In January, MIT Nuclear Physicist Dr. Ian Hutchinson gave a talk at both SFU and UBC that explored the relationship between Science and Faith. It was encouraging to see students and faculty join in on a great discussion that demystified the common misconception that science and faith are in conflict. 

In early March, we hosted world-renowned philosopher Dr. William Lane Craig for a series of talks at SFU and UBC. On March 1st, Dr. Craig gave a very thought-provoking talk at SFU entitled “Is Belief In God Reasonable?” to a standing room only crowd of 150 including a number of students and faculty from the SFU Philosophy Department. It was encouraging to witness Dr. Craig answer their most difficult questions. A number of students and faculty have recently remarked that they are now giving the Christian faith serious consideration.

On March 5th, Dr. Craig then gave another academic talk to a capacity crowd of over 400 students at UBC entitled “Does a Fine Tuned Universe Point to a Cosmic Designer?”

One of the first questions during Q&A with Dr. Craig came from a girl who was deeply moved by Dr. Craig’s very scientific talk. She sincerely asked, “Now that you have convinced me that there is an intelligent being that has created me, what should I do about this? Does this being require me to worship him? How should this change my life?”

My colleague Jessica shared an interesting insight regarding her question: “As I listened to her ask her question, I realized that, over the last hour, her entire worldview had made an enormous shift.”

I am sure that she was not the only one grappling with the question, “What do I do now?” Please pray that students would continue to take bold steps towards Him!

I have recorded some of the talks and have just posted the UBC talk on our Youtube Channel if you want to see it and share it with your friends.

1. The Homenuke Herald

2. Humphrey Herald

3. First Week Back

Homenuke Herald

In just 4 days we surveyed 16,000 students across Canada about their cravings for love, satisfaction, and success. 12,000 of thesestudents want further contact with us either to join a small group, have a spiritual conversation, learn more about Jesus, or receive our magazine. We’re just beginning to meet with these students, but as always, the labourers are few and there just isn’t time to meet every student before the relationships go stale. Please pray that we select the right people to meet first.

On the technology side, my job description is about to expand with the departure of our desk-side support person, Keith. We are seeking a replacement, but in the meantime, some of his responsibilities fall on me. This will be a great test of the skills I was hired for: streamlining workflow. This diagram illustrates telecom billing, the first task I learned on the IT team. It used to be a tedious job, but now it is mostly automated. As another example, purchasing software used to require 19 human touch points. Now it’s less than 10. When Keith gave notice, it actually struck fear in me because we’re short staffed already and he takes much skill and knowledge with him. Please pray for an adequate replacement and for my ability to learn new skills and implement faster processes.

On a personal note, I’ve found a new place to live in Vancouver, a two-bedroom apartment at Hudson and 72nd. It’s an answer to prayer for both me and my new roommate. Since about January this year, I’ve had in mind to find living arrangements where I can host people and create community instead of the dungeon-like accommondations I usually go for. I believe the additional cost is the right investment.

Read More

Humphrey Herald

First Week Back

Dear friends,

It’s the first week of school, both for me as a campus missionary and as a part-time M.Div student. Here are 3 different stories from this week.

Wycliffe
Today, at seminary orientation, our principal exhorted us with a little pep talk. He made 2 very interesting points that will find their spots in my memory. The first: “The entire book of Romans can be summarized in 3 points— Justification by Faith, Life in the Spirit, and Mission.” I’ve never looked at the book of Romans that way before but the more I thought about it, I could see how those large headings encompass all that Paul describes and explains in Romans.

The second thing he said is this:
“As Christians, God doesn’t give us a ministry. He doesn’t entrust us with a responsibility. He entrusts us with souls.”
What a good reminder. That all of our Christian life is about souls; not tasks, events, programs, outreaches and the like. But people who need to know and experience Jesus.

The Maclean’s Article
Today I came across a very interesting article in Maclean’s magazine. Normally, I tend to look at such articles with a certain amount of skepticism. This one however intrigued me with their statistics. I quote Maclean’s here: ”In 2011, 1,600 University of Alberta students took part in the National College Health Assessment survey. The problems students identified are playing out across the country. The mental health issue experienced at any time within the last 12 months

• Felt things were hopeless: 51.3%
• Felt overwhelmed by all you had to do: 87.5%
• Felt exhausted (not from physical activity): 87.1%
• Felt very lonely: 61.7%
• Felt very sad: 65.6%
• Felt so depressed that is was difficult to function: 34.4%
• Felt overwhelming anxiety: 52.1%
• Felt overwhelming anger: 40.7%
• Experienced more than average stress: 57.1%
• Seriously considered suicide: 6.8%
• Attempted Suicide: 1.2% (you can read the entire article here)

These are significantly high numbers. Would you please take a moment to pray for our generation? It’s obvious that we are stuck in a spiritual battle and all of these symptoms prove it. We obviously need God to intervene and “save some souls”. I hope many of them hear the hope that they can experience  in Christ. Pray for us too that we may be able to share the Gospel with “a broken generation” (as Maclean’s calls it) with relevance and clarity.

God & Suffering
I think it is timely then that at some of our campuses this semester we are doing a campaign called “God & Suffering”. This campaign hopes to take a pastoral and apologetic angle at sympathizing with students about the suffering that they see and experience in the World, to defuse some misconceptions about God’s love and care towards us, and to help them understand that God deals with human suffering in the most sacrifical way through Christ on the Cross. A lot of our campaign includes engaging students in conversations, Facebook interactions and dialogs, free resources, followed by an event panel discussion with Q/A. We have a Ravi Zacharias International Ministry (RZIM) speaker who will be joining us for the panel discussions.

Please pray for us that we may be able to find many students who want to hear the Gospel, and many Christians would be inspired to reach out to their friends, peers and classmates.

Naomi
Naomi is still in Edmonton, AB raising financial support there. She needs to raise another 51%. So please keep her in your prayers too! We hope to be together again in Nov 2012.

Blessings,
John D. Sundara

Can we pray for you today?

“A friend loves at all times…” (Proverbs 17:17)

“Two are better than one.” – King Solomon

“Friends multiply joy and divide grief.” – Cicero

If King Solomon says that two are better than one, then don’t wait around for someone to be your “two”. Be the “two” that makes someone’s “one” better.

- Call up an old roommate from school
- Keep in touch with that colleague you bonded with
- Don’t give up on that burdensome friendship, even when times get hard

Cicero tells us how to be a good friend. He challenges us to be the kind of friend that is worth sharing life with. He says, care. We need to care about others, and deeply. How?

- Be sad with your friends when they are sad
- Be happier for them than they are for themselves

Simply surprise people with how you get on their level and in their shoes. I’ve heard it said before, “Kill them with kindness.” It’s what God does for us:

- God sings over us with rejoicing (Zephaniah 3:17).
- Jesus got on our level and can sympathize with us (Hebrews 4:15) and when He was one earth, he looked on the crowds with compassion (Matthew 9:36).
- The Holy Spirit is presently with us, like friends are for each other (Acts 2:38).

Let’s live a life so that it becomes commonplace to hear these words: “Christians are good friends.”

God, I want to me more like You. Teach me to love the way that You do.  Amen.

Questions: Who are the people that got you through the hard times? What did they do that meant so much to you?

“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” (Luke 11:14)

Imagine you’re doing work on a deck and you fall on a rusty nail. It’s a small puncture but you keep working. Meanwhile, anaerobic bacteria begin to metabolize and cause infection. You don’t treat it and soon you have lockjaw, facial spasms, difficulty swallowing, and muscle rigidity. You start to get full body spasms and they continue for weeks until one day you die… if you don’t treat it.

Sin is the same way. It loves to fester in a grudge. The puss and poison of bitterness will eat away at your soul and enslave you… if you don’t treat it.

But treating it is hard. It’s open-heart surgery. We feel justified in our grudges! We think our bitterness is warranted and our rage is necessary for justice. Justice? Consider our Lord Jesus Christ:

He was crushed for our iniquities.

He took up our pain.

He bore our suffering.

He was stabbed for our sin.

His punishment brings us peace.

His wounds heal us.

We receive unwarranted forgiveness every day. We must also give it. The giving and receiving are two in one. Love God and your neighbor by accepting forgiveness and also forgiving.

Recall the people who have hurt you. Have you forgiven them? Reach back in your memory to your childhood and ask, “Does hate still linger there?”

Don’t listen to the voice that tells you, “Things are fine, let’s move on.” Search your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to search you as well. Uproot and kill the weeds of hate in your soul and humble yourself before God and man. Ask for forgiveness and be made new right now.

Lord, I understand that my salvation is not fair. You forgave me when I did not deserve it. And so, as I have been forgiven, so I must forgive. Holy Spirit, help me give up my grudge. Draw out the poison from my heart. In Jesus’ name I rebuke the unclean spirits in my heart and confess I have allowed them to fester. I repent and ask that you Lord Jesus to make me new. Cleanse me oh God from all unrighteousness. I trust you to heal and cleanse me and praise you for being the Great Physician. Amen.

“They let me know that Iwona, a brand new staff member from AIA Poland, was in town,” says Jordan. “She was in North America for a couple of weeks and was in the process of raising financial support.”

Iwona is a former professional basketball player in Europe – someone who Jordan and the sporting community refer to as a “pretty big deal”. When Jordan learned of Iwona’s openness to be used, he immediately thought of Kayla, a varsity basketball player at U of G.

“Kayla was very eager to talk to her coach this year and have AIA talk to her team,” says Jordan. “In previous years, this was something she wasn’t really up for.” Jordan received a sense of urgency and – knowing that pro athletes heighten attention and interest – thought, “Let’s go for it.”

Kayla talked to her coach, who was open to have Iwona come and speak to the U of G basketball team following a practice on Wednesday evening. Kayla also took a bold step of faith during Iwona’s visit, sharing about her desire to go on an AIA tour to Africa and why that was important to her.

Incredibly, ninety percent of Kayla’s team showed interest in knowing more about a personal relationship with God or what AIA has to offer!

The following day, Jordan connected with Kayla, and has this to say regarding the experience:

She had a jump in her step and a huge smile. We are in the process of following up with Kayla’s teammates.

“Before the team meeting, Kayla voiced her uncertainty about how her teammates would respond. She was unsure of their interest level and thought ‘I hope they don’t see me differently now’ to which I thought ‘I sorta hope that they do’ – that they would see the good difference, now that she had put herself out there. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has put eternity in the human heart, so positive results and curiosity shouldn’t surprise us.”

Jordan went on to say that as AIA staff go from team to team they get differing responses. Praise God for what He is doing at Guelph and through His servants Kayla, Iwona, Jordan and others.

I’m here to pray. What for? Hard to say. The rain falls on my spirit’s candle, weakening its flame.

Darkened windows conceal God knows what inside tall buildings that seem to lean ominously over me.

The need is so great I can hardly stand it. It’s like finding your way through a cavern with a match.

But I pray anyway. Both of us do. We signed up with Breakthrough Prayer and have come faithfully, if not joyfully, every week.

I see a woman across the street. She’s “working” tonight, one of many. She glances our way and then looks off. We both see her and wonder to ourselves, “what are we doing here?” Our prayers seem like debris under the giant wheels of prostitution and drugs that run this city.

“Could you pray for me?”

We both look in the direction of the voice. She’s got one foot in the street, absently holding a signpost and looking at us with less than hopeful eyes. “Er,” I clear my throat and try again, “Yes! You can come pray with us now?” I offer, knowing that crossing the street could get us in serious trouble.

“No,” she quietly responds, “I can’t do that.” Pause. “But, my name’s Angie.”

A name. A soul.

We pray for her: for restoration, for freedom. We are amazed that God has known her and loved her since the beginning of time. In light of that love, our prayers seem small. But we pray all the same.

“May your kingdom come.”

“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” (Psalm 55:22)

In the 1987 classic movie, The Princess Bride, the hero Wesley is forced to his knees, his shoulder bloodied, and fate imminent. He looks up at his captor and with unmistakable confidence he says, “We are men of action. Lies do not become us.” Boom. 

Are Christians men of action?

Sometimes the theological terms and rituals of faith can seem completely intellectual and, frankly, very dry. Is this faith thing all in my head? Do the words even mean anything? In reality, the words of the Bible are very physical in meaning and represent active concepts.

For example, the word “sanctification” is not simply a term that means “something inside changes slowly over time.” The word really comes from the Greek meaning to separate or set aside. It’s a division, like you divide the salad from the lasagna or the savings account from the spending.

Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you.” Cast, what does that mean? It’s the same “cast” that Joseph felt when his brothers threw him into a pit to be sold. Not a lot of affection there. Throw anxiety! Toss it like a bag of trash. Don’t think and rethink it, chuck it heaven high.

Psalm 22:8 says, “Commit yourself to the LORD.” Is commit a mental assent? Do we simply have to understand something about God? Perhaps it begins in the mind, but the word actually connotes rolling. It’s hard work to start a rock rolling, and once it’s going, it builds speed and momentum. Look out below, the servant of God is being sanctified and growing in righteousness! Kingdom of darkness beware!

We are men of action. We are gaining momentum as we are set apart, throwing our anxieties to God and trusting Him to deal mightily with them.

God, I don’t want to just sit and think of You. I want to run and fight and contend for You. Show me my place in the work You are doing. I’m suited up and ready.  Amen.

Question: What action does your faith take?

Three years ago, in Kara Pogue’s first year playing for the Gaels Field Hockey team, she found one of her strongest desires unmet. “I wanted to live out my Christian life but found it tough. I didn’t feel like being in a Christian group helped me out too much, and I wondered how God could connect more with my sport.

That year, Kara attended AIA’s National Training Camp (NTC) and, as she says, got inspired. Her and few others developed a passion for connecting faith and sport. “There was a few others ahead of me that had a vision and I was on the same page as they were.” Kara says her friend Natalie was instrumental in finding what a passion for sports ministry and varsity athletes looks like.

“We decided we had to just do it!” she recalls. The student volunteers began focusing more on varsity outreach.

Since Queen’s has no full-time AIA staff, Kara has since taken the position of Student Link under the leadership of Morgan Donaldson at UofT.

There are six others on Kara’s team: Alanna Rae Harms-Wiebe, Oliver Neal, Jordan Yule, Carolyn Hait, Alison Aldred and Simone Enns.

Check out this progression: in Kara’s first year, there were no AIA meetings. The next year, there were three women’s meetings, and now there have been eight in only the first semester!

On Wednesday nights, 45-or-so athletes meet to hear an athlete speak (Roughrider Eddie Russ has spoken here!). They have a discussion, play a game, and enjoy an atmosphere of fellowship.

And on Tuesdays, 5-10 athletes gather in a more laid-back environment to learn what AIA has to say about the intersection of faith and sport and how to become a total athlete (Thanks to a sponsorship, the group enjoys free pizza!)

The AIA team has met the favour of players as well as coaches, who have been very supportive and have recognized the emotional side to athletics. “God has been so faithful – from team meetings supported by Queens’ coaching staff to getting athletes involved in Bible studies.”

Kara says the face of AIA at Queen’s has “changed a lot in the past three years. We’re trusting God to go ahead of us and doors are being opened.”

“Opportunities come up when we trust God and act.”

The full impact of these events remains to be seen, but the harvest that has already been gathered is incredibly encouraging.

Dozens have come to know Jesus and even more have joined Discovery Groups to investigate what it means to really connect to Jesus Christ personally.

ICN has developed a strategy called WHEN (Women’s Heart Engaging Network), which has seen a great deal of success in the past four years, reaching out to Cantonese-speaking women. Because of their success, four other groups have been able to launch: Young WHEN, Filipino WHEN, African WHEN and Intercultural WHEN. Their process is similar to another of Power to Change’s ministries, LeaderImpact Group (LIG). A team of volunteers is engaged and identifies who they want to reach. ICN staff then provide ministry training and administrative help needed  to host an outreach event. During the event, someone shares their story  of how relevant their faith in Christ is in their life. At the close of the event, the call to action is connect personally  to Christ or explore more through participating in a Discovery Group. During  the Discovery Group phase, the Faith Adventure team evaluates their effectiveness  and re-engages to plan a new event.

This simple but effective Faith Adventure process was implemented in British Columbia and Alberta this fall, with some notable stories arising.

In one instance, a woman who is a quadriplegic found forgiveness and release from her anger towards God. In another case, a Muslim woman found freedom and blessing in a relationship with Jesus.

ICN staff are amazed and grateful at what God is doing throughout their ministry. They look forward to continually developing the WHEN strategy, supporting the existing teams, and seeing believers inspire others to share the good news of Jesus.

What do Jesus and an anarchist have in common? Not much I would have thought. Until I started talking to B.

B is a social work student at GBC. He was eating a slice of pizza in the cafeteria. So, my coworker and I decided to start chatting with him.

Turns out B described himself as an anarchist. My only images of anarchists are the rioters who set police cars on fire during the G20 riots in Toronto. So I shared my mental image with him mostly to ask him, what do anarchists believe? How did you come to be an anarchist?

As we kept talking, a portrait emerged. Anarchists are not all bad people. They just do not like corrupt authorities. They firmly believe that absolute power absolutely corrupts. And that all individuals in a society should be able to share equal power. Anarchists want to to subvert and “dethrone” the powers that be so that we can become an equal society. Some do that through violence. He does not believe in violence or force.

From there, grew a positive discussion on human nature, authorities, compassion, and equality. B shared how he is Metis (aboriginal with mixed European heritage). He volunteered on a First Nations reserve to help aboriginal youth break the cycle of poverty, crime and prison. He believed the government was at fault because they didn’t provide resources to reserves. At the same time, he didn’t have a victim mentality. He knew he came from a well-to-do family, and was a person of privilege. He really did care about humanity and the world.

The more he talked about how he desired to see evil authorities overthrown, I asked him “would you ever consider Jesus as an anarchist?” He asked “what do you mean?” So I continued “when I read about the life of Christ, one of the things that strikes me is about how Jesus did not like the religious authorities of his time because they were corrupt and oppressive. This one time, he made a whip and chased them out of the temple. And he called them names.” B was intrigued.

So, now we had an even more positive discussion on Jesus, and his love and compassion for all people. And how Jesus wants to bring life transformation that ends evil and oppression in the world. B shared about how he once went to a youth group growing up, and seemed to be familiar with Jesus.

B did not get to hear the full Gospel that day. He did not get to hear that Jesus died for his sins. Mostly for the sake of time. The above paragraph describes a 90-minute spiritual conversation. But he did hear that Jesus is a lot more different and relevant than he ever imagined.

We’re now friends on Facebook. And I am trying to have coffee with him sometime to share more about Christ.

So, please pray for us that God will open that door.

In Christ,

J