Dennis Kang is a member Waypoint Community Church in Davis, California. Here is his story:
"The Seeker Small Group experience this past year has been both exciting and a good learning experience. Last year during the winter time I got a chance to start our church's first college Seeker Small Group at UC Davis. It was an exciting time when one of my freshmen friends invited a lot of his friends to try out a SSG. Our first meeting was amazing as there were about eleven college students! The time together was fun and the college students seemed to have enjoyed it. As the rest of the school year went on, the numbers fluctuated depending on their schedules and interest. Yet as we ended, we got a chance to talk to another 10 students. To my surprise, as the school year was ending, two other SSGs started without much effort on our part. We really felt God was indeed doing a great work through these small groups where these students could talk about religion, faith and purpose in a safe environment.
As the second school year started, I was looking forward to starting the SSG again, yet things didn't pan out as there was a lack of interest. School started to really get busy quickly for the college students so that they didn't have time. I started feeling discouraged at their lack of interest, but I know that during this time, God was teaching me some important lessons. His first lesson to me was to be faithful in the lives of these students as it wasn't about numbers, or even about having a thriving SSG, but it was about each individual person drawing closer to God, and this could only happen when those strong bridges were built. These students needed to know that, on a person level, we really cared for them. Hence, I realized God was telling me that His work in people's lives was going to be done at His timing and in His way, and what I needed to do was be faithful in investing in these students by loving them and by praying for them.
Another important lesson that I learned was that I needed to open my eyes to the work that God was doing in the other SSGs that started last year. One group in particular seems to be really growing and the students are really developing spiritual interest. I see that God was reminding me that this was an amazing work and that I needed to really rejoice in this. He was reminding me that His work was happening all around me and that I needed to stop having tunnel vision and looking at the thing that I was involved in only, but rather I needed to be encouraged at the work that He was doing all around me. And when I finally got to see that, I couldn't help but marvel and praise God at the work that He was doing in the other SSG as well." - Dennis Kang
Comments