Home.
Welcome to another term of Alpha and Beta!! Now, I haven't talked to any of you to ask you if you'd still like to be a part of the prayer team, so if you would like to be removed from this mailing list, then please let me know. In any case, thank you for your commitment to serving in this ministry.
* Well, for starters, it's been rather quiet from the front lines - I've only had a few responses about Alpha and Beta so far - one for Alpha and one for Beta. But that's nothing to get discouraged about. So let's pray about this, for more guests, but before we do that let's adopt the same attitude that Jesus probably had when he turned the little boy's small, puny lunch of a few loaves of bread and some fish into a huge feast for thousands - THINK BIG! PLENTIFUL! JUST ENOUGH! but nonetheless remembering to thank the Lord for what and who He's already given to us.
* Pray also for Jez who is considering cooking for us once again, that God will provide her the time, energy, and commitment to serving the Alpha/Beta classes.
* Pray for our leaders and helpers, Christine, Bonnie, Gary, and Nicky, who are once again venturing into (not "unknown" but) "untouched" territory - untouched by Jesus, that is!
* Pray for Christine and Bonnie who will probably be revamping one of Nicky G's curriculums (either Challenging Lifestyle of A Life Worth Living), that any changes they make will not affect the spiritual content, but will rather enhance it.
* Pray for Alpha UBC! I've received some interest through email already, and so far there are about 4 people who would like to give it a try. I haven't nailed down a time during which to hold the course yet, so please pray for continued guidance through the organizational process. Please pray for Shauna and Rachel who will be helping with this.
Lastest(!) but not leastest(!) these prayer emails can be found at www.ece.ubc.ca/~nickyy/alphaprayer3.html.
(Sorry to sound so preachy, and at times even corny - I hang around a certain Pastor a lot, not to say that he's corny, but I'm more corny, and he's more preachy.)
In Christ Alone,
Nicky
This week there are several things for us to pray about:
* Pray for our GUESTS!: Xiaolei (Dawn) Wang, Siyu Zhang, Yong (James) Song, Ding-Yi (Chris) Lin, Liyun (Rachel) Wu, and Jiwen Yang.
* Jiwen Yang hasn't come to Alpha yet because she has a 5-year old daughter that she has to take care of and she doesn't know what to do with her daughter if she was to come to Alpha. So pray that God will provide a solution for us so that Jiwen can attend.
* Pray for a consistent venue for our Alpha nights. Last week we used an empty classroom for our dinner/video/discussion. It went well, but some of the guests suggested that we even skip dinner and change the location to the church. Carpooling wouldn't be a problem if we had Alpha at the church, but the dinner is a fundamental component for Alpha in terms of developing our relationships, so pray that even if we bypassed dinner, our relationships would still continue to grow through our interactions and through the discussions.
* I've booked the Daly B&B for November 1,2 for our Alpha retreat, so pray that all our guests will be able to come and that they could manage their schedules efficiently.
* Praise God for Jez and her commitment to cooking for Alpha.
* Please continue to pray for our helpers, Bonnie, Gary, and Shauna, and for our UBC liaison, Rachel, that God may solidify His relationship with them through their service to Him.
Thanks, everybody, and have a cool day at work!
Love in Christ,
Nicky
We had a fantastic time at Alpha last Thursday night! I haven't been quite energized in some time at Alpha as I was last week. Dinner was great! Jez did a great job with her beef stew, raisin bread, and cream puffs. After the video, the discussion period became a frenzied Q&A session. I had just a few simple questions to ask regarding the video, but throughout the whole night, I only managed to ask two of those questions. The whole discussion floor was occupied by our guests' questions. How dear they are!
It was surprising for me to find out that one of our guests had even taken the step of reading the book of Mark of his own accord. AND, he had taken many parts of that book to base his questions from, and we're only into week three of the course! Now, is that wild or what?! (Wild in a good way, that is.) As you all know, these guests are all EE graduate students, and just to give you an idea of how scientifically oriented their thinking is, here are a couple of questions they asked that night:
1) Does the Bible also teach "physical law" [meaning laws of gravity,
motion, etc.] as well as spritual law?
2) Is Heaven in the same 'space' as us, or in a different space? [space
meaning realm of existence; it's used quite frequently in engineering, ie.
Space-Time Trellis Codes]
Well, it was quite a different experience for us all, but a rather pleasant one.
* Praise God! for all His blessings poured out on us last Thursday. We also chose a new location to have our Alpha nights; we're having it in the Graduate Student/Staff lounge.
* Please pray for our guests: Siyu, James, Dawn, Rachel, and Chris, and maybe a couple more tomorrow, Mary and Jiwen, that God would keep them healthy, happy, and eager to come to Alpha.
* Pray that as the guests continue to ask their questions, we as leaders will be able to answer as the Spirit of the Lord directs us, that we would answer with MUCH TRUTH and GRACE, "with gentleness and respect, always keeping a clear conscience" (1 Pt. 3:15-16).
* Pray for our Alpha retreat, November 1-2, that our we would have full attendance and good, sunny weather.
As I finish writing this, I can't help but think of how disciple Thomas finally believed because he saw with his own eyes the resurrected Lord. With that in mind, pray that Jesus *would* reveal Himself to our guests throughout this course through the video, through the Bible, through our discussions, and through our personal witness. Though it may not be a physical revelation, pray that as they come to know Jesus, His appearance in their hearts and minds will be sufficient for them.
Blessings,
Nicky
Here are this week's prayer requests for Alpha:
* Pray for our guests by name: Chris, James, Rachel, Dawn, and Siyu.
* Pray that the enthusiasm and curiosity of our guests will not waver as we watch the videos and have our discussions.
* Continue to pray for our venue, the staff/student lounge in the MacLeod building at UBC, that we would be able to expose Alpha to outsiders of our group and draw them into this spectacular adventure of a lifetime!
* Pray that we would have perfect attendance at our Alpha retreat, happening on November 1-2.
Thanks!
Nicky
Ok, let me get to my point now. Last week at Alpha, we discussed the changes that Jesus brings into our lives as evidence as to how we can be sure, and reassured, of our faith. And to my surprise, one of our guests mentioned that it is a new found love for everything and everyone that is further proof of Christian change. This response was unexpected for me because it came from a non-Christian, Chinese mainlander (for whom, I would stereotypically think, "love" would be a taboo word). "So what?" you may be thinking. Well, here's what! This response of Love is also the crux of the Christian message (not to be confused with the Gospel of Jesus). Go back to that scripture reference at the beginning of this email and read on further. Paul writes:
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Are sirens, horns, fireworks, thunder and lightning, atomic bombs, etc., going off in your head now, like they were for me? Well, you had to be there to experience it. But let me share what I felt: I felt that over the last few weeks since Alpha began, Jesus has been witnessing to our guests, through us, about how He loves them, and it has been made apparent to this guest, and prayerfully it will be the same for the other guests.
So pray that:
* we would be encouraged to continue loving our guests, and that our love
for them would be made known to them.
* Jesus' love for them would be especially felt.
* that our guests would feel comfortable and willing to share both their
positive and negative reactions to the video.
Pray also for our Alpha weekend retreat. I'm still organizing things, like meals and transportation and such, so pray for 100% attendance, good weather, and great times.
Pray that the Holy Spirit would be invited by our guests, namely, Rachel, Dawn, Chris, James, and Siyu.
Love,
Nicky
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Again, last week, we had an absolutely amazing time. I really, really wish you were all there to experience it. Thursday nights have become nights like no other. We talked about the Bible, and discussed in detail the Prodigal Son. One of our guests even quoted from that parable by memory! We talked about how the parable was, to quote a guest, "counter-intuitive", and about how Jesus' parables were all examples of "love in action" (just like our Vision Statement!) and how "Jesus' love is generous". Those statements about love just brings me straight back to the basics of our faith.
This week, let's pray for:
* our video on Thursday about "How and Why Should I Pray?". Pray that the Lord would make Himself known in a personal and intimate way to our guests as they 'experiment' with prayer. Pray also that even if they are too shy to speak their prayers out loud, and instead do it in the quiet of their hearts, they would receive confirmation that God has heard them.
* the Holy Spirit Weekend. Pray that we would have 100% attendance, and that the weather would be pleasant. Pray for our discussions to be conducive to the invitation of the Spirit and for His indwelling in our guests.
* continued openness in our discussions, and that our guests would not feel timid or shy about asking their questions, and even challenging us with their thoughts and opinions.
Praise God for:
* our Alpha location, the Grad/Staff lounge at UBC, and that we haven't
been kicked out yet.
* Jez, who makes the best Alpha meals!
* all of you, who make Alpha successful with your prayers and
petitions.
Blessings to you all,
Nicky
Well, last week we had a grrrrrrrreat! Alpha discussion and prayer time together with the guests. Our video was "How and Why Should I Pray?". I've been in Alpha for the last couple of years, and normally after watching this video we would invite the guests to participate in praying aloud. During those past courses, I have never heard a non-Christian guest pray for the first time after that video. But just last Thursday, we had THREE non-Christian guests pray for the first time!! Woohoo! Here's a thought: Mainland Chinese males, engineering students, who speak openly about love, and who also pray. So that's definitely something to be praiseful about.
Let's pray that:
* our guests would continue to experiment with prayer and Bible reading,
and that they would come up with good results!
* those who didn't pray aloud were encouraged by those who did, and would
be eager to do that themselves.
Our Alpha retreat will be this weekend, so let's pray that:
* all our guests would be able to attend. Pray for Dawn, who said that
she's still not sure if she can come or not because a friend will be in
town,
* we would have great weather, as we've always had in the past,
* all our guests would be awake and alert during the videos,
* our guests would be ready to invite the Holy Spirit into their
lives,
* our guest-speaker, Pastor Mel, would be given the words to speak by the
Spirit in his talk, and
* we would have great fellowship through singing, eating, and hanging
out.
Thanks, everybody.
Nicky
I hope you all had a few moments to read the "Alpha Retreat News" email which was sent out a few days ago.
Yeah, it was great! We had so much fun playing Pictionary, not only because it was a fun game, but because we got to see the guests learn new words and phrases. I also learned some more Mandarin, too. Ask me how to say "It's hot"!
Some praise items Praise God:
* for Wendy of the Daly B&B because she was so nice in making lunch for
us and a super early breakfast.
* because He was faithful in providing good weather and safety.
* that I escaped from my horrible automobile accident unscathed, and that
the owners of the other car were humongously graceful and didn't take me
into the cops. (Here's the dope: I backed into another car parked on the
driveway and set of its alarm.)
Here are the prayer needs. Pray for:
* James, who has recently accepted Jesus! WOO HOO Yoo HOO me too!!!
Pray that he would be transformed, so that the other guests would notice
the Spirit in his life, and become captivated by Him!
* Chris, who mentioned that he was "on the way". He still has some
questions that need answering, and some truth needs to be revealed to him.
Pray that our conduct would not be imposing on him, knowing that he needs
just a little nudge which shouldn't come from us but from Jesus.
* Dawn and Rachel, both of whom need some more reassurance and evidence
of the reality of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit!
Lastly, the prayer page has been updated. You can review all our prayer needs throughout this course and past courses at www.ece.ubc.ca/~nickyy/alphaprayer3.html.
Loads of love,
Nocky