Visual Journey through the year

http://prezi.com/wzzqvdfbvaes/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

I created a visual presentation of our community's journey this year on Prezi that I'd like to share with you. When I walked through this journey with our students, I paired it with the spiritual discipline of the Examen, the regular practice of which has helped many Christians recognize the presence of God in the good, difficult, and mundane events of their lives. 

Afterwards, we responded with a post-it note activity so our community could see the ebb and flow of joy and sorrow over the course of the year. Each person wrote on three post-its: green for a meaningful, life-giving event; pink for a confusing, painful situation; and blue for a gift/good thing we are grateful for. Reading over these responses, I could see that God had been gracious in the midst of trials. I also noticed that our post-its together created a kind of balance at each point in the year--not everyone individually suffered or rejoiced at the same time, but we were a body together in the midst of those unpredictable waves.

I am so thankful that God made community to encourage, challenge, and resource us for all seasons. This picture of teamwork and mutual concern invites us to experience God's intention for relationships.

Asian American Focus Group Wins Video Contest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugsw2_7ttuE

Our Asian American Focus Group was recently invited by Oakland Asian Community Center to enter a video for their context highlighting Asian Pacific Islander narratives (#APIvoices). The opportunity to participate in spaces outside of a Christian context excited us, so we decided to go for it! 

We pulled this video together (with help from a former CCF staff, Nate Lee, who lent us his spoken word piece) in a week! We actually won the Juried Award for the contest, which means that the judges (Terry Park of Hyphen Magazine, YouTube artist Jason Chu, and Angela Pang of AsianWeek Foundation) chose our video as their favorite. To see their shout-outs, and the other video that was chosen, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cjLqO9hj_o&feature=youtu.be

The entire undertaking brought our focus group closer together as well as established tighter bonds with the broader API community at Cal and in the area. We are so grateful for God's hand in all of this, knowing that the way things came together so well was a blessing.

Check out this photo we took with YouTube star AM Kidd when we attended OACC's Rhythms and Sounds show:

(it's nice that we had specially labeled chairs, too!)

Last Mark Study of the semester!

What a great semester of diving deep into the gospel of Mark. I am so grateful for the way Jesus showed up in our group. Sometimes, I saw Jesus in big, obvious ways, such as when our one international student shared how much he appreciated the Mark study community and how he could see God's hand in his time at Cal, teaching him to humble himself so that he could return to his home country with a spirit of love and generosity.

Other times, the work of Jesus felt invisible as we plowed through stories without coming to any firm conclusions as a group. I knew that it takes time to build the skills of asking textually based questions and identifying the core tensions of a passage, but I wondered if we as teachers should be pushing harder or backing off of the correctives. I wrestled with Jesus myself in the process. Then, as we invited students to reflect on what the stories have shown them, I read this student's response:

What I learned through Mark Study was to be curious and ask ... To not be fearful of the future and what it may bring, for when I am afraid is when I do not ask ... 
I should just ask him, whether to get rid of the fears that paralyze or the daily issues that I deal with daily. I should ask humbly of my Lord and he will be compassionate. Just as he was to the woman with bleeding, the man whose daughter died, and the paralyzed who he healed. It is by approaching God that I can find him and be healed.

Praise God for opening pathways into places of struggle for students and pouring His grace and love in. I am blessed that I get to see students making new, bolder choices as a result of experiencing Jesus in this seminar.