2007.03 Power of prayer

God proves His power with answering our prayers in our students lives. It has been an incredible couple of months to trust God for these students’ growth and life change in His kingdom.
This past weekend was no exception. I traveled with a group of 8 Asian American students down to San Jose where they encountered God. A part of the exhaustion from traveling opened us up spiritually to what God wanted to do in us. God compelled me to pray for brokenness in the students hearts. Many of the students seemed to be apathetic toward God, but it was during this time that God was painted a fresh and a renewing in their hearts was taking place.

One student, Andy Son (pictured in photo on other side of this letter), has a scar on his face. He got it from celebrating his 21st birthday only a week before the trip. He had gotten so drunk that he blacked out and couldn’t remember what had happened to him. He woke up the next morning with his face all red. And yet he came to our EPIC conference wanting to know what it was about.

One neat characteristics of the Asian-American community is that there are people that desire to hang out with one another simply because they are Asian-American. Andy Son had been friends with several guys involved in Epic for a while, but he had never wanted to engage with them spiritually. He was very honest that he was agnostic and stated that he knew that there had to be something more to life than the life he was living. He often found himself empty and unfulfilled.

We prayed that God would break down every argument that Andy had against God and that He would be drawn to him. At first it seemed that a lot of the content of the speakers at the conference wasn’t very relevant to non-believers, but God hadn’t forgotten about Andy, and the last three talks were very much filled with grace and a teaching of the love that God has for those who will believe in Him. It was after the second talk that Andy surrendered his life to God. It was beautiful to see God specifically work in Andy’s life and answer our prayers.

I continue to praise God for the opportunity that we have to serve Him at the University of Oregon. Sometimes I can be down because I don’t always see the results (conversions to Christ or life change in my disciples), but this past month God has revealed His faithfulness to me. My ministry and identity is found in Christ alone and I thank you so much for the ability to serve with you in this worthwhile effort.