And we’re back! On our last day at the YWAM base, we prepared a restaurant-style lunch for those on the streets. Our preparation included baking cookies, cooking spaghetti and meatballs, prepping a salad bar, passing out flyers, and making blessing cards. We opened the doors for people to come in at 12:30PM. Each of us was assigned different roles which included welcoming and ushering our guests, sitting down to talk with them, being waiters/waitresses, and taking food orders & serving individualized plates for each guest. The YWAM workers explained that it is important for those experiencing homelessness to choose their meals because they are usually never given a choice of what they want to eat at other shelters. By giving them the option to choose (i.e. meatballs on their spaghetti or bell peppers on their salad) allows them to make decisions that they usually do not have the opportunity to make. Read more →

By Allison Tran

The world is a wild place and we never know what could or will happen in the future. About twenty other church members and I had the opportunity to visit victims of the Camp Fire in Chico two weeks after the fire broke out in the neighboring city of Paradise. We served at Neighborhood Church, a local C&MA church, that was serving as a fire relief evacuation center. Most of the time, when natural disasters strike, or when so much is lost, many people question God or turn away from His goodness. They continuously ask why He would do such a thing to them. Some other Youth and I were working to sort out donations and give people resources that they needed. Many people would come in and ask for socks or shampoo, and be appreciative of what we could offer them, but you could tell that a part of them was still missing and that they were hopeless. Read more →

by Hou Lei

Our Mandarin Congregation has been reaching out to San Jose State University (SJSU) students for almost a year now. We mainly provide them with free lunch and by that we are able to get to know them and share the Gospel with them. We learned this way from our Cantonese Congregation who pioneered their Soup Club ministry with fruitful results. This semester, a few other brothers & sisters who had a burden for this ministry also joined us, giving us additional helpful resources.

In the beginning of this semester, other than the students we met in the past, many new students were also drawn to our lunch activity. On of the Wednesday (9/12), our brother Jason Ho shared with the students the Four Spiritual Laws and 3 students decided to follow Jesus. This is indeed the work of God, and all glory be unto Him! Of course, we must have a sense of urgency to disciple them. On the other hand, we had an opportunity to meet with a group of 30 students who came from Taiwan for only a 3-month stay. We hope that we are able to get to know them more and share the Gospel with them. Please continue to pray for this SJSU outreach ministry for both the Cantonese and Mandarin Congregations. Thank you for your support!

By Kevin Tran

When I was in college, I went on a week long missions trip to Mexico. I was an idealistic college student, eager to improve the lives of the people we met there. I was part of a team that worked on a small schoolhouse. Our group spent our week helping a local worker with his tasks: fixing a roof, painting some walls, erecting a fence, and building an outhouse. In the afternoons, we taught the local children Bible lessons.

As the week came to an end, I thought about our time in Mexico. What had we really accomplished? We made small repairs to a ramshackle building that might make it a little more inviting. We played with some kids for a bit. How long would any of what we did there last? Read more →

By Huang Xun

Praise the Lord! We started providing free lunch to students who speak Mandarin on the SJSU campus by the Student Union every Tuesday, since November 2017. The idea came from brothers and sisters in the Cantonese congregation, who started their “Soup Club” every Thursday on the SJSU campus. By that, they reach out to students who speak Cantonese. We were so impressed with their passion for sharing the Gospel and wanted to learn from them.

We reach out to students by providing free lunch to students at noon every Tuesday, so that they could still taste some authentic Chinese food in a foreign land. By this means, we want to share the Gospel with them.  

On the first day, we were so nervous, wondering if students were interested in us. We had no idea how to approach them. The first few people we talked to did not show interest and we were a little disappointed. By God’s design, we were able to meet a few students we knew. When knowing our intent, they not only joined us, but also drew quite a few people in. The first Tuesday ended up with 10 people. What a great start! We now use WeChat to communicate throughout the week.  

Each week, we usually have around 10 people showing up, including our helpers. Our activity includes lunch, games and Scripture sharing.

SJSU is a beautiful campus. Though not as big, it covers a lot. There are many foreign students. The campus is open to us. We are so thankful to have this opportunity to share the Gospel. We hope to reach out to more students. We pray that 2018 is our joyful year of harvest!