Seniors 2016: Josh Tai

Driving in the car the other day, one of my boys asked me; "is Josh really gonna try out for the Duke Basketball team?" I said "He should!"  

Josh is headed to Duke next fall to pursue a degree in nursing. And he is really good at Basketball!! But probably not:)

I first got to hang out with Josh while we were doing construction work on the Court Street House; a home that we were remodeling to house homeless men.  Josh is one of those guys that you could always call for help. Whatever the initiative, whatever the outreach, whatever the venue, Josh is a guy you could count on to show up and serve! I will definitely miss his faithful presence next year!  

I got to hang out and serve with Josh over Spring Break out in Baltimore.

I learned early on not to regard Josh Tai's introversion as a lack of passion or spirit! People might not immediately describe Josh as "outgoing" and yet I have observed him "going out" faithfully engaging others with the love of Jesus. I remember getting to know Josh during his freshman year. Specifically because he is such a quiet guy, I had not expected him to do such an incredible job gathering others, engaging his friends and striving help people to encounter Christ.   I literally marveled at the way he was always inviting friends to come check out Cru and the Christian community.

Josh with his bro's Grant and Jon

One thing I appreciate about Josh is his teachability.  As a mentor to Josh, I had the chance over the years to provide him with constructive feedback.  Josh is humble and receives input with humility and grace.   He also possesses a veritable resilience.  When something doesn’t work out according to the plan, Josh may be disappointed, but you can count on him to press on and find other options. Two summers ago he didn’t end up getting any of the internships that he had hoped for. Rather than mope about it, he signed up for a Cru summer project in Wildwood, New Jersey.  There he was able to grow in his faith, improve his leadership skills and bless the International student community out there. 

  I was really glad he went out to Wildwood! He's one of the few Cornellians who has joined us out there on that incredible Summer Mission!

Here is Josh speaking at one of the backyard parties in Wildwood.  

Josh's love for Christ and the mission has also compelled him to be a part of Cru's work in South Africa. Last spring Josh went to South Africa to serve with the Mamalodi Initiative.  (The Mamalodi initiative is a model of effective, sustainable, Christian humanitarian aid.  Students from Cornell and Harvard spend time tutoring underprivileged teens so that they can pass the matriculation exams that stand between them and a quality education. )  In just a few days, he will return there for the Summer Mission.

During his "Senior Share" Josh talked about our identity as connected and derived from our names. He talked about the names that people call us and the names we call ourselves and the names that God calls us. Throughout his life, words like "ugly, worthless, pushover, loner, and boring have served to discourage him. Josh talked about the powerful ways that words affect our lives and the importance of believing God's words of truth over the satan's lies. In Christ, we are "loved, children of God, chosen, saints, soldiers and friends of Jesus."

Grant and Michelle: Marriage over Money

Grant Hoffecker and Michelle Ji are engaged to be married on June 11th.

Both Grant and Michelle have been very involved in Cru since they were freshman. (Grant actually put his faith in Jesus during his freshman year.)  They started dating at the end of that year and got engaged last spring.  God has used them to lead Community Groups, and mentor younger students throughout their time here at Cornell.  Michelle is a part of our Yellowstone Summer Project tradition; she went on that mission trip back in 2013.  Since that time she has helped others to catch a vision for summer missions with Cru!

Michelle is a pretty quiet and reserved person generally, but ever since her freshman year she has been able to express herself and bless others by playing guitar.  Whether she was playing a comedic ballad with some of the other ladies or helping accompany our praise band, her talent's were enjoyed by others.  Grant is known for his sincerity and  helpful spirit.   Grant is a guy who loves his friends family well.  During the past couple of years he would bring his Dad out to our February retreat which was really cool.

Last Spring's Engagement was an incredible celebration for friends and family!

As a couple, Grant and Michelle have set a great example.  Starting out as friends, they moved into their dating adventure with a zeal to keep Christ at the center.   With the help of friends, they have fought hard at every turn to seek God and walk in ways that glorify him.  This past fall they navigated a  pretty significant challenge in a way that encourages the heck out of me!

Grant interned at Linkedin last summer and when they offered to give him a full time job after graduation, he gladly accepted it.  After they honeymoon, Grant and Michelle will start their new life together in San Francisco. Then, during the fall, Michelle was offered a job with Apple in the Bay Area.  What a great opportunity!  Apple is a cool company, the pay was good and the location was right on!  Everything seemed to be coming together perfectly!  But when the details of the job were revealed, things got messy.  The job that Michelle was offered would require her to travel to Asia for about 30% of the year.  Almost every month she would be gone for days and days at a time.

Michelle and Grant began to pray and deliberate.  Yes, working for Apple was a "good career move."  Yes, the pay was good.  But what about those really important things besides career and money?  Was this a good job for marriage health?  Is the nature of this job worth sacrificing so much relational time for?  Was it a good idea to have a job that required a husband and wife to be separated for almost a third of the year?  Would it be wise to have that kind of a job during the first year of marriage while trying to establish a strong healthy foundation for the future?

Grant and Michelle are driven by a vision to have a strong Jesus-centered marriage; a marriage where they love each other well and a marriage that can be used by God to bless others.  Grant and Michelle want to help each other to flourish as disciples of Christ and they hope that as a couple they can help others to see and understand the gospel.  Having that kind of marriage is actually quite difficult!  It takes a great deal of faith fueled hard work!

Many people thought that Michelle should take the job.  Most Cornell students in her position would definitely have taken the job!   There is no doubt it would have been good for their financial future.  The truth is, they could be more "rich" if Michelle said yes to Apple!  But the reality is that life is about more than just money or a career!   Grant and Michelle made a decision that would better serve their relational future: Michelle turned down the job!

The decision to not take the job at Apple was not easy.    It was -and continues to be scary to have said "no" to such a reputable job.  Although Michelle has applied for some other jobs, nothing has panned out yet, and the waiting has been extremely nerve wracking!!  It's easy to wonder whether or not they made the "right" decision.

I personally think they made a great decision!   I love their faith and conviction!  Grant and Michelle want to have a marriage that is healthy and strong in love. They want to be a couple who together, live out the stuff Paul was talking about in Ephesians chapter 5;  Paul explained that marriage is ultimately about Christ and the Church.  A God-centered marriage gives the world a picture of the good news that Jesus Christ loves his people with an awesome and magnificent love!    In order to cultivate that kind of marriage, you've got to be together!   Many people are all too willing to sacrifice relational flourishing for financial gains; they literally prioritize money over marriage.  But Grant and Michelle chose otherwise.

Grant and Michelle are trusting God with their future.  I'm certain God will provide a job for Michelle, and looking back, there will be no regrets!

February Retreat.  Grant's dad, Grant and Joshua Tai out at the Tenwood Lodge.  

Honorable Service

Jake graduated from Cornell this past May and enlisted in the U.S. Army.  I met Jake providentially in a north campus dining hall during the first weeks of his freshman year. Throughout his time at Cornell  I had the joy filled privilege of mentoring and serving beside him on campus.  Jake was more than a student leader in our ministry, he is truly a brother.  

Two days after he got out of basic training, Jake sent me a very encouraging Facebook message telling me about the ways that God had worked throughout his time in "boot camp." When Jake's time in basic training was over, 17 people in his unit had professed faith in Jesus and been baptized!  

I couldn't believe it! I didn't even know there was enough time to have spiritual discussions during boot camp! But Jake told me that the Basic training environment actually fosters many conversations about life and purpose and meaning and things like that. By being intentional, he said it was relatively easy to talk about Jesus there. He also said:

"Learning how to have those conversations at Cornell and in Cru was crucial....  Especially the stuff we learned on summer project.  [I was] so much more effective at communicating the gospel to these guys and it made a difference."

We truly praise God for the ways that He is already using Jake to bless others in the military. The vision of Cru has always been to train Christ-centered laborers on campus who can continue to share the gospel with the world outside of the campus!  It is very encouraging to know that Jake's time here in Cru at Cornell helped prepare him to live missionally in the Army.  

Between his junior and senior year Jake joined a group of Cornell and Yale students for 6 weeks of outreach on the other side of the globe.  Jake notoriously embraced the difficulty of the cross-cultural environment and expended himself to make friendships and spread the love of Jesus. He wrote: "Summer project was key for that spiritual maturity and missional mindset and development!" Especially because I regard cross-cultural summer mission's so highly, I am thankful for the way that Jake credits his Cru summer experience with helping him to grow as an ambassador for Christ. Jake benefited tremendously from the training and the teaching as well as the community and the brotherhood he experienced here in our movement.

And that leads me to something else I want to point out for our mutual edification. We know that God works through his people in community. Helping people to know and follow Christ during boot camp was certainly not something Jake did on his own and he would definitely not want me to tell this story in a way that made him seem like it was all on him alone. The truth is that Jesus was lifted up, and people were able to put their faith in Christ because a small group of committed Christ followers were working together! God in his sovereign goodness had placed a handful of Christians in Jake's training unit! And as a group, they were able to spread the love of God and point others to Jesus effectively.   

I believe that Jake's boot camp experience was extraordinary in the truest sense of the word -it was not ordinary! It does seem that the basic training environment is a place where people are processing the important questions of life. Therefore it can be a phenomenal place to explain the gospel to people! But at the end of the day I believe that God honored the faith and zeal of Jake and the other Christ followers in his class. I believe that God brought together the small group of Christians, and He united them into the missional community that they became during those weeks.  

Jake joined the army to serve his country and his fellow man, but above all, his desire is to Glorify God. Generally speaking, the U.S. Army doesn't harp a lot "spiritual well being", but through leaders like Jake, I believe many soldiers will be at least exposed to the power of the gospel.