He Sees

Hi Folks, I am back from the NYC from another whirlwind of festivities. It was good to be back in New York City for another stint of meetings with friends and family.


Special thanks for Gordo for creating this logo for me! I am planning on developing a website for ministry updates and also for blogging. I am still investigating any good services out there. I am not looking for anything too fancy, just suitable enough for updates and blogging and photojournaling. If you know of any good web-hosting services, I would appreciate your counsel.

I went to attend the wedding of Eugene Lee and Grace Chen from Overseas Chinese Mission. It was a beautiful wedding where I had the privelege of serving as a Master of Ceremonies with Sook Yee, one of the teens I have seek grow up.

Jamie and I went back to Chinese Conservative Baptist Church, Jamie's home church and to our surprise, Greg Jao, Intervarsity NY/NJ Field Director, was the guest speaker! He gave a great talk about the first chapter of the book of Daniel which spoke about relevance and engagement with our culture. I didn't realize he was a corporate lawyer who went into ministry. Very thankful for his work and his excellence in the ministry he is involved in. I am especially thankful for his encouragement and his support of the Asian American laity Project.

Experiencing God
Jamie and I are still working together to lead with a smallgroup study on "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby. The men's group had some new members. Overall there has been such an overwhelming blessing on my part as I prepare and also go through the study. I have felt a new sense of intimacy and focus in my worship.

Pressing Forth
I am making some inroads in planning for a Laity Project launch in September and there are some things up the pipeline that are very exciting. I am gathering some local leaders and national leaders to be part of a forum to form strategic planning for the next year or so. Pray for wisdom and continued perseverance.

Jehovah -Jireh
I was asked to be on-call at my part-time job in Syracuse. So once again, the issue of finances have come up. I hope that my next prayer support letter will inspire brothers and sisters to partner with me on this project. I have invited several people to become formal prayer partners to commit to consistently pray for the ministry and the provision. But Jamie and I have peace that God will provide and I am going to start looking for other opportunities in the meantime. Reminded that the Hebrew word for Jehovah Jireh literally means "God sees" and that is a great comfort.

Discouragement
I have to confess that the lack of funding has been a source of some of questioning on how to proceed. But tonight a special gift was offered. I was going to buy groceries while Jamie was finishing up her take-home exam...when the cashier finished ringing up my items...I realized I forgot my wallet...I was so upset and realized that dinner was going to be late and while my plans to help Jamie seemed to be in jeopardy...I went home and then went back to the grocery store when there was a long line and I didn't want the cashier to re-ring my items. But then there was this older South Asian woman who needed help getting her groceries into her car...it was cold and I just had a sweater but there was a stirring in my heart to help her...I offered my help and decided to come back...as I was pushing her cart, she asked me if I was a student, I said no but told her that my wife is a grad student. She then asked me if I knew Dr. Koshy, and I replied "of course...He is the chaplain at Syracuse... (and pastor at International Friendship Evangelism in Syracuse)" She then told me, "I am his wife, I was praying that God would send someone to help me..." As I walked her to her, she was limping, she asked me what I did and I shared that I organize ministry to serve Asian American laity, she responded "Praise God, I often pray for young people to get a vision for God's work and He has given you that. You are such an answered prayer..." As I placed her groceries in her car and said "good night" she invited to visit her home and church. I told her that I would. In that, all my insecurities about ministry seem to melt into the kindness of God's provision for two simple children of God to help each other. I was really blessed.

Thank you God for this little woman who in my helping her, she renewed my faith. Pray for me that I would have the confidence in spite of the funding to know that God can use me...just as He did when I was in NYC.

Misc. Prayers

Please continue to pray for my mom and dad who are on vacation in Indonesia. They are visiting my uncle whose family members are all Christian, I pray that this journey will be part of the story of their salvation.

I found out two good friends of mine who were engaged broke off the engagement. I know them both and it has brought back a lot of pain for my own journey but I see how much I feel for them and the pain they are going through. Please pray for the two of them to continue to seek peace in the midst of this.

Jamie and I are trying to plan out our future with her new dual graduate program at Maxwell School, which would mean that we are going to stay here a bit longer. I pray that God will give us wisdom and perspective that is beyond our speculations and planning. To be practical but also ready to surrender our plans for Him.

Please continue to pray for my sister and her divorce, the more I think about it and the more I talk to her, there seems to be such a despair in her voice and the way things are turning out. I pray for authentic moments for her and God.

These past few weeks, I have been yearning to discover more about the ministries in Syracuse, not to "work" but to explore how I can use some of what God has placed in my heart to serve. We are going to start visiting some other churches this month and just see where God is leading us. I am seeking a deeper engagement with this community and Jamie and I are wanting to explore more of what God is doing here.

Thanks for praying for me in my Chinese class, I aced the midterm and today I did a presentation about the Church in China, I am developing some good friendships with these students and hope to grab coffee to learn about their lives.

Pray for Cornell IVCF as Joel Miller, the stalwart staffworker is resigning this year and they need help, I am considering helping out...but only as a volunteer...pray for wisdom and discernment.