IVLI week 3

I still cannot believe that we are already in our third week. And I know, it's weird that I've been always updating in the middle of the week but Wednesdays are usually the only time Ben and I can come to the library.

 

 

Third week has been intense. Last Saturday, we had our first open mic where so many students blessed us with their gifts of poetry, music, and spoken word. 

Open Mic Saturday!

We also had our every Saturday cookout day!


Sandy Cove cookout every Saturdays

We have definitely met some sexy people here at IVLI

One of the staffs caught a seagull!

Mackinac Island outreach day.
Let's see if I can summarize a whole day in just one paragraph.


We all woke up at 7am, left by 8:45am after breakfast and packing our lunches. Divided rides and drove out for 45 minutes to the Star Line Ferry (which our IVLI tuition fee paid for) and got on the island around 10am. It was going to be our first time coming out of our "Christian bubble" into the real world again. But needless to say, this place was BEAUTIFUL. I didn't want to believe Ben and others when they told me before we got there that it was known for honeymoon destinations. This place though, seriously looked like it was out of a movie set.

Mackinac Island outreach day

We partnered up with the Mackinac Bible Church and started off with prayer, cultural lessons of the island and pep talk.

We had four sets going (A, B, C, D) where each set consisted of music, preaching, testimonies, skits, spoken word, and arts. Ben did preaching on Set C while I did music outreach on Set B. They also had things on the side where if your set wasn't doing outreach on the hill, you're either suppose to be in the crowd, managing the proxe station, or doing conversational evangelism, which is walk down the street and just get to know people!

Before I dive into how my conversational evangelism went with my partner, Dalton, the topic of multi-ethnicity and racism needs to be touched on first. Last week, IVLI went through three days of intense multi-ethnicity historical lessons, conversations, and reconciliations. It opened many people's eyes, both to whites and the minority students. Then on Sunday, day before Mackinac, our director gathered the minorities and gently warned us of the racism that happens on the Island. Next thing we know, (which we were completely okay with) we all grabbed a "white buddy" in order to walk down the street. To feel safer, Dalton became my partner which I'm grateful for now that I look back at it.

We approached many groups of people and not to my surprise, they hardly responded to me compared to when Dalton asked questions. At the end of our walk, I think my conversation with Dalton about being an Asian American and him being white was more interesting than the ones we had with the strangers on the road.

Conversational evangelism with Dalton, my partner

After four hours of outreach, we finally got pizza and free time to explore the island!

...then Jason stole my camera.

My IVLI family (: The Gymnastic Incarnate!

Biked around the whole island afterwards for free time

The famous Mackinac Island fudge

Ben and Jake's famous matching sweater day

 

 

As IVLI is almost to an end, one thing I can proclaim with my whole heart is God is faithful. Faithful during the times when doors gets slammed shut in my face; faithful when one person's love for me can never be enough; faithful when I shake my fist at His face; faithful when I run away.

I promised myself for these IVLI blog posts, I would not share my personal emotions (nor Ben's). Instead, to just show people what we've been doing throughout IVLI. But for just this once, whoever is reading this, I'm going to break that promise.

IVLI has been tough. It's not a place for comfort nor is it meant for students to just have pep talks and encouragements thrown at their face everyday. My past has been unburied here, old and new scars has been planted, and layers of embarrassment and anger had to be opened. It's been spiritually and emotionally draining.

But.

Despite the anger and the frustrations and the tears that has been wept, my God has been faithful and always will be. My God has never failed and He never will. My God has carried me through my strongest storms and I know He still will. Despite His trick of letting me go to IVLI so I have to face my problems in the middle of nowhere, which resulted in many angry fights and battles and spitting in His face, I'm glad He did. And I'm glad He was patient. Loving. Slow to anger. Kind. Forgiving.


Jeremiah 29:11