Grace Christian Fellowship

Grace Christian Fellowship (’09-’10) – Year End Praise June 1, 2010

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

What an amazing year God has blessed us with! We just wanted to take a few moments to let you know what has been happening on Cornell’s campus and what some of our future plans are as this year comes to a close.

Name Metamorphosis
After many hours of prayerful discussion, dialogue, and debate, the fellowship had a chance to vote on a new name. We had concluded that a name change would help to clarify our purpose on this campus and our reason for existing as an Asian-American fellowship. We also wanted to make our affiliation with InterVarsity more apparent so that people realize that there is a huge network of people sharing God’s love and a common vision. Greg Jao, the regional director for the New York/New Jersey region of InterVarsity, recently spoke to us at a large group about the strengths and weaknesses of being an ethnic specific fellowship. As Grace Christian Fellowship, we are a "Pan-Asian chapter of InterVarsity." In order to better clarify our mission, we wanted to be bold about who we are and the emphasis on intentionally relating to those in the Asian-American community. In the end, over 2/3 of the fellowship decided on the name "Asian American InterVarsity" (Fact: over 8 other IV fellowships around the country share this name). As a result, this coming Fall ’10, we will no longer be known as Grace Christian Fellowship, but rather as Asian American InterVarsity.

Basileia
With three cars packed full of Cornell people, we spent 6 days in the Adirondack Mountains learning more about God’s vision for the campus as well as the people in it. We had at least one person in every track from Engaging God’s World to Work Crew (Happening This Week). On the last night, we took some time to share and testify to what we had learned at Basileia. It was amazing to hear how people had been able to personalize InterVarsity’s vision to see Students and Faculty Transformed, Campuses Renewed, and World Changers Developed. We are excited to see what we can accomplish this fall! Another e-mail will be sent out shortly regarding New Student Outreach (NSO) details and how you can help.

As we go about planning events for this coming semester, we want to make sure that what we do accomplishes at least one part of the IV vision. We are not solely an in-reach or outreach fellowship. We want to be a loving community that can support and care for one another as well as our neighbors, while at the same time encouraging and lifting one another up in our walks with God. Imagine if we were able to unite and create a true sense of community at Cornell because of our genuine love for one another and our hope in a renewed campus. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Changes
Over the summer, there will be numerous changes being made to the listserv as well as many other aspects of the fellowship (e.g. website, blog, t-shirts, etc). We will do our best to let you know ahead of time when these changes will be made, especially to the listserv, so that you are not left in the dark. If you have any questions, feel free to contact anybody on the servant team and we would be glad to assist you.

Thanksgiving and Blessing
On behalf of Asian-American InterVarsity, we would like to thank everyone for a wonderful and blessed year. Thank you especially to the class of 2010 who helped to encourage all of us to reach for our goals and deepen our understanding and relationship with Jesus Christ. Have a safe and wonderful summer. We look forward to seeing you in the near future!

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19)

In Him,
Keren, Andy, Tim, Chelsea, Helen (AAIV Servant Team)