As the kickoff event for this past week’s International Education Week, campus ministries hosted an International Worship Night for LOFT. Titled “Arise & Shine,” the service was led in song, devotion and prayer by many groups made up of minority and international Calvin students. The night started off with a performance from Africapella, followed by songs led by a Korean worship team.
As a strong testament to the diversity among Calvin’s student body, the second portion of the LOFT service included a video of students reading from the week’s passage, Isaiah 60:1–6, in French, Korean, Turkish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Twi, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and German.
Linda Bosch, assistant dean of international student development, then shared a devotion titled “International Education and God’s Light.” In conjunction with Isaiah 60, Bosch read from Genesis 1, highlighting verse 27, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Bosch reflected on the beauty of God’s diversity in creation, that to understand God’s creation in a wholesome way entails valuing both the similarities and differences amongst our cultures. In fact for Bosch, as humans, our vestige of the image of God cannot be most fully depicted in any one individual or even any one culture.But rather, the image of God is most clearly encapsulated in the wide acknowledgment of cultures across the world. Bosch emphasized the need to accept all cultures with their own individual strengths and weaknesses. As an example, Bosch cited that on the one hand some cultures emphasize productivity and individuality, but may miss out on the community and familial emphases of other cultures.
Following Bosch’s devotion two Calvin students shared their experiences of transitioning to Calvin as minorities and international students, as well as ways to pray for growing diversity on campus. Makara Kungu, a junior originally born in Kenya who grew up in California, closed by saying, “again, we understand that reaching out and interacting with people who are not like you can be uncomfortable. However we pray that God can give us motivation and courage to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. To not give up and work through the awkward moments. Because it is through these awkward moments that God is pleased with our efforts to grow as brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Ethan DeVries, student body president, also spoke on some of the issues that white students may face in their transition to college. While not denying the difference of experiences between minority students and white students, DeVries said that, “When I first came to Calvin I remember asking my RA, how would I fit into this community, how would I make good solid friendships. He told me you need to be intentional. Being confused by what that meant, it took a while to adjust and find where God was calling me to belong in this community.”
Addressing the issue of cultural engagement DeVries also said, “as Americans, we often can display an arrogance that our culture is somehow better and others are less than; this is often driven by our belief that America is the super power in the world. While this may not be everyone’s intentions, our attitudes and actions may continue to display this message. Please pray that God will give us humility as we interact with others on campus.”
At the end of the night a pastor from Grace CRC led a Korean style prayer, where everyone voiced their individual prayers out loud in unison. The night was finished off by a performance of an African dance, several songs from an Indonesian, Chinese and Malaysian group of students, and Chaplain Paul Ryan concluded the kickoff event with a rendition of “How Great is Our God” that featured multiple languages.
