AFC

I'm going to do something in this blog post I haven't done since the days of xanga. I'm going to preface by saying this could be REALLY long and follow up with a "if you're crazy/bored enough to read it all, *high five.*" I hope this is somewhat coherent ... because in some way I'm summing up a lot of my college experience at 4am in the morning.

Foreword:
I feel as if 4 and a half years isn't accurate as to how long it felt like I was in college. I loved every minute of it but it just felt lengthy haha. And any real closure with the idea of being an alumni for my life would be incomplete without where most of my energy, time, and heart went to: AFC.

I. Asians for Christ:
Simply put, AFC (Asians for Christ) is an parachurch ministry (InterVarsity) that aims to reach college students with the gospel ... more specifically Asians at Baylor, a previously unreached people group at Baylor. That's who we are and have been. The goal is to reach every Asian student at Baylor with the good news of Jesus. We most definitely are a flawed and feeble group like anyone else but God's been God through it all and we've seen friends deepen their faith, leaders developed, and some come to know Jesus for the first time and in the end, that's the whole purpose of it all ... seeing someone who previously had no idea about this Jesus guy or were antagonistic of him and his people before get to the point where they call him friend, savior, God ... and share that breakthrough with their friends too :D.

II. Why AFC?
I don't know if you the reader know this about me but I struggled throughout undergrad academically. Like seriously struggled. Like probation sophomore spring semester struggled. Like always in summer school (not to get ahead but to catch up) struggled. And at the end and nearing the beginning of every semester, my mom would advise to me something like this: "Jon, you need to prioritize your studies and think about whether AFC is taking up too much of your time and commitment." And for each time I would say something along the lines of "ehhhhh, I don't think so." I don't know why it was always automatic but I guess I wasn't more convinced of anything to be part of at college. All I know is that the second year applying for leadership, even in the interview I knew that if I said yes for the second year in a row, I was "buying in" to the whole thing till graduation. And that's how it did turn out btw :).

-I guess when considering what drew me is probably 3 things:
1) They had a need
Whenever I was an outsider looking in at AFC, I developed a burden of "man they need help." Not in the negative sense of "boy the jacked up," but in the "the harvest is full but the workers are few" kinda sense. They had a good amount of leaders but they just seemed to always be in need to have other people step up and help them reach the Asian people at Baylor.
2) I had somewhat of a skillset towards their specific mission.
a. Ethnicity
One of the biggest blessings I've found out over my 4 years of minoring in Asian-American studies (it's my joke to myself but no, I don't actually possess this degree) is that I'm a 2.5 generation American-born Chinese American. The blessing is that I'm basically culturally confused enough and culturally understanding enough to not come into college unsure of who I am ethnically. Practically, I'm not coming in thinking "I have a choice to either make ONLY white/non-asian friends or make ONLY Asian friends." I'm Chinese. I was born in Texas. I know where my heritage is but I can see where it's also trippin. That's just a Acts 17:26 gift. I can't take credit for having a Chinese dad that was born in Hong Kong and a Chinese mom born in Texas.This upbringing seriously helped me understand and sort through why my Asian peers and friends do what they do that's different than me ... as well as helped me see my ethnicity not as a barrier to spreading the gospel but as a means to spread the gospel effectively. Now that's not totally on my background. It's totally on grace.
b. Gospel-centered mentors
Before I left for college, I had two men in my life that were ferocious about the gospel ... Not just helping me get it "right" doctrinally, but seriously penetrate down deep. My first youth pastor always preached the same sermon in youth service about the cross purchasing our status and freeing us from the idols and slavery that leave us empty. He even hooked me up with one of my favorite books "The Reason for God," which to this day I still turn to to reference. Second, as I was about to enter college, my new youth pastor at the time seemed to continue this push to understand the beauty and depth of the gospel. He still does and I love both of them for doing so. All that to say, God helped provide a foundation for me before I even stepped foot into Waco. And he continued to provide with older men who, though they couldn't physically be there mentoring me day and night, gave me resources to feed on while I learned what it meant to always pursue depth and growth. (My brother just asked me how much my "library" of resources" is worth the other day and it got me thinking just now "wow, God's blessed me a ton" ... How am I gonna steward this?)
3) Passion/A Want to
Something intrigued me about being part of this. No other organization existed to do what AFC was doing/attempting to do. It excited me that I could be part of this thing ... Part of this team to see God glorified in the lives of Asian college students in Waco. Maybe at the time I applied for leadership, all I could think was "why not?" but in the end, I think this was the driving force that propelled me to send the application in ... or at least the motivating factor that led me to reapply and buy in till graduation.

III. Sanctification hurts/Exposed
Oh my God (I don't use that phrase apathetically lol.) ... When I started to pray that God would grow me, humble me, stop at nothing to give me more of Himself, etc., I didn't know how much He'd expose my sinfulness. Heh. There's a difference in being modest and being humbled ... And it's not all daisies and warm fuzzies all the time haha. One of the things I'm most grateful for in my involvement with AFC is that God's consistently put me in my place. I heard early on from older, wiser men that us young guys have the tendency (especially us guys entering college) to think we know it all. It's an arrogant way to live but somehow we think our 19 to 20-year-old brains are freakin awesome.The funny thing is that that's exactly where I started my freshman year. Of course I wouldn't say that I thought I was smarter or that my way was better but it's what I often thought in the back of my head and I know what Jesus says about all that stuff buried deep. Heh. Every semester was a bump in the road that tested my pride. From the first large group where they needed a drummer to me semi-lackadaisically applying for leadership that first semester, to that first small group I co-led, to trying to be a small group and large group coordinator, to trying to be the emcee, to "exec" meetings that got turned into "vision team meetings," to every breakthrough, REC week, and leadership retreat, to every NSO, to everything in between about my progressing thoughts of InterVarsity. And somewhere in all that God taught me how to shut up and listen ... to stop and take a minute to look before thinking my opinion was the best ... To stop thinking that I'm not a sinner that is "prone to wander" and make this all about me. I'm grateful that in the end, it led me to push towards the scriptures ... I learned later on that though my heart, my head, my motives, my flesh, though they're inconsistent at best, the word of the LORD stands forever. It can't cease to be God's word. It don't change. The Truth is always true. 

IV. So What?
As it's slowly dawning on me that I will no longer be an active leader/member of AFC, I ask myself what influence I had ... what fruit came from my labor? Cause let me tell you ... There were a lot of tears shed in my 4 and half years, a lot of hard decisions to make to stick through AFC when it was easier to quit.

V. Was it worth it?
Yes. I read "Desiring God" my sophomore year and it changed the way I started filtering my decision making. When I learned that the scriptures do indeed teach that simply basking in and enjoying God most gives Him glory, I started using the question "Will it get me more God?" as my filter for saying "yes" or "no" on big decisions. More than the statistics of people who became believers for the first time, the number of people discipled, the number of lunches with freshman, the impact and empowerment for students to become leaders, etc., it was all about this life-giving, (Christian) hedonistic question ... And when I ask myself whether involvement with AFC gave me more of Jesus, it's obvious: Yes.

VI. Is that all?
I guess so. Time would forbid me to detail out every struggle and every time Jesus rescued me from myself. There aren't enough large group gatherings to tell of the wonders God's done. Heh, I didn't even realize that two of my roommates this past semester entered college as unbelievers and are now followers of Jesus. Wow that was strangely encouraging. Names and faces are what stick in my mind when I think about AFC. The stories of people's lives changed by the gospel. The discipleship of believers who were so unsure upon entering college.

I don't want to jazz it all up and make it seem like AFC pwns (though sometimes I do feel that way). There's a ton of questions and hopes I still have for AFC. But in the end, I got more God and more people got God too. As long as people get Jesus, I think that's a win and I can close this chapter of my life knowing it was all worth it. I used to be skeptical of people that would always say things like "God is good!!!" but here I am, having seen that truth with my own eyes.

God is good.
-Jon Lau, Baylor University and InterVarsity (AFC) Alumni