Like Francis of Assisi

You may have heard the legends of St. Francis of Assisi, who would preach to birds and they would listen to him. Is it possible that I am mastering the art of attracting animals? Am I becoming more like St. Francis? You judge:

Picture taken at Ipswich River yesterday. The bird was a Black-Capped Chickadee. I think bird watching (and attracting) will be my next hobby if I can't fish.

Getting Paid as...

Reading week was pretty productive-- I got a lot of reading done and had some time to earn some money... as a bouncer. Well, perhaps my title wasn't bouncer. It was more like "hired helper," but the job was mostly guarding the door of the new Storefront Chinatown Library during their opening ceremony. I got to stand next to and greet Mayor Menino, Councilor Flaherty, and Councilor Yoon all at once! (notice my gaze directed not to the Mayor, but to my buddy Sam Tsoi, Sampan reporter covering the event) Moreover, I got to reconnect with a few folks in the neighborhood, helping me to feel as if I wasn't totally disconnected from what's happening in Chinatown.

If you go back a few months on this blog, you'll know that for a while, I was involved on a neighborhood committee to plan and recommend a Boston Public Library branch library in Chinatown. This privately funded "Storefront Library" is something that grew out of that process. After we finished our work as a committee, the city did not allocate funding for a new branch, so many of those who were involved, including one of the architects for the project and various community groups continued to push for SOMETHING. That something ended up being this Storefront Library, organized by Sam and Leslie Davol on Washington St.

It is temporary, which is good. That lack of permanence highlights the need for a true city-funded library-- though in tough times like these for the city, who knows when that will happen? In any case, it's a nice, though small library and it's the type of thing I'd like to be involved in if I were in town. Go check it out if you're in town.

more info: http://www.wbur.org/2009/10/15/chinatown-library

32 Inches!!!

striper...

i <3 singing beach...

(in addition to other things and people)

Thoughts on Preaching Class

I had my first preaching class today. As I was saying in my last post, I am very excited to see what the Lord will show me in this class. Dr. Gibson has been here for some time and he directs the preacher training program here at Gordon Conwell. Highlights and thoughts from class:

• I'm one of the students with the most preaching experience there. This does not mean I preach well or better than anybody else in the class. It's just surprising that most of my classmates have had fewer preaching opportunities, aside from those who are much older than me.

• Explaining what expositional preaching is not, Dr. Gibson preached a 6 minute "sermon", deadpan, on "Old Mother Hubbard", expounding on each word in the poem: Old, mother, hubbard, went, cupboard. My favorite moment: "Indeed, we all love to go to the cupboard, don't we? We love going to it because it's just there!" I felt sorry for the international students who might not have known what was going on.

• This is not just Dr. Gibson, but also many other preaching profs as well: there is the sense here that the preacher is the intermediary between God's word and his people. The exact words that wereused is that the pastor is a"bridge between two worlds." I have a high view of the importance of preaching and the role of the preacher, but I don't think I agree with this idea. It seems to imply that lay-people have no chance of understanding God's word without a special in-between guy who interprets the Bible. It suggests we are the messangers, we are the ones with God's authority, we are at the center of God's communication to his people-- it's all resting on us... What happened to the priesthood of all believers? Doesn't the Holy Spirit minister in lay people as well as ordained? Jesus was the final intermediary between God and Man. We don't need to set up another. Preachers are not bridges, nor priests, nor special prophets. We're called to be shepherds, to lead God's people to the green pastures of his living Word. They can read that word themselves without us. Our work on Sundays and Fridays and other preaching days should result in a greater hunger for God's word and God's people growing in reading and obeying that word on their own. What do you think is the preacher's role in relation to God's word and his people?

It has been a restful week: not much work yet and no sermon this Friday.

Moving Back In

Year Two of seminary begins tomorrow. I'll be moving into my room tonight and getting ready for my first class Hebrew, which starts tomorrow. Energy-wise, I am ready-- as I relearned this summer, three weeks of rest is more than enough. But I've forgotten a lot of my Greek and studying seems like a foreign concept after an action-packed summer. There is a mental shift I need to make to get back into student-mode.

It is exciting to get back into structure and purpose. There are many things I miss about Project Destiny, but one of them is waking up every day to see the same people, following a predictable routine, with every minute of the day directed purposefully toward ministering the Gospel. I'm looking forward to applying that same kind of focus once again to my studies.

This semester, I'll be taking my first preaching class! I'm not sure exactly how long I've been preaching God's word-- perhaps only three years, but it feels longer. Nevertheless, I've never taken a real class in preaching; and aside from some tips from a few pastors, I've mostly just picked up techniques from listening to others. I'm eager for God to use Dr. Gibson and the class to shape the way I preach.

Finally, I will mention a fellow seminary blogger whom some of you will know: the venerable Doctor Chu has joined me, along with a few other guys I know from my home church, BCEC. Calvin's blog is http://calvin-at-seminary.blogspot.com/. I hope you will hop on over to his site and pray for him; but please continue to read my blog and pray for me! It's like McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A: you don't have to choose one over the other.

Please drop me a note if there is some way I can be praying for you as you pray for me.

PD Final Update

Dear Friends—

Project Destiny ended a little less than a month ago. I’ve gotten plenty of opportunities to rest up between then and now, even with helping program a youth retreat and planning our Fall teaching series scattered in there. It was a bonus to be able to go to Cape Cod for biking, bird-watching, and camping in August. I’m just about ready to head back to school and I’ll soon be spending time reviewing Greek and getting used to thinking academically again.

I’m really grateful for having had another opportunity to direct PD again. Last year, as I may have told you, was a tough summer that God used to teach me a lot about leading and caring for people. This year, I got to apply some of those lessons to a new team. Once again, this year, God showed me that I am not the shepherd that He wants me to be yet—I am more task oriented than I thought and love people less than I imagine. But He is leading me in that direction and shaping me in that way. By his grace, we fielded an outstanding team that learned to depend on the Lord through the daily ups and downs of ministry life together.

One of the things I like most about directing PD is having a team that might not usually work together. That was the case this year as our young and diverse team came together from Newton, Chinatown, suburbs, the city, out of state, out of country, and many different walks of life. One of the first devotionals of the summer was the passage in 1 Corinthians, which speaks of care for one another as a defining characteristic of Christ’s Body. The first day of training, I must say, was a little quiet. People didn’t intermingle very much. And during free times, instead of playing, everyone would just work on their lesson plans! I began to wonder if this team would ever gel to the point of opening up to one another. But over the course of the next few weeks, as we spent more time together, God knit the team closer together. At our overnight retreat, we had an extraordinary time sharing about how God had shown grace, an evening punctuated by spontaneous singing! The very next week, we saw personalities come out in an uplifting time of candlepin bowling on one of the team nights.

As camp started the team dealt with the day-to-day challenges of working together. We encountered our own expectations and shortcomings as well as God’s faithfulness and provision. Throughout camp, I sprinkled in several devotionals about the resources that the gospel gives us to love one another. I taught on patience vs. grace, how our seeing our own sinfulness enables us to love, and how we only begin to truly love people when we deal with their sin. What a huge privilege it was to lead this team from the point of not knowing each other to the point of almost knowing each other too well! It was amazing to see how God’s Word is always fruitful and applicable to every situation and that his Holy Spirit in us helps us to respond to that Word, giving us insight and changing us to better glorify and proclaim Jesus as savior and lord.

As far as campers go, we had 50 students this year. 37 of them decided to come to Summer Teen Conference, our church’s regular youth group retreat. Up to 10 kids said they wanted to receive Jesus as their savior—praise God! While I’m grateful for those numbers, I know it is the work of the Holy Spirit to hold and sustain those campers and that not all planted seeds will yield a lasting crop. More encouraging to me is the numbers of PD kids who expressed interest in attending regular youth group, where they can continually hear God’s Word preached and where they can be cared for by adult counselors. In years past, I remember having huge farewells and lots of hugs at the end of camp because we were unsure of when we’d see each other again. This year, there were fewer of those. I like to think it’s because more of them know they’ll probably see each other at youth group. It takes a long time to make a disciple—I know it usually doesn’t happen in one summer. So praise God for the campers that continue coming to church regularly, who make up about 40% of our regular Friday night ministries!

As September comes, I’ll be back at regular youth work. It seems I’m getting deeper and deeper into the planning of the Friday Night ministry. I remember when I began youth work—I was a three-month call-up to my friend’s Dorchester church to help set up a worship band of teenagers. Now God has put me in a church with resources to do large-scale urban ministry—He has given me much of the responsibility for teaching and shepherding 80 youths, as well as directing the summer entry-point for the majority of the newcomers. It’s crazy, scary, and humbling at the same time. Please pray for me as I depend on the Lord to show me how to balance my time between ministry, seminary, relationships, and possibly work in the Fall.

I hope to be back at this for PD 2010. Lord wiling, we’ll begin planning for the next summer in October or November. I’ll try to keep y’all updated via my sadly mismanaged blog: bostonministry.blogspot.com

Thanks for all your prayers and support! Please feel free to catch me to ask me about anything . You’ve been a huge blessing to me this summer in providing for my needs and praying for me. Thanks again!

Peace,

Steve

Images: 1) Cape Cod Biking 2) Some counselors at my house in Quincy celebrating my 28th Birthday 3) Two counselors hard at work

Mid-Camp Update

July 25, 2008

Dear Friends,

I hope you are well and making the most of the summer. Already we’re at the half-way point of our camp here at Project Destiny. Thanks for your prayers and financial support. I have a few updates to tell you about:

1. One of the things I was most concerned about was the numbers of campers vs. the numbers of counselors—young counselors at that! To put it in perspective, there is one senior counselor who is 28, which is my age. The next oldest is 24, then 22, 19, 18, 18, and 17. That makes 7 senior counselors, most under 20 years old, most with very little experience working with middle-schoolers. Praise God, though: While our staff struggles to apply the love of Christ consistently, God has been equipping us so that the 50 campers we have don’t seem so many. It is a challenge, but God is teaching us to work together with the entire staff to cover and help each other.
   
   
2. Sicknesses have come, depleting our numbers, especially during the 3^rd week, when we were missing at least one counselor every day. It was encouraging to see everyone covering for one another, even when some of those covering for others weren’t feeling 100% either. I’m also thankful that our counselors happened to get sick on days when their responsibilities were fewer, making it easier to cover their roles.
   
   
3. I’m more than half way through with all my preaching and teaching for the summer. Over the past few weeks, I’ve preached 6 lessons and prepared 20 devotionals for the staff. I’ve never spent so much time thinking about God’s word and how to apply it to the circumstances of people around me. The Lord has been growing my confidence in this area greatly with each passing day.
   
   
4. The kids are really enjoying camp. With every shared experience, they are opening up more to their counselors and one another. They’ve been bonding over field trips, like a cruise to George’s Island, a visit to Old Sturbridge Village, and massive multi-player action-flex sword melee battles. Many of the new-comers to PD have visited our regular Jr. High English ministry, TWR.

Alright, that’s all I will write for now. I’d love to tell you more, but perhaps I can tell some of it in person. I can’t believe there’s only 2 more weeks of camp until it ends. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been here for ages. Sometimes it feels like it’s been so fast and I’m afraid it will slip by before I really get to appreciate all that God is showing me and giving me the opportunity to do. ..

• Please pray for diligence, energy, and passion for our staff as they approach the final stretch. It is easy to get complacent now that the end is in sight.
• Please pray for me as I give two more sermons. I want to be able to connect the gospel to the lives of the campers. I’ll be preaching on Thursday and next Tuesday.

Thanks!
Steve

Project Destiny 2009 First Week

Hi Friends. I'm back in Project Destiny once again. Today was actually the first day of camp (we're still in it as I write). We've got 48 campers who arrived and learned how to find references in a Bible today, some kids who have never looked into a Bible before, and most of whom have not looked at one within the month (counting by a show of hands). As you may recall, this is my major project during the bulk of the year and especially during the summer.

This is my second year directing the program here in Chinatown, and I'm having a blast. My favorite part of all this is the way God has been bringing our team together over the past 2 weeks of training. They come from all over the place and are from different age groups, but God is molding us into a team that shows the unity of Christ's Body. I've been giving devotionals every day (I'm running out of creativity!) and soon I'll be preaching our evangelistic messages during our chapel times

I'm actually writing to send a quick request out for prayer. Thanks to those of you who asked how I've been. Due to some logistical licensing stuff, I didn't get much sleep last night (the night before camp started) and I'm very tired. Please pray that I'd get rest and also that the Lord would keep me from letting self-serving and grace-less motives take over my interactions with others in my tiredness this week. I love being here, and helping others to be Christ's ambassadors in the city-- pray that I would continue to serve with joy and love.

Thanks!

(picture: the busy street and building at Emerson College on Boyleston St. where I'm living this summer with the PD Counselor Staff)

Rising Drop Out Rate for Boston's ELL's

A report will be released tomorrow by UMass Boston and the Center for Collaborative Education showing how the "English Only" rule in Boston's public schools has led to a doubling of drop-out rates by English Language Learners. If you might remember, back in 2002, Boston voted to enact the rule and erase bilingual education from the books so that all students would learn through "immersion." The report that will be released will show how, over a period of two years, student drop out rates have gone from 6% to 12% among immigrant children.

I am by no means a proponent of bilingual education. My mother was a bilingual educator for many years and even she would claim that there was much to be desired in that system: many teachers, whose comfort level in English was lower, would fail to help students transition; and parents would elect to keep their children in bilingual programs, stunting their children's growth. Students, too, would self-segregate along linguistic and (ultimately) ethnic lines. However, with that said, the inadequate programs we had back then were better than the ones we have now.

Frankly, I am not surprised at the findings of this report. It confirms my experiences over the past four years of teaching English at a 6-12 school. There was not a single year that I didn't encounter three or more students whom I could not devote enough of my personal resources to. Though I can't list them here, each of their names come to mind as I type-- they are phantoms that haunt me whenever I evaluate how I, as a member of an educating team, "left behind" many kids. There were the ones who began the year already jaded, who had long ago decided to give up. There were the few who were excited to get a brand new start, but then buckled under the weight of unreachable standards. I stayed with a student after school for 2 hours a day once; but it was never enough. They couldn't read. They couldn't understand the assignments. They were lonely and bored and, eventually, bitter. And they were under-served. During my time in the school, no fewer than ten of my students dropped out or had to transfer out of the system-- and we were considered one of the better clusters in the district.

The "English Only" folks will get defensive here-- and they are right to be because they are being blamed for ruining the futures of a 6% of our language learner youths per year! While there are a lot of reasons for parents, advocates, politicians, and ultimately teachers and students to take that position and be angry, I want to step back from that and deal with the realities we've got instead of the ideological should-haves.

The problem is not with whether you've got an "English Only" school or a bilingual system. In fact in a perfect world, you might have schools that model both within the same district and parents could choose. The reason, however, that the "English Only" rule was so devasting to Boston was that it came from outsiders who had no intimate knowledge of what the school system was like. And when schools were required to implement it, often against their better judgment and will, we weren't ready.

A lot of folks will say that it should be easy-- their grandparents didn't have any "special programs" to help them learn English and they did fine. Just drop 'em in and make 'em swim! The problem with this is that the picture, especially in urban districts, has gotten very complicated. With increasing numbers of minorities and people living in ethnically divided neighborhoods, there is no world of "correct English" from which these students can absorb the language. Also, consider the numbers of special needs learners that are integrated into every single classroom in the district: there is no way that a teacher can tackle giving the extra attention to both the ELL kids AND special needs learners at once, especially once you get into the secondary school level, where kids rotate through a minimum of six teachers a day. But if they don't get this from extra attention by the teacher, where will they get it? This is why supplemental ELL classes (traditionally "ESL") are needed in bountiful supply.

Over the past four years of teaching, that was a reality that I tried to work with and around. There were times I tried to be that program. There were times I gritted my teeth and told my self to be realistic-- it's just a fact of life that I'll lose some. And there were times when I gave a shot at advocating for hiring changes so that there would be more money designated for ELL teachers . There were times I did my best; and there were times when, honestly, I was too tired to try do my best. In the end, though, we weren't ready because we didn't have the programs, teachers, training, and money in place to do what we needed to do.

A lot of people will be reading that report in the next few days. But teachers who have seen it all and wrestled with these failures won't be surprised at the numbers-- after all, the numbers are never worse than the stories behind them. If anything, maybe many of us will breath a sigh of cathartic relief that the dirty little secret is finally out.

A not-so-radical proposal: Our schools need to hire full-time, full service ELL teachers. You cannot turn back the clocks now on "English Only." There's no money in the city to hire an entire parallel system of teachers who speak Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Portugese and more. But what we have to do is make sure our ELL programs are adequately funded and have enough teachers, whose schedule and pay allows them to focus ONLY on ELL issues and students. ELL classes need to have no more than six students for every one adult. There must be a department of English Language Learner Education in every school that has more than 20 ELL students with a department head who has a reduced teaching load. Regular classes must have a paraprofessional to assist students for every class that has 2 or more ELL kids who are classified in the lowest proficiency category. Even when implemented to the full measure of this proposal, this would cost far less than returning to "bilingual" education; and I have no doubt that it would not only lower the drop-rates among ELL and regular students alike, but it would also significantly improve test scores across the board.

When you have no money...

When I arrived at seminary, several people I talked to spoke of the money-saving virtue of cutting your own hair. Down to my last $___, I finally thought I'd give it a try. Emily was visiting, and on a whim decided to help me complete my seminary experience. I know many of you may be strapped for cash, too, in these hard times, and I want to encourage you to consider the possibilities. It took 3 hours, but I'm sure once you get some practice it goes a lot quicker. I considered not posting these, but when I was assured that this was an integral part of the seminary experience, I decided to share:

At one point, a mistake occurred that appeared irredeemable. My hair was contoured with locks of hair on the back of my head much shorter than the hair on the side of my head! I was ready to shave it all off... but with expert craftsmanship, my new favorite hair-stylist fixed it. It strikes me that, Biblically and in my own experience, just when you think you're done, God is just getting started. He is the master hair-stylist... or potter. (no, emily didn't take her hair off and put it on mine, so that she had bad hair and I had good hair... this is not an illustration of substitutionary atonement!)

p.s. this is not a subtle plea for financial support... really, it's not!

Retreat! Retreat!

Boy, it's been an exciting whirlwind of a month! I wanted to quickly update to those of you who still read this thing and (gasp) even pray for me!

Winter Teen Conference

January was all about preparing for Winter Teen Conference, our church youth retreat (which had 230 kids this year!). I was tasked with assembling and preparing an inter-church worship team to lead our retreat in worship. Meeting over the course of two months, we rehearsed, prayed, trained our hearts and attitudes, and ate together. Then we went to Conference in February and played and worshiped our hearts out. If you have talked to me before about worship, you know my thoughts about the difference between "lead worshipers" and "band members"-- a band member plays to glorify music or himself; a "lead worshiper" joins the singing in their music and in their example to help others glorify God. During that weekend, the kids were musically excellent, faithful with the small stuff, level-headed, and most impressively, they took seriously their role of being "lead worshipers." I think I realized that one night as we were gathered around in a powerful time of prayer before a worship set. God certainly worked in the lives of those teenagers... it was a lot of fun and a big encouragement to worship with them.

Serving the Servants

More recently, I got to expand my ministry repertoire. Last weekend, I did some "college ministry" (ok maybe you wouldn't call it that!) . The college group at BCEC had its retreat, and I got to attend... as the childcare provider for two of the staff-workers' families! It took me back to those years that I was working at Mary Johnson's Children's Center and wondered if that was what I'd be satisfied doing for the rest of my life. With only four young children and both Emily and me to share the work, it was more fun than challenging as we did stuff like read "The Pigeon Eats a Hot Dog", have bacon for snack, and go on a scavenger hunt. Though I didn't get as much homework done as I hoped to, it was a very nice, different weekend as I got to be a servant to those who were serving others.

Studies...

Meanwhile, I've fallen a little behind on my studies... as in thousands of pages behind. Still, the Lord continues to provide. For example, I didn't get my Word Study paper done on time for class on Monday, but I got an extension because we had a snow storm that shut down the school. Maybe God won't always give me an extension like that, but I'm reminded that I can trust the Lord whenever I follow his promptings to serve or to put priorities on things outside my own narrow interests and inside the interests of his kingdom and glory.

pictures-- top: worship team at WTC, bottom: scavenger hunt to find a snowman (we just built it)

New Term and Philemon

I hope to do better than one post per month in the future.

Well, the break in between classes was shorter than I expected. In fact, I managed to miss two classes of my January Term course, Christ in the Old Testament. Last Monday night, I happened to be browsing the Gordon-Conwell web site, when I found out that the term had begun the on the preceding Friday! I packed up my things and made the drive back immediately. Thankfully, when I arrived at the next class, we hadn't gotten very far. I had missed two-ninths of the class, yet we were still on Genesis 1:2! I was very grateful for my American Literature training in undergrad as I caught up with 200 pages of reading over the next two days.

Meanwhile, the youth ministry is in the middle of a short series in Philemon (though I don't suppose you could have a long series in Philemon, could you?). In the shortest of Paul's letters, he writes to Philemon, apparently a slave owner who has been wronged by his runaway slave, Onesimus, and implores him to receive the newly converted slave as his brother. It stands as a beautiful portrait of how the Gospel holds power to transform the paradigms of our human relationships. It was fun to design the series; and the first talk, which I delivered last week, went well. Although the letter is less than a page in lenght, I have acquired nearly 1,000 pages of commentary on it!

Final Exams

This semester has passed and I'm, like most students, in final exams. It has been a long time since I have joined the company of students who do this two times every year. Seminary is similar to college in this regard. Everywhere you go, there are students with their noses in text books (some of them for only the second or third time this semester!) while they eat, walk, or do anything else that does not require total concentration. There is one room set up next to my suite called the study lounge-- a place I dare not go because of an overwhelming presence of stress which hovers there. Seminarians, like other people, sometimes get cranky when they get stressed and I've overheard a number of distressed and complaining conversations that rival those found in undergrad universities.

I'm doing fine. 2 exams and one paper down, 1 exam and 3 papers left to go. For sure, this beats grading papers and recording final grades. There is a safety and comfort in knowing that any sudden lapse on my part would result only in my own harm and not the harm of 86 students besides. And, to tell the truth, I really enjoy this. God has now given me the discipline to be the kind of study freak I always sort of envied in college. I feel like I'm testing out the four wheel drive of a new truck.

The series on Jonah at TWR will be done after this Friday, with Pastor Enoch book-ending the series. Meanwhile, the junior high kids will be coming over to my ancestral home once again for another Christmas Spectacular. The next two months will be focused on whatever the new preaching series will be, the recruitment of counselors for Project Destiny, and on building a multi-church worship team for our 200-something person-large youth retreat, slated for February. I'm excited.

Big Week Summary

Woohoo! Reading week is over and classes are about to resume; but it has been a big week. Tuesday was my silent retreat day at Notre Dame Spirituality Center in Ipswich; Wednesday was the prison visit and sermon; Friday I preached twice; and Saturday our youth group worship team had its long awaited practice.

It has encouraging week. As I look forward to the time when more and more of my weeks may look like this past one, my faith is being expanded to see how God can accomplish more through me than I reasonably try to imagine. Not that sermons and meetings are the goal of ministry-- life change is; but if those are the means by which God works out transformations, then it's encouraging to see that I can at least keep up with the work load.

The second message on Friday night, by the way, found its way home into somebody-- the teens are a good, welcoming group to teach to.

I wish I had pictures to show you, but I wasn't allowed to bring a camera to the prison... imagine an inmate three times my size death-grip-handshaking me while another guy lifts me up via wedgie. (just kidding... they were very very very warm and brotherly)

MCI Shirley Visit

I just returned from a visit to MCI Shirley-- one of the Massachusetts prisons-- where I got to worship and preach at the medium security evening worship service. It was awesome! The men there were hospitable (one of the guys kept bringing me water) and introduced themselves. The chapel was packed-- I'd say we had 80 or more guys there from all over the demographic scale. Blacks, Whites, Hispanic, at least one Asian guy, elderly gentlemen, middle-aged men, and some fiery younger guys, about my age. There were new believers and folks who had been in church forever.

Perhaps where it was different, though, was a the real sense of joy and thankfulness that was there the whole night. It wasn't a fake emotional high, either-- they were themselves for the most part; but they were grateful to be in church, to worship the Lord and have fellowship with one another. It was so different from my experiences at some larger, big-scale churches I've been to. It reminded me a lot of what drew me towards ministry at the Dorchester church where I used to serve-- the warmth and gratitude that didn't lose sight of reality, but praised God in spite of it. I love visiting and being at churches like that. I wish I could get to know those folks better-- I bet some of them have some amazing stories of God's work in their lives.

My sermon went well. The sermon from Jonah 1 was entitled "Mercy That Won't Let Go" and it was about how we hate to ask for mercy, but the God who chases us down with storms is the same God who runs after us with arms wide open, literally dying to show us mercy if we turn around and ask him for it. Their liveliness and encouragement made them the easiest bunch I ever had to preach in front of. I pray that the word would take root and bear fruit in their lives. This was probably the best part of this first semester for me. Thanks for praying =)

Preaching again this Friday... Jonah 2 this time. I'm still working on the hermeneutical idea... it hasn't appeared yet. If you'll lift up a prayer for me, I'd be grateful.

The Weight of Voting

I believe it was eight years ago, my second year in college, that I was huddled in Xenia house in Middlebury, along with a friend nervously awaiting the results of the presidential election. You may remember that it was the year of the Hanging Chad and Florida Recounts. I didn't know much back then... earlier in the day, I had gone down to the town gym to cast my ballot for George W. Bush because he was a conservative who agreed with my stance on abortion and other litmus test issues. Over the next few years, I always felt the responsibility of having elected him. When Mr. Bush soared and inspired the country in 2001, I felt that. When we saw the mistakes that came after-- Iraq, No Child Left Behind, etc., I felt that, too.

I don't know if I know much more now than I did then. I may still be blinded by qualities that I admire or positions that I believe are sacred which may turn out to be non-factors after all. But I do want to be more intentional about weighing my vote. In the end, God will elect the leader that he has in his plan-- whether for our temporal good or for our temporal evil-- but I'd hope to choose the one for our temporal good.

In an election year like this, it is harder than ever to know how to vote. The issues that have defined the evangelical platform are no longer so agreed upon. There is much dissatisfaction with the American church's tie to the conservative agenda and with the Republican party's candidate. The policies of small government are frankly un-biblical as the government is ordained to hold up the downtrodden against poverty.

The Democratic Party, however, continues to be a tough swallow for most evangelicals because of its acceptance of the abortion practice (I won't quote numbers, but astronomically more preborn kids lose their lives every year than total casualties of war in Iraq-- including civilians.) It is this one issue that prevents me from registering as a Democrat. Other unbiblical areas of the liberal social platform are less egregious to me (same sex marriage, school prayer).

Who is a candidate who can set an example of integrity, justice, compassion, responsibility, wisdom, humility, and faith while always choosing the right? There probably is none. But I'll vote for one that looks close enough.

Pray, Christians. Conscience demands it. Pray.


Update on Jonah sermon-- it went well considering it was my first time back. I had fun listening to the distracted comments of 6th grade boys that punctuated my talk. It might have been a little abstract for them-- the idea being that God chases down runaways to show them mercy.

I'll be preaching again next Wednesday, at a state penitentiary-- same Jonah text-- and next Friday to the youth.

Teaching Once Again

It has been some time, but I am finally going back to teaching this Friday. I'll be giving a sermon to the youth from Jonah 1:4-16. The prep so far has been going well and I'm looking forward to sharing God's word once again.

While looking over old sermons, I realized that I have picked up several habits that I previously didn't have. I have developed a Christocentric hermeneutical preference-- i.e. I look for the places where grace, substitutionary atonement, and other Jesus-related themes occur in the passage regardless of whether or not it explicitly speaks of Christ. I have also begun to minimize my use of illustrations as a teaching tool. Perhaps on the other end of habits is my tendency to run out of time for preparation. Hopefully seminary will, somehow, have an indirect impact on my teaching so that I could more accurately and faithfully share Christ with the junior highers.

I'll be prepping from now until tomorrow night. If you get the chance, please pray for me!

Brief Article on Project Destiny's Development

Project Destiny just rebooted for another cycle of planning. I've re-signed for another year of directing. Praise God for the opportunity.

The following is an article I wrote about Project Destiny, recently published in "BCEC connections" (apologies for unedited inaccuracies ... let me know and I'll change them). Full names have been replaced with initials.

Another summer has passed and with it, another season of Project Destiny has come to a close. 27 married, single, college, and high-school age counselors. 51 campers from all over the Boston area. Once again disbanded…but WAIT--It’s not over!

Project Destiny is the name of BCEC’s middle-school day-camp that has been running for 15 summers now. It exists to glorify God by serving the Chinatown community and sharing the Gospel to the campers who come, as well as to provide ministry training and experience to the counselors who volunteer.

The idea for PD was born in 1994, when the pastoral staff saw a need for middle-school summer programming in the community and asked for volunteers to put together a camp. Several lay-leaders, many who were professional teachers, responded to the call and formed Project Destiny. Over first few years, the format became a program of academic classes and educational field trips combined with morning “charting”—a time of learning God’s word through skits, talks, and testimonies. For counselors, the model became one of living together in Christian community while serving in a common purpose.

Over the next decade, H.G., director of PD for all but one of those years, sought out ways to integrate the outreach of PD with the regularity of church. One of the hardest things about being a counselor in those days, and still even now, was putting so much love and prayer onto our campers and helping them to know Christ, only to see so many of them never return to church. The converse was also true—one of the delights of being a counselor was seeing the occasional kid becoming a part of our church. Towards that end different efforts were made at continuing a fellowship or afterschool program during the school year.

In 2005, Pastor E.L., youth director at the time, took on the responsibilities of director. Over the next three years, he continued to seek out ways to integrate PD with the regular youth ministries, such as connecting Summer Teen Conference to the end of PD, recruiting youth ministry volunteers from Project Destiny staff, and increasing the amount of preaching during the camp so that students would be used to the format of the regular youth group.

Over this past year, we had one of the most exciting developments in BCEC’s community outreach history—the hiring of a full-time staff member dedicated to coordinating and running an after-school program. From October to June, V.C. shepherded and taught a pilot group of youth, most of whom had been campers in PD 2007. That small group grew to include new comers, who in turn came to Project Destiny during this past summer. In answer to prayers,God led BCEC to extend the position and the program for 2008, so students who began coming to church through Project Destiny, the day-camp, will have the opportunity to continue coming to church through Project Destiny After School (PDAS), the after-school program!

It is in this context that I am pleased to report that in 2008, 51 students came and heard the Gospel this summer. They were loved, served, and prayed for by 27 faithful counselors. Most of those 51 chose to attend Summer Teen Conference as well. Some of them have been coming to our middle school fellowships-- JYF and TWR. Some of them have begun attending PDAS. Through these ministries and others, I pray that the Holy Spirit may continue to work in their lives and grow them in their love for God. And may the church continue to glorify God through its work of proclaiming the Gospel in our community.

photos: a. Students looking over a claymation short film they created; b. End of year Family Night

New Start

It has been almost 3 weeks since I returned from Japan (long story there!) and began classes at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. I have not yet given up on this blog, though it took some time to get back to it. A few highlights from the summer:

• Project Destiny ended in August. It was exciting to see most of the students attending our Summer Teen Conference at Camp Cherith, Maine. A few of those kids are now plugged into our afterschool program (PDAS) and see Mr. Cheung, Mr. Fei, and Ms. Lui, and others on a regular basis. Several campers have also started to attend TWR, the middle school fellowship as well.
  
  
• There were some tough parts about serving as the camp director this year, which I'll be happy to share with you about if you ask me. The amazing thing to me, though, is how God redeems hardship and trouble to accomplish good things. It was in moments when I felt let down and when I felt like I had let down others that God made me trust him more and proved that He really is all that I need.
  
  
• I took bike ride after PD ended-- partly to get some exercise and partly to spend some time alone. I packed my bags with what I thought would be some useful stuff- like water, first aid, food, etc. It started out as a ride from my ancestral home in Quincy to Boston (10 miles). Then, once I got to Chinatown, though, I got the sense that I could and should keep going. So I rode to buy some more equipment from REI (a tent) and then hit the Minuteman Bike Trail out to Bedford (18 miles). By the time I arrived in Bedford, it was already late, so I searched for a place to stay before finally settling on the campgrounds at Hanscom Airforce Base. The next morning, I was told I couldn't stay because I wasn't military, so I got up and continued my ride through a muddy dirt trail to Concord (7 miles) where I visited all the cool Americal Literature sites. Best of all was a ride around Walden Pond and a subsequent swim to wash off all the grime. Finally, as the day wound down, I rode to the town of Lowell (24 miles) before turning back towards Boston via Woburn (20 miles). And yes, it was an awesome time of solitude.

And finally, Gordon Conwell has been better than I had hoped for. There's a lot of reading and learning to do, yet in the midst of it, God has given me a gift of discipline that I had previously not quite had. Maybe it's just the rush of a new start, where I'll inevitably revert; but this feels different... almost natural. It's strange that I never had this in college or even in the "real world." In any case, there is so much to be thankful for in this new place and time. I miss being in Chinatown, but there are things to be grateful for here, too.

Week 3

I find myself settling into a groove. That's nice in that I've figured out how to take the work load and where I am needed or not needed at a given moment. The team feels smoother, more like a bike's pedaling hum after you oil the chains. The danger, though, is that I don't feel like I need to pray as much. There's still more than half of the camp left to go, though, and I've got at least 2 more talks as well as numerous devotionals left to go. While the staff team seems to be doing well, there are still many huddle appointments and opportunities to have good conversations as well as bring the Gospel to bear in many life situations.

Please pray that I'd remember the centrality of prayer in Project Destiny as I try to serve campers and counselors alike.