Epic Tales

One of our favorite Friday-night socials that we organize every semester is bowling. Thirteen lanes were reserved and got plenty of bowling action last Friday. Bowling really brings everyone together, probably because there are only a few high-scorers in the whole group and so we laugh for hours at our inability to knock down those frustrating pins.

We go all out for the first week of school to publicize Asian American Christian Fellowship at Penn State.

There’s plenty of competition for students’ attention. Returning students create flyers advertising first-week events and Turning Point, our large-group meeting (coming up tomorrow). They hand them out at the HUB and around campus amidst other groups advertising tutoring, fraternities and sororities, other religious groups, clubs, intramural sports, and many other things. Clearly, we want our new and returning students to be overwhelmed and exhausted–not by academics, but by extracurriculars–after just one week.

Of course not, but we do hope that some who may be looking for a spiritual connection, or maybe just a cultural one, will talk to one of the student leaders for a few seconds, take a flyer, and perhaps come out to one of our gathering events.

Community groups are gathering groups that we’re hosting for the first couple weeks of school. Food, games, and mingling. We want people to know that AACF exists because the group loves God and wants others to know about God. Yet, during this time where new students are exploring so many different options, we don’t want to come on too heavy. Spiritual topics are heavy topics. We’ll get to that.

There’s a new web site: www.clubs.psu.edu/up/aacf. The focus here is up-to-date information about what’s going on at AACF. Soon we hope to have some more media content here, such as video clips and recorded talks.

Some students have commented that they’ve seen our Facebook ad! I’m excited about this because it’s something I had wanted to try and just decided to go for it this year. Most Penn State students use Facebook. Actually, most of them use Facebook all day long. Buying an ad in Facebook makes sense, and it’s not too expensive. The ad proclaims, “Asian Americans at PSU: Meet other Asian Americans. Meet God. Visit AACF: Epic Penn State to find out more and join us for our first week of activities,” and links to our web site.  It might have been nice to have a little more space for more words, but it’s to the point.

Our two formerly-prospective interns, Kevin and Daphne, raised their required monetary support over the summer and will be joining our staff team this fall!  It’s exciting to have them joining us in our advising and support role of Penn State Epic.  They have been active in the fellowship since they came to Penn State and will have great insight as staff leaders.

Last night John and Sandy hosted a barbecue for the fall 2008 leadership team–staff, officers and servants.  Everyone seems to be refreshed from the summertime.  Many went on missions trips, including the East Asia trip I previously wrote about, and saw God working in wonderful and mysterious ways.  Others had more quiet summers at home or took on part-time jobs.  All seem excited to be back and to serve God in their own unique way at Penn State.

Today the same group met again during the day for prayer, brief leadership training and review of the first few weeks of the semester coming up.  Freshmen will be moving in tomorrow and Friday; other students will return to Penn State over the weekend.  Classes begin on Monday, and so we have the start of a new semester.

As fall semester approaches once again, I thank God for the slower pace of the summer and the resulting rest.

Soon it’s time to ramp back up! But first I get to spend several days at my parents’, celebrating with my cousin as she gets married and enjoying some family activities with my folks.

Today the small summertime crew of AACF students here in State College will be coming over for hamburgers on the grill. This was plan B; plan A was to get together at the park earlier in the afternoon but the scheduling didn’t work out so well. People come and go throughout the summer because the class sessions are only a few weeks and there are opportunities to go home or travel. There are usually a few “old heads” (graduates/staff) who are around for most of the summer.

Happy 6/21, the longest day of the year!