats will slowly go away. I really appreciated how many people openly shared about trash in their life. This is so refreshing, especially in an Asian American context where “saving face” and not sharing problems publicly is valued.

My favorite line from today was shared by a sister who spoke very vulnerably about something she has been trusting God for several years. Although God has not answered her prayers as she has been hoping, she shared how she continues to trust in God’s goodness and faithfulness. She read a devotional by Rick Warren who wrote, “God is never in a hurry” and “God’s delay never destroy’s His purpose.” This struck me deeply, since I tend to be a very impatient and easily discouraged person. I was reminded today that the purpose of our relationship with God is not for our personal happiness or comfort, but for God’s glory and our sanctification.

It is a blessing to be able to serve alongside my Epic Movement co-workers. Even when we don’t always have our acts together, we can accept and cheer each other on along this path to work for far greater purposes than we can achieve on our own. Just one more reason I love my job!

Sad to Say Goodbye…

Six weeks have flown by so quickly. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I’ll keep it brief and refer you to an awesome slideshow of our summer project in NYC created by the terrifically talented  Mr. Chan. Enjoy!

A full day in our last full week!

Cannot believe it’s already our last full week of summer project. Today was phenomenal. This morning the team gathered at Hunter College to blitz the campus with flyers about free pizza and drinks during a lunchtime  Epic Movement info session. I really didn’t know what to expect. First of all, we secured a room only the night before (thank you Intervarsity Christian Fellowship & Chinese Christian Fellowship at Hunter!)….wasn’t sure we’d really get the room. Secondly, we started promoting the event only 2 hours before the event. And finally, we ordered 12 pizzas! Would anyone show up to eat it all?

Hunter College Flyer

Thankfully, as our brother Josh prayed, God did not disappoint. The room quickly filled up and we had over 50 surveys filled out! Regina shared a bit about what the Epic Movement was all about, and came up with a nifty acronym. We’re about CCF (“not to be mistaken for chloroflourocarbons”)—
C—“Community” We know that at a commuter college, it’s hard to experience community. We want to help build community at Hunter.
C—“Culture” We are primarily Asian Americans (although we welcome everyone!), and we want to discuss issues that are relevant to us.
F—“Faith” We meet to explore how faith intersects with our culture through our community.
Brilliant!

I was blessed and encouraged by the fabulous folks that came to our informational session! I met a cool South Asian student who regularly goes to Muslim Student Association. Afterwards as we were walking around campus to get rid of the extra pizza, I spotted him and he was like (to the girl who was walking with him): “Meet my new friends! You should fill out their survey and get free pizza.” We also met others who are interested in checking out our future Epic Movement meetings. Praise the Lord!

Tonight we met up with the rest of the Tribeca tracks and went out into the city to hand out bagged peanut butter and jelly sandwich meals and engage the homeless in spiritual conversations. I admit, I was reluctant to participate in the outreach, but I’m glad I went. Tonight I got my first hug from a homeless guy named “True Story.” I admit that these are the types of people I usually avoid day to day. But tonight I realized that these folks aren’t as intimidating and scary as I imagine they are. I am so blessed and spoiled. One of our students got into an intense discussion with a homeless guy and tweeted: “Witnessing an emotional breakup in Bryant Park while sharing an amazing story of love with a stranger, this juxtaposition is so surreal.”

Lord forgive me from judging and dismissing people so quickly. Help me to love people as you do!