College Retreat - God's Need and God's Goal

This past weekend we had a college retreat in Palgrave Ontario, just an hour north of Toronto.  It was an awesome and enjoyable break from all my busy midterms!!

The topic was on God's need and God's Goal.  The point I was touched on the most was that God needs man more than man needs God.  Every dissatisfaction we have in our human life is an echo of our Saviour's dissatisfaction as well.  In John 4, the Lord was thirsty because the sinner was thirsty.  When we lack joy, peace, or righteousness, the Lord is dissatisfied because He wants to become our joy, our peace, our righteousness, our everything.  Our pursuit of the Lord is not to make us better individuals, but as Psalms 110:3 says, that in our consecration we become those who satisfy Him.  In Matthew 9:13, the Lord tells us to go and learn what this means, that 'He desires mercy and not sacrifice."  The principle of mercy is that the Lord works Himself into us.  Sacrifice is us working for the Lord.  The Lord simply wants us to 'come and dine, for all things are now ready,' as seen in Luke 14.  He has prepared everything for us.  As God, He is complete, perfect, unlimited, yet He still has a need for man to come to Him as open vessels, just as we are, for Him to fill us with his life.

It was great to be reunited with some good friends again (from left to right, Jacob, John, Tim).  As usual, I got a big warm hug from John :)

Midterms and assignments are finally starting to cool down.  These past 3 weeks have been really busy for me so I haven't had a chance to update much.  This weekend, I'll be going to Ottawa with the young people.  The following weekend, the college students will be going on a blending trip to New York.  I am really thankful to the Lord for all these opportunity to blend with other saints in other localities.

Hard to believe it, but I only have a month of classes left.  I've made friends with some varsity athletes.  Please pray for Hubert who plays on the McGill hockey team, and Tristan who plays on the basketball team.  I would like to preach the gospel to them before the term.  Vincent is doing quite well.  We still meet with him weekly and he said he is calling on the Lord when he studies,  praise the Lord!  Well, now that my schedule is freeing up I will be posting more.  Hope you are all doing well!!

Bibles for Canada - Fredericton Trip

This past weekend there were over 30 saints across Eastern Canada that came together to Fredericton, New Brunswick for a time to distribute the Word of God.  Between Montreal and Halifax, there are no local churches and many of us realized the need for the Lord's testimony to spread in this part of Canada.  Many of the people were open to receiving a study bible.  It is a great joy to share Christ with others!

Some quick highlights:

- The localities represented were: Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax, Montreal

- We distributed over 100 bibles

- We had a seminar on Lord's Day, where a young Russian-Jew prayed to receive the Lord!

- We broke bread for the first time in Fredericton

 We spent 20 hours in the van, so I got to built up with some of the brothers, especially Vanya (on the left).  I had plenty of opportunities to practice speaking French with him.  We read the morning revival in French then shared our enjoyment in French.  And this Friday we will be attending the French speaking home meeting.  The churchlife is so sweet here in Montreal and I'm enjoying pursuing the Lord with all the brothers and sisters day by day :)

Day to Day, House to House

Over the past month, I've been enjoying the importance of the homes in God's New Testament economy. First of all, it is the Holy Spirit's invention.  Acts 2:46 says, "And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple [place for big gatherings] and breaking bread from house to house [another crucial place for our churchlife], they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart."  

I have been so cherished by the saints here.  Almost every day I am in the saints homes.  Tuesday prayer meetings, Thursday college meetings, Friday group meetings, and Saturday young people meetings are all in the homes.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Lord's days, I try go to saints homes whenever possible.  Below are some photos from a dinner I had at Sidney and Sabrina's (the two on the left).  Brother James and Julia came as well.  Brother James is a martial arts teacher who has even met Chuck Norris!

The homes are crucial because they are a bridge for new ones to enter into the churchlife.  Vincent has been growing in the Lord and is like blank sheet of paper.  He is so open to whatever we speak to him about the Lord!  Recently he has been enjoying calling on the name of the Lord.  Also, the homes are a place for nourishing and cherishing to take place.  The homes are a place for us to come together like a family to talk about things, sing, fellowship, bring up any prayer items, and to simply love the Lord Jesus together.  The brothers were sharing that we need to change our concept of the churchlife to be more people centered than meeting centered.  This is the way that the Lord shepherded others in the gospels (Mark 2:1, Matt. 9:10)

This coming month is going to be really busy.  Midterms start next week.  Lou will be visiting me on Saturday and Lord's day.  I'm also going to the Thanksgiving day conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick.  In late October, there will be a college retreat in Kitchener.  Thanks for reading my blog and I'd like to hear from you all!!

Week 3 Already

I can't believe that it's already been exactly 3 weeks since I've arrived in Montreal.  I really thank the Lord for this opportunity.  It is such a precious experience to live in the brothers house and to enjoy the Lord with all the saints in Montreal.  After being immersed in the churchlife here, I feel that my hunger for the Lord in the Word and the ministry has increased.  I'm encouraged to 'let the word of Christ dwell in me richly.'  This requires our cooperation to give the Lord as the Word the full freedom to operate in our inner being. (We are now pursuing week 3 of Speaking for God for HWMR).

After Lord's table meetings and our weekly love feasts (which I love because it saves me from cooking another meal), the young people and children like to play around in the brothers house.  Here's a picture of Koyla, myself, and Michelle.  Michelle is only 5 years old and also loves to play with my Mac.  

Other news, I sprained my ankle on Friday while playing basketball at the McGill gym.  It is healing quickly and I should be back at full strength in 3-4 days.  I have pictures of it turning purple, but I decided not to post them :P

As requested by Mama, here are some photos of my dwelling place.  This is the desk I have in my room where I do some of my studying. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I have the only room in the brothers house where the wireless Internet does not reach..

I sleep on the bottom bunk on the left.  Ethan (3rd year McGill music student) sleeps above me, while Joe (PHD student at University of Montreal) sleeps on the bed on the right.  My roommates and I get along quite well :)

Here is part of the kitchen.  I plan to cook a big dish on Lord's day evenings, then save the leftovers for my lunch/dinner throughout the week.  This week I made rotini pasta with chicken and tomato sauce.  It was edible.  I have lots of room to improve though.

Speaking of which.. we are going to have a cook-off next Thursday and I need some ideas/recipes for a good dish I can prepare.  Any ideas Pa??

Sometimes when I want more privacy, I come upstairs to either the French or Chinese prophesying room to study.  This is also where I make most of my Google Video calls with you all.


Please feel free to leave comments, which includes non-family members too.  I miss you all!

Another Update (Day 17/115, 98 days remaining)

I'm finally getting used to living away from home now. I'm preparing meals for myself and my roommates. So far I've made hashbrowns (with ham, eggs, and onions), chicken with pasta, and a whole bunch of sandwiches. Tonight I'm going to Sidney and Sabrina's for dinner and Sabrina said she would teach us brothers how to cook!

I'm really enjoying the churchlife here in Montreal. I started serving the young people last week. If I could, I would stay here longer than 4 months. The brothers and sisters here are so sweet and they really take care of me. Our trip to Toronto had to be postponed because of the other students' availability, but now we are planning a New York trip sometime in November. I also may go to New Brunswick during the Thanksgiving Day Weekend for a conference. I'm going to try to apply for co-op jobs here for January, but my chances are slim since I am not fluent in French.. yet. I've made it my lifelong goal to study French for the sake of the Lord's move :)

The weather in Montreal has been nice lately. We get our occasional thunderstorms but overall it is sunny and not too hot. I've been warned about the Montreal winters though! Classes have been great. I've made friends in all of my classes. I pray that I can preach the gospel to at least one in each class. Today Sidney and I met with Vincent for lunch, and he said after I spoke to him, he read the 'Third Part' track over and over again. And when he read the last paragraph, he 'felt very peaceful within.' Praise the Lord for what He is doing in this new one! Please continue to pray for his going on. We gave him a bible and the Basic Elements of the Christian Life. And he wants to come to our home meeting this Friday!

Below are some pictures of little Samuel Chen. He likes to play with me, and especially take photos using my Macbook. I get to practice my French everytime I see him since he only speaks French and Chinese :D

Sweet Churchlife! (Day 13/115)

A lot has happened over the past week. School has been good so far. I'm only taking 4 courses and the workload doesn't seem too much. The McGill campus is different from UBC because it is in the heart of downtown and there is a lot of people walking around. Also, many of the university buildings are old fashioned which gives the campus a unique look overall. Most students here speak French, but the Quebecois accent is quite different from the French I learned in high school so I can barely understand them!

Yesterday I played basketball at the McGill gym. There weren't as many courts available compared to UBC but the competition was still good. I preached the gospel to one of the guys I played with (Vincent), and he prayed to receive the Lord! Now he wants to attend home meetings and know more about the Lord. He is a first year student from Shanghai studying business. Please pray that the Lord would fully gain his heart.

The best part of being in Montreal is spending time with the saints. Living with the brothers has been wonderful - much better than I expected. It didn't take me too long to get along with all of them. During our corporate living meeting 2 weeks ago, brother John Chao pointed out that there are 3 mains goals of corporate living: (1) blending and building, (2) spiritual companions, and (3) gospel preaching. I feel like I've experienced all of these points. We have set times together for prayer, testimonies, morning revival, reading the ministry, and cleaning. Through these times I have been encouraged by all the brothers to pursue the Lord. We also like to sing and workout together at night :)

Within this past week we also have been distributing invitations to open house/seminars for BFC at McGill and Concordia University. I gave a testimony at the BFC seminar at Concordia about my experiences with the New Testament Recovery Version Bible. The students were also encouraged to go out on the campuses during the first week to preach the gospel. James and I met a freshmen named Dan who prayed to receive the Lord as well!

The meetings are very sweet. I have experienced 1 Corinthians 14:26, that "each one has" a portion of Christ to share. At our home meetings, we don't need anyone to lead the fellowship because everyone has something to share about the hymn or verse we are reading, even the young people and the ones who I did not think would speak. Below are some photos of last Monday when we went to a sisters house to make dumplings together.

School will get busy starting next month, so I'm trying to enjoy my free time as much as possible. I will be serving young people starting today! And the college students are planning a blending trip to Toronto next week. I will keep you guys posted with how it goes. Please continue to update me how you are all doing. I miss you all!!

Time with the brothers

Before school picks up, I'll have lots of time to blog so I'll keep posting here to keep you all

updated before I get busy!!

Today was the final meeting for our conference and the topic was on preaching the gospel. I've picked up a fresh burden to learn the French language for the sake of the Lord's testimony.

After the Lord's table meeting, James, Naifu (2 of my housemates) spent some time with 2 young people today, Vanya and Koyla. We have a lot in common because they like playing guitar and basketball just as I do. After playing some guitar and basketball, we all made dinner together. We had noodles, chicken nuggets, and rotisserie chicken fried with garlic and onions (that was my contribution). The anti-biotics are working very well and I'm finally able to eat more types of food.

Koyla (left) and Vania (right) being silly in front of the camera. We enjoyed singing, "Mary poured out her love offering" together. Giving ourselves absolutely to the Lord is not a waste, but a fragrant testimony of His sweetness!

The bros after many fun games of bump and 2 on 2. It was hot and humid today until...

...a huge grey cloud came over us at the park and it started pouring rain all of a SUDDEN. We tried to outrun it but we got soaking wet. Note the difference in wetness of Naifu's tshirt in the previous pictures, haha.

I have no school tomorrow so tonight I am just spending some time to relax. I had a wonderful prayer time on the phone with my companion Dennis in Boston! Praise the Lord, we can pursue and encourage one another wherever we are.

I also forgot to mention, during my first week I did the following 'firsts' on my own: grocery shopping, laundry, and preparing a meal for others. I've realized how much effort it takes and I am really thankful now to Pa and Ma for doing these for me over all the years. I'm finally growing up!!