In short, we try to wreck their lives.
This experience consistently changes people. It gives them a new set of eyes to see their world and their role in it. It expands their pictures of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. New life-long friendships are formed. People have a difficult time going back and continuing to live the same way they did before.
Each year, if I am honest, I kind of dread summit. It is a lot of work and I know it is always challenging. But by the end, I am always so thankful that I did it and that the students who went got to have that experience.
This year, there were about 30 students from three campuses who went to summit. Eight of those students were from OSU: Sean, Kelly, Kayla, Lizeth, Elena, Nina, An, and Tylee. I very much enjoyed getting to spend the extra time with them and watchign God grow their hearts. Good times.
For my money, one of the most significant things we did at summit was talk about race and ethnicity. This can be a touchy subject and it often gets ignored, but you can't read Scripture (especially Acts, which we studied) without seeing how God moves people to cross cultural boundaries and put themselves in places they are uncomfortable.
Oregon State's fellowship is quite diverse with a large group of awesome Asian-American students involved. Though sometimes it feels like there are two separate fellowships. One for Asians and one for everyone else (mostly, if not entirely White students). In talking about this, we realized that we need to begin to change things at OSU. We need to ask God to bring us together in a new way that could be a powerful example of the Gospel to Oregon State. I am excited to try this but I know it will be difficult. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated.
I would like to share with you a little reflection about what God was doing in me at summit. Then Michael and Sean (Sean is going to be a senior Bible Study leader next year.) will share some of their reflections.
But first, Here are some pictures! Hey-O!
Reflections
From Ben:
On the second full day of summit we watched a video about the life of Mother Theresa. She was an amazing woman and if there was ever something that could make you feel like you weren't doing anything worthwhile with your life, it would be watching that movie.
But I realized that that would be missing the point. The last thing she would ever want is for us to feel guilty about our lives. In fact, she didn't even become the Mother Theresa we all know and love until she was over 40 years old! What was she doing the rest of the time?
And that was where I found the pot of gold. You see, when she was in her late teens, she decided to commit herself fully to Jesus. She became a nun. And for the next twenty years, she was nothing special. She was disciplined in her spiritual life and was doing her best to learn to love the people around her. Eventually she moved to India to work at a Catholic school. Her students really liked her. And that was all she did. She prayed and loved. That's it.
Then one day, Jesus called her to minister to the poorest of the poor and she said yes. How did she do that? Well, she had been saying yes to Jesus for 20 years in little tiny ways. Ways that didn't seem flashy or romantic or daring. Just humbly loving people around her with the love of Jesus.
That is what I took away from summit. My role right now is to let the ridiculous love of Jesus sink ever deeper into my own life and then to extend that love to others. I can trust God with the big plans. Right now, I am called to lay my life down in love for the sake of others.
So simple, yet it feels like the hardest thing to do.
From Michael:
This was my second summit experience and it impacted me just as much if not more than the first time. I was challenged in several areas. I would like to highlight a couple. Prayer. We studied the Lord's prayer as well as a prayer in Acts 4 made by the early church community. We also had times of prayer where we saw God bring emotional, spiritual, and physical healing. Praise God! These experiences increased my understanding of who God is and what He is capable of. I realized my previous view of God was too small.
We watched a video about Mother Teresa and her work in India. It blew me away. She is a tremendous example of what it looks like to love people well. Sacrifice and giving of yourself. One of the many quotable comments made by Mother Teresa was "It's not how much we do or give it's how much love we put into doing and giving." God is doing a good work in my heart, revealing some selfish attitudes and teaching me how to love people well.
Lastly, I worked at a place in Portland called Dignity Village. This place was founded by homeless people. It allows people who were formerly on the streets to be housed and apart of a community. They village has five rules. No violence, theft, drugs/alcohol, or constant disruptive behavior. The last rule is that each community member must contribute 10 hours a weeks to upkeep and maintenance of the village. The people there was fantastic. It was a real joy being able to work alongside them. Many relationships were formed and a lot of stereotypes about homeless people were broken.
From Sean:
Entering into Summit this year as a student leader going through it again, I had a lot of expectations of what it should be like. I tried to anticipate how God was going to work in me and the things He was going to teach me. I quickly realized that I would have to let these feelings go. I was struggling to let the experiences and teachings of social justice and a multiethnic church sink deeper than the surface layer, it wasn't hitting any places inside me that would spark life changes.
Frustrated with myself, I gave all my expectations, burdens, sin, guilt to God; I wanted to release all the barriers. Through watching a video on Mother Teresa's work in Calcutta, an extraordinary time of Communion, and worship sessions, God totally revealed how much my heart truly longed for Him and took away a lot of my frustrations. Not only did Summit reinforce the need for social justice and love, it showed me how I needed to genuinely give and receive love from Jesus as the way I love others around me, whether they are homeless, a different race, or a different religion.
And there you have it! Thank you for all your prayers and support this year. I will be writing more this Summer so be on the look out! Peace!
