See Jess’s story on how God led her on a summer project. Find out more information below the video.

Epic Summer Project Full on Vimeo.

Domestic Summer Projects:
-Epic Hawaii
-Epic Bay Area
-Epic New York

International Summer Projects:
-Epic East Asia
-Epic Japan

Why go on summer project? Visit gosummerproject.com
Have a question? Contact Us

Here is a short story about the process that led her to have an amazing summer and beyond with Jesus.  Contact her if you have any thoughts or comments Jessica.y.lui@gmail.com.

If you are interested in finding out more about summer project, find some info at www.epicmovement.com.

Available Epic Summer Projects –
Stateside
Bay Area, California
Honolulu, HI
New York City, NY

International
Japan
Southeast Asia
East Asia

Six weeks have flown by so quickly. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I’ll keep it brief and refer you to an awesome slideshow of our summer project in NYC created by the terrifically talented  Mr. Chan. Enjoy!

Cannot believe it’s already our last full week of summer project. Today was phenomenal. This morning the team gathered at Hunter College to blitz the campus with flyers about free pizza and drinks during a lunchtime  Epic Movement info session. I really didn’t know what to expect. First of all, we secured a room only the night before (thank you Intervarsity Christian Fellowship & Chinese Christian Fellowship at Hunter!)….wasn’t sure we’d really get the room. Secondly, we started promoting the event only 2 hours before the event. And finally, we ordered 12 pizzas! Would anyone show up to eat it all?

Hunter College Flyer

Thankfully, as our brother Josh prayed, God did not disappoint. The room quickly filled up and we had over 50 surveys filled out! Regina shared a bit about what the Epic Movement was all about, and came up with a nifty acronym. We’re about CCF (“not to be mistaken for chloroflourocarbons”)—
C—“Community” We know that at a commuter college, it’s hard to experience community. We want to help build community at Hunter.
C—“Culture” We are primarily Asian Americans (although we welcome everyone!), and we want to discuss issues that are relevant to us.
F—“Faith” We meet to explore how faith intersects with our culture through our community.
Brilliant!

I was blessed and encouraged by the fabulous folks that came to our informational session! I met a cool South Asian student who regularly goes to Muslim Student Association. Afterwards as we were walking around campus to get rid of the extra pizza, I spotted him and he was like (to the girl who was walking with him): “Meet my new friends! You should fill out their survey and get free pizza.” We also met others who are interested in checking out our future Epic Movement meetings. Praise the Lord!

Tonight we met up with the rest of the Tribeca tracks and went out into the city to hand out bagged peanut butter and jelly sandwich meals and engage the homeless in spiritual conversations. I admit, I was reluctant to participate in the outreach, but I’m glad I went. Tonight I got my first hug from a homeless guy named “True Story.” I admit that these are the types of people I usually avoid day to day. But tonight I realized that these folks aren’t as intimidating and scary as I imagine they are. I am so blessed and spoiled. One of our students got into an intense discussion with a homeless guy and tweeted: “Witnessing an emotional breakup in Bryant Park while sharing an amazing story of love with a stranger, this juxtaposition is so surreal.”

Lord forgive me from judging and dismissing people so quickly. Help me to love people as you do!

Snapshots of the last few days:

Left: Students/Staff learning how to use Soularium – a conversation tool to explore faith and life.  Right: Monday Night Meeting – once a week the four tracks of the project (arts, campus, epic, and inner city) gather for a night of celebration, fellowship, food, and fun


Left: We attended Bethel Gospel Assembly for church last Sunday.  Right:  Nicholas is sharing the story of his life in India as a Chinese minority.  It’s interesting to see how culture influences our view of God.

What a day! My tush hurts from sitting in hard metal chairs for 6 hours. But the time flew by as we listened to Sy Rogers (www.syrogers.com). He has a compelling story: His mother died when he was really young and he was sent off to live with relatives that were practical strangers. Throughout his life he was bullied about being a “fag” and he started acting that lifestyle out. He was even going to get a sex change, before the Lord met him in a very unique way. You’ll have to buy his CD to find out! Anyway, he shares about the lessons he’s learned through his life.
Even though this was my second time listening to his talk, I still was super encouraged and challenged. I especially appreciated how Sy shared about the very “taboo” topic of sexual sin in such a matter-of-fact way.
I’m glad that our students got to hear from upfront about some risqué topics Asian American tend to avoid. I know for myself, I never heard about the birds and bees from my parents, except warnings not to get pregnant before marriage. I pray that our students may be able to submit all of themselves (including their God-given sexual side) to Him for His honor and glory.
Some of my favorite quotes of today:
*God would rather have you messy than not have you at all.
* God didn’t take away our sinful appetites. He gave us the strength to kill them!
* Worrying is calculating without God in the equation.
My favorite quote was when Sy shared about a time when his daughter was three, where he broke her favorite porcelain angels. He glued all the pieces back together, but in a way that he thought was rather unsuccessful. When he offered to toss it and buy her a new one, Sy’s daughter said, “Don’t throw it away Daddy. It doesn’t have to be perfect for me to love it.” I was moved almost to tears when I thought how our Heavenly Father loves us in the same way. Even though we’re broken and messy he loves us all the same. That message fills me with hope.

New Hope Community Church

Is it already week 3 of our summer project? Time is flying by so quickly! Yesterday we had an amazing time on campus. My team went to Hunter College and I was surprised by how easily it was for me to get into spiritual conversations with students. One girl said, “I’d like to know God personally, but I’m not ready to let Him be Lord right now.” I was encouraged that she actually took the time to chat with me and I hope she continues wrestling with what it means to be a believer (which she said she was, and yet admitted to living her life to please her parents). Talking to her reminded me of 2 things: 1) Its not only Asian Americans that struggle with parental-idolatry (the gal was black) and 2) I LOVE to share my faith! More specifically, I love helping people come to a greater understanding of God’s love and role in their lives. Just talking to this young lady got me so energized and encouraged. So blessed to be able to do what I love everyday!

Today our team went over to Staten Island to help out New Hope church promote their summer program. It’s pretty cool: six weeks of outings, games, Bible stories, crafts, dancing and more! And the best part is that its all FREE!
I wasn’t sure what today would hold: would we just be handing out flyers all day? I was glad to find out that it was so much more than that…just by sharing about the program, we got into a lot of great conversations with people in the neighborhood about the importance of God in our lives. And parents actually signed up on the spot for the summer program! But of course we also got people who totally avoided us, and flat out rejected us. In my mind I thought, “If they only knew that this was a safe, fun and FREE program that their kids could go to…they would realize they were totally missing out on a phenomenal deal!!” It made me think about how often I’m rejected when I approach people to get into spiritual conversations. If they only knew that the message I wanted to share with them was an amazing, life changing deal!! But one of the students shared, “people need to trust the messenger. Everyone is wary about a deal that may be too-good-to-be-true.That’s why its better if friends refer other friends.” How true! Not only for the summer program, but also for the life-transforming message of Jesus.

What I’ll remember most about today was the rich times of prayer I had with the team. Through those prayer times, I felt like we were moving mountains of doubt and decay in the community. I’m looking forward to hearing how our prayers and time in the ‘hood made a difference. If not not on this side of heaven…

Track Fun Time @ the Brooklyn Bridge

Wow. I meant to update for awhile now. As you can imagine, since the students arrived last Tuesday (June 9th), we’ve been busy morning to night getting them acquainted to the city, helping them settle in, and giving the them vision and biblical basis for ministry in the city. We have 6 students and 6 staff, and 3 part-time staff. Love our group!

Praises so far:
* The students and staff of our Epic track team has bonded well over diverse foods and silly Asian games. I’ve also been encouraged by how deeply we’ve shared with each other, and it’s only the first couple of weeks together.
* The conversations we’ve had so far with people we’ve met on our campuses. It’s only the first week we’ve been on campus, but I’ve been so encouraged by the depth of conversations we’ve had already!

Prayer Requests:
* Please pray for us as we go out on campus. Pray that the Lord would lead us to those He has been preparing for us to connect with. Pray that we may love everyone that we talk to, and are able to communicate clearly and effectively God’s truth. Pray for open hearts!
* Pray also for our physical health. A number of us are sick and ALL of us are TIRED! We’ve coined the phrase “perma-tired” to describe how we feel permanently tired. Pray that we can all get rest.
* Finally, a constant prayer I’ve been praying is for CHANGED LIVES. Pray for life change for students who are part of the project, and for those we meet on campus. I know God is in the business of changed lives

Thank you for praying and serving alongside us on campus. I am truly excited to see how God will work this summer!

Another packed day of summer project…can’t believe the students aren’t even here yet! This morning we had several training times…Some highlights:
* Shelley (our Tribeca Assistant Project Director) gave a devo on the “theology of ability” versus the “theology of inability” based on Romans 7 and 8. The one thing I took away from this is that the cost of living out of an “ability based theology” (that is, that I am able to live out the Christian life by what I do) is that failure doesn’t become an option, and we create a culture where we don’t take risks. We may even  end up limiting the Great Commission by pre-selecting those we think are good enough. I admit I tend to do this. I shared how I had a student say to me that she often did stuff to please me (her staff) rather than because God asked that of her. How sad!
* Heard Joe (our Tribeca Operations Director) give his famous Holy Spirit talk with the pop-quiz on some controversial Holy Spirit assertions. I’ve taken this quiz a dozen times, and still have not gotten 100%. The 2 I got wrong:
“To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with Christ” (Supposed to be agree…I still debate this, but ok.)
“The first step from the carnal life-style to the Spiritual one involves confession and repentance” (Supposed to be agree…I think I thought this was a trick question.)
* Regina (my co-director for the Epic track) lead an exercise contrasting Asian and Western Cultural Values. This was very interesting. I always had the assumption that non-Asians will tend towards Western values and Asians tend towards Asian values. But for our exercise, I was surprised to learn that this was not always the case (although I found myself always on the more Asian side). We discovered that many of our teammates from the South also tended towards “collectivism”, “duty & obligation” and being “hierarchical.” Apparently this is important in the very family-centered South. I was also suprised to see that most of the group (our staff team of 40) tended towards “Shame-based condemnation” rather than “Guilt-based condemnation.” I wonder if this is more of a Christian-cultural tendency?

Afterwards, we had a track-specific afternoon of discovering our staff team’s strengths and talents. I have to say, I am serving with a strong and talented staff team But of course, as Asians, we will say, “aw,…its nothing!” Another interesting thing about our Epic track staff team is that most of our strengths  fall in the “friend/sage” themes, with none of us having an “ruler” (i.e., directing) strenghth. What will this mean for our summer?? At least we know we’ll be good friends offering good advice to each other

Plus, I finally learned how to play Settlers of Catan today! (and if you know Crusade culture, its like….you’re totally missing out if you don’t know how to play.) I now understand why its so popular. When will we play again, team?

Today we got to meet the staff who will be serving with us in the city! Simon (from the Penn State team), Sarah (from a Texas team…sorry I forget details easily), Cinelle (a volunteer who also lives in the city), my hubby Sunny (who will also be volunteering a couple days a week), MeiLing (our expert Brooklynite) and Lara (our semi-director); along with us Epic directors: the Chans and myself. But it wasn’t just the Epic staff, it was staff from all the Tribeca tracks including Inner City, Arts, and Campus, about 40+ staff in all. One staff described that first meeting as the feeling of walking into a cafeteria and wondering anxiously, “Who am I gonna sit with?” Thankfully though, we all bonded pretty quickly. And of course, us Asians couldn’t help but clump together…

As we shared on our track, I sense there is a mix of feelings: excitement for all the possibilities of what God can do this summer and also trepidation over the task of ministering in a difficult and stressful place. Lara shared how she thought it was cool that she was able to be on the very first Tribeca project several years ago, and now she is on the very first Epic track on the Tribeca project. It is amazing to think that last year I was just putting in a proposal of how we need to have an Epic track in NYC. And, here we are!

I am glad, though, that it is not just us Epic track on the Tribeca project. I like meeting the folks who have come to serve on the Arts, Inner City and Campus track. I’m looking forward to learning a lot from all my teammates, and serving alongside them. Our vision this summer is: Captured by the Messiah to seek the transformation of ourselves and the people of the city.