for freedom.

T-2 Days - danc

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:39:00 -0400

(Apology for such a poorly written entry. It was pretty much a release of unorganized/unprocessed thoughts… aka… “word vomit.”) :)

I can’t believe that it’s only two days until a group of four of us boards on a flight to SF. With how busy the school year ended, I feel like this moment crept upon me… and with it, much feelings of being unprepared and rushed.

That said, between the now dash of planning, laundry, (re)confirming our meetings with our contacts, and last minute get-togethers with people here at home… it finally started to sink in that THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING… again. “THIS” being, a visit to SF… just in case it wasn’t obvious enough… :)

Something interesting that I realized only a couple nights ago, is how different my mindset has changed since last year’s trip. Last year, as I was getting closer and closer to SF, my heart – both figuratively and literally – was pumping fast. The reason – fear. I was full of the fear of being wrong. The fear of, “What if this conviction was wrong? What if all this effort and planning and devotion were for nothing more than an experience to remember? What if…? What if…? What if…?”

Now fast-forwarding to a year later to TODAY, I find myself once again with a heart pumping fast with fear in my mind. But this time, the fear is not in being wrong… but in being right. The fear of, “If this conviction is right, I’ll have to move… start all over… not see people that I’ve grown to love… to live with tomorrow so uncertain.”

I realize that as life progresses, old fears that once ruled my life fades away; however, new fears seem to always find a way into my heart. This is the same when it comes to love. How easily my heart proves to be so conditional in how it grows for, then bored, of so many things.

Something that I had shared at Temple’s Senior Night that I’m trying to reapply to my own life right now is that against the “wisdom of the world” that says to “Follow your heart”…. to NOT follow your heart. This is because with changes in life, circumstances, and dreams… how quickly our heart for things change – at times even faster than we can keep up. What my recommendation instead to them was, “Be mindful of your heart… but follow your convictions.”

T-2 days, I find myself with fears, doubts, and anxiousness; so, I would appreciate prayers. That said, I thank God for the conviction that He indeed is leading me to go. Whether it’s to make clear a future realization, or to just grow my heart and awareness for an area outside of my comfort zone… I do not yet know. But what I do know is that God loves SF and that He is already doing some awesome things in that city. And because of that, I want to see firsthand of His marvelous work… I want to give Him praise according to His grace… and one day if He were to call me then to go, to have the heart to say, “Here I am Lord, send me.”

Getting excited! :)

- sDg.

SF Vision Trip 2 - danc

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:00:00 -0400

Hello All,

If you haven’t already heard (which might be likely since there hasn’t yet been a “public” announcement), I’ll be heading back to San Francisco for a 2nd Vision Trip.

During last year’s trip, I, along with a group of brothers, were able to catch a first glimpse of SF. We had a week of visiting various neighborhoods in the city, connecting and learning about SF life from both unbelievers and people in minstry… and just having a lot of fun seeing what this city is all about. Through the various events and happenings of last year’s trip, including even the car accident, I felt then and even more now, that SF could really be the place that God might lead me next in my journey for His glory.

[Pause] If you don’t remember what this is all about…
Why SF (part 1) / Why SF (part 2)

That said, I’ll be going back May 24 (until June 1) to reconnect with some of the people that I had met, to meet with some new contacts… and being true to my “philosophy” of life and ministry, have A LOT of fun while doing all that will need to be done.

Though most of the guys from last year’s team won’t be able to make it this summer (which really bummed me out), I’m thankful that God has once again surrounded me with a strong group of brothers that will be by my side on this year’s trip. To be honest, this whole process of investigating SF has been pretty emotional for me. Emotional in that it’s been exciting; but also emotional because I realize that if God is indeed calling me to one day (but not too soon) move… I’ll have to leave behind people, a church, and a city that I love. Having them is truly a needed blessing for me.

To end this post: I want to specifically thank the people who made it possible for me to visit SF last summer. Your generous support in sending me last year helped to make more clear what God might have in store for my life. I am so thankful for each of you and the undeserved love you’ve shown me over the years.

More details on this year’s trip to come…

- sDg.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-26/san-francisco-is-americas-best-city-in-2012

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:34:00 -0400

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-26/san-francisco-is-americas-best-city-in-2012:

In case you didn’t hear, San Francisco is named America’s Best City!

In case you also didn’t hear… there will be a Vision Trip, part 2.
More details to come.

SF -> Philly. The Road Trip Home.

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:55:00 -0400

It’s been about 3.5 weeks since leaving SF, and this blog entry about the road trip home is very overdue. Some of you may have heard, but on the way home, our team got into a huge car accident. Long story short, my car was totaled. As far as I know, it is still somewhere in Texas. Fortunately, no one got hurt. In the midst of the accident and being plunged back to our so-called “normal” lives upon returning, I’ve kept pushing this off. Sorry.

If pictures work better for you, I just posted the pictures (<- click that link) from the trip. It took long going through all 600+ pictures, picking some of the favorites, then editing. Almost all of the pictures are either from the road trip to and from, or from our team hangouts in SF. Not much of actual ministry since it would be kind of awkward to take pictures of the people we were interacting there.

Our route back was… SF -> LA -> Phoenix -> El Paso -> Dallas -> Houston -> New Orleans -> Birmingham, AL -> Northern Virginia -> NJ -> PA!

We were very fortunate because I have a lot of relatives/cousins and some great friends in many of the places we traveled to/through. Personally, it was really great to see my family/friends from outside PA since I don’t get to see them often. It was also very humbling how each of them were so generous and hospitable to our team when we passed through.

Jenny/Abe, David, Grace, Helen/Peter, Richard, Houston 이모, 이모부, Aaron, 신혁, Kayti and Gentri, Danny and Clara, Jason and Sharon, AChou, Justin/Jess… If any of you are reading… thank you a lot. The guys on my team are some of the younger brothers that I love deeply. Your kindness to them blessed me equally if not more than your kindness for me. Thank you!

Back to the accident - it happened somewhere between Dallas and Houston.

Though we went on this Vision Trip wanting to learn lessons FOR life, the accident taught us a lesson ABOUT life in how it quickly put everything in perspective. It showed us how frail, short yet extremely important life is… and how we ought to be good stewards of it. To be honest, at first I was discouraged since it made me doubt all of the convictions about SF that I had gained, and whether this trip was really in God’s will… or whether I had forced something to happen. However, when our team was able to regroup and share that night and the following morning, it really seemed apparent that God put us through that trial to refine our convictions. We now didn’t just have new lessons in our minds, but a sense of urgency to live different.

It was also a blessing how God kept us together. I initially gave the team members the option to either keep driving (with a rental), or to fly home - since a generous person offered to pay for the plane tickets. Through some back and forth, the team decided to stay together, rent a car, then complete the drive home. The sense of unity that we had shared through and after the accident was really… amazing. Our goal and prayer during training (before the trip) was for us to grow deep as brothers, and to stick together until the very end.

Team members are currently finalizing their post-trip reflections. Those to come soon.

-danc

Friday June 8, 2012 - richard

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 03:24:00 -0400

Today was our last full day in San Francisco before we head back home. In the morning, we did our bible reading and then headed on the Muni towards the beach where we started our walk. After going to a handful of the major parts of the city, it was interesting to see it in its entirety as we walked through each neighborhood. As we walked, a different person prayed each half hour for something that we noticed or that we wanted to pray for. It was a good rundown of the different things that we experienced during our time here, but certainly not enough time to understand everything that San Francisco has to reveal. Something to note is that this was a vision trip and not a mission trip, and so our task here in SF was to understand more about what it means to live here and to grow a heart for the people that live here to see if any of us feel called. What I learned from our vision trip to San Francisco is that this is a very young city with diverse cultures and values mixing together. The idea of acceptance is huge with people not wanting to step on anyone else’s beliefs or feelings, but that each is respected and valued as it adds to the San Franciscan society. I’ve also noticed how the majority of people in this city don’t really know the true nature of the Christian faith; however, they highly value social justice and the needs of the less fortunate. With that said, one of the most valued “churches” in San Francisco is known as Glide which shows a lot about the people (Glide is founded on social justice, acceptance of differences, and communal healing rather than about Jesus). This is a beautiful city that I would argue is the greatest city in America, but is definitely a city that needs the piercing truth of the Gospel and the love of Christ to be ministered to every corner. I think we had a good face look at the city and also had a good mix of the churches that are here. We visited Glide (definitely not Gospel-driven), Christ’s Church (Pastor Toby is awesome), Reality (faithful church that is reaching out to the community in Castro), and City Team Ministries (simply beautiful ministry reaching out to the poor, homeless, and drug-addict in SoMA). All-in-all, our time here has been amazing and we’ve learned a lot about this city and its people.

Thursday // June 7, 2012 (Castro)

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:59:41 -0400

Today, we woke up and went right into our Bible reading once again. It’s just been awesome to start the day gazing at God before we’re even fully dressed or washed up.

Then we took public transpo to get to the castro district. This is the area where all of the gay rights movements flourished and really became the identity of the district. As we got there, the first thing we noticed was the great amount of gay pride in the streets. There were rainbow flags all over the place and many of the shops promoted that way of life. As usual, we first prayer-walked around the area and then ate at a Vietnamese sandwich shop as we discussed what we saw. One of the ironic and interesting things we noticed were that there were a lot of “spiritual healing” type of stores. It’s ironic because gay people in San Francisco tend to live as if they don’t need anything and that they’re fine the way they are. Seeing multiple shops where people go to be “healed” may be beginning to reveal that internally, these people don’t feel as satisfied and fulfilled as they show externally. It’s just a thought. We covered the area and the city once again in our prayers and then went out to talk to people personally. We found that some people had been hurt by the church in being condemned for being gay. A lack of love in rebuking a peoples can definitely do some major harm and create deep bitter feelings toward the church. Every chance we got, we apologized on behalf of the church because we know that those methods do not represent Jesus Christ.

After all of that, we revisited CityTeam, the organization that helped the homeless and drug addicts in the SoMa (South of Mission St.) area. We knew they were serving food that night to the needy so we went to help out however we could. Some of us ended up helping with dishes, some on the line of serving food, some on the floor, waiting on the tables and just serving them in whatever way possible. It was a short experience but definitely awesome.

We then came back to the inn and had a dedicated worship time for the first time on this trip. It was awesome just to go through some songs of worship and prayer, especially since it was toward the end of our stay in SF. I think we were all refreshed in spirit and renewed in our burden for this city and for God’s glory. We ended the night with our brother Richard sharing his testimony and having a bit of discussion.

It was another awesome day.

signing out! -justin

Wednesday // June 6, 2012

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 04:12:35 -0400

Hello Everyone! It’s Danny. I’m kinda tired so ill try to write this as quickly as possible and relatively short.

Today we began the day by meeting with EM Pastors from Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Daly City,CA. Dan once again shared his vision for SF and the pastors gave him very good insight on how they started here in the Bay Area and the challenges they face here in this city. The experience meeting with the pastors really opened my eyes on how difficult the church planting process is, but how blessing the outcome could be. Please pray for Dan, because church planting is really hard…haha

We then chilled around Golden Gate Park and went to the Academy of Sciences. Just looked at some cool fishes and wildlife stuff….

Lastly we went to visit one of the small groups from Christ Church (the church we visited on Sunday) One thing that encouraged me was how diverse the small group was Filipinos, Us, Chinese, Caucasian, Japanese and the one thing that united them was to learn about Jesus. One thing i love about this city is how diverse it is and its amazing to see how cultures collide! We learned about the story of the Gospel and just the main stories in the bible. There was great discussion involved and we also had a time of prayer with the rest of the group. Being outsiders we felt like family with these people because they just welcomed us in and it felt comfortable for all of us in the group.

Our time here is slowly coming to an end but it feels like we’ve been here for months haha. Just getting to know the people here has been a blessing and although it is considered the most “unreached” city God is still moving in this part of the United States. With plenty of healthy churches San Francisco is a great place to be…With that said there still is a lot of brokenness and please pray that more churches with the gospel will be implemented. I personally have really fell in love with this city and how they do need the Gospel, but people also need the Gospel back where i live too so i pray that God can break my heart for the people at home as well.

Please pray for us as we are going to visit the “Castro” district tomorrow and explore the nieghborhood!

-D.Jung

Monday & Tuesday Update

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 05:13:00 -0400

YO(LO). It’s Andrew.

Although we’ve been in San Francisco for a few days now, we’ve officially started getting to KNOW the city and its people. By that I don’t mean to say that the other days were filled with random “touristy” events, we’ve been trying to stay focused with a kingdom mindset the entire time, but after driving through 4 full days to get here (on top of the loss of 3 hours) many of us were simply exhausted. Also, as mentioned previously, Guirae has finally joined us!

Monday (June 4): San Francisco State University

This morning Dan Chun and I were responsible for waking up early to get breakfast. As usual, we’ve been waking up early to begin the day with morning devotion. We have been reading, reflecting, and sharing through the book of Psalms. The first location, or “Ministry Site,” of our outreach was SFSU. Guirae’s school. As soon as we arrived on campus (via MUNI transpo), we did a prayer walk around the campus. After grabbing lunch, the six team members split up into pairs: Dan Chun and I; Guirae and Richard; Justin and Danny. As pairs, we adventured through the campus to talk and interact with stranger. Part of this Vision Trip is to get a general sense of what the San Francisco community is like, how the people feel about the city, what they know about the city, and various ministry as well as other non-religion related topics. The conversations and vibe of the community we experienced would later be brought to attention for the entire group in a “Debrief” session, in which we prayed together for the specific people we encountered. After finishing up our business at SFSU, we went grocery shopping for dinner. We bought bread and made Cream of Chicken … in a rice pot. For our evening activity we visited Brainwash Café. We went there because we had promised to meet up with “D”, as he had a few of his photography hanging on the wall. Afterwards, we came back to our room to rest and prepare for the next day.

Tuesday (June 5): Haight Ashbury

Richard was on “morning duty” (breakfast) today. As we prepared for the day, we followed the same routine. Morning devotional and group bible reading of Psalms. We headed for Haight Street (today’s Ministry Site). After getting off the bus, we did a prayer walk observing the area and people around us. After asking a few locals about Haight St. and lunch recommendations, we went to Cha Cha Cha to eat (as per recommendation). The food was good. Once again, the group split up into pairs: Justin and I; Dan Chun and Richard; Guirae and Danny. We went around, asking locals, workers, store owners, and other drifters about San Francisco trying to gather more information about the city and their views, opinions, and other helpful insight. We returned to the motel. Soon after, we drove via the car to Berkeley to explore the campus and eat dinner with a few of our supporters (friends). Did you know about the Venus eclipse that happened today? The day ended with us debriefing and journaling the happenings of the day, followed by sharing of testimony.

Prayers:

Over the past two days of talking with San Franciscans, the general vibe that I have been sensing is “openness and acceptance of all things,” which includes religion. I truly do see this occurring with my own eyes, here in San Francisco. My prayer request for you followers is that TRUE, FAITHFUL, Brothers and Sisters in Christ will not compromise the Gospel, and just accept everything. Rather, in love, correct and rebuke. No matter how much pressure the SF culture presses on the church, DO NOT COMPROMISE JESUS FOR WORLDLY AFFECTION!

Sunday // June 3rd, 2012 (Visiting Churches)

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:26:00 -0400

Since we only have one Sunday in SF, I wanted for us to visit as many churches as we could today to get a wide glimpse at what “church” is like here. Our day began with visiting Glide Memorial (on recommendation for it would be a good representation of a church that has totally lost the Gospel), then we visited Christ Church Park Presidio, and our day ended with Reality SF.

When we got to Glide, I was amazed at the diversity. There were people of all ethnicity, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, etc. When the service began, I was then amazed at their professional music ministry and the vibrancy of their singing. Then my greatest amazement came to front. A person came up to do a congregational prayer, and prayed to “God our mother.” Then they had a same-sex couple come up with their child sharing about their family, followed with unending powerpoint slides (throughout their worship time) about how love should be between anyone. There was absolutely no mention of God, Christ, Gospel, Salvation, but instead an agenda for gay rights. A passage that instantly came to my thought of Revelations 3 – Jesus’ rebuke to the Church in Sardis – “you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” My heart broke. Here is a “church” known locally and even nationally for being a vibrant and alive congregation, but it is dead. Here is a “church” with 2000 people who are joyful for they think they’ve found acceptance, but are still condemned for they do not know the Gospel that frees them and gives them ultimate acceptance with the Father. Here is a “church” that celebrates the very things that the Lord had to die for. Here is a “church” that is destroying the witness of the true Universal Church in how they are misrepresenting what the love of God really means. I’ve never felt so upset and angry and broken at the same time. The moment we got out, I couldn’t control my emotions and drove away weeping. Oh, how they’ve lost the Gospel. Oh, how they are leading people away from the Truth… by the thousands. Oh, how much the Lord must grieve for His sheep are walking away from Him into the darkness… together. Another passage that came to my mind was Psalm 16:4 – “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.” My heart broke again. What they celebrate and run towards, will only multiply their sorrows in the end.

Christ Church was entirely different. From the exterior, there wasn’t anything that shouted “impressive.” It wasn’t a big church nor did they didn’t have a glamorous choir or a full band… but what was very obvious from the beginning of the worship service is that they had Gospel… and they loved it. Everything about their worship was so God exalting and Gospel honoring. I thought my tears were all gone, but then I started to cry again. This time, tears of joy. Tears thanking the Lord for there were churches that did honor and love Him. Churches that did fear Him in preaching His Truth, rather than fearing the strength of the culture around them. Our team was able to then grab lunch with Christ Church’s pastor. It was refreshing, strengthening, encouraging, and challenging. More details on that to come.

Our last church was Reality SF. It’s located in the Castro – the center of the gay community. It’s known to be a church for hipsters, artist, etc. We all loved it. It was quite different, but very creative, and very Gospel loving as well. I think since our whole team is into music, we instantly felt drawn by their praise. Something that made me wonder is how many of the people we saw at Reality were actually there in having been drawn by the Gospel, or instead by the church’s impressive creative arts. Nonetheless, I was just thankful that there was a church effectively engaging a context that most churches have failed to even give interest to.

Personal Prayer Request - That the Lord would continue to break my heart for this city. I honestly don’t want this since I know He will, and I know it’ll hurt. What I realize is that if I really feel called to one day minister in the city… having a vision is not enough. Even having a desire for God’s glory to be known is not enough. I must have a Christ-like heart of compassion that breaks and weeps for the lost.

On a side note - Guirae finally arrived. :)

sDg.

-danc

Saturday // June 2nd, 2012

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 02:54:00 -0400

Wake up, go to city team, prayer walk with “D”, program graduation for “M”, team lunch at a mall’s food court, team devotions at union square, aquarium and walk at boardwalk, “homemade clam chowder”

On Saturday, we had a very interesting and pleasantly surprising day. We went to a drug ridden neighborhood for a prayer walk where a couple of tough looking guys stood outside of City Team ministries that was having the prayer walk. The guy who led the prayer walk was named “D” and is a man who had a past broken past but shared his testimony of how God is using people around him to live a sober life in devotion to God. After the prayer walk, we attended a graduation for a man named “M” who was graduating their rehabilitation program. Two men testified on behalf of “M” and gave encouraging words for the only graduate, “M”. Jonathon was the pastor at City Team and talked about how we are ambassadors of Christ; I can’t recall the second man who spoke.

The part I want to emphasize most is the encouragement that amidst this broken city with the many drug-ridden and poverty-stricken parts of San Francisco that there is hope for the Gospel to shine. “D” is a living testimony of that. Oh yeah, forgot to add that Jonathon, the pastor, reminded me of a video that Kayla posted about the lack of men within this generation. I saw the need for men even among this group of 30-50 year old men. I was convicted to learn what it means to be a man and older brother to those around me. A prayer request is that men of God would be raised up to represent the cause of Christ. Shirley, the main administrator, was also a symbol of true womanhood and an example for sisters everywhere to be admired for her gentleness and true care for others. She loves Jesus and loves the broken around her.

Jumbled thoughts, but hopefully something can be taken from this. Thanks for reading and be encouraged that we are learning so much every day here!

I HELLA LOVE SAN FRANCISCO!!!

- Richard

Friday // June 1st, 2012 (Team Bonding Day)

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 03:17:00 -0400

Hello everyone! This is Justin and I’ll be updating you guys on our first day in San Francisco. This was due on Friday but we’ve been super super exhausted! sorry!

So for the first weekend that we are here, the agenda was to go out and get to experience the city.

We started our day by waking up and doing morning Bible readings. Dan decided for us that we want to read through Psalms during our trip. We actually started yesterday and continued today. It was good to change the tone from “road trip” mentality where we were literally in mental survival mode, to focusing on why we’re really here.

We then went to meet Jeff. Jeff is a brother that used to attend Renewal while he was in Philadelphia. Dan contacted him and he agreed to support us by letting him stay at his apartment while he was away at a retreat for a few nights.

On the way there, we had some time to kill because of a minor scheduling conflict. We randomly saw a place called Stern Grove. It looked really cool from the outside. It’s basically a park with a lot of trees and hills. I kept calling it the “jungle park”, if that helps you get an idea. I kept thinking we were going to see some orangutans. Not just any monkey in general… orangutans. It was nice to walk around and experience this unique park.

After we got the apartment keys from Jeff, we headed toward the Embarcadero. This is actually the area that I researched during our training. It’s basically a street that ran along the San Francisco Bay with lines of ordered piers. It’s actually a huge tourist spot but it was a really fun and vibrant area. We ate at In-N-Out for lunch. I only mention that because something really awesome happened there. We sat near a woman named Jan and her son Patterson. She randomly asked where we were from and that sparked a whooooole conversation. It turned out that they were fellow Christians and their story was really really encouraging. She was talking to us about a recent episode where she was with her cousin who is an unbeliever. She had tried many times before to bring her out to church and tell her about Jesus but it all only led to frustration in not knowing how to be a loving witness yet without compromising. She was really joyful to report to us that recently, her cousin asked Jan how her son Patterson was such a good kid. She described how she became instantly excited because she realized this was finally her opportunity to talk about Jesus. According to her and what we saw very clearly, Patterson really was such a good son. He was only thirteen years old yet truly loved Jesus. Jan then continued to encourage us through testifying about how God used her in that situation. We were seriously encouraged and this helped us further get in the zone for this trip.

The rest of the day, we did a lot of fun touristy stuff. We rode the ferry under the Golden Gate Bridge and nearby Alcatraz. Then we spontaneously decided to go to watch the Giants game! (SF’s baseball team). Tickets were only 4 dollars so we thought “why not?” That was a good experience because we took public transportation to get to the stadium and back to our car.

Overall, we had an extremely packed and exhausting day. It was a lot of fun and it grew an excitement in us for the city and for the upcoming week.

Please continue to pray for us and especially for Dan! God is already showing him so much about this city (good and bad. both very necessary), please pray that He would continue to reveal lots to Dan.

*Sorry if my grammar was all over the place and stuff. We’re all very tired :P

We Have Arrived!

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:29:54 -0400

Currently 3:06 AM PT and we just got into the hotel in SAN FRANCISCO, CA!

Thursday (Day 4)

Today we left Salt Lake City, UT and drove almost all day through Utah, Wyoming and ate dinner at Reno, NV. And drove even more….haha we’re ahead of schedule because we decided to go all in an just drive straight to SF to get here ASAP. So today pretty much consisted of driving…

We also met up with Guirae Jang, who is also part of our team. Guirae is currently an SF State University student and he is going to join us on this vision trip. It was good seeing him again and we’re excited to have someone who has a heart for their own city serve with us!

As we drove into the city listening to “God Of This City” by Chris Tomlin it all became real to us. We arrived!

All of us are so excited to see what God has planned for this upcoming week. Thank You Lord for letting us arrive here safely and thank you everyone who has been continually praying for us.

Tomorrow, we’re going to have a team bonding day and just get to look around the city and eat a lot as usual..haha

Continue to pray for us guys!

-Danny Jung

First Update!

Thu, 31 May 2012 03:54:21 -0400

HELLO EVERYONE!

This is Andrew, here to update you all on what’s been going on.

It is Thursday, May 31, 1:50 AM here in Salt Lake City, Utah (3:50 AM for those of you in PA, and 12:50 AM for those of you in LA/SF). We’ve been traveling since around 5 AM Monday morning towards San Francisco. The road trip so far has been a beautiful one filled with stress, nature, love, and sleepless nights. We are all very tired…

Monday (Day 1): We left towards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Dan Chun’s house. After a quick breakfast, in Pittsburgh, we had lunch in Detroit, Michigan. We soon arrived in Evanston, Illinois where we were treated to wonderful sleep outside ofthe car.

Tuesday (Day 2): The team got treated to delicious Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza for lunch! We had a slight tour of Chicago before heading west. We continued driving all throughout the night and the next day. We went from Wisconsin to…

Wednesday (Day 3): … Minnesota, to South Dakota, to Wyoming, and finally arrived at SLC, Utah. Nothing more to really report at the moment. We’ve spent most of our days in the car eating, sleeping, and playing “Contact.”

Before I close, I wanted to include a couple of prayer requests.
First off, please continue to pray for our safe travel and good health. Also, I think that for many of us, it is just now hitting us that we are actually, and finally, going to San Francisco… so please pray for our hearts so that we may truly prepare ourselves with devotion of His word and meditating on being in God’s presence as we enter the city to do as He wills. That we don’t lose focus on why we are going.

THANK YOU: Rachel, Pearl & Anna; Justin & Jess; Aaron; Abe & Jenny.

Chicago! (Taken with instagram)

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:26:14 -0400

Chicago! (Taken with instagram)

SF Vision Trip '12 - Leaving in 5hrs!

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:59:59 -0400

I can finally say that our team is leaving for SF… TODAY! In 5hrs to be exact. We’ll need sleep before we get going, so this update will be short… but more to come throughout the next several weeks.

Here’s our route for today, starting at 5AM!- Philly, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago. In Chicago, we’ll be staying with my cousin’s family and on Tuesday, we’ll get to meet up with some friends in having a quick tour of the Windy City. After an early dinner, our journey will continue to our next set of destinations.

To be honest, this past week has been quite packed and we feel unprepared in certain ways, but at the same time, excited for what God has in store for us. Please pray for travel mercies, team unity, and a renewed vision for God’s Kingdom. More specific prayers to come throughout the trip.

On a side note, we’ve received 100+% of our funds needed for the Vision Trip. Thank you to everyone who generously partnered with us.

For transparency - All funds raised for the trip will go directly to ministry-related expenses while in SF - housing, groceries, hospitality to pastors, travel expenses within the city, etc. The road trip and team bonding events while in SF will be from personal expenses.

Thank you all again. sDg!

- danc

introducing: Justin Jinsoo Kim

Wed, 23 May 2012 21:36:47 -0400

wow it took me a few minutes to find out how to post… almost created a brand new blog. that would’ve been bad… anyways

Yoooo! My name is Justin Kim and I’m kind of a 3rd year at Temple University. I’ve been in college for 3 years but the credits I earned from my freshman year at Art Institute of Philadelphia didn’t stick with me so by credits I’m pretty much a sophomore. But I don’t mind! haha. I guess just some things to know about me are that I love playing the drums. I actually miss it at the moment. Even more, I love playing drums to worship God! That’s why I serve on praise team at Renewal Presbyterian Church and play any other opportunity I get. If there are any fellow drum geeks out there, let’s chat hahah. I also love driving and love my Honda Civic. Many people half-jokingly call me their driver… and sadly it’s pretty much true. But I love doing it so it’s alllll good. I also love longboarding. I had a longboard until Danny broke it… LOL but I REALLY REALLY don’t mind. Danny don’t feel bad. Now I have a Pennyboard! which I probably wouldn’t have gotten so soon unless I needed to replace my old board. So I actually owe Danny a “thank you.” ;) Oh and I like metal music too. I just like everything Danny likes… hahah jk

So the reason I’m going on this trip to San Francisco is similar to the reason I ever go on short-term mission trips or do praise team or lead Bible studies or take on any serving opportunity that I do. It’s simply because I am available and because the opportunity is there. I guess it would be cool if I had some crazy special calling to go to SF like Dan but to be honest, I said yes to this trip because Dan asked me to support him by going, and because I had the time to do it. I believe that if God gave you the gifts to be able to do something, you should use those gifts to the fullest. Luckily, going to SF doesn’t require a very specific skill set, but seeing that I’ve gotten close to Dan over the years through serving under him/with him, it makes sense for me to accompany him on fulfilling the great calling that God gave to him. It also doesn’t hurt that I don’t mind driving. We wouldn’t wanna put Dan through that by himself haha.

So because SF isn’t a place that was really on my heart before this trip, it’s been hard to really develop a genuine care and love for the city (I do have a crazy story of when I was coming back from Korea and ended up staying in SF for a night… but that’s for another time). Instead of asking you guys to spend hours of prayer at a time praying for us (though if that’s your thing, please do :), I ask that you possibly keep SF and our team in your hearts in the way that I’ve been doing so the past few weeks. Whenever I see something that reminds me of SF, I’d pray right at the moment. For instance, when I’ve sees cheap gas prices, I automatically have been thinking “Oh, that would be awesome if it’s this low while driving to SF!” And it leads me to pray. Then I think about other issues that might come up during the ride, and so on. So that’s just one way I’ve been trying to put SF on my heart until I get there. As you guys probably know, there is a huge, unending list of things you guys could pray for in regards to our team and the city. Please feel free to text, email, fb, call, etc. any of us while we are gone to ask how the trip is going. That way, you can stay connected and keep this trip on your hearts a little easier! (…i think we’d all be open to that…).

Well… I think my post is the longest one… so i’ll stop it here! but wow there’s still so much I wanna say… lolol

Thanks to everyone who has/is/will support this trip or any of us in any way! It really means a lot to know we got ppls at home who want to be a part of this specific trip and ultimately a part of God’s Kingdom activity. It’s seriously exciting stuff!! Can’t wait

-justin

introducing: richard oreo

Wed, 23 May 2012 18:59:04 -0400

what’s up everyone out there, my name’s richard. i’m a 3rd year student at temple university and i’ll be joining dan chun and the rest of the team for a vision trip to sf.

some stuff about me: i love all different forms of art and expression, i love learning about people (though i don’t especially like opening up to others), i love dan chun and all the many brothers and sisters i have met over the years, i love the vision and purpose that we have received through Christ and His calling for our lives, and i love God who shows us unfathomable grace, renewal, and FREEDOM with everyday that passes.

the reason that i’m going on this sf vision trip is because of my loyalty and continual support of dan chun. dan has been blessed (and maybe cursed) as a visionary that is always looking and working hard towards the next horizon. for myself, it’s hard to think about and pray for people and a city that never crossed my mind until we started talking about the situation in san francisco. dan chun’s hope is for something to be stirred up in either his heart, any of the freedom sf’s team’s hearts, or for just someone to be blessed with the conviction to serve the Lord in san francisco. from what i’ve heard and read, sf almost seems like a graveyard for many churches and hostile ground for conversations involving faith.

as a rebuke to myself and a request from anyone reading this, please join us in praying for Christ’s light and hope to be shone in the darkest of places, and pray also that we would be that light. i believe that there’s always hope for something greater and that’s what our FREEDOM SF team is all about. we believe there’s hope for change in san francisco and we hope that we can be a part of that through God’s sovereign will. please partner with us in prayer and thanks for reading!

Danny Jung!

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:14:00 -0400

Hello! my name is Danny and i am a soon to be junior at Temple University. I am a finance/international business major. I love SCREAMO music. Taylor Swift. Longboarding. Philadelphia Sports. Gauges. concerts. and Jesus. haha

For me this school year had its ups and downs (as usual) but God continues to show how he is sovereign. He has continually blessed me with opportunities such as this vision trip!

Dan Chun or P.Dan haha asked to go on this trip and i was so excited to get myself away and go to the west coast. I’ve never been to the west coast and i always hear how beautiful it is so i wanted to experience it. With those intentions i slowly realized how this trip wasn’t just a getaway but also a vision trip. Dan Chun told me the facts about SF and how churches are closing and such which made me realize how much these people need Jesus. It sounds so simple but it shows that reaching out must be done.

I’m also going on this trip because i really want to get to know what this city is like and what kind of people it has. We can’t change everyone’s religious beliefs in the time we are going to spend there but one thing we can do is to really get to know the people there and interact with them. Its kind of a scary thought because i know some people won’t be welcoming but i pray that God can let my faith be unbroken and to stay strong in whatever comes my way.

Excited/Nervous but its all for HIM.

Pray for me!

-Danny Jung

introducing: ANDREW KIM

Tue, 01 May 2012 23:16:00 -0400

sup?

sooo… I’m here to update/introduce myself. So I’m Andrew Kim, and I’m a part of the San Francisco Gang (SFG - like the San Francisco Giants??? wow I just thought of that!). Currently a 3rd year student at Temple University, studying Environmental Science. As a student I’m attending Renewal Church, while serving Temple RCF. I’m not much of a Tumblr nor a writer so excuse my lack-of-creativity in the entries that I post. I loathe writing.

I guess the point of this is to explain why I’m going. One of the main reasons why I’m going is because Dan Chun asked me to go with him. I really love and appreciate this brother for all that he has done, is currently doing, and will do in the future. Honestly, if God hadn’t planned for Dan Chun to enter my life there’s a high possibility that I’d already be in California, for completely different reasons. haha ask me ‘bout it if ya interested.

Another reason why I’m taggin’ along is cuz’ I have time, and an open mind :). For those of you that don’t know me, I’m a very laid-back, chill, type of person. So I originally entered University planning on pursuing Pharmacy. In fact, it wasn’t until this past semester where I (unofficially) changed my major from Biology/Pre-Pharmacy to Environmental Science. Why did I change? In many ways I realized that pursuing Pharmacy was my approach to pursuing life, an unholy one. Again, ask me ‘bout it if ya interested.

Anyways, I have absolutely no clue what I’m going to do after graduating. Without expecting TOO much, perhaps journeying on this “Vision Trip” God’s will (for both Freedom and my life) might become a little more clearer.

… dunno…

anyways, when in rome… GO (orange font)FLYERS! oh yea i like hockey -

I hope I did this correctly…
First time posting on TUmblr,

ANDREW KIM

Reflections on Ezekiel 2 - danc

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:53:00 -0400

God calls Ezekiel to the ministry of a prophet… to go proclaim His message of judgment to people rebellious. A people who many not even listen.

What I realize is that in ministry, it’s not ultimately about the results but rather - faithfulness. God has called, will I obey? Am I devoted to Him to even submit myself to something that might even be, humanly speaking, fruitless?

Part of going on a Vision Trip is to discern - “What does God want for me?”

I think something that has been difficult for me is… with each Team Meeting, with each moment considering/praying for this city, with each click of the mouse researching what SF really is about… I feel my heart for SF growing. What if God then says, “no”? Was it all then for nothing?

Obviously not. Maybe my sole role in all this is simply to get others to pray for the city by making known the dire need for the Gospel there. Maybe God’s plan for me is not to ultimately send me, but simply grow my heart for a context beyond where I live. Maybe this trip is simply for me to minister and love the younger brothers that God has surrounded me with for this trip.

I do not know God’s plan yet. That makes me feel uncomfortable… but I do desire to trust in His faithfulness… His love… His purpose(s) for my life.

Current prayer - For God to turn my fears into joy as I learn to submit myself to His reign.

sDg.