City/Script
“…it was one of the most moving moments of my staff life.”
Every May, the Inter-Varsity fellowships from across Ontario come together to intensively study scripture of Mark’s Gospel or Genesis for one week. This year marked the 7th anniversary and was my third year attending the conference.
Up until this year, city/script was one of those conferences that Inter-Varsity as an organization was excited about, but not one I was excited about. I thought it was great, but found myself much more excited by other ministries and conferences of Inter-Varsity. That changed this year.
This year, we were amazed as God doubled our enrollment for the conference! Last year we had just over 120 people, and 3 Mark 1 studies, 1 Mark 2 study and 1 Genesis study. This year we had 5 Mark 1 studies, 2 Mark 2 studies and 1 Genesis study and had 188 people enroll!
My staff role at this conference was to find ways for the students to creatively process what God was doing in their hearts and lives that week. I partnered with my friend, Dave, who is Campus Staff at OCAD University. Together we visioned for and set up a studio space with 6 stations and various mediums for students to creatively express how God was speaking to them through the Scriptures they were studying. We also organized a coffeehouse, in order for students to share stories and display the artwork that was created, that happened toward the end of the week. I loved this role! I’m sure I would have loved teaching scripture but I loved using my creative gifts for this ministry.
But the one thing that made me rethink how I felt about this conference happened when a student in my Mark study decided to accept Jesus as his Saviour. This student was part of a group of students from the University of Ottawa. He came as a non-Christian and left on fire for God! Throughout the week he would ask a lot of thought provoking questions that made the long-term Christians really come to terms with what they believed. His skepticism could be easily perceived by anyone in the room. Then, after a gospel meditation, something shifted for this student. Something HUGE. He left the room, then came back visibly shaken, and then shared what had happened, and how he had just gone outside and asked God if He was real. This student then confessed that he was terrified about how God would answer. What followed next was one of the most moving moments of my staff life, as this student shared what was happening for him, I watched as students from his campus who were dispersed around the room all began praying for him. Then, students from my campus and others who had just met this student 4 days prior, began to envelop him in hugs and prayers. The emotions were high in the room, as people surrounded this student. Soon as communal prayer time started, and the room began to pray for each other and for this student. We then took a break, and Dan our study leader (and Campus Staff and housemate of the above mentioned student) asked the staff in his study what to do next; to push forward in the text or spend time in prayer in our campus groups. We opted for the prayer time. When I ran into Dan later that night, and asked what happened during their prayer time, he shared that this student accepted Jesus as his Saviour! This happened mid-week, so for the rest of the study we got to see this student transformed as God’s fire burned bright in him! This student shared his testimony during the coffeehouse, and a clip of it can be seen here.
Seeing this student’s transformation not only moved me, but my students as well, and created in them a desire to be a community where stories like this happen, and to be the kind of community that welcomed this student into God’s family.
China GP Training Weekend
On the weekend of March 11-13th, The Central field China Global Partnership met for the first time as a team for a weekend of teaching and training. My friend Dave, IV Staff at OCAD and U of T St. George, is directing this Global Partnership and the meeting was hosted in the home of an IV ISM Staff.
I was talking to Dave as he was preparing for the weekend, and found out he was stressed out about figuring out meals for 17 people. Since cooking for large numbers of people is something I’ve done a number of times and enjoyed; I offered to help with the meals to free Dave up to focus on the teaching time.
It worked best for me to come and cook lunch and dinner on Saturday, as Friday would be a simpler meal time, and Sunday would be leftovers. I asked Dave if he wanted any Chinese meals during the Saturday, and he asked for dinner to be a Chinese meal, but said lunch could be a simpler more generic meal.
It was here, that my ambition kicked in. I decided to undertake making a Chicken Fried Rice for lunch (which I thought would be easy) and then a 6 course Chinese Feast for dinner. I also chose a bunch of recipes I hadn;t tried before and wouldn’t have time to test before Saturday. I made the list of ingredients for Dave to buy, and came early on Saturday to make the meals.
I’d never been in the house where the meeting was held, so I didn’t know that there weren’t many barriers between the kitchen and the space the team was meeting. I also didn’t know there was a gas stove (until this point, I’d never cooked on a gas stove). I found out about these factors immediately, and had to make some modifications about how I’d be in cooking in this space (mostly, i couldn’t have background music playing, and couldn’t verbally freak out if something went wrong). I also had to learn to use a gas stove. Despite these initial hiccups, the rest of the meal preparation went well. It was good to be close to where the team was, as I overheard their scripture study led by IV York KCF Staff, Dan.
I managed to finish lunch relatively on time. And the students thoroughly enjoyed it! There were no leftovers! However, I was running behind on my meal preparation for dinner. So, I called my friend Amber, who I had plans with later that evening to ask for help. Amber is one of my best friends from Ryerson and one of my go-to cooking friends. She came over and helped me with my ambitious dinner preparation.
Together we made:
– Sauteed Beef with Snap Peas
– Vegetable Stir Fry
– Pork Wontons
– And the filling for spring rolls (we ran out of time to make them)
– Egg Tarts for Dessert
I was worried that Amber would be upset about getting enlisted in my ambitious meal preparation, but she had a great time and was excited to learn how to make all these dishes!
We finished all the components of the meal, and served dinner at 6:30. We stayed to clean up and left around 7:30 pm. It wasn’t until we were heading to a movie theatre that I realized that I’d done a full 8 hours of cooking!
I really enjoyed cooking the meals, but my favourite parts of the day were the times when I was able to meet and chat with the students on the China GP team. I was excited to hear about their excitement and fears about going to China. I also had a few moments of getting to spend time with the staff on the GP team, it was fun to partner with them this way!
Cooking at York
This year, all of the members of the GTA regional staff team have been sharing our ethnic and cultural histories (more about my story can be found on my other blog). This has involved us sharing our ethnic background, as well as significant interactions with other cultures that have shaped our identity and ministry; and sharing a creative expression of our stories such as poems, songs or cultural dishes.
Inspired by the cultural dishes that were made, and by a desire to offer a service to his students while exposing them to new cultures; Dan, Campus Staff at York University began hosting bi-weekly community dinners with his York KCF fellowship. During these dinners, a guest chef would come and students would learn how to cook different meals, as well as have meals from a variety of different cultures.
I loved this idea not only because I love cooking, but I loved the idea of getting to spend time partnering with Dan and his ministry at York! I offered to cook a traditional South Asian meal of Briyani on March 7th. On the day of the meal, I headed over Dan’s house with two of my students, and began preparations for the meal. By the time York students arrived, most of the meal had been prepared by my students; but it left plenty of time of fellowship.
The timing of this dinner was shortly after our Kingdom People events; so many of the York students at this dinner had already met my students, and they were able to continue conversations started at Kingdom People.
I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this dinner. I knew that I’d be cooking a meal and hanging out with Dan and his students; but it was added bonus when a few of my students accompanied me. Conversations flowed easy and smooth while we ate the meal. I might have made it a bit “too” spicy, and there was a lot of people passing the yogurt to cool the meal. As Brian, one of my students said, “You raised the bar on spiciness”. Despite the spiciness of the meal, the students eagerly ate. Dessert was Chocolate Banana Bread made by Joy, Dan’s wife, which people thoroughly enjoyed and helped cut the spice in their mouths!
After the meal, the students lingered, and continued to have conversations until about 10 pm! It was a really enjoyable evening spending time with Dan’s students and having an opportunity for them to spend time in fellowship with some of my students.
The Arch 