Session 1: God is Real (1/2)

Again, for those of you I haven't met yet my name is Ken, and man there’s a lot more of you now than when I last sat where you sat. Looking back through the years it's been such a long time since I last stood in front of HCCF. I started in this very fellowship in 2002, and spent the last 4 or so years working with fellowships across the province, mainly connecting through Campus Challenge (the annual summer conference for Ontario CCF's).

I guess you could say I have a tendency to work with Chinese Christian students. One of the big reasons is because I was one, and whether you're born here or not, our culture and ethnicity has shaped us, or often times misshaped us, in such a unique way and I've definitely been in those shoes. By day I'm a full time project engineer with Environment Canada, so not only have I been where you sit today, chances are in a couple years time you're going be where I am. Maybe even a couple months time for some of you graduates, but I know you’d rather not think about that right now.

This morning for our first meeting together I want to share my story with you. I always find it weird that some dude stands in front of a crowd of young Christians, and as long as he's middle aged and Caucasian, they'd pay attention to him. Well I'm neither of those so I figured I'll spend this first session having you get to know me a bit, get to know what I've been through, the messes I've made, and for me to share with you an encounter of God presence, grace, and love in a life that 6 years ago wasn't all that much different from yours.

Story: "Ken's testimony"

It's been 5 years, 5 Months, 16 days since that night. I would be lying if I said that it's been all peaches and cream from that moment on. Maybe some other time I'll share with you how I became the director of maturity for an entire church at age 25, and an elder of a church of nearly a thousand 2 years later, and how big of a mess that was, but those stories will have to wait for another day.

There are a lot of things I don't understand about all the theological stuff that people love to talk about nowadays, there are lots of mysteries that God still has yet to make clear to me, but this much I know, not just to be true, but this much I know to be real. God is real, he is alive, and He saved me from me. To this day I still can’t fully comprehend why He welcomed me home, and as cliched as it sounds, I've never been the same.