I just got back from Nyack New York Agape Conference. It was a blessed time. Over 200 students from all over the East Coast Region came to encounter God, cry out for revival and were equipped to transform their campuses. I was amazed at the hunger and response. Over 150 of the students committed to starting prayer cells and campus churches on their campuses. The Holy Spirit was present in breakthrough power. On the last night of the conference the students cried out to God for revival to break out on the East Coast campuses past the midnight hour. It was intense and you just knew the prayer cries of these students were making impact. The meeting reminded me of the student-led all night prayer meetings we held in Hong Kong and Taiwan the last two years which preceded the campus revivals in East Asia. I truly believe the campus revival wave in HK, Taiwan and China is crashing over to the US Chinese student communities right now. Come to think about it, the last 5 Asia student gatherings I've spoken at, from AACF UCSB, IV/AACF Nor Cal Praise Night, Revivall OC, Thirsty Revival Torrance, Burn OC, etc the revival fire anointing has fallen in each meeting in a noticeable and extraordinary way. The fire of God is stirring in Asian students like I have never seen in North America, something is up.
On a another note. I met a new little friend named "Sarah" at the Nyack Retreat :) She is the cutest, most witty, funny, smart, joyful little gal. Haha...honestly, I think what I liked best about this visit to New York was meeting Sarah and her lil gang of 8-10 year old gal friends. Lol...they made me laugh sooooo hard. We played mafia on the grass (my favorite game) and yeah, haha..i luv little kids. Oh, there was this lil guy named "samuel" ah...I wish I took a picture of him. You should of saw these little kids. They were so precious and so inspiring! During our meetings they would be raising their hands, interceding for revival and worshipping God with all their hearts. Wow..what was I doing at 8 years old? Not only were they spiritually mature and moving in the power of the Holy Spirit, but they were just, yeah...a JOY to be around :)
I love observing and being with little kids. They are innocent, simple, happy, full of faith and open of heart. They don't judge, they simply believe the best in people. I wish everyone I knew was like a child. So free, so trusting, so pure, so much fun, so forgiving and so transparent. Why can't we all be like little children? Isn't this what Jesus told us we are to be?
Mr 10:15 - "Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."haha..if it was up to me, I'd hang out with kids all day long. Adults can be so complicated at times, myself included. Lord give me the faith of a child. Not only this, but also the heart of a child. I want to smile like children do once again. amen :)
ps. sarah drew me two pictures today. haha...they were great!
(please register online asap. deadline is June 1st to secure your spot!)
Dear CCN Associates, This July 14-17th, 2006 we are calling forth student leaders from all over the nation to gather at the University of California, San Diego for a strategic gathering of 100 college student leaders who are contending for transformation on their college campuses! Our goal is to have strategic student leaders from every major university population/region in the USA to be a part of this historic 3 day gathering.
Here Is Why You Need To Be There Campus Transformation Network is a partnership between Campus Renewal Ministries and Campus Church Networks with a vision to transform university campuses for God's glory by connecting leaders, mobilizing prayer and planting simple churches. During these 3 days we will have strategic guest speakers & think tank sessions to envision us and equip us in:
> Campus Transformation through connecting leaders in the body of Christ on our campuses towards unified action.
> Campus Transformation through mobilizing and establishing 24/7 prayer rooms & prayer initiatives on our campuses.
> Campus Transformation through the planting of simple churches (missional communities) among every pocket of un-reached students on our campuses.
We are in a UNIQUE hour where God is raising up a sense of revival and massive spontaneous prayer across college campuses all over our nation. It is timely, that at this critical moment we gather student leaders "face to face" across this nation who are contending for revival and campus transformation to meet together to pray, plan and pursue God's purposes in our generation.
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: LOU ENGLE (THE CAUSE, BOUND4LIFE), GEORGE OTIS JR (TRANSFORMATION VIDEOS), NEIL COLE (ORGANIC CHURCH), JEREMY STORY (CRM), WENDY ANDREWS (24-7PRAYER USA), JAESON MA (CCN)
DATE: July 14-17
TIME: Friday at 6pm Through Monday at Noon
LOCATION: UC San Diego, CA
COST: $200 which includes your hotel room, breakfast & lunch
OPTOIN: $100 if you find your own lodging
Register Now DEADLINE IS JUNE 1ST...https://www.campustransformation.com/prod/cform.php
Dear Prayer team,
This month CBN will be airing my personal testimony on the 700 Club to millions of viewers on the ABC Family Channel and other networks. The host prays at the end of the show to invite viewers to give their life to Christ. Please pray that many who are watching this day and throughout the month give their lives to Jesus Christ all over the world after watching the testimony of how I came to Christ.
You can watch the interview at the below link and check out the website story at
http://www.cbn.com/700club/Guests/Interviews/Jaeson_Ma052506.asp
if you can't find the link check out the archives for previous broadcasts
http://www.cbn.com/700club/showinfo/schedule/previousbroadcasts.asp
Under the mercy,
Jaeson
Below is a first hand report written by Samuel Kim (a youth pastor and student at UCLA) who has been co-partnering with us to reach the UCLA campus on what God has been doing this year. He wrote the below to confirm the outpouring of God's work that has been taking place on this campus. Please read...God is movn! jaeson
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In order to account for what God's been doing at UCLA, and confirm the testimony already given by Jaeson, I prepared a report of what God's been doing at UCLA.
Here it is. It can also be found on my xanga, www.xanga.com/samxk. God bless!
God is Moving at UCLA.Before I write or say anything else, I want to first say that God is amazing, and that to Him alone belongs all the glory, honor, and praise. I don't want to write a report about what any person has been doing at UCLA, because we are incapable to do anything by ourselves. It is God that has been moving, not man. It is God that grows the seeds that have been planted, not us. We are humbled, and truly blessed to be able to partake in this ministry with Him. And the cry of our hearts has been and always will be, not to us, but to Him, and always to Him be all the glory.
I emphasize this to make it clear that neither I, nor any other worker at UCLA has the desire to take any of the glory for ourselves. In fact, I simply want to write this account in order to encourage the Church, and to confirm the testimony that Jaeson wrote earlier this year on his blog. My name is Samuel Kim, I have been working alongside Jaeson from the beginning of this year, and I want to share with you all what God has been doing at UCLA.
Last Year at UCLA till first quarter at UCLAIt all begins with prayer. If it were not for the years and years of prayer that have soaked the campus of UCLA from past generations, nothing that happened this year could have been possible. Furthermore, if this year we had not been constantly challenging, encouraging, and exhorting each other to pray for the lost, all our efforts would have been futile. This is because it starts with God, happens with God, and ends with God.
With that being said, the story of this year's revival truly begins last year. A couple of the brothers from UCLA, Josh Yang and Caleb Lin, developed a heart and vision for revival at UCLA. They began mobilizing our campus leaders and ministries to pray, and began a Wednesday night prayer meeting, coordinated a 30 Hour time of fasting and prayer, and also started a house church at UCLA called Passion Church. This campus church has contributed greatly to the intercession and prayers that have soaked the campus this year.
The prayers were definitely much needed, and were an awesome time to grow. But, very importantly, they turned their prayers into action. At the very beginning of this school year, they started doing something no one had done for years at UCLA. They went out into the middle of Bruinwalk (the center of UCLA) and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ and worshipped Him out in the open. Although no harvest was produced during this time, and it was easy to become discouraged because of it, I truly believe that they were planting seeds which were necessary before a harvest could be reaped.
God was paving the way for His plan at UCLA, because also during this time, Jaeson got a call from God to come to UCLA and to preach and share his testimony in the middle of our campus. Jaeson was faithful to that calling, and when he came, he brought not only a life of prayer, but a challenge and exhortation to the Christian community at UCLA. A lot of us were shaken from our very foundations, because we saw in Jaeson a life of more than just words. That is, a lot of us, for the first time, came face to face with a Christianity that was not about going to church, but being the church. Instead of trying to persuade people of God's love, Jaeson simply showed them His love. I can't speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself. It challenged me to my very core.
A little later that first quarter, I became convicted and began leading worship outdoors and went out with Jaeson everyday to preach, worship, and pray on the middle of campus. During that first quarter, we had a huge breakthrough one of the weeks. One day, after we had worshipped for two hours, Jaeson began preaching publicly at UCLA. People began to stop and listen, and the center of UCLA, Bruinwalk, which is usually loud with noise, suddenly became quiet. Jaeson shared his testimony, and a group of people raised their hands to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I'm not sure how many people exactly, but there were a lot of people who stopped to listen. Of course, we are not sure what happened to all these "seeds", but a couple of them are worth mentioning here because we saw so much fruit from the seeds that were planted. One of these seeds is a fraternity guy who gave his life to God, and started a Bible Study with Jaeson and Caleb. The other one is another guy, who hated Christians and wanted to kill Jaeson when he first heard the gospel being preached. But through a series of events, in the past few quarters, this man's heart has not only softened, but he actually came to one of our church meetings!
Let me elaborate on the fruits that have been produced through the fraternity brother throughout the year. The bible study with this one fraternity brother grew from one to two in just one week. That was first quarter. It is third quarter now, and this small group has grown from two to about ten to twelve, (maybe more) brothers and sisters coming together to learn about God, and His love for them. In just two quarters, it grew from two people, to twelve people! And the most beautiful and amazing thing about this is the fact that everyone at the bible study is hungry for God! I went to the bible study just a few days ago, and I heard them speaking about the Word of God as if it really were the Word of Life. I emphasize this last point because of this. They were hungrier for the Word than most Christians I have met. It blew me away. Here are new converts, most of them have barely accepted Jesus Christ into their lives within the past week or two, and they were already so desperately hungry for the Word of God! At the meeting, it became obvious that these brothers and sisters have faith that the Word of God actually has a message that can change their lives. They expect God to speak to them through His word, and because of this expectation, He has been. Praise God!
Another thing to mention about this, is that a week ago, one of the frat brothers who had never come out to the bible study before, gave his life to God one day and was baptized on the same day in front of all his fraternity brothers! God is truly amazing, and myriads of angels are rejoicing right now in heaven because of this! What a joy it is to serve with God!
The second guy, the guy who wanted to kill Jaeson while he was preaching, has also been coming along! Like I said, this quarter he actually came to our church service! He hated Christians, and now his heart was completely changed! A lot of us have spoken to this man, and seriously, to see how God has changed his life from first quarter to now is incredible! Furthermore, he does not see us as enemies anymore, but we are able to show him God's love everyday through actions, words, and whatever it takes! He has not accepted Christ yet, but I believe that God is eagerly pursuing his heart. Recently, he has had a family tragedy, and I truly believe God placed us into his life at this critical moment, because He wants to show this man His love for him.
Second Quarter at UCLAThese were some of the things that happened first quarter, that carried over to this third quarter. Mostly first quarter was about planting seeds. Now, I must admit something at this point. The second quarter was nothing like the first. In fact, Satan began to attack us very powerfully during the second quarter. A lot of people became discouraged, a lot of people started questioning whether the things we were doing in the middle of campus was "really worth it", and many of us were filled with an intimidation that only Satan can manufacture. It served its purpose. Even though the bible study with the two guys from the frat continued (remember, it only grew to twelve within the last two weeks of third quarter), nothing new seemed to be happening this second quarter.
God used Becky Tirabassi to change this. God put on her heart to fan the flames of revival all across the United States by challenging the Universities of America to take up a day (or more) of 24/7 prayer. I was put in charge of this, and honestly, at this point I was really burnt out and discouraged, and I really didn't have a heart to put the prayer room together. Yet, God put it on my heart that I had to coordinate this prayer house, even though I didn't really want to. Now I understand why.
The 24 hour prayer house produced in many of us an encounter with God that really shook us. God spoke to so many of us through the one day of prayer, and most importantly for me, He healed my sister of bulimia, which she had been struggling with for four years!
Let me elaborate this point. The bulimia lifestyle and guilt had gotten so bad in my sister's life that she became suicidal, and threw up three to four times a day! She was struggling with depression, and was having an incredibly hard time even wanting to live. But the amazing thing is this. She could have gone to psychologists and it would have taken years for her to get healed. But God healed her in just one encounter with Him. God is the greatest physician. Amen? That night, in just one night, God gave my sister some prophetic words, and it radically shook her life, and she left their completely healed emotionally and within a week was completely healed physically! Right now, she has been growing, and really desires to know God more! We even talked about going to missions together at some point in our lives! I could never have imagined having a conversation like that with my sister ever before!
Needless to say, God reignited my heart dramatically. I became so desperate and hungry, and one thought that kept consuming my heart was this, "what if she had killed herself?" Suddenly I began to understand that there were other people who, just like my sister, were in need of a Savior. They needed a God who will love them and heal them of their sicknesses and emotional hurts. With this newfound passion, I began to coordinate student movements, and went out there to preach and worship God on the middle of campus with newfound fervor. Something came over me. Most of the time, I was the only one out there, but it didn't matter to me anymore. All that mattered was that I was faithful to God, and I wanted to show these people, not persuade them, about a God who loves them.
One particular door God opened up to me, was the opportunity to share the gospel to 400-500 students in one day (maybe more, maybe less). A guy named Preacher Dan, who spreads a false gospel of how people have to literally be perfect to go to heaven (I don't mean perfect through Christ, but perfect in action and in works), came out on one of the days I went out to worship. He came out like he usually does, and God put it on my heart to stand up and preach the true gospel out on the middle of Bruinwalk in order to counter the false gospel that was being preached. You have to understand. This man would literally yell at people calling them "devil child's" and he would call girls that were walking by whores because they did not cover their heads!
I stood up, and preached the true gospel, and a large crowd began to develop. By the end of the day, hundreds of people heard the gospel, and although the direction God was taking me wasn't to "ask them" to accept Jesus (if you were there, you would understand why this was so), I knew that God really began to open up the heavens and hearts of many of the students at UCLA. During this time of preaching, myself and other student workers noticed that many of the people gathered there were visibly touched by the Holy Spirit from this message of God's love for them.
Third Quarter at UCLAThen came this new quarter, third quarter. I already told you guys previously a lot of what God has been doing at UCLA this quarter with the fraternity bible study that grew from two to ten/twelve. I want to share with you all the other stuff. I don't go into as much detail as Jaeson did on his blog site. This is because if you want a "closer" look, you can just read his entry. I simply want to emphasize the points that I thought were important, confirm the testimony that Jaeson himself gave, and share with you how God has used those things to reach out to the campus of UCLA. This third quarter, God answered many of our prayers, opened doors, and showed up at UCLA in an incredible way.
This quarter, from the very beginning, was one of conviction. Both Jaeson and I felt strongly that God wanted us to go out there every day and preach during one of the weeks at the beginning of the quarter. Jaeson took this 7 foot cross out with him onto Bruinwalk, and I kid you not, that cross is anointed. The interesting thing is, is that that cross was at the 24 hour day of prayer we had at UCLA!
Being faithful to His call, we went out there Thursday before good Friday, and we preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the students that were out on Bruinwalk. This particular day, (much like every other day we were out there) Jaeson was acting weird and losing his mind. He kind of blankly stared out into the open, looking at nothing, praying quietly to himself. After a while, he began preaching and a lot of people stopped to listen to God's Word. To be quite honest, I don't remember all that happened on that Thursday, but I do remember that it convicted us to go out everyday the following week.
With that being said, the following week, we went out there every day. And God showed up. Monday, Jaeson was out there with his cross, and I and a couple other student leaders began preaching. Some people listened, some didn't, and after about one hour of us preaching, Jaeson started acting rather eccentrically. He began walking around in little circles with his cross, and saying stuff like "it doesn't make sense". I felt the same way. Both of us, I know, were at the same place with the same question. Where is the power of the gospel? Why is the gospel being preached and no one being changed by it? After a time of prayer, Jaeson suddenly began rapping out on the middle of bruinwalk. That's right. He was preach rapping about the love of God. Needless to say, this attracted some people to stop and listen to the Word being preached, and in particular, Jaeson felt like God was going to give him a fraternity.
After rapping, Jaeson began sharing his testimony. It's a powerful testimony, and if you have never heard it, I strongly recommend that you do. A group of students from this fraternity that God put on his heart were sitting there, listening to Jaeson preach, and I could tell that the Holy Spirit was really speaking to their hearts. They couldn't take their eyes off Jaeson, and they heard every word that was preached! While he was preaching, something amazing happened. Jaeson prayed over one of the guys who had broken his leg earlier playing basketball, and immediately after the prayer Jaeson told the guy to stand up and walk. Obviously, he was skeptical to do it at first. But then he got up, and he was able to stand up and walk all around bruinwalk after the prayer! It was truly amazing to see it, and although the reality of what just happened didn't sink in till later, God healed him! Furthermore, God gave Jaeson prophetic words that really convicted some of the brothers. These were truly incredible and amazing things that happened!
With that being said, though, I want to say this. There were a lot of other people "there", listening to the Word of God being preached, apart from the fraternity. A lot of them, when given the opportunity, did accept Jesus into their lives. But a lot of those seeds were lost. Some were good soil, and some were bad. It's how God told us it would be when Jesus shared the parable of the four soils. All we are responsible is to preach the gospel, and plant the seeds. He is the only one that can make the seeds grow, and that's why He is the only one who deserves our worship.
However, the good soil bore much fruit. I want to share with you the incredibly encouraging story of how God opened many doors to salvation through this day of preaching. That day, we started a bible study with that fraternity. It was more of a spiritual discussion group, and at first, it was discouraging because we saw that these "seeds" were heavily contested by Satan. However, on one particular Thursday, very recently, actually, about eight brothers from the fraternity came out to the bible study. That night, something amazing happened. While I was walking up to the place where we meet them, I really felt the Lord telling me that He was going to save people today. I didn't know what to think of it, but before the end of the night, FOUR of the eight gave their lives to God! It was amazing! What's even more amazing is that these brothers that came on this particular night had NO previous encounters with us, (in the sense that this was the first time we shared the gospel with them), and God already opened a door for salvation! What was very sobering and surprising was that these guys had NEVER heard the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ ever preached or spoken to them! God opened doors, and through these doors, souls were saved! Right now, angels are rejoicing in heaven, and honestly, I am joining them, because these guys are going to heaven!!!
That was just Monday. Tuesday, we went out again, and another group was "touched" by the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, this second group, we have not seen much "growing" with them. I say this to emphasize this one point. All we can do is do what we're told. We were told by God to pray for this group, to reach out to this group, to love this group. It is God who will change them, transform them. Although we have not seen progression with this group yet, I pray that God will really move within their hearts in the coming days, so that the seeds that were planted may grow and be harvested!
Wednesday, we went out there to worship God, and nothing more than that. A group of about 30-40, maybe more, brothers and sisters from all different campus organizations came out to worship God. It was moving. Literally, it was heaven on earth. A lot of people who weren't even Christians told us that they were "touched" by our worship of Him out on Bruinwalk. How beautiful it is to see His children worship Him!
Thursday, Jaeson did more preaching, and people were filled with the Holy Spirit. I was not there for most of this day, but I do remember that I went around and collected the names of about 10-12 people who wanted to start a bible study of some sort with us. Once again, not all of these "seeds" were harvested, but some of them are bearing fruit today!
God is moving at UCLA. Revival is here. I can't even begin to describe in words how awesome it has been to serve Him, and love others. However, I want to say this. Some people may think that "this isn't revival". Of course, we haven't seen hundreds and thousands of people come to Christ. But I truly believe that this is the beginning of a transformation at UCLA that will rock the core of the University. God has been giving us favor among a lot of the student groups, and He has been opening doors that we never expected or imagined! By the grace of God, we will see the entire campus of UCLA come to Christ by next year! He can do it!
Another thing, is this. Some people said that these new "converts" are simply Christians from different ministries that transferred over. As you can see from this account, this is entirely false. Many of these people who have come to Christ this quarter and previous quarters have never even encountered God before! Many of them, this is their first time even reading the Bible!
There are many other things going on, and bible studies that have started during this year. Right now I believe there are about 8-9, (maybe more) bible studies that have been started as a result of this year. Another thing that we are truly excited about, and blessed to have is a personal discipleship training meeting with Neil Cole, the writer of Organic Church. We have really been learning and growing a lot through these trainings. So, in short, while this covers most of the "major" events that occurred at UCLA, things are constantly happening that may not be as "noticeable", but are definitely still shaking the foundations of UCLA. The most important thing is this?almost every week, we see people accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Neil Cole said this one thing, and it really struck me during one of the meetings. This is what he said. "Sometimes, I think we underestimate the power of light. We sit there, and cower away from the darkness, not realizing that our light, Jesus Christ, can penetrate any darkness".
Final ThoughtsHe is truly amazing. I am seriously just in awe of how awesome He is. I hope that this report would encourage you, and more than that, challenge you. God doesn't desire just Jaeson, or just me, or just Caleb, or just Josh, or just Passion Church to go out there and spread the Word of God. He wants every one of His children to do this. Not all of us are called to preach out in the middle of our schools. But all of us are called to share the Gospel. Remember, wherever you go, He goes with you. And wherever He goes, you know what happens! People are saved. The sick are healed. The blind can see again.
I want to end with this. One thing that God has challenged me with, and I challenge you guys with is this. Schindler, at the end of the movie Schindler's List, realized the importance of just one life. He had already given all his money to save all the Jews that he possibly could, and after all the events happened, they made him a ring to show their appreciation to him. When he got that ring, he broke down, and started to realize that everything he kept for himself (like his car) was another person that could have been saved. Schindler realized the worth of even one person's life. One person. A life. God recently put this scene on my heart during a time of prayer. And after the scene came to mind, He kept asking me this question over and over again, what is a life worth to you? For twenty minutes, it seemed like the question would never stop. What is a life worth to you? Sam, what is a life worth to you? What is a life worth to you? It kept going on, and I didn't even know how to answer it! Then it ended with these sweet, life changing, beautiful words. Your life was worth everything to Jesus.
I have to ask. What is a life worth to you?
-Samuel Kim
Mom day pic :D
So below is the lyrics to my favorite new song "The Sunscreen Song." My friend sent it to me the other night. It inspired me in many different ways. Made me think about how much I appreciate my mom & need to do so more. It inspired me to buy sunscreen because recently I've been getting alot more tan from being out at Bruin Walk preaching in the sun. Lastly, it just makes u smile :D & yeah,
"do one thing everyday that scares you." word. God is good yo. Blessings. jae
================================
Baz Luhrman - Sunscreen Song
================================
Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ?9...Wear sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years youll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you cant grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...Youre not as fat as you imagine.
Dont worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you
Sing
Dont be reckless with other peoples hearts, dont put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss
Dont waste your time on jealousy; sometimes youre ahead, sometimes youre behind...the race is long, and in the end its only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch
Dont feel guilty if you dont know what to do with your life...the most interesting people I know didnt know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still dont.
Get plenty of calcium
Be kind to your knees, youll miss them when theyre gone.
Maybe youll marry, maybe you wont, maybe youll have children, maybe you wont, maybe youll divorce at 40, maybe youll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary...what ever you do, dont congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either - your choices are half chance, so are everybody elses.
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can...dont be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, its the greatest instrument youll ever own.
Dance...even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you dont follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
49 second break in speech -- Quindon singing
Get to know your parents, youll never know when theyll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, price will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do youll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Dont expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
Dont mess too much with your hair, or by the time its 40, it will look 85.
Be careful who advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than its worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen...
Revolutionary ‘students of peace’Multiplying churches on campusIt might be a stretch to refer to fraternities, sororities, student clubs, and a host of other interest and affinity groups to be found on the campuses of American colleges and universities as "unreached people groups." But don’t try and convince Jaeson Ma of that. For Jaeson is seeing church-planting movements spread among these virtually pagan entities on a growing number of campuses.
The hidden nature of these student clusters began to dawn on him six years ago when he was suddenly confronted with the reality that the university he was attending was not only a greatly neglected mission field, but that it harbored dozens of unreached people groups within its student body.
Acting on his discovery, Jaeson has found that seemingly disinterested students are hungry for the gospel and can be effectively evangelized and even gathered into churches! The result is that a church-planting movement is now flourishing at his university and is spreading to others as well.
Only two believed in JesusThe insight began to strike him while sitting in an introductory lecture on philosophy at San Jose State University in California. Suddenly, the professor asked, "Who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" Jaeson and one of his friends were the only two who raised their hands in a class of 100 students.
Jaeson could not believe that most of his fellow students had no idea what Jesus offered them. He therefore started prayer walking around the university, asking God to do something so that the 28,000 students would come to know him. God opened doors for Jaeson; the university officials were sympathetic to his aims and granted him permission to hold evangelistic rallies. Hundreds were saved.
Churches with nothing to offerJaeson soon realized, though, that very few managed to find a place in a church after becoming a believer. "To be completely honest," says Jaeson, "most of the churches around the university had nothing to offer students. Nobody had any idea what to do with them. Some students met for Bible study, but when they left the university, the problem remained: They could not find a place in a traditional church.
"I found the same problem at other universities," he says. "Most students see church as boring, irrelevant and hypocritical, despite the fact that they themselves are empty, hurt, and suffering. Instead of Jesus, they seek true love in drugs, parties, sex, and good grades. Many became depressive; some were close to suicide."
As he prayed, Jaeson discovered that it is much better to bring church to the students, not the other way around. After much research, including studying China's underground house church movement, he became convinced that relationship-oriented "simple church" was best suited for reaching students.
Studies by the Barna Research Group, Jaeson found out, showed that 18- to 25-year-olds are the group least likely to attend a church. The majority of students who attended church during school years no longer did so at the end of their studies.
Jaeson concluded that "we desperately need completely new churches for the new generation, because the traditional form of church simply does not work in America. Post-modern youths know no standards, believe basically anything, and want to experience God for themselves. They will not sit in pews listening to someone preach forever. They want to put their faith into practice."
Inspired by 18-year-old Chinese girlsHe read about 18-year-old Chinese girls who had planted over 100 house churches in one year, although they had only been Christians a few years themselves. The churches which he investigated in China were networks of small fellowships of 15-30 members which met in houses and small shops.
"If an 18-year-old Chinese girl can plant 100 churches each year in China, why shouldn't a student plant a few at university?" Jaeson asked himself. He realized that, similar to the biblical concept of a "house of peace" or a "man or woman of peace," a missionary can win "a student of peace" for Christ. Such a convert will in turn win his circle of friends. Soon, a small church is formed.
One single church, he began to realize, would never be able to reach the very diverse student community. He therefore started viewing every student group as an unreached community, with the aim of starting a church among them.
These new churches with 15-20 members meet anywhere—in dormitories, apartments, student union rooms, classrooms, or the coffee shop across the street. As they grow, they do not look for somewhere larger to meet, but divide and therefore multiply.
‘Start a revolution!’As the movement began to spread, Jaeson established Campus Church Networks (CCN) in 1998 and began sending missionaries to other universities to do the same. His motto became, "Start a revolution, start a campus church!" On CCN's website, he writes, "Every revolution begins with a revolutionary. Are you prepared to be one? Is there already a Campus Church at your University? If not, you should start one…."
Bottom line for me is that vision for church multiplication and saturation church planting is proliferating to smaller and smaller units of society. In the process, the prophecy of Habakkuk 2:14 that "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord" is being progressively achieved.
Written by, Jim Montgomery (OC International, Founder of DAWN Ministries)
Material for this column of GCU was adapted from an article in the December 24, 2005, issue of Joel News International. E-mail contact: joel-news-international@xc.org.
Haha...so it's been over 7 years, but I decided to join a MC Battle (yes 8 mile style) at UCLA two nights ago. I used to battle rhyme in hi skool, but I haven't done it since I was 18. Recently, I've been doing Bible studies with the hip hop community at UCLA, I really felt inspired to join dis mc battle so I could connect better w/ the hip hop community on campus. Lol..they all know I'm da dude preachn on Bruin Walk so it was definitely a interesting experience. All in all, it was alot of fun. If you know how a mc battle works, it can be brutal. Since, I couldn't diss directly at my opponents I had to come creative. By God's grace I made it into the semi-finals. haha...seriously, dat was a miracle considering I hadn't battled in years. It was fun and I was able to promote not only hip hop culture, but Christ-culture to da ucla crowd. God loves Hip-Hop. word.
haha..they even wrote up an article on the front page of the daily bruin quoting me..
Another MC was JaeQuest, whose real name is Jaeson Ma. Also different from the typical MC stereotype popularized by rapper Eminem in the movie "8 Mile," Ma is the pastor for UCLA's Passion Church.
Though he had not rapped since high school seven years ago, Ma drew on his day job for the night's activity. In response to a particularly angry line by opponent No Can Do, he responded with, "God bless."
Ma said the most important aspect about freestyle rapping is to not take the insults on stage seriously. People should instead see it as a way to "challenge creativity."
"You gotta come up with responses, punch lines and witty words," Ma said. "It's all working at the same time – your mouth, your body, the whole atmosphere." http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=37140
GOD IS MOVING..(Cal State Long Beach)
Last Week on beginning from Tuesday God began to move. A friend in one of my classes came up to myself and my roommate as we were eating at Great Steak in school. God lead me to pray for him since i first saw him. He was on drugs and high, but I know Holy spirit fell. He was amazed at the fact that God lead me to pray for him. He began to share his struggles and his sins and I just talked with him abuot God and he became completely SOBER! Amazing, so the next day we had an evnt called Say Something. We did it with Simon from every nations campus ministries. As soon as Simon went up and said "I'm sorry" a spiritual barrier broke, and people began to
listen. Leighykin(im not sure how to spell) went up and lead worship, and several of the guys went up and preached and the whole spiritual atmosphere of the area began to change. When I went up to preach a little something similar to what happened with you at UCLA happened. Where people just began to listen and tune in to the message.The spiritual atmosphere shifted and I knew God broke in. Someone received christ AMEN!
So TODAY MAY 8th we start at 12pm as usual, and we start worshipping and praising GOD. He gives me a word, and we begin to pray for his grace to be known and his love to be seen. We could feel the spirit coming and going, but i knew something was different today. There was a freedom, almost an ownership of the land as we praised God. Go began to show me this vision of the cross falling from the sky going straight through each and every person. Then we each began to confess our sins and throw it in the middle, and a FIRE fell. Afterwards he showed me that we went and talked abuot Jesus, the cross and him crucified on it was visible, and I felt his love would be seen by people we talk to. So after the meeting we began to talk
about our Wed.unity outdoor worship meeting, and a Girl who was working at Da vinci Code booth for CCC walked by, and we prayed for her. We prayed I felt like i knew God was going to do this. So i asked her for her crutches and she gave them to me and began to walk, but she still had a cast on. She told me it hadn't hurt for awhile so i asked her what she needed to do, to know that she was healed. She said to take off the cast and walk on it. So i asked her to, and although she was a little reluctant at first she went through with it. We prayed for her one more time and i asked her to get up and walk. So she did, with no pain. She had this confused look and i asked her to keep walking, and she did. She said that the pain that
was usually there from ligament damage was completely gone! Thats when i called you and then walking in faith went and bought new sandals so she could walk normally. While this was going on another girl came up who was a friend of Davids and received prayer from Karla and Leighykin and immediately i felt Gods compassion all over her, and God touched her and she began to cry under the compassion of christ. A none believer seeing this came and asked me what was going on, so i briefly shared the gospel with him and he agreed for bible study and spiritual discussion. Now thats
a good day! After we left Karla told me that the healed girl stood up with her crutches and began to tell people God healed her, and she called her sister and got so excited. It was great. THANK YOU JESUS! CSULB is yours
-Tim (Cal State Long Beach, Campus Church Network)
This has been my prayer every morning for the past year. Luke 10:2b. We are simply praying for God to send forth more workers into the "campus harvest fields" of this nation and beyond. The campus harvest fields are RIPE, but the workers are few. Pray God raises up workers out of the harvest. As you pray the below prayer (Luke 10:2b) you will be surprised how God will back up that prayer and answer it. Please pray for us at UCLA. Since my last post many have been asking what has been happening at Bruin Walk since? I was only inspired to take out the Cross for a week. Since then, our team has been focusing on following up on the many students who committed to Christ by starting new Bible studies and simple churches among each group (oikos) of students. The hard work is now in front of us. Let us continue on the work of the ministry, be faithful in the little and God will make us faithful over much. Whatever way you are called to communicate the Gospel, pray and obey. May we all press on towards the mark of knowing Christ & making Him known to this generation.
Under the mercy,
Jaeson
USA: the Luke 10:2b virus breaks out Something very special happened when house church coach John White and Kenny Moore, Southern Baptist Director of Church Planting for the State of Colorado, had breakfast together on October 2, 2002. Both have a passion to see Colorado covered with living expressions of the Body of Christ. While lingering over the last cup of coffee for the morning, their thoughts were turned to the ninth and tenth chapters of Luke. They observed that this was where the Lord was really shifting gears, where the foundation was laid for all that would follow till the end of the age. Up to this point, the Lord was doing the ministry. Now he was sending out the 12 (Luke 9:1-6) and then the 72 others (Luke 10:1). "Now there were 42 two-man teams to establish the presence of Christ ? to plant churches ? everywhere," writes Jim Montgomery, a respected missionary and publisher of The Great Commission Update. "I would have been ecstatic," says John White, "if I had 42 church-planting teams for the state of Colorado. But what Jesus was saying really astounded us. 'The fields are ripe but these 42 teams are so few.'" The harvest is not the problem. The critical missing component is an adequate number of harvest workers. How do we get enough apostolic church planters? Luke 10:2b says to do one thing: ask the Lord of the harvest for them. John and Kenny covenanted with each other to pray this "10:2b" prayer together every day possible from that moment on. So every day either John would call Kenny or Kenny would call John to pray. If they didn?t connect, they would leave their prayer on voice mail.
800 days laterIn the following 30 months, they have followed through on this pledge about 700 or 800 times, saying "God, here we are again, John and Kenny, pleading for more harvest workers for Colorado, just like every day." "Regular prayer, like the poor widow in Luke 18," says White, "can and should become a healthy, regular and hence relentless intercession." Kenny and John started inviting others to do the same, regularly praying the 10:2b prayer in teams. There are now between 200 and 300 people praying 10:2b with a partner virtually every day. The 10:2b virus is spreading!
Amazing results"And the results have been amazing," says White. "We're to the point where we get a phone call or e-mail almost every day from someone saying something like this: 'It?s in my heart to plant a (house or simple) church. How do I do that? Can you help me?'" Kenny Moore used to get six or eight people over the course of six months who would indicate a desire to start a new church. He now has a steady stream of inquiries, and there have been around 100 Southern Baptist Churches established in Colorado alone from the time he and White began praying 10:2b together.
Tim Pynes had been on the staff of a large, post-modern church in Denver. With so many programs in this mega-facility, Pynes found he had merely turned into a project manager. "This is not what I signed up for," he told White. "I want to invest in the lives of people." He left the megachurch and started meeting White. He now has a growing network of 8 house churches in Denver. Guy Muse, a Southern Baptist missionary in Ecuador, has been encouraging all of his house church people to pray the 10:2b prayer on a daily basis since May of 2004. "In that month of May alone, 30 new congregations were established," he reports.
"Cast out", not "send forth"The Greek word for "send forth" in Luke 10:2b, ekballein, was a very forceful, almost violent, term. It is the word used when casting out a demon, for example. White and Moore realised that they should not pray for potential labourers who may be interested, but for highly-motivated people who God had taken and, as only he can, placed with gentle force in the harvest. It seems to work...
Source: Jim Montgomery and John White, DenverWH@aol.com
Note: Jim Montgomery, founder of the global Dawn Movement, has started
publishing a regular bulletin, the "Great Commission Update", available free of
charge from JimMontgomery@oci.org, on the web site
www.greatcommissionupdate.org, or by post from Jim Montgomery, PO Box 36900,
Colorado Springs, CO 80936, USA. Warmly recommended!
