Serving Bread

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Today marks 10 years of full-time ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. On April 1, 1998, I was appointed as provisional staff (provisional until I secure funding for my budget). God has done much in my life and through my life in the last ten years of ministry. There will be a season soon enough where I will have the opportunity to glean the lessons and the goodness of God in the past ten years, so I won’t be doing too much of that just now.

Here are some highlights of the past ten years:

• Developing lifelong friendships. There are people who have been a part of my ministry who remain as close and good friends. What I like about ministering in this particular stage is we see students transition from being youth to being friends and partners in the work.
• God’s faithfulness. Many people who are in a ministry that requires the person to raise his or her own support tend to think of fund development as a chore. I am peculiar in that I enjoy the process of fund development. I have seen God do amazing things through people in supporting and developing the ministry through finances. God has been faithful.
• Friends in the kingdom. I love that people’s lives have been changed forever through our ministry. I remember years ago developing a friendship with someone who did not care much for God or having his life centered around God. Through our friendship, God began speaking to him and he began listening. Today, he is invested in the ministry of his local church.
• God speaks. People seem to think that those of us in ministry are a bit more spiritual than those who are not in ministry. The secret is that we are not that much more spiritual or even faithful. But what full-time ministry affords us to do is to take the time to listen to God speaking. I have heard God speak to me in various ways. My wife and I moved across the state because we sensed God speaking to us. We live our lives and make decisions believing that God has a unique calling on our life. Ministry has allowed me to listen to God speak and see God honor his promises.
• Joy. There have been many moments in the past ten years that I was on the verge of transitioning (to say it diplomatically) or quitting (to say it more bluntly). Moments of disappointment and suffering catalyzed such thought. But overall, I have had great joy in giving my life toward student ministry.
• Cal State Northridge. The highlight of the past ten years is God’s work at CSUN. I have been on four campuses in the past ten years—three years at my alma mater, UC Davis, three years at UCLA, and four years at CSUN (and the last year, Pierce College)—and hands down, I love seeing God do something in me and on the CSUN campus. We started in 2001 with a dream and hope to see a ministry established on this campus. Seven (interrupted) years later, God has done miraculous works on this campus. Praise be to God that I was privileged to see God’s work.

There are many more things and there will be a time when I will reflect on those things. But for now, I am grateful for a decade of ministry.