Disciples Disecting the Word
First off, I’m back from my self imposed hiatus. I hope to post more regularly from now on. After all, what good is a journey if you don’t take note of where you’ve been. And with that, I’ll jump right in with an open letter that we recently sent out.
A Radical Proposal
We have just returned from an intense 9-day, life-changing retreat called Discipleship and Evangelization Program (DEP) in St. Paul, Minnesota hosted by National Evangelization Team (NET) Ministries, a lay Catholic organization built upon the Charismatic Renewal Movement. Like other retreats, we heard talks, prayed, attended mass, and shared in small as well as large groups. The talks were on the usual topics: building our relationship with God, learning different forms of prayer, learning to evangelize, and living the Christian life. Unlike other retreats, this was life-changing because we not only heard the lessons but we also witnessed these lessons played out in real life through our 8 retreat leaders. Yes, we saw clearly the Holy Spirit working in these young adults through their thoughts, words, and deeds. They live up to their saying “You can’t give what you don’t have.” It was most inspiring and incredibly awesome to see Jesus in these leaders. We feel so blessed to witness this holiness and now know that it is possible to be holy. We yearn for what they have; we want to be like them!
Through their sharing, we learned that they all have dedicated at least two years of their lives to God: one year in serving as NET members, traveling the country to evangelize through retreats, and one year as NET mission staff, supervising the traveling NET members. Through these two years, they lived, praised, prayed, and grew in their faith together. The support they offered each other and the graces of the Holy Spirit allowed all of them to go beyond what any one individual can do by him/herself. Following God is not easy, especially when we are constantly distracted by temptations of this world, but having a small community to fellowship and lend support through this journey of faith can make a huge difference. We believe these concepts of community and commitment to God are what make NET ministries so successful in the eyes of God. The fruits of NET ministries are visible in the future of its alumni: 90% continued in ministries and more than 15% follow the call to vocations. In other words, these alumni have undergone a true conversion that has changed the rest of their lives!
We feel called to follow the NET ministries concept of community; we want to build our own Catholic community in Seal Beach. We want to open our home to young adults who share in our desire to grow closer to God by living and supporting one another through prayers and Christian conducts. We are looking for young men and women, 18 and over, who will commit to: 1) strengthening their personal faith and 2) helping others develop their faith. We are looking for the rare few who are not afraid to make sacrifices of privacy, personal preferences, and must-have “toys” and offer up to God their time, talents, and all that they have. Housing and food will be provided at no charge for one year in our home, which is close to CSULB, Long Beach City College, and Goldenwest College. We have don’t know where this will lead or who will answer this radical proposal but let His will be done! After all, we saw all the beautiful graces He gave us when we offered Him 9 days at DEP; we can’t wait to see what He will do with 1 year!
Please pray for us and the community. Feel free to pass this on to your friends who you think may be interested.
Peace In Christ,
Peter and Loni Nguyen
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