never forget...what happened at hikoi

Hi everyone! If you were on the same boat as me (not at HiKoi :/ last night), here’s a recap of the night to catch you up!

Like last week, the night started at 7:00 with prayer led by Maxton. He reminded us that all the concerns and problems that we face have nothing on God because His power is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9).

When HiKoi officially started at 7:30, Hannah led an introductory game called Noah's Ark in which people got into groups based on her directions. After a time of getting to know each other, this year's counselors introduced themselves through a crazy game of chubby bunny, but with sandwiches instead of the classic marshmallows. Following that, Nathan had everyone categorize themselves into groups and answer random questions.

Everyone split into pseudo groups for the rest of the night. Nikki and her group played apples to apples, where a judge picked the best card that fit a given category. Bradley played ballislife, in which people sat in a square and tried to score goals for their team while a goalie rolled around to defend the team. Those in Gloria's group competed in intense games of relay dictionary while Kristy and her group played balloon stomp. Sam led a game of Never Have I Ever combined with Fruitbowl. Bryan discovered the talent of the people in his group through a game of Secret Dancer, where one person leads everyone else in dance sequences and one person guesses the leader of the dance.

We hope to see you next week!

Cheyenne

But God

What does it mean to be on fire? What does it look like? What does it take to say that you are passionate for anything, much less God?

We often talk about wanting to be on fire for God. We sing it. We pray and seek it for ourselves. On the rare occasion, we even pray it over other people.  

We are so often enamored by the idea of being on fire that we forget exactly what it is that we desire for ourselves and, more importantly, where it comes from, or what fuels it. I fear that, should Satan ever place something in our lives that looks like being on fire and feels like being on fire, we would be thoroughly and utterly fooled. I fear that we are completely content to look like we are on fire on the outside and to feel as if we are on fire on the inside, all the while being unknowingly led further from God and His purpose.  

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

Ephesians 2:1-8

I think that this passage should stir our understanding of salvation. It’s not that Jesus sees us drowning and waving, swims out, and brings us back. Paul doesn’t write that. Paul writes that we weren’t flailing and struggling in our sin. We weren’t yelling out to be saved. We weren’t doing any of those things because we were dead in it. The accurate picture is that we were dead in our transgressions and Jesus dove into the water, pulled our lifeless bodies out, and breathed His grace into our lungs so that we may come back to life and live for something more. 

In looking back at my life, I notice moments where I see now that I was dead and I didn't even know it.  I had grown so comfortable with sin in my life that I was okay with living in it. I didn't want to change. I didn't want to leave some relationships. I didn't want to stop abusing substances. I didn't want to leave my addictions. And little by little, Satan was taking me out to sea. But God made us -- made me -- alive together with Christ.

BUT GOD...how beautiful is that. That in the midst of our trials, in the middle of our misery, in the depths of our sin, God interrupts with His love. 

In high school, my family fell apart and my grades were shot. I was unmotivated and depressed and I was about to give up BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, brought me out. 

In college, I struggled with my identity and finding community. I was drowning in lust and addiction and I felt like all the progress I had made in high school was disappearing BUT GOD, because of His great love, pushed me forward. 

After I graduated, I was confused with God's will for my life and I wandered away from Him seeking my own way to what I thought was success, BUT GOD, even when I was dead in my wanderings, showed me that He had a plan and purpose for my life.

If you were to ask me today where my fire and where my passion for God comes from, I would tell you about my BUT GOD moments. I would tell you how, while I was dead in my transgressions, dead in my sin, in the pits of it all, Jesus dove in and pulled me out. That while I wandered from Him and was lost in my own path, He walked in and led me out. That is where my passion for living for God comes from.

What are your BUT GOD moments? Can you say that you were dead and God saved you? Or do you still not know that you're still dead, still in sin, still comfortable in your plan and your ambition? 

We ask to be on fire for Jesus an awful lot. But can we be on fire without truly knowing who lights it? Can we be on fire when we're drowning in an ocean?

A Modest Introduction...

My humble apologies for the delay in my post.  Rather than reading through a whole description of my life, both recent and past, I may as well tell it through pictures.  After all,  "a picture is worth a thousand words." :)  Enjoy!

Let me tell you a story...

Whenever I think of the theme ON FIRE I always think of that lesson Uncle Tolman taught in Children's Worship. He spoke of "hot" verses that would make the Bible come to life. Of course, we didn't believe him when he said the Bible would literally "come to life" so he proceeded to opening the Bible and reading John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..." suddenly, the Bible was on fire and continued to rage until he closed the book. The word was unharmed, but in that moment I knew how powerful God's word was.

Fast forward to now; the beginning of school. Being sick with an unknown sickness and feeling overloaded with work, you could say I was exhausted. While doing devotions I read Isaiah 43:2:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,

Nor will the flame burn you."

Definitely a reminder of who's in control and how God is always with me. It brought me back to the mentality I had while on missions this past summer, how I let go of all my anxieties and put God in control. I knew that He was speaking to me and telling me not to worry, but to trust in Him.

SOO...Whether you're dying of the heat, struggling to finish (or begin) college apps, or doing something as simple as eating breakfast; know that God is there with you and He is only a conversation away.

Ok here's some facts about me if you've made it this far:
1. I'm left-handed
2. I rapped a Nikki Minaj for class once
3. I've burned rice krispy treats before
4. I trip on air
5. I still fit my 5th grade graduation shirt like Charmaine

K Bye :)

Hey! Did you miss HiKoi last night? (Don't worry, I did too :/ ) But I gotchu with a recap so you can feel in the loop :)

If you came last night, YAY I hope you had tons of fun! The night started out at 7:00 with a prayer session before the HiKoi meeting led by this year's prayer director, Maxton. He reintroduced the theme, ON FIRE, and focused on the meaning of loving God. If you missed it last night, make sure to check it out in the future for encouragement and prayer with your friends and other people you might not get the chance to talk to normally!

Naomi then led Shuffle Butt, a game in which everyone sat in chairs that formed a circle. Everyone worked collectively to occupy an empty chair within the circle to prevent the person in the middle from having a chance to sit in the extra chair. To do this, the person next to the empty chair had to shuffle his/her butt into the vacant chair, and the action would be repeated to exclude the center person from the chair circle.

The game was followed by an introduction of the officers brought to you by Hannah and Maxton. Teams were formed for people to participate in a game of three truths and one lie, where they had to guess which piece of information about each officer was the lie. If the wrong answer was chosen, participants endured consequences, which ranged from physical punishments such as pushups and planks to typical youtube challenges like the chubby bunny challenge or the salty cracker challenge.

This week, Charmaine presented the first leg of this year's theme by sharing a video of the gospel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48-Li7lIfA The whole concept of the gospel was summarized into a five minute video in which a man told the basic story of the Christian faith using spoken word, which is kind of like a rapped sermon, but like rhythmic and super cool. (Check out the video if you have time!) A short time of reflection followed, and everyone had a chance to think about living out the gospel in their own lives.

Afterwards, people were split into pseudo groups, which are designed to give everyone a brief preview of what small groups will be like in following weeks. This week, Nikki led a game of Kemp, a card game. Bradley played spoons with the high schoolers in his pseudo groups, and Kristy had people get to know each other better through games of knee bopper. Gloria's group members passed objects around to each other using different parts of their body. Bryan and his pseudo group rotations played Zoo, and Sam's group played pictionary with pictures drawn with feet only. Come next week to experience round two of pseudo groups with this year's small group leaders!

Announcements:

Maxton leads prayer every week at 7:00 pm. Come pray and spend time with each other!

If you can't make it that early though, arrive at 7:30 for a night of fellowship in the second floor of the Hall of Truth :)

Have an amazing week! (See you next Friday?) :)

Lots of love,

Cheyenne

HI, NICE TO MEET YOU.

WHERE YOU BEEN?

[sorry I had to..]

Hello, hey, hi there. I'm Charmaine, and it is indeed very nice to meet you. My mind is all over the place because I just have a lot of things to be excited for this year. I'm really happy for hikoi to have begun. And though it takes a lot of planning, seeing the fruits of my and everyone else's labor is worth it. To start off, here are some fun facts about me :)

1. I still fit into my fifth grade graduation shirt. I'll wear it sometime if y'all want proof.

2. My favorite thing at Chipotle is the kid's meal because they give you quesadillas AND chocolate milk. Btw, I just learned how to spell quesadillas while typing this.

3. For Chinese new year, I used to put money in the regular envelopes you use to mail letters to people and then color them red to give to my parents.

4. It would be cool to drive a motorcycle.

5. I want to have a cat - one that stays tiny and adorable forever - and two dogs when I grow up.

6. Once, I had pizza three times in one week. I decided it was gross for awhile, but now it's all good. 

7. My favorite pop songs right now are One Last Time by Ariana Grande and Locked Away by R. City ft. Adam Levine. Bottom Dollar by D-Pryde is a cool song too. The favorite Christian song is You Have My Surrender by Lauren Daigle (of course).

8. I've been like obsessed with milk tea recently.

9. I'm absolutely terrible at tennis in real life but I was a star player on Wii.

10. I was eating pizza at the Arboretum once and this duck came out of the pond and kept following me around.

11. My seventh grade teacher called me Charlemagne so I'm technically royalty.

12. Those are all the facts because I like the number 12.

Here are some pictures for your amusement. You're welcome.

This is one of my first trips to China on missions. Literally a decade ago wow. I think the balloon hat is coming back in style.

some of my favorite people ever <3

back when I was a snapchat artist. also, self explanatory.   

hi SAMantha

the neighbor (who's looking at a squirrel) and yours truly are super hyped for this year. hope you are too!

Hope y'all keep bringing your lovely faces back to church on Friday nights :)

First Night Back & We're on Fire!

Miss Hi-Koi last night? No worries! I'll give you the lowdown.

Thanks to all who came last night! First night of the year was quite magical as we spilt up into teams to create the prettiest Hogwarts out of newspaper and cardboard and played a crazy version of Quidditch to destroy each others castles which involved striking down plastic bottles representing the amount of lives each team had. Of course we had a dragon roaming around, spitting fire, and wrecking havoc.

Charmaine then introduced the theme of the year, ON FIRE, along with the theme verse:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." - Mark 12:30
The purpose behind the theme is to encourage us to come before God and worship Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. We want to be able to passionately live every aspect of our Christian walk for God.

Hannah then led us in a time of worship along with Charmaine and Maxton. Afterwards, the officers introduced themselves along with one of their embarrassing moments. (I'm sure all of us have more so feel free to ask us; especially if some officers didn't say!) We closed the night with food which were delicious root beer floats!

Announcements:
- Hi-Koi starts at 7:30 in the Hall of Truth 2nd Floor! Please arrive on time as more time = more fun!

- Prayer at 7:00! Maxton will be leading prayer weekly! Come pray for Hi-Koi :)

- Pseudo Groups are next week! These are temporary small groups where you get to experience a small group setting. Come, come because they're super fun!

See you next week!
With love,
Naomi