Ministering Across Cultures 2011

Dear friends and supporters,

Last week, I e-mailed prayer requests for the Koinonia retreat. God definitely met us there! I'll give a more detailed update in my next paper newsletter.

In my e-mail, I also mentioned that I will be staffing and directing Ministering Across Cultures 2011, a 2-weekend student training conference that focuses on Biblical principles of relating across differences and tools for crossing cultures. The Lord has placed a huge passion on my heart for this type of training and we seek to train and graduate students who are critically engaging the world around them -- differences and all. (After all, our model for critically engaging the world is Jesus Himself!) As we all know, the world is a changing place, and we will need dedicated, holy, and engaged Christian leaders who are given the keys to the Kingdom.

This weekend is the first of two weekends. As I serve and lead a staff team of 4 teachers and 5 volunteers, please pray that our team would be united and focused to help students see a bigger vision of God -- a God who is not a God just of an individual, or one specific culture, or the millennial generation, or the English-speaking people, but He is the God of the entire world and every nation. 

Please also pray for:

• Our 42 students who have registered! They come from Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, West Virginia U, Oberlin College, and others. We are 20% Asian American, 10% multi-racial, and 7% African American. We have a very diverse group of students in background and schooling--praise God! Pray that God would transform them as they interact across differences... with each other!
• Our staff team and volunteers. This has been a hard week of sickness, spiritual and emotional hardship, and busy schedules. The Lord is greater than those things! Pray for clarity of speech and teaching.
• Our weekend of learning, reflection & processing, and fun. MAC is usually a very packed weekend. Students will most likely be exhausted from school. Please pray that students and staff would find rest and fun, before, during and after the first weekend of the conference.

I would appreciate it if you would keep me in prayer this weekend as well. This is my first time directing MAC, and I'm excited and expectant at the same time.



In Christ,
Joyce Pan