Chu chats journey

Acapella group practices for Coffeehouse Renewal is a strange word to me. It can mean so many different things. Some of the things I think of are physical renewal, emotional renewal and spiritual renewal. But most recently, I've been wrestling with renewal of your purpose and calling. As an InterVarsity staff worker, I've learned so much yet there is so much more to learn. I've learned that every day I have to allow God to renew my focus. It's so easy to do things safely, but what does it actually mean to be on the forefront of God's mission to the campus? I think I was losing focus the past month. I struggled with being renewed on a daily basis. My sloth and pride caused me to do God's work without God. As I look back today, one day after turning 27, I realized God was right there waiting for me, standing there with his hands open. He allowed me to try it my way and as I look back it was so draining and it felt empty. Doing God's work does no...

(above: our annual dumpling party for new students, over 280 students attend) September is usually a crazy month and this year it was no exception. I was overwhelmed by the number of students that came out to our dumpling party. I found myself not knowing exactly what to do, besides meet people. It was hard, because there were just so many! The challenge was connecting new students with former students. How do we create bridges for students to connect? Some students told me afterwards that they were exhausted, even those who consider themselves extroverted. It was nice hearing that the VSA (Vietnamese Student Association) officers wanted to partner to do some local community service. It was great seeing people from every nation literally come. We put up a map of the world and had people put stickers up of their homelands, and they were literally scattered throughout. I've always wondered, what would it be like if our fellowship literally had people from every nation to w...

What have I learned through a year of ministry? There is so much to say, but I'll keep them to three basic things 1.) The power of prayer... it's been stated over and over again that prayer is powerful, but I have seen through this year how powerful it can be. I have seen God answer prayers for healing, depression, logistics, etc, etc. I have felt others prayers for me in particular in the mornings when I wake to read God's word. Prayer has definitely changed the culture of our group on campus. It has been a way for us to rally together as a whole group to pray over others and ourselves. My own personal prayer life has become more bold as I write my prayers out, they are definitely bolder and bigger. 2.) Spiritual warfare is rampant! There have been many times this year when I've tried to engage people with gospel or scheduled times to discuss spiritual things, but for one reason or another something happens that prevents the meeting from happening. Whether so...

We ended our finals week with one last service opportunity towards the campus. It was great to see students take initiative towards sharing God's love through free coffee and cookies. They encountered many stressed people throughout the week, but still had opportunities to encourage random people and even had chances to offer prayer and pray for students. It's been highly encouraging to see students work together to love the campus for Jesus. "Words can't express how much AACF has impacted my life. Freshman year, I wasn't even seeking but open, and was invited to small group at AACF. That small group really changed my life. It was a safe environment to ask questions and walk closer to Jesus on my own timing, and by the end of the school year, I had become a Christian. Sophomore year, AACF provided outlets for me to connect with God personally. The prayer retreat didn't really jumpstart my prayer life or anything, but did give me the interesting idea of singing...

(BU AACF Senior Appreciation) After four years of hard work, the seniors are finally finished with their collegiate careers. There are always nostalgic feelings when you see seniors graduate. I have personally seen them grow so much in different ways. I praise God that a lot of them have become men and women who desire to seek to make the world a better place. (Prayer & reflection weekend) A couple of weeks ago, I took the seniors to New Hampshire for a day of reflection & prayer. It was a good time to hear of the different trials and places where the seniors had been and where they are going. What I love about InterVarsity is that it reminds me that the seniors aren't a finished body of work and neither am I. The New England vision is to see students move from cynics to seekers to followers to leaders to world changers. Jesus does all the work and I'm just ...

Let the rebuilding begin! From Tuesday to Friday, our group worked with Habitat for Humanity. We were assigned to help frame the houses. Although a lot of us were inexperienced, it was quite fun to work along side with over 100 students. After a days work, we would return back to the church we stayed at in Gentilly. It was at night time that we had community sessions. These sessions were basically times where we would think through, discuss and share our thoughts, feelings, emotions throughout the trip. As staff, we would lead the sessions to help students to process. We started off by talking about rebuilding the city and we used Nehemiah 1 as a way of helping us think about the attitude and mindset we should have as we start. On Tuesday we talked about lamenting for the city of New Orleans and we had students write poems. On Thursday we discussed the internal storms in our own lives and how Jesus can help us each personally through those times. On Friday we shared about th...

The amount of debris was endless. During Boston University's spring break, we took about 55 students to New Orleans to work with Habitat for Humanity. After our 27 hours bus ride, we found ourselves at Gentilly Baptist Church. We slept on cots for the week, it was great to see that the building was seemingly untouched, but I found out that the church was flooded as well with about 6 inches of water. On our first day there, all we did was pick up trash along 15 blocks of streets. We saw endless number of houses either abandoned or destroyed... The reality of the situation had finally hit me. I thought that the city was well on it's way to recovering from the storm, but locals told me that it would take another 20 years or so to get things to at least some what "normal". I had a mixed set of emotions. I was sad, yet frustrated with the seemingly lack of progression in the rebuilding. People still had raw emotions and vivid memories about the storm and as they were telli...

MINISTRY UPDATE : The small group leaders are in for quite a battle this semester as they are trying new strategies and tactics to help students grow their relationship with God and each other. The men's group recently started a blog with topics such as, "what does it mean to be strong?", "what is passion?" and asking good hard questions about who God is and also asking about the societal view on these topics. The women's group had a recent v-day baking event for women at the Boston Rescue Mission. It's been great to see the variety of different groups that we have on campus. Please pray for future growth in our small group ministries as we are praying for over 15 new SG leaders next fall. The Community dinners have been going great! We've had two dinners already and we've already seen active discussion in the different topics of motivation, identity and relationships. Pray that there will be continued discussion of the different topics and al...

The retreat was rather exhausting but satisfying to see about 120 students from 4 schools gather together to learn more about what it means to be a God-centered community on campus. I had to do a session on barriers to community and my basic message to students was our community should not be based upon what we say, think or do but based upon who we belong to and that is Jesus Christ. Ultimately the root of our barriers to community amongst each other is what we think, say and do. Our own personal sin, issues, prejudices, biases and judgement cause us to be separated from each other and God. The class of 2012 is a rather funny class of diverse students who really do care for one another as well as care for students on campus. A fair amount of them can dance! I've never seen a class be as into dancing as this one (except for maybe class of 2004) I've seen them reach out to their fellow freshmen during their Christmas outreach party as well as gathering random people together thr...

Believe it or not, the winter conference (January 23rd-25th) is in about 4 days at the Embassy Suites Hotel near the airport stop. It'll be quite a different feel being at a hotel for conference instead of the great outdoors of New Hampshire. I am excited to see how this will turn out! Please pray for me as I will speaking a short message on Saturday Morning the 24th. I will be speaking on the barriers that come up in community and I pray that the scriptures would come alive for the students as they read about what prevents us from experiencing true community. In total we have about 130 students coming from Boston University, Northeastern, Mass. College of Pharmacy, Wheelock College, Umass Boston. (Pictures and follow up will come shortly after the retreat, Jan. 28th)

Growth is natural and I am learning so much from being a part of Intervarsity. God has placed me at BU for a reason. I thank God that I am being transformed. I am learning how to rest during this intercession period. Although I am on break, I have a lot of planning ahead. The second semester will bring a new type of challenge. I am referring to moving the fellowship from a place of building community to building a growing kingdom where all people may come and enter into the presence of God. In the second semester, we will start off with a bang with our Winter Conference in late January. Other scheduled events include a coffeehouse, spring break urban relief project in New Orleans, Uganda awareness night, and our traditional celebration of seniors who will be graduating in May. Winter Conference (January 23rd-25th) will be held at the embassy suites hotel this semester. It will be quite a different venue compared to the great outdoors of New Hampshire. Please pray that students will sig...