Dear friends,
The CF has been on a whirlwind of activity ever since the semester started but there has been so much to be giving thanks for.
First off, our Team Training Retreat.
There's quite a lot of encouragement this team brings, it's definitely a smaller team but that is match by no small encouragement seeking lots of these junior leaders take a big step up in training to facilitate Bible studies and in caring for their GGs.
Without too long off a break, we geared up for Vivace next.
What was interesting was that we felt that the crowd at Vivace this year was much smaller, which we thought might foreshadow a very small intake, but in fact lots of Year 1s ended up joining us, a large number of them coming because of the emails that we sent out to the school.
Right after that, we geared up for our welcome dinner. which was our usual case of organized chaos, this time at the admin building auditorium. 
The food was actually one of our better buffets, and we got to meet lots of the new Y1s.
That same week, had a blast at our (rebranded from Freshmen Orientation) CF Camp, which I think out of the 5 I've been in has been the best we've done. The Exco planned a real fun bunch of games that helped a lot with making everyone feel friendly, and we did 1 talk in Romans 1.18-32, 1 talk in Romans 3, 1 study in Romans 1.1-17 and the justification workshop I was writing. The spiritual program felt super integrated this year, and I felt the mood palpably lift and energize too as people were reminded about the goodness of Jesus' righteousness counted to us. It was a really solid way to kickstart the year.
Worth mentioning also, we played a blind superlatives game so each group sent up someone and then were told the competition, and we got to hear Paul give an impromptu speech about the cow, Sarah try to say "Hi, my name is Paul" in her lowest voice possible, and find out who had the longest pinky.
And then our GGs kicked off alongside our regular SUPer Tuesday program the following week.
A few reflections that prompted our thanksgiving to God. We're so thankful for a bunch of Y1s that are hungry to learn and excited to join CF. The staff team were starting to feel that every year the freshmen were getting less keen, and more enamored with the world, and so it was wonderfully refreshing for us to be met with such keenness.
It was also marvelous to see the Y2s, having just become seniors, step up and serve in many ways out of love for their juniors. More than that, quite a lot of them have matured significantly in their firmness of faith and love for the saints that attest the work God is doing through the unfolding of his word.
Paul has also taken us a notch up in referring to the Old Testament in our GG studies, we've been looking at all the OT references mentioned by John, and I'm thankful that we're doing it in showing people how interconnected the whole Bible is, and also that our GGs have generally been following rather than feeling completely lost.
Personally, I've benefitted quite greatly from the most recent sessions in G360 Thursday training. We've been looking at Piper's Brothers, We Are Not Professionals as well as Carson's Praying with Paul and those two books have been more than instrumental in shaping how I think about ministry. It's been easy for me to focus on the front-end of ministry in the teaching and in the equipping of our students, even though the much harder and more essential part is the back-end in the praying for them and in looking after my own relationship with God. In a sense, a lot of the front-end stuff can be simply boiled down to teaching people to read the text as text, but the real important thing is their growth in their love and knowledge of Jesus.
A lot of people have been asking me what the 2nd year is like compared to the first year. I think I can simply summarize it as the fact that I can be more self-reflective about my practices and rhythms in ministry, and I have greater capacity to consider the nuances in how we serve people. It has, at times, gotten more difficult as I wrestle with the deep intertwining of being a sinner saved by grace and being someone who is to point others to Christ at the same time. In particular, the temptations of pointing people to myself, and the legalistic tendency to want to boast in their flesh, and my selfish desire to be liked by people and so not confront them on difficult things. But I suspect that this is going to be part of a long journey of constant self-reflection, of growing deeper in my own understanding of gospel truths, and of coming to refine my love for Christ even as I encourage others to do the same.
There's also been a upskilling of my whiteboard skills when we used a classroom that only had digital whiteboards. Starting to feel like a dinosaur trying to operate that. 
As I conclude, here are the ways you can be praying for me!
- Thank God for the equipping in CF that is shaping the way I serve my church!
- Thank God for watching over the Genesis 16 sermon
- Pray for my Genesis 17 sermon
- Pray for joy in reading the Bible and praying for people
- Pray for wisdom in my 121s to grow their love for Scripture and also for appropriate balance of talking about what is going on in their souls
- Pray for my own growth in dealing with my deeper sins like avoidance out of desire to be liked and self sufficiency
For the CF, please also pray for these things:
- Asking a few students to consider doing the MAP after their graduation! Pray that they would say yes even if the world looks attractive to them, and that they would not say yes if it's for the wrong reasons
- Pray for this current exco to be sustained for their last two events: SSBC and mission week
- We're also forming the next exco! Thank God for some students he has provided already, pray for the rest to make a wise decision! For lots of them it involves giving up a whole semester exchange.
- Pray that the staff would work well together, and that we would use our varied gifts in unity of gospel partnership!
I still need to raise a balance of $3,900 for my salary this year as part of training for fundraising, and as a way for more people to share in the work of the gospel here in SMU! SMUCF does graciously underwrite this amount, so I will be paid regardless of whether I raise this amount, and so I genuinely can say that I'm not in need of this amount, but I ask so that the fruit of the gospel might also increase to your credit! If you would be willing to partner me financially, the details can be found here!