Aug
4

New Student Welcome Night – From the Other Side

Featured Post, Tim/Debbie/George

Submitted by Raymond Yan

This was my third time experiencing New Student Welcome Night, but it was really only my first time being a part of New Student Welcome Night. This time, I had the pleasure, and the pressure – same thing if you’re cast in the fobby Asian stereotype like I often seem to be cast in – of being in the skit.

In my freshman year, when I came to Cal, finding a church wasn’t at the top of my priority list, and the thought of entering a Christian fellowship never entered my mind. During Welcome Week, I quickly signed up for all the business clubs I could find (Haas was pretty much my only reason for coming to Cal), and on the night of New Student Welcome Night – which I did not have any intention of attending – I planned on going to the Cal Football Kickoff Rally with a bunch of my high school friends.

On the morning of New Student Welcome Night, though (at that time there was still only one NSWN, in Wheeler Auditorium, right after a barbecue at the Campanile), my floormate Marcus Gibson, then a senior in Acts2Fellowship, invited me out to the barbecue. I was interested in going for the free food and the prospects of finding a church, but I also realized that the Cal Football Kickoff Rally was that night, so I made plans to quickly go to the barbecue as soon as the rally ended. Of course, by the time the rally ended, it was already about 7:30 and the barbecue was over. I made my way over to the Campanile anyways, just in case there was some free food left over, but by the time I made it, the take-down crew was already almost done cleaning up. Someone, probably seeing the disappointment on my face, told me that there were some leftovers, and that they could get some for me, but in the meantime, I was told to go into Wheeler Auditorium to watch the NSWN performances for the while.

I went into Wheeler, but I really didn’t pay too much attention. The skit, the message, the video – I don’t remember any of that. All I remember was the praise band’s singing “Sea of Faces”, which played a role in my coming out to Gracepoint – at the time, cool music was a big factor in my decision of what church to attend. I left the show early, picked up the food that was waiting for me at the Welcome Table, and went back to my dorm room. That was the extent of my experience of New Student Welcome Night in my freshman year.

By my sophomore year, I had been coming out to Gracepoint for almost a year, and I felt like I was a part of the community. When New Student Welcome Night came around, though, I didn’t feel any connection to it. I hadn’t been around for most of the preparation, and I didn’t really know what to expect, since I had only seen the last 10 or 15 minutes of NSWN the year before, so I basically experienced it as a bystander. I helped out a bit with the set-up on the Wednesday night showing (and felt pretty useless and ignorant while doing it, since I basically had to ask for directions at almost every step of the way), but when it came time for the actual showings, I treated New Student Welcome Night as just another post-Bible study activity – fun for spending time with everyone else, since most of the non-freshmen were kicked out and watched from the projector outside, but not really seeing the purpose behind it. I spent most of the time laughing at the videos and the skits, and realizing how much different my life might’ve been had I actually seen the whole thing. But when it was over, it was just that. Done. Gone. And my life was no different as a result.

When I found out a few weeks ago that I would be playing the gamer (aka Skull Legion or Online Gamer Junkie Loser) in the New Student Welcome Night skit, I was pretty excited. I thought I knew what to expect – performing a skit before hundreds of people wasn’t too foreign to me, especially having done G-Live just a few months before, and I at least thought I knew what went on behind the scenes. So when I came back to Berkeley on Tuesday, August 19th, I didn’t come with too much of a feeling of expectation, urgency, or realization of what I was participating in. If anything, I was filled with a feeling of self-importance, that I would be one of the few people in one of the high-visibility roles.

That pride quickly went away on Wednesday, August 20th. I think it was then that I really began to see what New Student Welcome Night was. I saw multitudes of students and staff coming out to 7 AM prayer walks in Berkeley, both preparing themselves and their own hearts for the upcoming school year and praying for the incoming students. I saw dozens of students spending their entire day at North Loop doing thankless jobs likes folding napkins, preparing A-frames, painting things for the Kairos Karnival – when most of them weren’t even in Kairos. I saw all the staff and post-grads devoting so much of their energy to working out all the details of Welcome Week. All the hours spent editing the video, all the time spent making the flyers look nice, all the time and people required – within the first day, I started to see the reality of the body of Christ in action, what verses like Ephesians 4:16, 1 Corinthians 12:12, and Romans 12:3-8 mean when they talk about each part of the body doing its own work in order for the body of Christ to move forth.

Still, I had trouble connecting what I was doing back to God. In skit practices, I was pretty much just going through the motions, treating it as if it were just another act. For a while, I didn’t connect the fact that the skit was a work of service to God. I realized then that it wasn’t a love for God or a desire to serve Him that motivated me to carry on; rather, it was just a sense of obligation, since I was already placed in the role. It was at that time that I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

I really came to see that what I was calling ‘serving God’ was just empty movements, since that underlying love for God was missing from the action. The message of that Friday night’s Bible Study/prayer meeting couldn’t have come at a better time, as it really helped me realize how undeserving I was of being able to serve God in the way that He gave me and how blessed I truly am with the opportunities that I have to connect with the incoming freshmen.

As for the actual week of New Student Welcome Night itself, it was both encouraging and stressful. Flyering for New Student Welcome Night was definitely more encouraging than flyering for a mid-year event like Gone last year or G-Live, as more people actually stopped and listened and were genuinely interested in coming out to the events, and I was really heartened by the fact that a good number of the people who I talked to while flyering/tabling were interested in joining a Christian fellowship at Cal. At the same time, the quickly-approaching Wednesday night showing induced more than a little bit of stress.

And in that last hour and a half spent in Pauley Ballroom waiting for New Student Welcome Night to begin, I couldn’t stop pacing around: the prospect of hundreds of people occupying the seats of Pauley Ballroom was a pretty scary thought. As the students started filtering in, some more expectant than others, some just there for the free food, some slightly jaded at the idea of NSWN being a Christian event, I felt pretty overwhelmed. I couldn’t help but think of my own inadequacies for doing the job. Yet one verse came to me as 7 PM neared:

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Because of God’s grace, something like New Student Welcome Night could be so successful. It wasn’t that any of us were extraordinary talented, nor did we have any skills that could singlehandedly make the whole thing possible. It was Christ’s power, working in all our weaknesses, through all of our sinfulness, through all our fears and insecurities, that made NSWN what it was.

So even though this was technically my third time seeing New Student Welcome Night, I was blessed more than ever, both during the actual showing and in the weeks of preparation leading up to it. It was an amazing reminder of what the body of Christ is capable of doing when it clearly sees its mission and each part does its work in serving God. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have participated in this great work, and I am looking forward to a semester of growing closer to God both on a personal level and with everyone else in A2F, including the new freshmen.

From tabling...

From tabling...

...to setup and preparation...

...to setup and preparation...

a lot had to go in so that you could end up seeing this...

a lot had to go in so that you could end up seeing this...

...and this...

...and this...

...and of course hear the message

...and of course hearing the message

...but all the effort is more than worth it in the end

...but all the effort is more than worth it in the end

This was my third time experiencing New Student Welcome Night, but it was really only my first time being a part of New Student Welcome Night. This time, I had the pleasure, and the pressure – same thing if you’re cast in the fobby Asian stereotype like I often seem to be cast in – of being in the skit.

In my freshman year, when I came to Cal, finding a church wasn’t at the top of my priority list, and the thought of entering a Christian fellowship never entered my mind. During Welcome Week, I quickly signed up for all the business clubs I could find (Haas was pretty much my only reason for coming to Cal), and on the night of New Student Welcome Night – which I did not have any intention of attending – I planned on going to the Cal Football Kickoff Rally with a bunch of my high school friends.

On the morning of New Student Welcome Night, though (at that time there was still only one NSWN, in Wheeler Auditorium, right after a barbecue at the Campanile), my floormate Marcus Gibson, then a senior in A2F 1, invited me out to the barbecue. I was interested in going for the free food and the prospects of finding a church, but I also realized that the Cal Football Kickoff Rally was that night, so I made plans to quickly go to the barbecue as soon as the rally ended. Of course, by the time the rally ended, it was already about 7:30 and the barbecue was over. I made my way over to the Campanile anyways, just in case there was some free food left over, but by the time I made it, the take-down crew was already almost done cleaning up. Someone, probably seeing the disappointment on my face, told me that there were some leftovers, and that they could get some for me, but in the meantime, I was told to go into Wheeler Auditorium to watch the NSWN performances for the while.

I went into Wheeler, but I really didn’t pay too much attention. The skit, the message, the video – I don’t remember any of that. All I remember was the praise band’s singing “Sea of Faces”, which played a role in my coming out to Gracepoint – at the time, cool music was a big factor in my decision of what church to attend. I left the show early, picked up the food that was waiting for me at the Welcome Table, and went back to my dorm room. That was the extent of my experience of New Student Welcome Night in my freshman year.

By my sophomore year, I had been coming out to Gracepoint for almost a year, and I felt like I was a part of the community. When New Student Welcome Night came around, though, I didn’t feel any connection to it. I hadn’t been around for most of the preparation, and I didn’t really know what to expect, since I had only seen the last 10 or 15 minutes of NSWN the year before, so I basically experienced it as a bystander. I helped out a bit with the set-up on the Wednesday night showing (and felt pretty useless and ignorant while doing it, since I basically had to ask for directions at almost every step of the way), but when it came time for the actual showings, I treated New Student Welcome Night as just another post-Bible study activity – fun for spending time with everyone else, since most of the non-freshmen were kicked out and watched from the projector outside, but not really seeing the purpose behind it. I spent most of the time laughing at the videos and the skits, and realizing how much different my life might’ve been had I actually seen the whole thing. But when it was over, it was just that. Done. Gone. And my life was no different as a result.

When I found out a few weeks ago that I would be playing the gamer in the New Student Welcome Night skit, I was pretty excited. I thought I knew what to expect – performing a skit before hundreds of people wasn’t too foreign to me, especially having done G-Live just a few months before, and I at least thought I knew what went on behind the scenes. So when I came back to Berkeley on Tuesday, August 19th, I didn’t come with too much of a feeling of expectation, urgency, or realization of what I was participating in. If anything, I was filled with a feeling of self-importance, that I would be one of the few people in one of the high-visibility roles.

That pride quickly went away on Wednesday, August 20th. I think it was then that I really began to see what New Student Welcome Night was. I saw multitudes of students and staff coming out to 7 AM prayer walks in Berkeley, both preparing themselves and their own hearts for the upcoming school year and praying for the incoming students. I saw dozens of students spending their entire day at North Loop doing thankless jobs likes folding napkins, preparing A-frames, painting things for the Kairos Karnival – when most of them weren’t even in Kairos. I saw all the staff and post-grads devoting so much of their energy to working out all the details of Welcome Week. All the hours spent editing the video, all the time spent making the flyers look nice, all the time and people required – within the first day, I started to see the reality of the body of Christ in action, what verses like Ephesians 4:16, 1 Corinthians 12:12, and Romans 12:3-8 mean when they talk about each part of the body doing its own work in order for the body of Christ to move forth.

Still, I had trouble connecting what I was doing back to God. In skit practices, I was pretty much just going through the motions, treating it as if it were just another act. For a while, I didn’t connect the fact that the skit was a work of service to God. I realized then that it wasn’t a love for God or a desire to serve Him that motivated me to carry on; rather, it was just a sense of obligation, since I was already placed in the role. It was at that time that I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

I really came to see that what I was calling ‘serving God’ was just empty movements, since that underlying love for God was missing from the action. The message of that Friday night’s Bible Study/prayer meeting couldn’t have come at a better time, as it really helped me realize how undeserving I was of being able to serve God in the way that He gave me and how blessed I truly am with the opportunities that I have to connect with the incoming freshmen.

As for the actual week of New Student Welcome Night itself, it was both encouraging and stressful. Flyering for New Student Welcome Night was definitely more encouraging than flyering for a mid-year event like Gone last year or G-Live, as more people actually stopped and listened and were genuinely interested in coming out to the events, and I was really heartened by the fact that a good number of the people who I talked to while flyering/tabling were interested in joining a Christian fellowship at Cal. At the same time, the quickly-approaching Wednesday night showing induced more than a little bit of stress.

And in that last hour and a half spent in Pauley Ballroom waiting for New Student Welcome Night to begin, I couldn’t stop pacing around: the prospect of hundreds of people occupying the seats of Pauley Ballroom was a pretty scary thought. As the students started filtering in, some more expectant than others, some just there for the free food, some slightly jaded at the idea of NSWN being a Christian event, I felt pretty overwhelmed. I couldn’t help but think of my own inadequacies for doing the job. Yet one verse came to me as 7 PM neared:

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Because of God’s grace, something like New Student Welcome Night could be so successful. It wasn’t that any of us were extraordinary talented, nor did we have any skills that could singlehandedly make the whole thing possible. It was Christ’s power, working in all our weaknesses, through all of our sinfulness, through all our fears and insecurities, that made NSWN what it was.

So even though this was technically my third time seeing New Student Welcome Night, I was blessed more than ever, both during the actual showing and in the weeks of preparation leading up to it. It was an amazing reminder of what the body of Christ is capable of doing when it clearly sees its mission and each part does its work in serving God. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have participated in this great work, and I am looking forward to a semester of growing closer to God both on a personal level and with everyone else in A2F, including the new freshmen.

Aug
2

Glen Brook Visit

Tim/Debbie/George

A couple of Sundays ago, we joined the Elderly Care Ministry at Glen Brook Terrace to put on a Sunday Worship Service for the residents there. After some time for breakfast and getting to know some of the grandmas and grandpas there, we sang “It Is Well” and “Jesus, Your Name Is Power.” Then, Kenton gave a stirring message on Mark 4, the story of Jesus calming the storm, reminding us that Jesus always has the power to save His people when we call on Him, and our lives are always in the control of His mighty hands. Cheng gave a wonderful translation of the message in Mandarin for the Chinese speakers in the audience.

After the message, Grandma Mildred shared with us about her nephew’s recently being murdered in a drive-by shooting and sang a beautiful song (just an aside: does anyone know the name of the song?) that really pounded in the truth of the message that Kenton had given. I was personally reminded of how God comes to us in our times of greatest need, in the middle of the storms of our life, and comforts us like no other can. I’m thankful that I could see the work of God in action in the lives of others through our visit.

Mingling Time Kenton giving message

With the grandmas Group picture

Submitted by Raymond Yan

Aug
7

Sisters’ Perspective: Knockout

Featured Post, Tim/Debbie/George

Hey a2f! This is Vivian, another one of your friendly staff, to give you the sisters’ perspective on the Knockout game this past Friday. Knowing how defeated the brothers must’ve felt after being demolished so brutally by the sisters a few weeks ago, a rematch was set to give them a second chance (with the exception that we were missing two of our key players: Sarah Kim and Jenny Yen), but the sisters were a bit short handed in more ways than one.

Despite the fact that the sisters were outnumbered and the sisters played twice as much since it was 2:1 brother:sister ratio, shall we paint the picture of how most of the brothers got out? Three words: “Nothing but Net.” Most of the brothers got out not because the sisters were quick at rebounds, but because once they missed their first shot, the sisters were quick to get them out on the first try. Just ask some of the more vocal basketball loving brothers (ie: Jammy, Johnny, etc) who were shocked that they only had one-shot the entire game (or better yet, check out the videos below to see what I mean). Now could you imagine what would’ve happened if the sisters won again? I think we’d be having rematches every two weeks! So out of mercy, I believe we went easy on them.

Flickr Video

Three Words: Nothing but Net

Flickr Video

I completely agree with you Dan :)

Now the score is 1-1 and we can move on to other post-bible study activities. But at the end of the day, the brothers still have to admit that the sisters won the first time and the second time, it was closer than they would’ve liked.

Which perspective do you agree with more: mine or Kenton’s? Which seems more just and fair? Let us know what you think by commenting!

The blind scales of justice

**Disclaimer: The events recounted may be highly exaggerated and the views expressed here are solely the opinion of the blogger, who is not good at basketball yet was able to get some brothers out by pure luck and chance.

Aug
6

Reflections from Upperclassmen Discipleship Retreat

Featured Post, Tim/Debbie/George

Submitted by Raymond Yan

Last Friday night, all the juniors and seniors made their way to Sierra Lodge, where we had the combined Upperclassmen Discipleship Retreat. After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, we watched a few clips of RC Sproul’s “The Holiness of God.”

Brothers doing KP

Brothers doing KP

Brothers doing "KP"

Brothers doing "KP"

For me, the videos were probably the most memorable part of the retreat. They definitely allowed me to see God in a brand new way. From the contrasting examples of Isaiah in Isaiah 6 and Aaron’s sons in Leviticus 10 and Uzzah in 1 Chronicles 13, I saw God’s holiness and mercy in a completely new light. God’s holiness is so great that even the angels had to hide their faces before Him, yet so often I am flippant when it comes to acknowledging who God is, much like Nadab and Abihu were when they offered unauthorized fire before God or Uzzah when he presumptuously thought that he was preventing the ark of the covenant from being stained.

RC Sproul went on to say that because of God’s holiness, He is justified in punishing us for any disobedience, no matter how minor it might seem to us. What happens so often, though, is that we misinterpret God’s mercy, and since our sins go seemingly unpunished most of the time, we slowly begin to expect God to continue to show us mercy, as if God somehow owes us mercy. Rather, God’s mercy is a gift, which God can give only through withholding justice, through “being nonjust,” as Sproul said. This bit really hit home for me, as I came to realize that I did feel entitled to forgiveness and mercy, and that I was too often ignoring that fact that God’s justice had to be carried out on the cross through Jesus’s death.

Afterwards, we went over the book of Jeremiah. The image of the Israelites, who were serving idols and engaging in activity that Jeremiah spared no harsh words for, while at the same time ‘worshiping’ at the temple and saying “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,” forced me to examine my own life and see what kinds of idols I was serving. We also had some time to read and discuss a couple of short articles by Professor Budziszewski of UT about conversations he had during his office hours with students, specifically regarding relationships and dating, but also with other takeaways, such as removing ourselves from situations that may cause us to sin.

On Sunday, after watching the Truth Project video on God’s design in our social structures and having a thought-provoking discussion about the nature of submission and why it is necessary, we had an extended Q&A session with a very large panel of staff. Aside from finding out that most of the staff used to think that they were too cool for church, I think the session answered a lot of questions that I either had or would eventually come up about serving God, and I definitely have a greater appreciation for all the leaders and thankfulness to God for His working in their lives.

Not all was serious at the retreat, though. On Saturday afternoon, we had a bit of fun tossing each other into a lake, knocking each other off kayaks and rafts with long sticks, splashing water into each others’ faces – just the normal things you’d do at a lake.

Sarah seems pretty dry compared to how everyone else looked

Sarah seems pretty dry compared to how everyone else looked

And of course, a retreat has to have campfire time, complete with campfire songs and banana boats and ghost stories.

This time (probably to the disappointment of some of the brothers), we did not emulate the campfire scene from the film Glory.

This time (probably to the disappointment of some of the brothers), we did not emulate the campfire scene from the film Glory.

After we were adequately scared by Pastor Ed’s comment about the scariest thing to hear in a dark forest at night being a child’s laughter, we had a nice time of music, when people volunteered forth some songs that were really influential to them when they first came to know God. Personally, the song for me would probably be When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. The words “See from His head, His hands, His feet/ Sorrow and love flow mingled down/ Did e’er such love and sorrow meet/ Or thorns compose so rich a crown” remain powerful even as I’ve heard this song over and over.

I’m really thankful for this retreat. It was a well-needed time to just take time off from everything else that life shoves my way, and just focus on God once again, and I definitely felt that God spoke to me regarding many things, in spite of myself. Thanks again to Pastor Ed and Kelly and all the staff!

Sad that it's over :(

Sad that it's over :(