Merry Christmas!

In just a couple days we’re heading to Alberta for Christmas with John’s family. We’ll be taking some time off to be with our family and will post again in the New Year.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

John & Sarah

A TruthMedia Christmas

by Sarah

The ministry of Power to Change that I work with, TruthMedia, just sent out our Christmas card to all our TM supporters, prayer partners and volunteers. I wanted to share it with you because it is a rare chance for you to see the faces of many of the staff I serve with.

Internet ministry is not easy to recruit for, not easy to raise support for and often so hard to explain! I hope as you see these faces you will feel more connected with the incredible, faithful people who use the internet to reach out to a hurting world with the love of Christ. Their creativity, work ethic and willingness to trust God to do much with little has been an encouragement to me over the past two and a half years.

Did you know each day more than 260 conversations happen between people looking for hope and TruthMedia’s online mentors? That’s a conversation every 5 minutes. These people are already surfing the Internet, desperately looking for someone they can connect with, someone they can confide in. We can be that hope. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more you can visit truthmedia.com or the $1 a day donation page.

Please pray for TruthMedia as they raise financial support to continue to grow and meet the incredible demand for online evangelism.

Just happened and coming up soon

Just Happened

SFU Business Outreach
We posted in November about an event that took place at SFU called “Leadership Forum: Leadership, Entrepreneurs, and Real Estate”. Thank you for praying for this event and others like it, we have seen the Christian business students gain a heart for their classmates and learn new ways to connect their academic passions with their faith.

Year End Party
About 70 students came out to our year end party at UBC where we celebrated steps of faith many of us had taken this year.  Two of our interns, Adora and Kerensa, organized the event and Peggy, one of our part time staff, brought the food.  It was so encouraging to hear stories about lives that were being changed – the non-Christians we had connected with but also our own Christian students.

One encouraging story was shared by Bob, a business student I disciple.  His friend, Justin, was always so excited about this new product he was selling, Acai Berry Juice.  Justin claimed that the juice enhances his life, is a great investment and gives him more energy.  Bob tried the juice and it seemed great.

However, Bob used this opportunity to share his faith with Justin and how Christ had impacted his life in a much deeper and more profound way than any product ever could. Justin didn’t accept Christ, but he’s reading some books and thinking about his life.  Please pray that God will open his heart and he would come to a saving faith in Him.

Here are some pictures of our last weekly meeting of 2009

Students sharing encouraging stories

Bob sharing about meeting Justin

John talking to the staff and students

Coming Up Soon

Christmas Outreach
This Thursday we will be having a Christmas Outreach. We are praying for 50 international students to sign-up for dinner, caroling, gifts and a presentation of the true story of Christmas. Please pray that as these students from all over the world hear about Jesus, they would put their trust in Him this Christmas.

Our Christmas Reflection

Some of you may have received this letter in the mail but many of you stay connected with us exclusively through email and our blog so we thought we’d share it again here.

As we reflected on what to write in our Christmas letter this year, we were a little bit overwhelmed with the issues facing us, the ministries we are involved in, and the world around us. There are things that have not gone the way we had planned, missed opportunities, unknowns, people without hope.

The message of Christmas is a story of hope and and a reason to be thankful. So much hope is possible with a God who loves enough to sacrifice his Son. In a world of pain and struggle, Jesus was born and extended love to a a people He knew would reject Him.

We are thankful for so many things. Most importantly, we are thankful for the Gospel and the great joy it is to be included in God’s family. We are thankful that, as we head into our fourth married Christmas, God has allowed us to grow together as a couple and that we have families with whom we are able to spend Christmas. We are also thankful for your prayers and support that allow us to take steps of faith to reach people with the Gospel.

Our hope and thankfulness are relayed in this story from Jane, a fourth year Christian student at UBC:

“I confess that I knew God was powerful and faithful, but I thought that He was quiet in my life. If there was a Saul/Paul experience of today, it was happening somewhere else, but not in my life. In the beginning of September, I met with a girl named Vahnessa. We got to a point in the conversation where I shared the Gospel with her. I thought she would say, ‘I’ll think about it.’, or ‘It’s not for me right now.’ Instead, she accepted Christ right on the spot.

The actual implications of what had happened didn’t really hit me until I got on the bus to go home. It felt strange to go about my daily routine, I wanted to tell everyone I knew what had happened – I wanted to throw a party! … I was so happy I almost cried.”

We have hope and a trust that, as God has shown himself to be our faithful provider in the past, we can trust him to provide for us in the future. This year, we would like to present two needs to you:

• John will be taking classes at ACTS Seminary (Trinity Western University) where he will receive from Biblical training and leadership development. This will enable him to more effectively lead his team and reach lost students on campus.

• During the last year we have lost some of our monthly supporters due to the economic climate. Because of this, we have not had full support or been able to reimburse some of our work expenses.

Would you consider giving a one time gift this Christmas to help us continue to reach people like Vahnessa and our generation with the Gospel? Thank you for your prayerful consideration, we wish you joy as you reflect on the moment in history when our Saviour came to bring us hope.

Merry Christmas,

John & Sarah Hau

* We are unable to issue tax receipts for gifts in our name. In Canada please make cheques out to Power to Change, in the US please make checks out to CCCI, and mail to our home address. Or give using your normal method (online, automatic withdrawal, etc.).

Download the PDF if you’d like to share it with others

Western Regional Rally 2009

by John

I’m at a regional rally in Alberta with 38 other staff from across Western Canada this week.

We’re brainstorming and sharing ideas about how we are doing on the campuses, how we can get better and ways to reach more students. I’ve enjoyed seeing friends, talking about ministry and learning from some wise people.

Fellow staff, Derek, brought along a camera and was nice enough to let me share some of his pictures with our support team.

Disaster Relief Training Photos

In our November 5th post, Upcoming Events, we told you about an event being held at UBC where disaster relief training would be offered to students by staff of Humanitarian International Service Group. The event took place on Saturday, November 12 and was well received.

It was a great way to connect with people on the campus who have a concern for those suffering in other parts of the world and a passion to be part of the solution.

A Little Something Different

by Sarah

People using Soularium to open dialog

As most of you know, I spend my time developing ministry opportunities for TruthMedia and Power to Change that don’t put me face to face with the people we are reaching as often as John’s ministry does for him. But last night I got to do something a little different.

We got invited to speak to a high school Bible study group at our church, Willingdon Church, because they know we are missionaries (though I think all Christians are so I don’t prefer this separate label!). When the leader emailed us with the details he shared that many of the kids in the group are not Christians but attend the group because their Christian parents want them to.

Tragedy at SFU

by John

Last Wednesday, quarterback of the SFU Clan football team, Bernd Dittrich, died from complications of an undetected heart problem.  He was swimming in the pool to rehabilitate a shoulder injury when his heart failed him and he had to be rushed to the hospital.

As you can imagine, the football team, as well as much of the sporting community is in shock over the loss of a friend and fellow competitor.

Why I love doing what I do

by John

Dan and John who lead a DG together

I wanted to share my thoughts about one of the first year Discipleship Groups (DG’s) that I lead on campus.

We call these DG’s because our goal is not simply to have a Bible Study together on campus, but to come together as a group to pray for our campus, for our friends, learn from the Word, and encourage each other to take steps of faith. So Bible Study is a component of what we do, but it’s not limited to that.

Anyways, I lead one of these small groups and I was just reminded of why I love it.

Gary’s Story

A year ago today a friend, member of John’s team and Power to Change staff person was involved in a bombing in his own home.

On the anniversary of that life-changing event Gary Stevenson shares his story, views on non-violence and how he has been able to forgive. He is using this experience to share the truth of Jesus Christ