One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready...

For all you sports fans keeping track at home, today's the day I'm heading out for LAUP. I'm actually going to be driving away in about a half hour, which is just crazy for me, especially considering I finished my last assignment for summer classes about five minutes ago. 

For real though, my team's probably already there.

I definitely feel intimidated right now about this, honestly. I don't feel as though I am prepared for this behemoth of a trip. I don't feel rested enough, like I've prayed enough, like I'm in the right mental state, I'm not ready to give up technology... You name it, I'll feel unprepared about it. 

But if I stop to think about it and look past my compulsive worrying, LAUP turns from this huge cross to bear into a gift from God. There is no question in my mind about whether or not I need to go, given my heart for social justice, the fact that it affected Sam so deeply, AND the fact that as of yesterday, I AM FULLY FUNDED!!! I honestly expected to have to take some of it on myself, but it was a huge blessing to be able to attend with all of the finances already taken care of.

Sidebar: to everyone who has donated and everyone who is praying, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your support means the world to me, and I would not be able to do this without you. God is going to do some incredible things in the next six weeks, and I am so honored that I get to partner with you in this. 

On that note, I have a few specific prayer requests. In no particular order, please pray that:

• I am open to what God has in store to teach me, and that I apply what He teaches me after I return
• My team and I work well together and model Jesus in our words and actions
• God works in the hearts of the people we come into contact with

I'm sure there are others, but these are the biggest I can think of right now, with my sleep-deprived and over-caffeinated brain. 

Well, I'm off. See you all soon, and I will be posting here after I get back on August 3rd.

SDG, 

-Gordon

What to expect when you're going to LAUP

I'm gonna be off to LAUP in five days! This Sunday I'll be shipping off for a month and a half, living right in the inner city and working with Homeboy Industries. If you're not familiar with them, they're essentially a gang-intervention organization, but you can look up their full purpose at their website. (There's also a book, Tattoos on the Heart, written by Homeboy's founder. It's seriously amazing.) In particular, our team will be working in five different departments: (1) curriculum, (2) tattoo removal, (3) catering & gardening, (4) IT, and (5) development. I'm not sure what that last one is, but I'm feeling pretty excited about all of them.

This is definitely going to be a rough couple weeks, and not just because I won't have phone or internet access, but because I've realized that I am afraid of being uncomfortable. It's not like I run screaming from metal folding chairs, but that deep down, I don't want to have to trust God to provide for me. I want to have a house I feel is big enough, a car that's reliable enough, and a bank account stable enough that I can feel safe on my own. I'm not going to get that at LAUP. Until August 3rd, my team and I are going to receive $5 per day to cover all our day-to-day expenses. Food, gas, laundry, unexpected car repair... We're all going to survive, obviously, but I am definitely going to have to learn how to trust God in a much more concrete way than I've ever had to.

Speaking of jarring segues, if you're interested in sending me letters (or receiving them), my mailing address will be this guy:

Gordon Lee
Homeboy Industries
Los Angeles Urban Project
P.O. Box 31190
Los Angeles, CA 90031

They get delivered to us once a week, so don't flip out if you write me and don't hear back for a couple weeks. I'll respond to you as best I can with the time I have, but at the very least I'll write you back at least once.

This is kinda how I picture it. I could be wrong.

I'll post another one on here just before I head out with more specific prayer requests, but the big one I have for right now is that God would keep preparing me, my team, the LAUP participants, and our mission fields for the work that He's going to accomplish. It's going to be hard one way or another, and I figure it's better to have Him there than not.

SDG,

-Gordon Lee

P.S. I forgot to mention: I'M TOTALLY ENGAGED. Holy snap, you guys. I cannot tell you all just how excited I am to get married to the most amazing woman who's ever existed, and turns out she doesn't mind too much either.

WHOOOOOO!!!!

On an unrelated note, did you know weddings take a lot of work? Hoo boy. I feel like I should have seen that coming.

It's the Final Countdown!

But for real, guys. Finals are next week, and I'm definitely feeling the crunch. So far I've been juggling fundraising, schoolwork (so much schoolwork!), and being a half-decent boyfriend for Sam. It's gotten pretty difficult, especially since a lot of these have been ramping up all at the same time. However! I haven't messed any of them up too badly yet, and that's always a nice feeling.

Go me!

One of the things that I was really hoping to get to talk about in this post was social justice and the Church, since both of these have become such significant priorities in my life as of late. The main thing that bothers me is that I just don't see these two things mix much at all, at least in my (admittedly limited) experience, and I am utterly convinced that the Church MUST be actively trying to right the wrongs we see in our countries and communities. 

However, my good friend Robby Lewis got there first, and he has written everything that I wanted to and more. His blog post is absolutely stellar, and he gets right to the crux of the matter. Please, do yourself a favor, take a moment, and go through it. 

For real. Don't worry, I'll still be here when you're done.

tl;dr, Robby's point is that all too often, we live and teach an incomplete Christianity. We evangelize to save people's souls, we preach so people can learn the Bible, and we create various church events to build community. These are not bad things; on the contrary, evangelism, strong Biblical teaching, and having a loving community are absolutely essential aspects of the Christian life. But it's not enough, and we live like it is. If we are supposed to model ourselves after Jesus (or as I've heard it, become little Jesuses), we have to do more than we are. Jesus' ministry was characterized by both soul care and addressing people's physical needs, not just one or the other.

This is exactly why I'm so excited to go participate in LAUP this summer-- that's the whole point of this Urban Project. Their number one goal is to care for the poor and show God's love for them by helping provide for them, whether it's food, job training, or just companionship. This is also exactly why I'm a little scared about going on this trip. I don't feel nearly prepared enough to face the shortcomings in my incomplete Christianity, and I know it's coming for me. 

All that being said, I want to come back changed. I've seen and lived nominal Christianity, and it's so boring, you guys. It's living your one life married to a moral checklist, full of "shoulds" and "oughts", and utterly without knowledge of God's purpose and peace. I've been there, and thank God I've been able to see the other end of the spectrum. Living the way God desires for us is absolutely incredible. Yes, it can feel terrifying and full of questions, but there's this overarching feeling of total satisfaction and peace throughout. It's worth it, and it makes me sad I don't go after it more than I do. But that's for another time. 

Anyway, that's all I have this time. Again, if you would like to pray or support me financially at LAUP, the link is https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate. Not only will both you and I know you're a good person, the United States government will as well (since InterVarsity donations are tax-deductible).

Go you!

Thanks for reading this, everyone, and I'll be posting more soon. Hi-ho Silver, awayyyyyy!



P.S. Let me know in the comments if you want to hear about something in particular, whether it's my life, stuff I'm learning in seminary, or miscellaneous whatevers. I'll be doing this anyway, but I also like writing for prompts. 

Previously, on Lost...

Know what's embarrassing? Forgetting about a blog you made two years ago, starting to make another one, and having Google remind you that you already have one. Sorry for leaving my blog lying around, the internet.

Anyway! I've decided to try and get this bad boy up and running again for a couple reasons, the most immediate being that I want to let people know about LAUP. What is LAUP? Well, fictitious wonderer, it stands for the Los Angeles Urban Project and, coincidentally, is pronounced "lay-up", not "lowp" (it's ok, I made the same mistake). More importantly, however, it is an immersive six-week mission trip to inner-city LA through InterVarsity. To oversimplify somewhat, LAUP as a program has three main goals: (1) Care for the poor, (2) Pursue racial reconciliation, and (3) Labor in the area of prayer and spiritual warfare.

What happens is that a bunch of students sign up, get divided into teams of six or seven, then get distributed to various churches, ministries, or non-profits and spend the remainder of their time working at their sites. My team and I (that's us in the pic) get to work with Homeboy Industries, which is a group that provides various services to ex-gang members and prison inmates in order to help get them out of those lifestyles. We're not sure yet what our responsibilities will be exactly, but Homeboy offers their clients everything from job training to tattoo removal to legal services.

Left to right: Sarah, Suneun, Nick (our fearless leader), Ervin, and me.
Not pictured: Kayla (the 6th chosen one!).

Guys, I'm really excited to get to go to LAUP. The thought of working with ex-cons and gang members for six weeks is pretty intimidating, but I am looking forward to it overall. God has a way of showing up in difficult situations and providing something amazing on the other side.

In any case, there are two ways you can help support this trip. The first, obviously, is financially. I am responsible for fundraising $1,600 for this trip, and if you would like to help support me (in a tax-deductible way!), there are two ways to do that. The first is to donate online at https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate. Just search for my name and you'll find me. The second is to mail a check (made out to Intervarsity) to:
Talbot School of Theology, T-403
13800 Biola Ave
La Mirada, CA 90639

More importantly, though, my team and I will need prayer. Without prayer covering us and our community, everything we do will be a waste. If you would like to partner with me in prayer, I would love to hear from you-- it's always so encouraging to know that other people are praying alongside you.  My email is gordon.samuel.lee@gmail.com.

I'm going to keep updating this every few days up until LAUP, so keep checking back for new posts. As for tonight, though, it's time for me to hit the books as hard as my caffeinated mind can. Until we meet again!

Kinda like this, but with less smiles.

In only five short hours

I'll be on a plane to Detroit, on the first step of my trip. The anxiety of preparing finally got to me today, but I've managed to wrench myself away from it. It helped that a chubby little asian baby grinned at me at the Target checkout line this afternoon.

I have everything I need (I think), I'm almost all packed, and I just need to tie up some loose ends before I'm completely ready to go. I'm not as prepared as I could be (or at least I don't feel like it), but regardless of how I feel, it's soothing to know without a shadow of a doubt that I'm absolutely supposed to go on this trip.

Flight's in five hours, then leaving Sunday morning for the big leagues. Let's do this thing!


-Gordon

Tomorrow's the big day (almost)

Tomorrow night about 11:15 will be when I fly out to meet my team and begin training for the trip! I'm not sure if I'm ready for it yet, since I found out two days ago that I would be playing guitar and helping lead music for our group. That ended up being much more prep work than I expected, since I'm not the best guitar player that's ever lived and I haven't practiced in a little while. I'm super excited about it, though.

The whole thing still feels a little surreal-- that in two days, I'll be in a completely different culture for a month and a half with about 20 people I just met, studying a language and culture that's completely unfamiliar to me. I have no doubt that it's going to be completely amazing and life-changing, though. That's not what I'm preoccupied with. I just want to be as prepared as I can be.

Also, since I'm sure it's going to be frustrating not having any specifics, feel free to ask me for them AFTER the trip is over. However, if you want a more direct way of communicating with me during this trip, this is the email I'm going to be using:  gordon.samuel.lee@gmail.com. 

If you do send me emails, please be mindful of what you say in them. I will be in a country that has a fairly restrictive and watchful government, so do not use any sort of religious language or sentiment. If you have to ask yourself if it's ok, it's probably not wise to include. Feel like you're being too vague. On the flip side, I'd love to hear from you, whoever you are, and encouragement of any sort would be greatly appreciated.

With all my love,

-Gordon

T-minus 3 and counting...

Hey everyone! First of all, thanks for taking the time to read this, it means a lot to me. I am excited about this trip like I've never been excited before. I might have told some of you this already, but it feels like the rush you get while sitting at the front of a roller coaster right before it crests over that first big hill. You can see it coming and you get that huge rush, but it hasn't yet started hurtling forward. Right now feels like that one still, breathless moment.

This fundraising process has been absolutely incredible. Thank you to everyone who's contributed in any way, this outpouring of support has seriously changed the way I think about my Father, and it's been refreshing beyond words. 

Now, to the main point of this blog: this will be a record of my time and experiences while I'm away. Because I won't have regular access to the internet, this will be updated about every week to two weeks. I'm in the process of setting up some sort of email list to let you know when I've updated, but don't expect daily posts. 

A couple notes before I sign off. Since I will be in East Asia for a while, I will almost never post specifics about anything. I promise, this isn't to frustrate you. This is for security's sake, for my sake, the students and staff who are going, the workers already there, and for the sake of those who we will meet. 

I'm so psyched, you guys. 

Grace and peace be with you all,

-Gordon