secret epic post

hey guys, how have you been doing?

in plans and dreams for an Epic at the University of Oklahoma, one of my friends and i had gotten together a core group of people - 3 guys and 3 girls - and we had had our first meeting a bunch of weeks ago, casting a vision and talking about what it could look like to have an Asian American ministry on campus.

i sent a facebook message shortly after that meeting praising God and mainly being excited for the things that were beginning to develop. a week or two passed, and, like any good story, a plot twist waited. two of the girls said they wouldn't be able to be part of the core group due to other commitments, and one of the guys and the other girl were quite busy as well. it seemed like it might be back to the original two people - my friend peter and me.

i felt a little ashamed to tell people.

through it all, i think i've felt a lot of prayers answered and have been blessed by a bunch of people praying for us and the possibility of Epic at OU.

after it seemed like we had lost all of our people, Peter and i started doing quiet times together, as a sort of accountability thing. i was a bit hesitant to ask him at first, but we started, and we kept going, and it was better than i expected. i didn't know how he would react, but he really started getting into the Word...for the first two weeks, we met up for about an hour each weekday to read and discuss, and things were starting to stir up. already in peter, i've seen God really reveal Himself and really transform the way he lives.

after a while, we were still meeting pretty frequently, and we decided we might as well start inviting people. one Sunday night, i sent out invites to about 6 or 7 people to join us for quiet times on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 pm. and God provided the people again. in fact, most of the people i invited haven't shown up or even responded to my message. but the people that have shown up really seem to have been brought there by God. even someone i hadn't invited showed up.

our first Bible study/quiet time thing was exactly a week ago - we had 7 people! we met two days later and...people actually came back! and then today, people came back again! and honestly, that's seriously God at work. God is glorified, and it's certainly not me or Peter at work. we don't know what we're doing. and all of a sudden, we have found ourselves leading/mediating a Bible study with people who not only want to be there, but are actually committed.

here are two of the breakthroughs we've witnessed after 3 studies:

a freshman named Andrew is Roman Catholic. on the first day, he was asking questions like "do you expect God to respond when you pray?" today, we watched a movie, and he asked something to the extent of "what does it mean to live a God-centered life?"

a senior named Brandon is sorta agnostic. i don't really know him, but he went to high school with Peter. he's mostly quiet through the meetings, but i think God really must be working in him. Peter asked him today where he was on his spiritual journey, and he said that he feels something on his heart, and he has kinda come to belief in God - the only problem is that he doesn't know anything about this God. [i'm not sure if it's the Judeo-Christian God, but i think he's gonna keep coming back, and so we'll talk more about God.]

so...yeah. glory to God... if you could pray for Brandon and Andrew and that all of our eyes would be on Christ, period. the other guys in the study, if you could pray for them as well, are named Lung, Phong, and Peter (we have two Peter's). there are also two guys who haven't been to Bible study yet, named Victor and Dung, who grew up with somewhat Buddhist backgrounds, who have become persons of peace for me.

thanks for reading. here's a verse that has sorta been on my heart lately:

"For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord"
-2 Corinthians 4:5a

and let it really be known that i have nothing to do with this :) but let God be the One at work, and i am the one privileged.

if you want to comment your own prayer requests or praises, that'd be great (you don't need an account or anything).

ps. i really do miss you guys and remember you fondly.