NorCal Youth Rally: April 19, 2014
On April 19, 2014, there was a youth rally for the Northern California Korean SDA Churches. The theme was “Intelligent Design.” There were 90 youth from 5 different churches that came: Sacramento, Mountain View, Napa, Rohnert Park, and Pleasanton. They gathered there on a Sabbath afternoon, and heard a rousing message from Pastor Danny Garza, a youth pastor from Granite Bay SDA Church.
He told a story of a woman, who was being followed by a man in a car. When she finally stopped to confront him, he told her to pop her trunk. And they found a criminal in there who had intended to murder her. When the police later asked her to describe what she first thought about the man following her, she said he appeared scary, mean, someone trying to hurt her. But after she found out he was trying to help her, she described the same man as kind, gentle, and in a positive light.
Pastor Garza was pointing out how our perception of God are also twisted by our misunderstanding – because some people don’t realize how much God, as their Creator, loves them. Many non-Christians project a lot of negative characteristics upon God, because they don’t understand His character. Just like the woman, who misunderstood the man that was trying to help.
After the sermon, the youth broke off into 12 discussion groups by age. The collegiate group raised some interesting points about creation and evolution. The PUC students gave examples from their science classes, about how many of the professors who teach high-level biology have some serious questions about the fossil record, and geologic evidence. There are a lot of evidence out there, which seems to point to an earth that is billions of years old. But they also show evidence that will always be skewed in a world that is atheistic, that puts science above God’s word. God has made it so it will always take a degree of faith in order to believe. He’s not going to take our choice away.
The parents at Pleasanton put together a delicious dinner of lo mein, sushi, ice cream floats, brownies, and fruit. After having some fellowship, the breakout groups practiced a skit and performed in front of their peers. Many of the groups did a classroom scene where a professor tries to convince students of evolution, but the students rebel! One of the funniest groups, led out by Julie Chung, was of a girl who’s looking for Mr. Right, and finds him hidden among the bad boys. He removes his shirt, only to find an “Intelligent Design” t-shirt underneath. What a happy ending!
It really was a high Sabbath, to have all the churches in Norcal together in one place to worship and fellowship. The next event? The leaders are planning a fall camping retreat, to be announced soon!
