Transient

"I go through life as a transient on his way to eternity, made in the image of God but with that image debased, needing to be taught how to meditate, to worship, to think." -Donald Coggan.

I arrive in this week with a great centre of heaviness and levity...thus leading to me a place of contemplation. Faith often arrives to me in moments of surprise. I realize that I am truly a vagrant along this ragged journey of faith. Poor and wretched but with a great sense of God's panaroma of mercy around me. That along this road, I can sense the doting father with His stirring for me to come home. I realize most of the accomplishments, accolades and measures of spiritual success are pale disguise for my heart. The words of Paul Tokunaga remained with me from the Eastern Chinese Bible Conference, "I am not fine." Not fine in my heart. Not fine in my walk. Not fine with the level of love for those who are around. I am just not "fine." And as I finished writing that, I sense this freedom in knowing that I will never be fine but I will always be loved. That is the promise. That is the echo of hope that centuries of pilgrims, saints and martyrs have resonated with. So I arrive this week with that echo that comes from the grind of daily life. Each step comes with it the weight of the day...but also the wonderful horizon of the arms of my savior...bidding me to come home.

Back to the Future...Ministry at Chinese Christian Herald Crusades
After prayer and meditation, I have decided to come back to Chinese Christian Herald Crusades on a part-time basis! I will be serving with Ellen Hwang and her staff at the Herald Youth Center, consulting and training their ministry partners and also develop a ministry strategy for them. I will be at the New York City Chinatown Headquarters for one week out of the month and off-site for a bit. I am excited that I will have an opportunity to serve again at the ministry that started my whole journey of as a servant. I will also work on their team on developing an English website. Please pray that I will have a heart of service to the team and that I will continue my passion for the Chinatown community and that God will be honored in my time there.

Asian American Laity Project (Kleros)
I am planning on following with several individuals who are interested in serving with me on a forming committee and also another group of individuals who are interested in possibly working together to assist in fund devlelopment. I am excited as the momentum for the project is building from the PaLM and IVCF luncheon with Paul Tokunaga. I will be also sending Summer Updates this week! I has been a fruitful summer and I want to proclaim God's goodness in His direction for the project. Pray for provision and for a strong team to come alongside me. I am not good at asking for help and to have people come forward and say "hey, I wanna be part of this Peter Ong..." are like music to my ear.

3rd Asian American Emergent Skypecast
The 3rd Asian American Emergents skypecast will be online Sunday, September 24th, and you’re invited to skype in! The conversation begins at 9:00pm Eastern / 8:00pm Central / 6:00pm Pacific. (Skype DJ Chuang if you run into tech issues.)

This 1-hour monthly skypecast is a safe place to dialogue about topics related to Asian Americans and the emerging/emergent church. The consensus I’m hearing is to focus on one question rather than on three, during the skypecast. So, we’ll aim for that. Right now the only topic at play was suggested by Ben: “Social Justice and the Asian Church — why are Asians so adverse to reaching out to the poor and marginalized?”

I am looking forward to being part of this great conversation again!

Exit Wounds Article
I just finished a story for an online Asian American website and it was a lot harder for me to write since it was for a mainstream secular audience...It is about the flight of the second and third generation Asian Americans from the Asian ethnic church and their entrance into mainstream or multi-ethnic churches. I was having such a difficulty with re-entering that writing world and stumbled through it. I pray that the editors will extend grace to me and that when it is posted that God will use it to bring insight for people. Special thanks to those who contributed...Karen, Kara and John Kim, Ben Kong, Vicky and my idol, Joseph Tsang for their contributions.

Speaking Engagements
Now the summer is officially over, I am on the road again preaching! I am preparing my talk for my monthly preaching at the Mid-Hudson Chinese Christian Church. I will be preaching on my favorite parable...yes...the proverbial Prodigal Son...it is titled..."Mercy's Call on Distorted Love."I recently received "Communicating for a Change" by Andy Stanley and enjoying his insight on preaching narratives...I am going to use some of the principles for my speaking engagement and see how it goes.

OneHouse
OCTOBER 21, 2006... Unity finds its purpose...I have this unguarded anticipation that God will do a mighty work in the hearts of those who come...my talk will be an exhortation towards mercy and practical grace...as well as debunking of the most absurd assumptions about poverty. Check out the OneHouse website for more details. Pray for me and the team as we are preparing. Funding is coming along! HALLELUJAHOOO! Also, I will get to work with Neah Lee who I admire and adore.

Misc.
Being apart...Pray for my time in the city for one week will not hinder our marriage...in the midst of all of this, pray that we mutually support each other in where God has called us in this season.

Harvey's wedding
Pray for my brother in Christ, Harvey's wedding. I am excited to be in the wedding party and hoping to connect with him as I am in the city for some time of prayer and preparation for the big day.

Car (putt putt putting along). Repairs cost more than $1,200 for the car...but it is working well and pray that this little expenditure is not a commonplace or we gonna have to be creative in my transportation...

Me and my big mouth...I am going to the dentist for the next several months because of my diagnosis of periodontal disease...they will have to do some deep cleaning, scaling and pull out stuff....arrrgh...pray for my fear and costs!!! Insurance doesn't really cover this! Yikes...but my wifey has been so supportive!

Love you guys! thanks for reading...talk to you soon.

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PaLM
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11365-1316
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