One more day until Fall Conference 2009!

Ohio Fall Conference: The focus is on the David and Goliath passage, challenging students to see beyond the present circumstances to the unseen but real world of the spirit, where the Glory of God is manifest and the will of God is regnant.

Get excited.

M. Papai

• 33-34 Koinonia students are registered for Fall Conference. This is an all time record high!
• The total number of Case students attending Fall Conference is likely to be 89-90. That is incredible – praise God! May he use this conference mightily…
• We have special opportunities for students in our strategic ministries, including Vision Conference (Black Campus Ministries), Greek Conference (fraternity and sorority members),  and of course, Asian American Leadership Conference, entitled “Imago Dei.” I’m on the planning committee for Imago Dei – very exciting stuff.

The marks of true united prayer are given us in these words of our Lord. (Matt 18:19-20) The first is agreement as to the thing asked. … The second mark is the gathering in, or into, the Name of Jesus. … The third mark is, the sure answer: ‘It shall be done for them of my Father.’ A prayer-meeting for maintaining religious fellowship, or seeking our own edification, may have its use; this was not the Saviour’s view in its appointment. He meant it as a means for securing special answer to prayer. A prayer meeting without recognised answer to prayer ought to be an anomaly. …

What an unspeakable privilege this of united prayer is, and what a power it might be. If the believing husband and wife knew that they were joined together in the Name of Jesus to experience His presence and power in united prayer (1 Peter); if friends believed what mighty help two or three praying in concert could give each other; if in every prayer meeting the coming together in the Name, the faith in the Presence, and the expectation of the answer, stood in the foreground; if in every Church united effectual prayer were regarded as one of the chief purposes for which they are banded together, the highest exercise of their power as a Church; if in the Church universal the coming of the Kingdom, the coming of the King Himself, first in the mighty outpouring of His Holy Spirit, then in His own glorious person, were really matter of unceasing united crying to God; –O who can say what blessing might come to, and through, those who thus agreed to prove God in the fulfillment of His promise.

p. 83-84, With Christ in the School of Prayer – Andrew Murray

Urbana 2009: THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Registration deadline before next price increase: OCT 17

For over half a century, young people, including martyr Jim Elliott and preacher John Piper, have been challenged with bearing the Gospel, and the call to be Sent Ones into the world. (“Just as the Father has sent me, I now send you!”) Pray for the 22,000 students gathering this December. May God fling his word far and wide because of this conference.

Currently, there are 4 students from Koinonia registered. Pray with me for at least 6 more to sign up!

• 20-25 new students at the Case Christian Legal Society (it was close to dying) — gospel shared through the bridge diagram at the first meeting
• CMDA at Case Dental is beginning to receive some momentum
• 30 new students at the IV Black Student Movement at OSU

Please pray!

Class of 2013!

Last weekend, Koinonia organized an off-campus lock-in that included a talk by our volunteer staff (Conrad), “Feminar” and “Meninar”, Class Time, Midnight Mini-Olympics…. and spicy ramen at 2am. Our theme of the night was “messy spirituality, messy community” and we talked about how we are a community of broken, sinful people. Because of this, we are to live a life shame-free (!)  as we confess our wrongdoing and rely on Jesus. We were very grateful that the Cleveland Korean Presbyterian Church was gracious to host us that evening.

I’ll say more about Class Time! Class Time is when students split into their respective years (freshmen, sophomore, etc.) to share, encourage, and pray with each other. I had the opportunity to spend time with the Freshmen Class. There were a total of 18 freshmen!

My heart is for these freshmen. They’re in the process of finding out where they belong on campus, what their relationship with a personal God might look like, and meeting other students that will become their future friends. Please pray for this class of students, that God might awaken fully devoted disciples and future missional Christian leaders!

This is part 1 of an article I wrote in 2008 for my home church’s publication, ECHO.

Every morning at 9:00am, students of all sorts exited the dining hall into the main gathering space to meet with the Lord for their daily devotions. Though they were up at a time unusual for college students, this was the usual morning schedule at InterVarsity’s week-long training event called “Chapter Focus Week.”  I walked through the main lodge to the staff office every day, passing by clusters of young people sitting quietly and intently, reading through Scripture and writing their thoughts down into their journals. They sat anywhere they could find a spot – on the deck chairs facing the lake, at the tables in the atrium, on the couches next to their friends (who were also quietly seeking the Lord) – even on the small couch outside of the staff office that I assumed no one would ever use. This scene is an image that I will vividly remember. It is a picture of students yearning to know the Lord and Creator of the universe. It is a picture of the Lord ministering to every student in a way that only He can –through His Word that is like a sword, revealing and convicting us to turn away from sin and return to Him.

What truly amazed me as I walked through the gathering space was that from the outside, these students were people who seemingly had no reason to belong to Jesus. They were fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, victims of abuse and neglect, self-sufficient perfectionists and workaholics, loud and obnoxious partiers, and former atheists and antagonists to the Gospel. In the book of Luke, we see a similar list of unlikely characters – corrupt tax collectors, a sinful weeping woman, blind men and other outcasts of society –calling out and falling at Jesus’ feet. And Jesus saves them, for his purpose for coming into the world was “to seek and to save what was lost.”  The gracious message of the cross of Christ has somehow been making its way into the hearts that have never deserved it for thousands of years, and we continually witness the power of God when we hear that the Good News has taken root in yet another. And so, as I observed these students growing in the knowledge of the Lord each day, I was continually reminded of the passage in Romans that describes the Gospel as the “power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

The great thing about campus ministry is that I have the opportunity to witness God interjecting Himself into lives on campus, where there are a number of reasons that make it difficult to be a Christian. My generation is one that is curiously paradoxical –we pride ourselves in our awareness of the world’s maladies, but delight in materialistic consumption. We seek community and relationships, but uphold fierce independence and individualism. We claim to be open-minded, but are plagued by skepticism and irreverence. We may even call ourselves “Christian”, but never wholly believe and submit ourselves to the Truth. These are the types of people that InterVarsity hopes to reach at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Our purpose at the university is to advance witnessing communities of students that follow Jesus and grow in love for God, God’s Word, God’s people, and God’s purposes in the world. Though it can sometimes be tiring and frustrating, I sense a calling to work with the students in my fellowship (named “Koinonia”) to accomplish this purpose.  As an encouragement to you, I have compiled some examples of how God is working through InterVarsity and Koinonia.

Hi all,

Here is the Large Group schedule for the month of September. We are doing a brief “who” series to introduce Koinonia’s vision,

“Koinonia” – yes, those are cheez-its

the heartbeat of our fellowship (Jesus), and how we can personally respond to Him. Exciting!

Sept 4 – Who are we? (Koinonia as a missional, Asian American community)

Speaker: Pastor Dave Carroll (Christ Community Church)

Sept 11 – Who is Jesus? (Jesus as the heartbeat of our fellowship)

Speaker: Pastor Gary House (Cleveland Chinese Christian Church)

Sept 18 – Who am I? (Barriers that prevent Asian Americans from fully committing to Jesus)

Speaker: Jason Huang (IV Staff at The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon U)

If you have been around me (in person) within the past week or so, you’ll know that I am in love with my family’s new pup, Chester. He is my muse, companion, and playmate. The joys of raising a puppy is certainly worth the pain, energy, and effort.

When I was home last weekend, I was able to spend a lot of time with my 7-month old dog. Puppies are such a time sink. I never knew! He’s almost like a small child — needs to be supervised often, experiences separation anxiety, etc. He defnitely prefers to sit next to me on the couch (or rotate through his 3 other spots), chewing on his bone while I read or watch tv. Being on the other side of our little divider causes much anxiety and whining.

I took him to the dog park every day I was home. The dog park was much different than how I imagined… in my mind’s eye, I thought of a little fenced in area where owners could unleash their dogs and watch them from the other side of the fence. Instead, the dog park was this amazing field, wooded and green, bordered by a small creek. Dogs are unleashed in the walkway leading up to the park, exploring the woods, following their owners, training for treats, socializing with other dogs… it’s amazing.

Chester has so much pent up energy (he IS a field dog) and he really doesn’t have a lot of outlets for it in my house and neighborhood. Definitely to my annoyance. But it was amazing — when he got offleash, I loved watching him run freely. I always remembered something that James Paternoster talked about when he discussed the cultural mandate — if you’ve ever seen a dog run, you know he was never meant or created to be on a leash. He is most free when he does what he is born to do – run freely, stalk birds, explore the woods, while also staying close to his master.

Chester is young and still untrained. It’s amazing to me how older dogs can both run freely and return to his master when called. It’s a really beautiful thing. This gives me a really beautiful picture of what student training and leadership is like — untrained leaders may freely find their gifts, or “what they were created to do” by running wildly, exploring without boundary, sometimes ignoring the master. Trained leaders (that is, trained by the Word, equipped mentors, and the Lord Himself) will run, explore, and do what they were created to do while knowing their boundaries, returning always to the voice of the Lord when called.

And so, I think this is the picture that I have for my leaders in the ministry. I want to see them be trained so that they might be unleashed for the kingdom… unleashed to do what they were originally created to do — serve the Kingdom in a way that might bring worship to the Creator. But I know training doesn’t come without growing pains. I am ever grateful for students who are willing to walk this path. Amazing.

“In the Kingdom of God, nobodies become somebodies and somebodies become nobodies to make another somebody.” (Rev. from 2100 Lakeside)

“Pray every day for your non-Christian friends. Surround them with your prayer. Each time you pray you plunge a holy explosive into their soul, and one day it will scatter the ice from around their hearts.” (Ole Hallesby)