Ps - I fly to Missouri tomorrow, please pray that I get my house subleased for the summer. I plan on going on tour again this summer with a Christian apparel business doing Christian music festivals and raising monthly support. However, if I cant find someone to move into my place for July, I have to cut my summer budget raising excursion short and move back to LA. I cant afford to be playing $950 a month and not be here. So please pray I get a sublease, because as of right now, I don’t have any jobs lined up in Los Angeles, and the summer tour has the highest financial potential.

thanks guys

Bryan

Thanks

Bryan

STUDENT CONNECTION

There are a lot of students that I come in contact with at UCLA, both international and traditional. Some of them I have greater opportunities to connect with than others. Below are a few of the international students that I have been keeping in touch with over the last quarter.

There is an Israeli student that I met last quarter that I keep seeing around campus. It turns out that we have a lot on common, and my roommate and I have been trying to connect with him. Because me and my roommate both come from a Jewish background (my roommate was raised Jewish and converted to Christianity while in college), I feel that we are better positioned to share the gospel of Jesus with him. The guy has been through a lot. He served in the Israeli military, and was hit with a missile from what I believe was Hamas, resulting in brain damage and the loss of one of his eyes. He is a first year student, and will be studying at UCLA for 4 years, so that should give us some time to connect with him. I know that he is extremely busy with studying, and it has been difficult to set something up with him.

Additionally, I have been meeting weekly with a visiting scholar from China. He is an atheist who is currently doing research at UCLA until mid summer. He is a professor back in China and has a son who is in college. He has come to many of our activities geared towards internationals, and has played ultimate frisbee with us many times. He has also attended two of our services (both of which were guest speakers), and every time I meet with him, I always have an opportunity to share more of the gospel and testimonies from my life. He was very unfamiliar with Christianity before he came to the United States, and said that back in China, people where not very familiar with Christianity and he and his friends would joke at the concept of someone hitting you and you turning your check to let them hit you again. However, true Christianity leads by example, and he has been very intrigued by the love our group shows, and the way our group puts their trust in God. The last time I met with him, I was able to give him a leather Chinese Bible and a few devotionals, which he gladly accepted. God has used me to share the gospel with this individual and I feel he is right on the edge to accepting Christ.

I have also been climbing and connecting extremely well with a freshman student from Malatya. This student is a devout Muslim, but was recently introduced to our group through another student. He instantly connected with me through his interest in rock climbing and another intern through his interest in cars. Since then, he has been spending a lot of time hanging out with our group, and climbing with me in the gym at UCLA. This has granted me multiple opportunities to grab meals with him and discuss his beliefs. I have shared with him different stories of Muslims coming to Christ, but ultimately God will have to work on his heart. He has yet to come to one of our weekly services, but has come to almost everything else our group has put on. Pray that God to show him a vision of Jesus and for him
to accept Christ. He said that he will come to our service next Tuesday, so we will see what happens.

A Japanese student I have been meeting with consistently who had accepted Christ earlier this school year was uncertain about a few things. I was left with the impression that he was interested in a girl. I encouraged him that he should only pursue a relationship with a Christian girl. He did not understand why his future wife had to believe in God, or why she couldn’t follow her own God. I had a deep conversation with him, and explained the importance of the sacrifice Christ gave when he died on the cross, and that that was the only way to salvation. After explaining everything to him, he said he had problems believing that that was the only solution if God was all powerful and that he had a lot of thinking to do. When I met him, he was an atheist. He accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior back in November, but it looks like the Devil is trying to feed him deception. Please pray that God speaks to his heart and gives him peace in knowing that accepting Christ was the right decision and only decision, and that universalism doesn’t work.

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SUMMER PLANS

Seeing as this school year is coming to an end, I have a big decision to make. I would like to do the same thing that I have done for the last two summers, that being going on tour with a Prolife Christian apparel company, working at Christian music festivals across the country and raising a living budget for Los Angeles. However, for that to work, I have to find the right fit to sublease out my room for the summer. That being because my rent is almost $1,000 a month, and It wouldn’t be worth it for me to pay that much money and not be living here for the summer. It is a unique dynamic, and only a Christian who was interested in being involved with our group would work for a roommate (otherwise finding a roommate wouldn’t be a problem). Pray that God provide a roommate for the summer if I am suppose to go on tour, and if not, that he provide a good employment opportunity to save up money for next school year (hence I won’t be working while school is in session because I will be involved in full time ministry).

The quarter is finishing up soon, with only a few services left. In place of our traditional weekly service, we had a free cookout on campus Tuesday. The event went really well, and appealed to students that were not traditionally involved with our ministry. We had a great time, and played some volleyball, bocce ball, and Ultimate Frisbee when we were don eating. One student that I invited who had never been to a Chi Alpha event invited two other friends, and it looks like they are interested in getting involved with our weekly Bible studies. Hopefully their interest leads to them getting plugged into our group .

GUEST SPEAKERS

Earlier this quarter we have had in a few guests come in to speak, one being a very successful recently retired CEO, and the other having flew in from Kansas to speak. God has blessed the services this quarter, resulting in salvations and rededications to the LORD.

Historically, the International Student Friendship, a subsidiary of Chi Alpha to reach internationals, has hosted a mock wedding in the spring to demonstrate to international students what a traditional American wedding was like. However, this spring was a little unique, with two students involved with Chi Alpha actually getting married at a chapel near campus. They invited the international students to come and experience an actual American wedding. We ended up setting up the reception in the room that we typically host our weekly services in. Internationals were able to experience an actual American wedding followed by fellowship, dinner, and dancing afterwards.

A lot of students involved with our ministry had never had the chance to be baptized, so we held a baptismal service and BBQ. Ten people were baptized that night, one of which being the Chinese student who had recently accepted Christ. We did not have a traditional baptismal pool, so the campus pastor ended up using a hot tub that one of the students had in
their back yard.

Our group went to Haiti over spring break and brought the good news of Jesus Christ to the people of Haiti as well as distributed over 10,000 for repairs, food, etc. to the orphanage and people around the town.

Many of you know that US Bank held a contest recently about getting ahead in 2010. The whole purpose of the contest was to submit a brief story regarding how $5,000 would impact your life for 2010. A fellow intern with UCLA Chi Alpha submitted a brief story about how the money would go to help buy food and supplies to the orphanage our group supports down in Haiti. The winning story would be determined by the one that received the most daily votes in approximately a month’s time. Our group did a huge push to get votes for or orphanage, but still came up short. In the end, our group was in third place, thousands behind 2^nd and 1^st. However, the intern who submitted the story received some paperwork to fill out in the mail recently from US Bank. Some of the questions where quite in depth so she called the number on the paper work to ask a few questions. While on the phone, she asked if the top three stories received the paperwork incase the 1^st and 2^nd story was disqualified or didn’t return the paperwork. The operator replied something along the lines that other contests do that, but US Bank only sends out paperwork to the winner, and that they choose our story to receive the $5,000! Praise God, because that is a huge miracle and only God could have made that happen. Everything will be finalized in the next two weeks or so, but from the looks of it, God just did a major miracle for our group and our orphanage in Haiti! Thank you for everyone who voted, you helped make this possible.

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QUICK MISSOURI UPDATE

Over break I headed back to Missouri and met with people and spoke briefly at my home church in the Lake of the Ozarks. The church took up an offering for me and will be sending it in the mail soon, so that will be a huge blessing. It was a good visit to see friends, family, and share the vision of college missions back in the mid west. My friend’s dad prayed over me and had a word for the LORD, part of the word being “Provision is here” so I’m really looking forward to that.

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SPRING QUARTER AT UCLA

The quarter just started up again a few weeks ago. We had our second service of the quarter earlier this week along with a free food fellowship with games afterwards. It was almost 12:00 AM when we all left to finally go home. After the service, there was an awesome time of prayer for people who responded to the alter call for people needing breakthrough in certain areas.

Over the weekend for Resurrection Sunday, we took three internationals to a local church for the Resurrection day service. It was extra meaningful because two of them accepted Christ through our ministry and it was not only the most glorious day in existence that they went to church, but it was their first ever official church service.

Last week while me and a few staff members where meeting with the international student from China who had recently accepted Christ, he spoke of his vision to start a Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship at his university in China. He said nothing like Chi Alpha existed in China at his University. Internationals over the years have said similar things, but the campus pastor believes this is the real deal and that he thinks he is serious and WILL actually follow through. This Chinese student is a visionary, working in the masters program at the Business school.

Next week we are having a water baptismal service for all of the students who got saved in our ministry, as well as for students involved who have been Christians, but never had the opportunity to go ahead and get baptized.

So far the quarter has started out strong, and we expect to end the year the best ever in our five
years at UCLA.

Revival to the Campuses

It was prophesied that wells of living water and revival would burst on the college campuses, starting with UCLA. It’s not if, but when it happens. And I am praising God that I am going to be in the middle of the heap of it when the glory of God breaks loose on this campus!

This ministry at UCLA was rekindled from the ground up 5 years ago, starting with only 1 student. My mentor/campus pastor here at UCLA followed God’s call to leave his successful Chi Alpha at the University of Missouri which he took from 8 to over 200 students at the weekly services and move out the Los Angeles.

God called him out the UCLA to pioneer a Chi Alpha chapter here at UCLA 5 years ago. Multiple people have come out here in the past and tried, but failed. UCLA is a tough campus to minister at, and Los Angeles is a difficult town to survive financially in. Five years ago, this ministry was in what we called the foundation stage, consisting of getting and office and weekly meeting place established, getting connected with the students at UCLA, and starting fresh.

God called me out here, in what is now called the addition stage of this ministry, where we are adding more and more students as the ministry progresses, averaging high 40s to mid 50s consistently at our weekly services. We are anticipating the approach of the next stage in the growth process, that being the multiplication, jumping to as many also 100, 200, and even 500 students involved in our weekly service. We may even eventually have to have multiple services to accommodate all the students involved.

This however stacks on the earlier stages of growth, that being our initial foundation addition stage. We have some new freshmen involved in this ministry that have been playing some heavy involvement. I have been responsible for getting both traditional and international students involved, but not any freshmen yet. I have been praying for divine appointments, and looking for opportunities to get freshman involved. Recently, God put me in touch with at least two freshmen who are extremely interested in getting involved in our ministry next quarter, one of them being an agnostic! We have momentum in our ministry now, and I praise God that we continue to have momentum as we go into our next quarter.

If you have a penny that doubles every day for one month, you will have approximately five thousand dollars by day 20. By the time day 31, you will have over five million. I truly believe our ministry is past day 20 and is preparing ready for colossal growth.

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Finals Week, Last Service, and Bonfire

This week is finals week here at UCLA, and we had our last service of the quarter last Tuesday. We provided free food and fellowshipped afterwards until almost 12:00 at night and that went really well. The Friday before, we hosted a bonfire at the beach for traditional and internationals alike. (To get a little taste of some of the invisible stuff I do, I loaded all the wooden pallets we burned and spent an afternoon with a student cutting them into manageable sizes). We had over 70 people come on out for free chips and hot dogs, smores, and great fellowship. Interestingly enough, bonfires and beaches are compliments out here in Los Angeles; I was talking with some students that have never heard of a bonfire that wasn’t on a beach. Midwest folk like myself are used to being in the woods for bonfires, a foreign concept to many of the students out here.

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Emergency Trip to Haiti

As you know, on January 12^th, a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. This Tuesday, our group will make an emergency trip to Haiti to bring aid to an orphanage our the leadership of our group has been helping fir over 12 years. Our campus pastor along with other staff, interns, and students, will be personally taking the money we have raised for Haiti since the earthquake down there, that being over $10,000. In addition to helping at our orphanage, our group we will be visiting and helping out local pastors and churches. One pastor, who is good friends with our group, lost his 2 daughters as a result of the earthquake. Our group will also be providing some relief in nearby towns. One of the towns will be Petit Goave, which is a town 12 miles from our orphanage. This town was the epicenter of a 5.9 aftershock and about 60% of the buildings in this town are destroyed. Due to the devastation in Haiti and the amount of money or group will have on them in cash, this will be their most dangerous trip yet, so your prayers are needed!

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Traveling to Missouri

While the group is in Haiti, I will be traveling back to Missouri to raise awareness of college mission work and find people who are willing to invest in what I am doing and in what God is doing through me at UCLA. I just graduated from Missouri State last year with a degree in entrepreneurship. Some people think I am crazy going to school for four years racking up debt, then turning around and living off of monthly support. This is God’s call for this season of my life, and he will provide. In a physical sense, I have no clue how I’m going to pay rent this month, but God opened up an opportunity to fly back to Missouri at just the right time, and I hope you will partner with me to support this mission. College students shape the political, ideological, and economical future of the world, what better place than this to invest God’s money.

At the beginning of February, we had an American who currently does missions in Kazakhstan come and speak. He came in town to speak at a missions conference in San Diego, but he also spoke at our weekly service. I had the honor of having him stay at my house for a few days while he was in town. He arrived on Monday, did the Tuesday night service, then left to go back to Kazakhstan on Wednesday at 5:00 am! He had some incredible stories of what God was doing through him, and what it was like over there, defiantly the read deal! He also provided a training for the people involved with leadership here with UCLA after our prayer meeting, saying some really powerful things. A few nuggets include “with great blessing comes great responsibility” and “if you dare to do the ridiculous, God will do the impossible.” Think about those quotes, especially the first one and how you can apply it do your life. We live in the most blessed country in the world where even the poorest of the poor are rich compared to some other countries.

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Chinese New Year

A few weeks ago we had the largest event of the year, that being our Chinese New Year Celebration. I believe we had over 50 international students alone show up, not to mention the traditional students and other people involved with our ministry. The international Chinese students helped cook food for the event, and we also had karaoke in English/Chinese, as well as some traditional Chinese games. One of the international students from China that came to the event has started coming to our services and has been playing Ultimate Frisbee with us. When I spoke with him last week, he said that he searched online about Christianity before he came to our service because he had never heard anything about it. He ended up accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior that week, and I was able to meet with him the next day and help do some basic discipleship.

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Homeless Outreach

On Saturday, UC Hope, the LA outreach division of Chi Alpha, met up to make PBJ and turkey and cheese sandwiches to give to the homeless. We walked around Westwood, the town UCLA is located in, and handed out the sandwiches along with fruit and carrot cake out. We where also able to minister to some of the homeless and hand out Bibles. They where very appreciative and it seemed that many of them just wanted to have a conversation, because many people wont even look at them as they walk by.

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Tonight we have a prayer service, tomorrow we are going to have a have free food and fellowship after the service, and next week, we are going to have a powerful guest speaker fly in from Sacramento to speak.