A new year and a new season
2015 started on a restful note. For the first time in years I wasn’t working at a conference after Christmas until the New Year, and I was able to spend some time relaxing and recouping after a busy season. The first weekend of January, I went away with my regional staff team for a time of prayer and planning for the new year. We went to an air b & b in Manila that was once a church. It was a lot of fun exploring the b & b and finding remnants of the church, like a bedroom in the bell tower and a beautiful stained glass window in a bathroom. The time away offered good perspective on the year ahead, and good space for us as a team to support one another as we shared the challenges that we face in the upcoming season of ministry.
The past few months for me have been spent in discernment about my time with IV and what the future could look like as I entertained a host of possibilities. The discernment period ended with an offer to a new 3-5 year contract which I will say more about in future posts.
January also marked a milestone birthday for me, and I celebrated with samosas and mimosas and a throwback photo booth where I recreated some photos from my past with some friends who have been in my life since my childhood and other significant moments.
As I enter into a new season of life and ministry, I’m struck by the significance of possibility and also that I find myself at the same age as Jesus when he began his formal ministry. I am curious to see what this next season of ministry will hold for me.
National Staff Conference
Every three or so years, IVCF gathers all of their staff from campuses, camps and the national service centre for a time of training, fellowship and vision casting, as we see where God will lead us in the next season of our various ministries. The theme of this year’s National Staff Conference was “Good News Life”, and it centered on how we are called to live lives of witness with teaching, story-telling and new resources to share the gospel in our ministry fields.
Becky Pippert, author of Out of the Salt Shaker Into the World was the primary speaker and teacher at this conference, and she led us through a seeker study series called “Uncovering the Life of Jesus”. The material follows a format similar to an inductive study with suggested questions to help people look for the answers within the Scripture. I’ve led a few other seeker studies called Groups Investigating God (GIGs) on campus in the past, and I’ve often found the gap between participating in a study and leading one is very big. These GIGs have been effective in reaching seekers where they are at, but often requires a whole different set of training and preparation materials. However, the Uncovering the Life of Jesus material has been formatted in a way that the gap between participating and leading is much smaller, so there’s a higher possibility of the material reaching multiples of people quickly. Since this conference, I’ve led this material with my student leaders and there have been a few people we’ve approached about doing this series with us (more on that in another post).
Since National Staff Conference only happens every few years there’s a lot more that is part of this conference; like dramas, worship, story-telling, silent auction, bookstore and stage design. This is a time when the many hidden skills and talents of IV staff come to the surface as they get to use some of their skills and schooling. For me, I was invited to be part of the stage design team with SFU’s IV staff and my dear friend and Ryerson alumnus Barron and the ever-talented IV graphic designer Rebekah Rotert. I enjoyed working on a team with these two, but re-entering the design world was not a pleasant experience for me. But, as a team we produced a beautiful stage design and designed an interactive marquee that people would engage throughout the week. The premise was that people would seek out light bulbs throughout the spaces of the conference and common areas (like the front desk or Starbucks) and if they retrieved a light bulb they would screw it into the display. It was a marker to show that each effort brings forth light, but it truly is a thing of beauty when all the bulbs are found and light up the whole display. It was a lot of fun seeing the piece slowly light up throughout the week.
Though I was pretty exhausted after coming out of a busy season of ministry and a challenging period of discernment, I found myself receiving a lot during this conference and have seen some of the fruit of this teaching in my own life and on campus.
2014 Annual Report
Here’s a few ministry highlights of 2014! Check back here for more photos and extras about these and other stories!
New beginnings
This fall brought many new things my way: a new living situation, a new student leadership team, a new regional staff team configuration, and a new supervisor. The transitions have not all been smooth, but as I reflect on this fall I am grateful for each of these things. Here are a few thoughts about each of these items.
Living Situation: Thank you to all of you who have been praying for housing. Amber, a good friend and former student leader, and I found an apartment at Mount Pleasant and Davisville. We’ve enjoyed settling in to this neighbourhood, getting to meet people in the community and hosting friends and family. I can’t offer hospitality from my home to the students as I once did, but its led me to find creative solutions. I also now have a 25 minute commute, but its led to some great conversations with students while transiting together!
Student Leadership Team: I said goodbye to my staff partner Dan and some of my key student leaders in April as they headed toward new roles and endeavors. I was left with a brand new team who were very new to leadership. The learning curve has been steep, but the fresh perspectives and new ideas and connections to previously unreached communities on campus like residence, grad students and South Asians has led to some exciting moments!
New Regional Staff Team: I have a brand new configuration of IV staff in my region that I meet with weekly. I study scripture, get trained and pray and vision with IV staff from U of T St. George and U of T Mississauga. The team is led my dear friend who’s now ministering in Toronto, Fi. It’s been really fun getting to know this configuration, and I find myself having more fun, laughing more and genuinely eager to see my colleagues. I’ve been blessed as they have been great listening posts, encouraged me to strive for more and prayed for courage and comfort during some rough patches this semester.
New Supervisor: As I begin my sixth year on staff with IV Canada, I have my 5th new supervisor. It’s been a blessing and a curse to have had so many supervisors, I’ve been to exposed to many varied leadership and supervision styles but I’ve also not had time to fully implement some of the suggestions for improvement before I start again with a new supervisor. But, I’m really enjoying not starting from scratch with my current supervisor. We’ve been trained by similar people, been to Bangladesh twice together, and genuinely enjoy each other! I’ve also been challenged and encouraged in new ways, and feel I’ve already grown as a staff in the few months since having Fi as my supervisor. I look forward to what the next semester will bring.
Summer of South Asian Ministry
In some ways this summer was my summer for significant South Asian ministry, and in many ways a summer of answered prayers for clarity in my role as a minister to South Asians.
I directed the 2014 Bangladesh GUP, and here are a few of my reflections: Being the director of this GUP after serving as a staff for the past two years was adramatic change. Suddenly, I was the one people looked to for answers; I was responsible for booking flights, determining program with our hosts and making sure our team raised all their funds. There were aspects that I loved and aspects that I hated.
LOVED
• Working with a new staff team and figuring out how to free them to lead with their strengths and grow in their weaknesses
• Renewing and deepening relationships with BSFB staff and students
• Relying on God in new ways and seeing the ways He would meet me and call me to trust and partner with Him
HATED
• Making tough decisions on behalf of the team and the ways that would affect relationships between the team and myself
• The all-consuming thoughts about the GUP and the loneliness of leadership
• Needing to always be thinking on my feet and making quick changes due to unforeseen variables
But, now as I look back on the experience, I am grateful for the things that our team learned and experienced, how well we partnered with BSFB, and the ways that I grew as a leader. You can read more of my Bangladesh GUP reflections here.
I also took two Ryerson students with me to the 3rd South Asian InterVarsity Leadership Institute hosted by InterVarsity USA in Boston this August.
To be honest, I was not looking forward to this conference. I believed this would be a deeply enriching experience for the students, but I was tired from the GUP and other summer responsibilities and was sacrificing being part of some significant events in Toronto that week. But, our God is a gracious God. In all the places of need I felt, He met me with abundance. I felt a deep richness of partnership with my colleagues, I was empowered to lead and refueled after a long season of fruitful but tiring work. And I was amazed at what happened for my students. S, a recent graduate, told
me this story on the bus ride home: “I’m a Pastor’s son and have been a Christian my entire life but I NEVER talk about my faith with people. Even when my friends were thinking about becoming a Christian, I wouldn’t talk to them until after they made a decision to follow Christ. I always found talking about my faith awkward. But when we were in Boston sharing our faith with strangers, I realized it’s always awkward when you start but you have to get over it. So I did, and it was amazing!”After S got home, he had started a new job, and within 20 minutes of meeting his
supervisor he shared his faith and asked him to follow Jesus! And N was so excited to reach out to South Asians on our campus. He felt inspired by the ways he can easily build relationships with nonbelieving South Asians and be a witness. Since returning to campus, we have had more South Asians be involved in our ministries than ever before! Praise God!
But I’m too young to be an “Elder”
In January and February of this year, I was invited to participate in conversations about multi-ethnicity and diversity within InterVarsity Canada. These meetings came as a response to meeting held in June of 2013, and were at the time leading up to and during a deep source of stress, anxiety and discomfort for me. The meetings were set up for visible ethnic minorities on staff with IVCF to have a space to share some of our experiences of cultural dissonance within the organization with members of the Campus Team. The Campus Team (a team of IVCF’s senior leadership) were to listen, and if necessary ask clarifying questions, but otherwise offer no response to things we said. This format added to the stress of the situation, and I left those meetings feeling unresolved and deeply saddened about where we were as an organization and about the experiences my colleagues bravely shared. I then had the misfortune of having to rehash these conversations numerous times for friends, colleagues and supervisors who were not in the meetings but wanted to hear about the experience. And though not intended what followed was 4 months of silence from the leaders and organizers of this June gathering. Then, we heard from the VP of Campus Ministry, who in her response apologized for the delay and named that in early 2014 there would be a gathering of “elders” who would be part of conversations about next steps. A few of my close friends and colleagues were named as some of those elders, and when I first saw this email, my heart sank. I was happy for my colleagues to be in these conversations but also was feeling unsettled that they wouldn’t be able to fully represent me or the voice of those who are minorities within the minorities and I would be in yet another place where it felt like my voice on a matter I care deeply about was being silenced.
But in December 2013, I got this email: During and after the gathering of visible ethnic minority staff in June, there has been opportunity to learn a lot as we seek to move forward and grow together in inter-cultural competence. Last Spring it became clear that among the broad staff team there are those who are recognized and serve as unofficial “elders” whom others seek out for interpretation and sponsorship. In January some of those people will get together to talk together about where we are and what are some next steps. Would you consider being a part of this conversation?
I said yes, and found myself in these “elder” meetings. As I sat in this room with other “elders” and members of the Campus Team, I was struck by the sense that “I’m too young to be an elder”. My heart grieved for the older South Asian Canadian staff that were once on staff but have since left. My heart grieved where we were as an organization. My heart grieved my experiences as a South Asian Canadian IV staff and the stark differences between my experiences and those of my South Asian USA IV staff colleagues.
But at the end of these meetings, we left with hope. We named some tangible next steps for future staff placement, changes in fundraising training, and suggestions for supervisor training. We also planned to meet with all those who gathered in June 2013, to debrief those meetings and offer encouragement. As “elders” we were asked to lead small groups discussions during this meeting.
At this debriefing meeting, which happened in late February, In addition to time debriefing we made a timeline of significant moments in IVCF Canada’s multi-ethnic and multi-cultural history. Seeing these milestones offered a lot of hope and perspective as we saw how things rapidly changed in the last few years. There’s still a long way to go, but there’s hope for the future for those who are on staff and for the students present in our ministries.
The Multi-Ethnic and Multicultural Gathering of IVCF Canada staff
Good Partnership
At a recent staff conference, I was reminded of how it’s impossible to do this work without good partnership. Good partnership is something we seek as Campus Ministers with the Spirit, our students, colleagues on different campuses, and of course our supporters. This fall has been full of many transitions (more on that later). Sometimes it’s easy for me to think this fall has brought a significant loss of good partnership, as I graduated some significant student leaders and partners in the ministry this past Spring and as I went back to serving as a solo staff when my staff partner moved onto a new ministry this summer. But as I’ve been reflecting on this year, I’m reminded of the ways I’ve been blessed by the increased partnership of my supporters.
This year, I’ve been especially blessed with moments of partnering with my supporters in new collaborative ways. I’ve been able to use homes for hosting students. I’ve had supporters donate meals for our community dinners. And also I’ve been able to creatively collaborate with some supporters, one example that comes to mind is the Cooking Group’s collaboration with Ainsley Boyd Photography. It was great to have Ainsley do a food photoshoot of two of our cooking events and get to experience one of our thriving ministries.
I hope there will be more opportunities for my supporters to partner and collaborate in new ways in 2015!
Shaped by Acts
The Acts of the Apostles has been a primary text in shaping ministry at Ryerson, the Bangladesh GUP team and my regional staff team this year. I’ve sat in these familiar texts with students reading them for the first time, translated into Bangla with our sister organization, and using it to shape ministry in the GTA with my colleagues. And with each group of people, I’ve been impacted by the text in new ways. Acts 4 and the prayer for boldness, led GUP participants to boldly rely on God and try new things as they interacted with our Bengali brothers and sisters. During the winter semester, the Ryerson community was captivated by the Acts community, as they wrestled with what it meant to share all things in common and be a welcoming community that continues to have the Lord add to their number daily. While I was in Bangladesh, the Ryerson community continued to gather during the summer, and welcomed students from the OCAD community to study Paul’s missionary journeys. We found ourselves living in the text as we grew close as a community and prayed and sent each other into local and global mission fields. As a regional staff team we’ve spent this fall studying Acts 2 in-depth, and praying and seeking partnership with the Spirit on our campuses.
A story in photos
At the end of a busy semester l like to spend some time reflecting on what has happened in the ministry and in my life. More posts about this semester will be up soon, but in the meantime while I was looking at old photos I noticed a trend that made me laugh. Apparently I have some common hand gestures.
The photos from top to bottom (L to R): 1. At a good friend’s wedding in 2012. 2. In Bangladesh as the GUP director in 2014. 3. At a 2013 community dinner. 4. During the 2012 Bangladesh GUP. 5. At an End of Semester Party in 2010.
In the Works
As the semester winds to a close, and I spend time with my team debriefing and reflecting on ministry this fall, my mind begins to dream and vision for 2014: the ministry on campus, the invitations to be part of some conversations that will shape some aspects of the larger organization, and the continued visioning and planning for the 2014 Bangladesh GUP. Here are some things that are “in the works”:
Kingdom Calling
Before the year closes, I have been invited to be staff at InterVarsity’s annual winter conference, called Kingdom Calling from December 27-31. It’s a conference designed for third and fourth year students who are asking and discerning what’s next as they pursue what God may be inviting them to do after they finish university. As a student, this conference and its predecessor are a huge reason why I decided to intern and then later come on staff with InterVarsity. It’s one of my favorite conferences run by InterVarsity, and even in the years when I haven’t been staff for this conference, I’ve been excited to volunteer my time and host people in Toronto. This year, I’m excited to journey alongside some of my students (many of whom I’ve been in relationship with for years) as they encounter what God will say to them during this conference as a small group leader. Please be praying for them as they prepare themselves for this conference, and as they are present. Also, please pray that they would be open and willing to trust the community that gathers at this conference (some of my best friends in the organization are people I’ve met through this conference, and I’ve found there to be something providential in gathering with peers asking the same questions as they often become to community that go with you when you say yes). In addition to being a small group leader, I am also serving as the Hospitality Coordinator, which basically means I’m responsible for helping welcome and orient people to Toronto, as well as, come up with some fun mid-week city exploration activities.
2014 Bangladesh GUP
I am excited to be directing this year’s GUP. I, in no way feel 100% ready to take on this task, but as my “mental tape” (the loving term a former housemate gave for my memory) rewinds, I remember that those who went before me also were not 100% ready to take on this task. But, as God has been leading and guiding me in the process, I am grateful as things fall smoothly into place, and I manage to meet most deadlines in time. I am excited for the fellowships partnering this year, and I am really excited about my staff team. And as more pieces come together I am eager to see those who follow the promptings of the Spirit to go. Please keep me in prayer as I take some time this month to vision and plan for the upcoming months, and pray for the invitations that will go out to students and for them as they process with Jesus and loved ones if this is the right invitation to accept.
The Arch 