Breifing: $60,000 in 2 Days?

So this afternoon, my team and I gathered in a room, and we discussed our financial situation. After all the support raised by the 40 staff and students going to Hawaii was tallied up, we were told that the team as a whole is $60,000 short of our goal before leaving on Sunday. Even though I had my support raised, I still very much am burdened by this amount. The thought of some of my teammates, who I've just met care for strongly, having to be sent back home saddens my heart, and I cannot believe that it would happen. My next thoughts were that God desires for us to glorify Him, and with such a daunting amount as this, it would be no less than by God's complete grace that we will be able to achieve this goal. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, and as late as people could, I witnessed halls filled with teammates and staff on their phones, calling whoever they can to get support sent in. It seemed that every conversation I heard ended with a grateful "thank you" and a short sigh of relief. By the end of the night, many people who had started out with $1000 or less had doubled or tripled their amount. I can only imagine that such an unexpected amount as this can only be a test of faith. As I witness others with nothing but a cell phone in hand raise thousands dollars in a matter of a two hours, I see God answering prayers and faith being rewarded. I pray now for God's grace to be upon us all, that by His grace he would allow us to make it to Hawaii together.

How I Got Here...

Already, summer project is about to start, and I will be going to Vangaurd in Santa Ana to meet my project team tomorrow. I can only imagine the kind of changes in people, relationships, and miracles I will witness this summer. For this, I am excited about being on that airplane to Hawaii. I know that time and work that we put in this summer will not be a waste, for it will be for God's kingdom, of which there is no greater investment. But to truly understand why I feel this calling, and why I desire to give up my summer to the locals of Hawaii, I think I will have to give context to this time in my life by telling how I got here. As warning, the rest of this entry might get pretty lengthy...

If you didn't know, I didn't grow up Christian, nor was I truly Christian when I came to college. My first quarter, I joined a fraternity with the hopes of forming great connections and partying. At the same time, I believed in God, but I wanted to have as much fun as I can while at college. Naturally, I had many questions which I didn't think the Bible can answer all of, and I wasn't about to commit my life to a religion if I was not 100% sure that it was true. Also during my Freshmen year at Cal Poly, I met a bible study leader named Dan. I attended his Bible study and his church once in a while, at the same time partied on the weekends (and weekdays) with my frat brothers. However, I continued to meet up with Dan, one-on-one, who I went to with many of my questions about Christianity. Eventually, he would invite me to a retreat weekend at his church. At the end of my second year of college, I was still unsure about Christianity, but I decided if God truly cared, I could afford to devote one weekend to hear what He has to say. That first night, as I stood in prayer, I felt God's voice. God made it clear He wanted me to make a decision: to start living with His desires in mind, or to go on living the way I wanted. I'm happy to say I gave in to God, and since then God has replaced everything I thought would bring me joy with genuine sources of fulfillment. Frat brothers were replaced with brothers and sisters in Christ. Joy replaced drunkeness. Those yearning feelings for something greater than what I had were replaced by satisfaction in God. And I had more gratitude and love for my family and friends than I could rightly express.

However, I would soon find that the church I was saved at, would not be where God would have me stay. I still felt uncomfortable at the church, and a week after retreat, I decided to not return. I prayed to God that if what I experienced was real, I trusted he would provide somewhere for me to grow in my newly found faith. It was the next day God answered that prayer with a phone call from an old friend from middle school inviting me to the end of the year Epic Potluck, an Asian-American fellowship with Campus Crusade for Christ. I did not hesitate to respond "yes".

Its been two years since, and God has taught me so much during this time, its difficult to reflect on how I came to where I am now. Today, God continues to fill me with so much gratitude and joy that its through this overflow that I am filled with the desire to share with those in Hawaii the good news that it took me so long to understand. This past year, God has shown me how much meaning and fulfillment serving in His name brings into my faith. That my faith is not just something I experienced this one time in college, but a way of life that brings more fulfillment than anything else we can conjure up on our own. If you've read this far, thank you for your patience. I will try to have much shorter posts from here on. God bless.