My January newsletter is finally out. I hope you all take a few minutes and read it. You can view it here or find it under the Newsletter page.

Thanks

Here is the video from last Sunday of me speaking

Speaking at the Father’s Heart International Ministry from Bryan Citrin on Vimeo.

Thank you Father’s Heart for the opportunity you gave me to speak. I love your worship, your gifting, and what God is doing through you. Don’t lose heart! I greatly appreciate your prayers and support. Feel free to subscribe to my blog and keep updated on my whereabouts.

God opened up an awesome opportunity for me to speak at a church near Philidelphia. I was in town to help sell shirts at the March for Life 2010, the country’s largest pro life rally all in Washington DC with over 250,000 people in attendance. The weather was suppose to be horrible, with snow and rain. We prayed that God would bless the event keep away the bad weather. Eventually, the sun even came out which was great. We did pretty good mentioning we are in a recession.

Last weekend we flew up to Sacramento for our Winter Conference. There was over 25 Chi Alpha chapters in attendance from across the west coast, and even a chapter from Hawaii flew in. There was over 200 students in attendance, and God really moved during the services, We experienced salvations and rededication! The keynote speaker, the campus pastor here at UCLA did a great job, the best I’ve heard him do! He spoke a unique message I have never heard regarding the importance of the staff in the Bible.

I would greatly appreciate it if I could receive your prayers on a matter of healing. My knee dislocated during the conference while engaging in a one legged race. Please pray for the complete healing of my knee, I have injured it in the past and just believed God for the devine healing. I really need it up to par, so please keep it in your prayers. I have torn my ACL in the past and don’t want to think of the idea tearing it again. I would rather have God heal it completely. I don’t have insurance and it would be a great testimony.

As you have probably heard, there was a massive earthquake yesterday in Haiti, the 3rd poorest country in the world, and the poorest in the western hemisphere. The damage strikes home, with Port-au-Prince in ruins only weeks after everyone I work with, including my brother, was there. I would have been there too, but I didn’t feel it was God’s timing for me to go. The Chi Alpha team I work with has been going down to Haiti for more than 12 years. Many of the staff, interns, and students here at UCLA just got back from helping with an orphanage there just weeks ago. This was the third trip to Haiti in the last year for some of the staff here at UCLA. One person was thrown out of her chair into the wall as she was reading her Bible. Praise God she wasn’t injured, and everyone from the orphanage is alright, with only minor cuts and bruises.

School is back in session here at UCLA for the winter quarter. School started back a few weeks ago, and we have had a great start to this new year! We started off the first Tuesday of the quarter year with a welcome back party with tons of food and games. It was a great opportunity for new students to come out and meet some of the existing Chi Alpha students. That Friday we went to Santa Monica to go Ice Skating outside (I was able to wear a short sleeve t shirt!). Definitely not what I was used too, but it was a great event. We had a good share of traditional and international students come out. Afterward we went out to eat and fellowshipped.

This week we had our first prayer meeting of the quarter, It was extremely powerful and God was really moved. That momentum really carried over to the next day, being our first weekly Chi Alpha service of the quarter. At the end of the service there were at least 7 rededications to the Lord so that was exciting. Additionally, I met a student yesterday while doing book table, who seemed to be searching for something, but was not really sure where the truth was. I invited him out to our service, and he took a flier but did not really seem interested in being on our mailing list (Which typically means I will never see the person again.) He actually showed up at the service and was participating in the worship! That really surprised me, and afterward after talking with him again, it turns out that he shares a lot of the same hobbies and me and other Chi Alpha members. I just wanted to praise God for awesome divine appointments like this.

This weekend everyone flies out to Sacramento for the Winter Retreat, a weekend long conference with powerful worship and Bible teaching. Chi Alpha chapters from across the west coast and Hawaii will be in attendance. The main speaker for this event is none other than Winston Bui, my neighbor, friend, mentor, and the campus pastor at UCLA.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I hope you all had an amazing time with your friends and family. Here at UCLA Chi Alpha we put on a huge Thanksgiving celebration focused towards international students. Most international students have never celebrated a traditional thanksgiving celebration. When all the American students go home for the Holidays, many internationals are stuck at campus with nothing to do. Because of that, we put on a free celebration with tons of food, games, etc. We had over 110 pounds of turkey to give out and the internationals had a blast! I met new students that I will be able to connect with over the next few months and the light of Christ really shinned at the event.

This Tuesday is our last Chi Alpha service for the quarter, and our group is taking a missions trip to Hati in two weeks. The semester has been crazy, but Chi Alpha has made a difference on this campus, and has made a difference for the kingdom of God.

A huge victory happened last Monday for the kingdom of God. God used me to lead a friend of mine to Christ that I have been connecting with for the last month and a half. This person happens to be Japanese. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and savior, and this is a huge deal because until recently, less than 1% of Japan was saved. The person I’m interning under said that this was the equivalent of leading 100 Americans to Christ. The campus pastor led another student to Christ on Friday right before our monthly activity, which happened to be a beach bonfire. We had tons of internationals and traditional students show up, so it was a great event.

This Friday we are taking a lot of international students to a mock jousting tournament, and the following week we are putting on a Thanksgiving celebration for internationals. Most students go home for Thanksgiving, but internationals do not have that holiday in their home country, so they typically do not have anything to do over that time. Because of that, all the Chi Alpha Staff and Interns stay in Los Angeles to host a traditional Thanksgiving feast as a huge outreach. Its events like this that resulted in my Japanese friend accepting Christ.

For those of you who have been wondering, I have been out here almost a month now. Our first few weeks of classes where jam packed full of promotional events to get students involved with Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. Activities included having a both at the undergrad festival where we handed out free shirts and tote bags with our website and ministry name printed on them. We also gave out lanyards, pencil cases, and lip-gloss. Other events included handing out free Starbucks coffee, giving away popsicles, hosting a free BBQ, etc. A few weeks ago we hosted a tailgate party at the campus pastors Winston’s house starting at 12:00pm, and the students enjoyed it so much, everyone didn’t ended up leaving at 2:30 am, despite the shuttles we offered to take them back earlier in the night.
This week marked our third service and second prayer meeting. Our services have been pretty solid. A student gave their life to Christ at our first service and we have had a lot of rededications. Next week we are bringing in a guest speaker for a two day revival we are hosting on campus.
Overall, the ministry out here is positioned really well for growth. We have had a lot of new students participating in our activities. We have been playing ultimate Frisbee on campus on Fridays for the students and last Friday we had 10 new students come out and play. Tomorrow we are having a fall fest for international students (and anyone else who wants to come), so im pretty excited for that.
I connected really well with a Japanese student and invited him to some events. He ended up coming to one of our services, and he said it was a lot better than his expectation of American church, and plans on coming again next week. He told the pastor that his message really made him think about a lot of things.
As for me personally, I came out here with no furniture at all, and I was really blessed in getting a good deal on a really nice desk, shelf, and bed. I also bought a Moped from Pastor Winston at a really good price. If I have a car, it costs $10/day to park on campus, but because I have a moped, campus parking is free, so that will end up saving me a lot of money. Living in Los Angeles is a lot more expensive than anticipated. One big thing here is going out to eat to build relationships and connect with students, and prices are a lot higher than Missouri. That sums up my first month out here in Los Angeles, now that I am settled down, expect posts more frequently.