ÂÌñÒùÆÞ

When I moved back to Hawai‘i in 2007, I participated in Ho‘olohe Pono—a two week summer immersion into the Native Hawaiian community—to listen, learn, and serve with the aloha (love) of Jesus. 

As a little girl, I had a negative perspective of the word ‘different.’ Why? Because throughout elementary and middle school I was teased and made fun of because I was different. So over time, I changed how different I was, to blend in.

I didn’t expect Jesus to show up in a bar that evening. No, it wasn’t a hipster dude with a big beard. It was at my high school reunion where I reconnected with Chris—a formerly awkward and quiet student who now sported snazzy glasses, stylishly gelled hair, and an identity as an openly gay man.

I don't know what I expected when Kaben waltzed into my freshman dorm room. It was my first week of college, and my roommate and I were sitting in our dorm room doing nothing in particular. Kaben and his friend TJ were saying hi to their sophomore friends who lived down the hall from us.

Freshmen: calm down, you don’t need to bring your text books to class. You might expect the first week to be challenging and filled with assignments, but returning students know that it generally means getting a syllabus and leaving class after ten minutes.

This summer, seventeen ÂÌñÒùÆÞ staff and students took part in Borderlands, a special track of the Los Angeles Urban Project. They spent time in Tijuana, San Diego, and Fresno to learn more about the issue of immigration and to understand the issue through a Christian lens. 

When you write a letter to someone, what is the last thing you say? Sometimes, we save the most important pieces of information for last: the best thing that has been going on lately, that ‘big news’, or the most critical thing that you want your reader to remember.

There is such a thing as healthy, mature disagreement. I know there is. I have seen it a few times in my life and it is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, it is not that common. I have seen the opposite—the passive aggressiveness, the gossiping, the judgmental assumptions, the divisive

Each summer we partner with the Bosnian IFES movement (EUS) and send a team to Bosnia—to teach English to Bosnian college students and to share our lives and faith.

Each morning, I find myself thinking: Less than two weeks? Less than two weeks! In less than two weeks, I’ll be back at school preparing for my senior year of college. Part of me feels like summer just started, but then part of me has been pining to get back to campus for months.