what i did this summer
most of it, anyway.
From: Steph Cheng
To: Maddie Ott (Hawaii Pacific)
Subject: hi maddie!
Message:
hi maddie,
man, i've been wanting to contact you for a little while now, but haven't been able to find the time - school is already driving me crazy and i'm only three weeks in. (eesh- quarter system)
but i did want to say, first off, PRAISE GOD! hello!! this summer a team of 28 students, mostly all over california, and i came to hawaii to do what most of us (and our staff) had no experience in. hahaha. there were seven or eight of us assigned to four different campuses (campi?) and i was one of the ones at hpu.
i just wanted to share with you some of my experience on campus and, if at all possible, be available to answer any questions about anything we did, in hopes that this might be helpful to you and, more importantly, encourage you! wow! i know God has an awesome, awesome journey in store for you and will indeed respond to your faithfulness.
i've been with crusade here at uc davis for two years now (since the winter quarter of my freshman year, when i was actually in tricia kavle's small group! :) and in going to hawaii this summer, i thought, hey, i know most of the ins and outs of campus ministry, this should be cake. not so (of course, haha), upon arriving i was excited to meet my team, but also anxious to be working with different people in doing ministry- i've definitely reached a level and a bubble of comfort in my time here at davis. not only that, but my first couple days here, several locals asked me immediately upon striking up a conversation where i was from in california. hahaha. i look back now and crack up, but at the time it was kinda scary. =)
looking back now i know that God totally put our campus groups together, the seven of us, but at the time all we could see was that the seven of us were introverts! "this is not funny, God," i remember thinking, "especially if we're going to be coming onto this campus as outsiders." we needed to meet people, we needed to make connections, and we needed to do it fast. so the first week we were here we just explored the hpu buildings and fort street mall area (which are one and the same, i quickly realized) and prayerwalked each day for about an hour. prayerwalking is something totally new to me and rather a drag at the beginning, because i just wanted to go out and meet people and share about Jesus! wasn't that what we were here for?
but no, we wanted to do things right, because we were aiming at a specific ministry goal that could garner us more disciples (as the great commission says) than we could ever do in our short time. so we prayerwalked, constantly meditating on 1 corinithians 3:6-7: "i planted, apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So netiher he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." here at davis we have been blessed with a fruitful ministry in just eight years, with about 150 people that meet in our crusade and 50 that meet in epic, our asian american ministry (which i'm a part of)... and being in the middle of such blessings tends to make me forget that it's not me, but it's the Father, son and holy spirit speaking through me. that was a hard lesson to learn in the six weeks: to wait on God. to know that his timing was sovereign and that his plan was unique, but most of all GOOD. to believe that he really, really desired to see great things happen at hpu, but that he also desired to teach us and shape us to be more like him in the process.
well, the first and most immediate problem we ran into was that we could not tell for the life of us who was a student and who wasn't! we noticed the most activity happened during the lunch rush, so 11:30am to roughly 2pm, and after taking a campus tour we realized that the campus was so, so diversely split (they said 1/3 local, 1/3 mainland and 1/3 international, but during the summer it's almost overwhelmingly int'l - mainland kids go home, local kids go surf, haha - is that the case?) that we had no idea how to unite it. we would meet people who knew about church and sunday school things, but not many who knew Jesus and had a personal relationship with him, desiring to walk with him.
we even started kicking around the idea of holding an english club for awhile because there were so many int'l students.
then we realized that we could do nothing until we had the approval of reverend dale, as he was the "spiritual gatekeeper" of the campus and all activity needed to go through him. we called his office several times and finally found out on the third try that, by virtue of it being summer, he was only on campus once, twice a month if we were lucky. that was yet another thing to prayerwalk about. and then just when we had made an appointment with reverend dale, our staff team left to put us all in charge of the rest of the summer.
needless to say, panic ensued. haha. we didnt even have the slightest clue how to go about meeting ANYONE, much less without formal leadership. other campuses seemed fine, they had a general quad/campus center area where there was a definite split between student and average citizen, they were meeting tons of locals that would be there long enough to see a ministry through, they were excited and had been called by God to spread the gospel, their hearts truly broke for their campuses. this was awesome! but we couldn't see it this way, especially since we were SO far behind. we were disappointed in ourselves, even though there was no way anyone could say that we were dragging our feet. we were definitely withdrawing back into our introvert shells, though. and until we met with the reverend, we probably couldn't be making any noise.
staff left and we became driven by the specific roles we had. our campus leaders turned into students. our summer project directors turned into students. i was in charge of leadership training and teaching and although i had a heart for teaching, i'd never done it for so often or so long to so many people with such high stakes! we would leave at 9 in the morning, spend the bulk of the morning and lunchtime on campus, come back to training or public sharing times, have dinner, then hold another training session until 9pm. we were exhausted and we were turning toward defeat. we had lost sight of Jesus.
one day we had just come back from our daily prayerwalk routine when we sat down and really realized the full impact of what we were doing. God is NOT unmoved by our prayers. God is not one who cannot sympathize with our greatest struggles. everything we were doing and were about to do God had done already through his son, and worse. our heart for the campus had changed to a pity party for ourselves and a beating to our prides.
we began to pray for each other. we began to realize that, even as we were finally granted permission to do as we wished on campus, and we would go sharing armed with the four spiritual laws and a teachable heart, that we, as christians who desired to be disciples of Jesus, needed to hear the gospel just as much if not more than the campus! that for anyone to be moved at all our hearts needed to be changed, too. we as leaders needed to direct people to Christ, not to ourselves. we needed to realize we were saved by grace (and grace alone), through faith, as it says in ephesians 2:8-10. "and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
that none may boast!! this was alternately humbling and freeing for us. not only was God not indebted to us - he didn't have to move just because of the hours we had put in! God is no cosmic vending machine... no, God moves because he desires to call his children back to him. and the pressure we put on ourselves was off. it was the work, the act, the free gift (the unmerited favor) of God through grace.
we began feeling more free with one another. we conversed more openly, we laughed together. the times we came on campus but could not share we spent getting to know one another. we loved our common strengths, our uncommon differences, we could once again see the love of Christ through each other. and that is the most amazing feeling, maddie, i totally pray this for you and hpu and uh manoa! it is amazing to watch people literally grow and change right in front of you... to pass from death to life! wow!
we did two outreaches on campus, one which was more successful than the other. the first one we tried to give away milk tea (from local express, the korean restaurant that makes the most fantastic lychee bubble tea EVER. haha! i crave it every day) in exchange for 30 second questionnaires. the int'l students regarded us with much distrust... how could something so wonderful seemingly be free?? we met a guy named dustin, a texan on a cheerleading scholarship at hpu, though, that day. that was awesome. he wanted to be involved in anything that was to come. we also met sam jones that day, a guy out of chicago who is a proud freestyle rapper. he brought his friend matt kane, who has a background as a seventh day adventist but, during a one on one appointment, was so touched by the spirit that he even called sam over to explain the urgency of accepting christ. that was amazing - i had tears in my eyes that day!
our second outreach we set up a dartboard game so that not only could we explain the concept of sin, missing the mark of perfection, and grace, getting what we completely do not deserve (btw, never get Tricia started on grace & mercy; she will tell you some innumerably wise thing, yes, but she claims it's from me. ha! i probably picked it up from her), but also set up the game so that, in a way, they might feel like they had earned what we were giving away (not only salvation, haha, but happy meals :)
this worked beyond our imaginations. we got 30 contacts that day (for 30 happy meals) and ran out besides. one of our team members got to take aside one girl and share and listen to her for two and a half hours, in which time she recommitted her life to Christ!
by then, having gotten started really during the middle of week 4, it was quickly our last week in hawaii and we prayed for and committed the ministry to sam and matt (dustin was at home). we agreed this was a great point to leave, having met key contacts in such a short time and quickly establishing a rapport with them... and i agreed. i had no regrets on the plane ride home, just enthusiasm. i was on the same flight as one of my team members and we were exuberant the whole way home.
but as i finished up the summer at home (i live in the san francisco bay area), i felt a lingering sadness. although i knew i hadn't failed, that our team and our entire project had been faithful to what God called us to that summer, that somehow the story was still incomplete.
this is what i wrote in my journal the day john waidley forwarded your email - it had been a terrible day for me, i was totally sick and just wanted to rest:
AHHHHHHHH!!!!
all that junk that led into a quasi dissertation on a disney movie of all things was prompted as i was sifting through what i was being led to take on this year.
and a dam has been broken
and i feel such release
!!
(o my soul, rejoice)
i think i really had felt like a failure going home then. rather than giving up that ministry to God (who oversees growth), i was saddened that circumstance (rather than coincidence) forced it out of my hands... and out of my hands it remained. and it's so much better for it!!
ahhhhh!
i do not believe my eyes (for i am going to do something in your time that you would not believe, even if you were told !! WORD, you're not kidding God!) at all. her heart breaks for that campus! is this really happening??
hahaha, so awesome.
man... i need to lie down. =0)
hahahah. and i still feel this way. i'm SO EXCITED for you and your group, maddie, and i'm constantly thinking about and praying for you all. i'm excited that you have been able to hook up with the staff team at uh manoa (i live in tricia's old house and so we get her newsletters, i was pleased beyond measure to see you in it!!) and that yes, God knew you all and raised you up to have a true heart for hpu. hallelujah!! so i wanted to share and really let you know that you have a whole group of 29 students and 15 staff members on your side, praying incessantly for you. i bet exciting things have happened already, and i pray that God is giving you a vision for what is to come, a taste of his glory.
is there anything i can pray for you specifically for? at hpu? at uh manoa? i would love to. seriously, your email was the most tremendous blessing i have experienced in my life so far. praise Jesus.
haha, ok, i hope this doesn't overwhelm you- sorry if this is a bit stalkerish! but i just wanted to say hello and could not let the business of school hold me back any longer.
God can do immeasurably more than we have ever imagined!! he certainly did for me. =)
cheers,
steph cheng
scheng@ucdavis.edu
aim: elephantjuice55
From: Steph Cheng
To: Maddie Ott (Hawaii Pacific)
Subject: hi maddie!
Message:
hi maddie,
man, i've been wanting to contact you for a little while now, but haven't been able to find the time - school is already driving me crazy and i'm only three weeks in. (eesh- quarter system)
but i did want to say, first off, PRAISE GOD! hello!! this summer a team of 28 students, mostly all over california, and i came to hawaii to do what most of us (and our staff) had no experience in. hahaha. there were seven or eight of us assigned to four different campuses (campi?) and i was one of the ones at hpu.
i just wanted to share with you some of my experience on campus and, if at all possible, be available to answer any questions about anything we did, in hopes that this might be helpful to you and, more importantly, encourage you! wow! i know God has an awesome, awesome journey in store for you and will indeed respond to your faithfulness.
i've been with crusade here at uc davis for two years now (since the winter quarter of my freshman year, when i was actually in tricia kavle's small group! :) and in going to hawaii this summer, i thought, hey, i know most of the ins and outs of campus ministry, this should be cake. not so (of course, haha), upon arriving i was excited to meet my team, but also anxious to be working with different people in doing ministry- i've definitely reached a level and a bubble of comfort in my time here at davis. not only that, but my first couple days here, several locals asked me immediately upon striking up a conversation where i was from in california. hahaha. i look back now and crack up, but at the time it was kinda scary. =)
looking back now i know that God totally put our campus groups together, the seven of us, but at the time all we could see was that the seven of us were introverts! "this is not funny, God," i remember thinking, "especially if we're going to be coming onto this campus as outsiders." we needed to meet people, we needed to make connections, and we needed to do it fast. so the first week we were here we just explored the hpu buildings and fort street mall area (which are one and the same, i quickly realized) and prayerwalked each day for about an hour. prayerwalking is something totally new to me and rather a drag at the beginning, because i just wanted to go out and meet people and share about Jesus! wasn't that what we were here for?
but no, we wanted to do things right, because we were aiming at a specific ministry goal that could garner us more disciples (as the great commission says) than we could ever do in our short time. so we prayerwalked, constantly meditating on 1 corinithians 3:6-7: "i planted, apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So netiher he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." here at davis we have been blessed with a fruitful ministry in just eight years, with about 150 people that meet in our crusade and 50 that meet in epic, our asian american ministry (which i'm a part of)... and being in the middle of such blessings tends to make me forget that it's not me, but it's the Father, son and holy spirit speaking through me. that was a hard lesson to learn in the six weeks: to wait on God. to know that his timing was sovereign and that his plan was unique, but most of all GOOD. to believe that he really, really desired to see great things happen at hpu, but that he also desired to teach us and shape us to be more like him in the process.
well, the first and most immediate problem we ran into was that we could not tell for the life of us who was a student and who wasn't! we noticed the most activity happened during the lunch rush, so 11:30am to roughly 2pm, and after taking a campus tour we realized that the campus was so, so diversely split (they said 1/3 local, 1/3 mainland and 1/3 international, but during the summer it's almost overwhelmingly int'l - mainland kids go home, local kids go surf, haha - is that the case?) that we had no idea how to unite it. we would meet people who knew about church and sunday school things, but not many who knew Jesus and had a personal relationship with him, desiring to walk with him.
we even started kicking around the idea of holding an english club for awhile because there were so many int'l students.
then we realized that we could do nothing until we had the approval of reverend dale, as he was the "spiritual gatekeeper" of the campus and all activity needed to go through him. we called his office several times and finally found out on the third try that, by virtue of it being summer, he was only on campus once, twice a month if we were lucky. that was yet another thing to prayerwalk about. and then just when we had made an appointment with reverend dale, our staff team left to put us all in charge of the rest of the summer.
needless to say, panic ensued. haha. we didnt even have the slightest clue how to go about meeting ANYONE, much less without formal leadership. other campuses seemed fine, they had a general quad/campus center area where there was a definite split between student and average citizen, they were meeting tons of locals that would be there long enough to see a ministry through, they were excited and had been called by God to spread the gospel, their hearts truly broke for their campuses. this was awesome! but we couldn't see it this way, especially since we were SO far behind. we were disappointed in ourselves, even though there was no way anyone could say that we were dragging our feet. we were definitely withdrawing back into our introvert shells, though. and until we met with the reverend, we probably couldn't be making any noise.
staff left and we became driven by the specific roles we had. our campus leaders turned into students. our summer project directors turned into students. i was in charge of leadership training and teaching and although i had a heart for teaching, i'd never done it for so often or so long to so many people with such high stakes! we would leave at 9 in the morning, spend the bulk of the morning and lunchtime on campus, come back to training or public sharing times, have dinner, then hold another training session until 9pm. we were exhausted and we were turning toward defeat. we had lost sight of Jesus.
one day we had just come back from our daily prayerwalk routine when we sat down and really realized the full impact of what we were doing. God is NOT unmoved by our prayers. God is not one who cannot sympathize with our greatest struggles. everything we were doing and were about to do God had done already through his son, and worse. our heart for the campus had changed to a pity party for ourselves and a beating to our prides.
we began to pray for each other. we began to realize that, even as we were finally granted permission to do as we wished on campus, and we would go sharing armed with the four spiritual laws and a teachable heart, that we, as christians who desired to be disciples of Jesus, needed to hear the gospel just as much if not more than the campus! that for anyone to be moved at all our hearts needed to be changed, too. we as leaders needed to direct people to Christ, not to ourselves. we needed to realize we were saved by grace (and grace alone), through faith, as it says in ephesians 2:8-10. "and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
that none may boast!! this was alternately humbling and freeing for us. not only was God not indebted to us - he didn't have to move just because of the hours we had put in! God is no cosmic vending machine... no, God moves because he desires to call his children back to him. and the pressure we put on ourselves was off. it was the work, the act, the free gift (the unmerited favor) of God through grace.
we began feeling more free with one another. we conversed more openly, we laughed together. the times we came on campus but could not share we spent getting to know one another. we loved our common strengths, our uncommon differences, we could once again see the love of Christ through each other. and that is the most amazing feeling, maddie, i totally pray this for you and hpu and uh manoa! it is amazing to watch people literally grow and change right in front of you... to pass from death to life! wow!
we did two outreaches on campus, one which was more successful than the other. the first one we tried to give away milk tea (from local express, the korean restaurant that makes the most fantastic lychee bubble tea EVER. haha! i crave it every day) in exchange for 30 second questionnaires. the int'l students regarded us with much distrust... how could something so wonderful seemingly be free?? we met a guy named dustin, a texan on a cheerleading scholarship at hpu, though, that day. that was awesome. he wanted to be involved in anything that was to come. we also met sam jones that day, a guy out of chicago who is a proud freestyle rapper. he brought his friend matt kane, who has a background as a seventh day adventist but, during a one on one appointment, was so touched by the spirit that he even called sam over to explain the urgency of accepting christ. that was amazing - i had tears in my eyes that day!
our second outreach we set up a dartboard game so that not only could we explain the concept of sin, missing the mark of perfection, and grace, getting what we completely do not deserve (btw, never get Tricia started on grace & mercy; she will tell you some innumerably wise thing, yes, but she claims it's from me. ha! i probably picked it up from her), but also set up the game so that, in a way, they might feel like they had earned what we were giving away (not only salvation, haha, but happy meals :)
this worked beyond our imaginations. we got 30 contacts that day (for 30 happy meals) and ran out besides. one of our team members got to take aside one girl and share and listen to her for two and a half hours, in which time she recommitted her life to Christ!
by then, having gotten started really during the middle of week 4, it was quickly our last week in hawaii and we prayed for and committed the ministry to sam and matt (dustin was at home). we agreed this was a great point to leave, having met key contacts in such a short time and quickly establishing a rapport with them... and i agreed. i had no regrets on the plane ride home, just enthusiasm. i was on the same flight as one of my team members and we were exuberant the whole way home.
but as i finished up the summer at home (i live in the san francisco bay area), i felt a lingering sadness. although i knew i hadn't failed, that our team and our entire project had been faithful to what God called us to that summer, that somehow the story was still incomplete.
this is what i wrote in my journal the day john waidley forwarded your email - it had been a terrible day for me, i was totally sick and just wanted to rest:
AHHHHHHHH!!!!
all that junk that led into a quasi dissertation on a disney movie of all things was prompted as i was sifting through what i was being led to take on this year.
and a dam has been broken
and i feel such release
!!
(o my soul, rejoice)
i think i really had felt like a failure going home then. rather than giving up that ministry to God (who oversees growth), i was saddened that circumstance (rather than coincidence) forced it out of my hands... and out of my hands it remained. and it's so much better for it!!
ahhhhh!
i do not believe my eyes (for i am going to do something in your time that you would not believe, even if you were told !! WORD, you're not kidding God!) at all. her heart breaks for that campus! is this really happening??
hahaha, so awesome.
man... i need to lie down. =0)
hahahah. and i still feel this way. i'm SO EXCITED for you and your group, maddie, and i'm constantly thinking about and praying for you all. i'm excited that you have been able to hook up with the staff team at uh manoa (i live in tricia's old house and so we get her newsletters, i was pleased beyond measure to see you in it!!) and that yes, God knew you all and raised you up to have a true heart for hpu. hallelujah!! so i wanted to share and really let you know that you have a whole group of 29 students and 15 staff members on your side, praying incessantly for you. i bet exciting things have happened already, and i pray that God is giving you a vision for what is to come, a taste of his glory.
is there anything i can pray for you specifically for? at hpu? at uh manoa? i would love to. seriously, your email was the most tremendous blessing i have experienced in my life so far. praise Jesus.
haha, ok, i hope this doesn't overwhelm you- sorry if this is a bit stalkerish! but i just wanted to say hello and could not let the business of school hold me back any longer.
God can do immeasurably more than we have ever imagined!! he certainly did for me. =)
cheers,
steph cheng
scheng@ucdavis.edu
aim: elephantjuice55
posted by steph at
6:29:00 PM
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