Hello strangers

It's been a while hasn't it... I was going to go write on my own blog... but then realized that I hadn't even posted here in so long that I owed you that much.



So the past week has been incredibly eventful... so this post is going to be really long. Bear with it.



CM2007 started on June 30, 2007 with the international delegates and with the leaders from the KCCC movements around the country. The first night, the speaker was InSoo Jeong (Director of Affairs for East Asia). Going to be honest here... I was so pooped out from travelling that day that I fell asleep -_-;; But you can see it on the cm2007.net website! ._.

Then we all headed off to our hotels. Imagine a stream in the spring time that has swelled from all the melted snow from the winter. Now imagine that instead of water, you see people. That's what it was like... as we all swarmed towards the subway stations. It took an hour and a half to get to a place that usually only takes about 15 minutes to get to there were so many people. It was all good though, as time passes quickly in the company of friends, new and old alike.

Sunday morning began with breakfast and much early rising. Four of my roomates were from Vancouver KCCC (SFU and UBC), one was a fellow Torontonian (Valera from U of T), and another was from U of A (Timothy Lee). I knid of left early and decided to find a different way to get to the conference centre in the pouring rain... I had a raincoat but my backpack got completely soaked and all the edges of my books got wet... which I hate because it's absolute hell trying to keep taht from drying out and sticking. In the morning, the speaker was a guy by the name of Ken Cochrum - who serves as the national campus director of Asia Impact. He spoke about the importance of making sure that our ministries on campus develop into healthy multiplying movements; he used the Church of Antioch as an example.

After the main session we had lunch (Big Macs.... they were actually better than the ones you get in North America in that you don't actually feel gross after eating one.) then we went to seminars. I attended the "importance of prayer in movement" session - where we looked at some basic principles of what prayer is, why it's important, and different types of prayer that we can pray in prayer meetings. Then we spent about 30 minutes doing what I call praying and what everyone else here knows as Korean style praying ;) Honestly... they just say lets pray.... :P

Then we all headed back and had what was called community time - it was then that I finally met up with the Canadian team from OEX (including our lovely Jeremoi) as well as the other random Canadians that had signed up for the conference. We went for a walk, went down to the fish market at the end of the beach that our hotel was in front of, and sought out exotic foods. What was this exotic food you might ask? It was..... are you ready for this? Are you REALLY ready for this?



Live octopus :D

They pulled an octopus out of the tank, cut up it's tentacles, then put it on a plate. Only thing is that the tentacles are all still moving so the whole plate squirms like a pile of worms. Looks disgusting? Well, if you've had octopus, it's really no big deal, it's just slimier and chewier - and you have to make sure to chew REALLY well, or the suckers could get stuck to your throat and you could choke. The really fun part though was observing the Koreans in the restaurant watching those that participated eating the octopus... I refrained from actually partaking - what with the levitical law prohibiting such foods in my diet......


I'm just kidding... I kind of chickened out :P

The conference continued along those lines. The remaining speakers were Monday - Dr. Joon Gon Kim, the founder of KCCC and a good friend of Bill and Vonette Bright. It was at that time that I got to see Vonette Bright for the first time ever. It was also then that we conducted the parade of nations introducing almost all of the countries that were present at the conference (minus some of the security countries). Dave Heska (KSL at Mac C4C) was the Canadian flag bearer and he waved that flag like a champ. At all times, the Canadian flag just never stopped waving, even when all the flags beside it began to droop.

Tuesday Andy Atkins spoke in the morning, I attended a seminar led by Steve Douglas - the president of Campus Crusade for Christ International, and then we heard George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization speak in the evening. Both Andy and George were SO extremely passionate as they were talking about how we are to then go about completeing the mission of the Great Commission. Andy spoke on how our greatest incentive, our greatest motivation should be that Christ is sovereign over all and that he is our LORD. George shared his heart for the lost through his testimony and various stories and then called us to accept the Isaiah 6 call of "Here I am LORD, send me." Then immediately after wards Austin Okomohwo, the the global representative for campuses in Africa, central asia, and the middle east as well as a field director for the above mentioned areas spoke about how serious God is about his own mission. He's more serious than you or I, and so we must be serious about it as well.

Wednesday, the director of LA KCCC, Dong Whan Kim spoke about whether we would be willing to sacrifice our lives for the Gospel and to live it out like crazy people. Protestors are willing to go naked except for tiny placards over there privates saying "Chickens are dying! Don't eat KFC!"... how much more so will we be willing to do because people are dying without knowing the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In the afternoon, we had a global connection fair where we played Korean tradiitonal games, watched music and dance presentations, and went around to different countries booths and found out more about what was going on in those nations, how we coudl pray for them, and how you could get more personally involved in actually going... after all, the theme of the day was Connected Movements. Steve Douglas shared in the evening about what exactly it was that we were connected to. He talked about how we are connected to Christ's work, to a great spiritual legacy, to a sever need, to other Christians like ourselves, to God's work today, and to movements everywhere. And as we build into these connections, are we all the more willing to serve the LORD as we join up with those powerful movement going on in the world today. Then Luther Awad, the national campus director of a country which I'm not sure I can say and a part of the African AOA team went up and shared more about what was going on in that area of the world. He shared about an internet ministry similar to everystudent.com in Arabic, he shared stories about how in the nation which he is the dirctors they began changing the focus of their ministry from Christians and the reachable, to muslims and the unreachable. He says he rejoices as he begins to see names such as Mustafa, Mohammed, Chamid and the like rolling into their office. Praise the LORD for what is going on in that part of the world.

Thursay, the theme was Christ Magnified (are you noticing a pattern in the themes at all? The conference was called CM2007). Holly Sheldon, the Associate National Director of East Asia, spoke about how we are to magnify Christ in our lives by using a grape vine and it's fruit as the example. In the afternoon after lunch was country regional time where the KCCCs from Canada and the Canadian Campus for Christ students gathered together, shared about the projects that we had just been on and what we had been learning about in the past week. Mike Woodard led the time - and even though it was 3 hours, it was a really exciting time listening to those testimonies, praying for one another and sharing with one another. In the evening, we heard from Michael Jaberaj who emphasized the fact that the glory of God is why we conduct missions (allowing the lines of the Piper quote about missions existing because worship does not.) Then Sung Min Park, the current national director of KCCC got up and spoke about how to live successful purposeful lives carrying out Christ''s mission. Then, we entered an extended time of worship and celebration... and the conference officially ended.

One thing that I wanted to leave to the end was the description of the worship, for it was continuous, constant and powerful. Watching people dancing, jumping, shouting, singing, and kneeling to the LORD in that gigantic conference centre (about 150 yards in length.. think one and a half football fields) was an aweinspiring and encouraging sight. As it says in Romans 1 - we were truly imparting spiritual gifts upon one another, that is encouraging each other by our faith. It was excellent, magnificant, and fantastic (Telefrancais anyone? :P).

I have more to share about the urban mission, but my fingers are starting to get tired and I figure your eyes are probably getting kind of tired too trying to read all this. It was pretty long, so I'll post up my expereiences with the Urban mission in a few days.

In the meantime, I've been doing excellently... Korea seems to agree with me. I don't even miss Canada. I've received my LSAT score, and I did OK.... hopefully well enough to get into law school next year, and I'm now preparing materials for an english academy.

Hoping and pryaing that all is going well with everyone else and that you are having fruitful, restful, productive summers.