God’s love for us is personal. He looks at every fiber of our being and all that we have done and says, “Mine”, with love that is patient, kind, protective and hopeful. God’s love for us is relational; because it so permeates our bodies and minds that our families and friends can’t help but be affected. God’s love for us demonstrated on the Cross of Christ is personal, relational and ultimately systemic as every facet of the universe will be renewed because of life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
I got to see that this year at Feed 500 as hundreds of students and volunteers poured out into the streets to turn nameless faces into friends. I got to see the birth of LOGOFF, (Local. Green. Organic. Fair (trade). Free. (slave-free), a movement to see a redemptive supply chain from producers to consumers – to see Americans and the world turn our unbridled consumption into grace-filled stewardship. I witnessed hundreds of lives transformed during Spring Break 2012 as brave students from Rutgers, Cornell, William Patterson, and more learned to fight sex-trafficking and slavery in their own backyards.
And at NYCUP Summer 2012, I saw students bet on Jesus and win BIG. Natalia Alvarez-Plaud and Sherine George organized the largest Hope Fair we’ve ever had. The largest team we had ever had served faithfully at Operation Exodus. Audrey Garcia and Caleb Evington took the resources of the Love Kitchen to the next level and Flora Baik and Melissa Pan’s work blessed Diana Mao and the Nomi Team to begin new work in India.
There is no question that God is faithful and you are evidence of that. Whether you are a student who has come to an event, a staff serving faithfully on campus, a donor who has invested financially, or a faithful intercessor who remembers NYCUP and I in your prayers , I want to say THANK YOU!
As I get ready to walk down an aisle among my family and friends this Saturday and await Priscilla Pan, also known as the only woman for me, I thank God for your prayers and support and covet your petitions to Our Father as I begin this next season in my life. Please pray that God would be the foundation of our marriage, our home and our ministries and that the aroma of Christ would permeate our daily lives. Please pray that we would begin new and fun traditions rooted in the joy of the Lord. Please pray that we would find deep, community with believers that long to see God renew all things.
Thanks again and may the armor of God be yours.
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