The Meaning of Worship

Introduction, Worship, Offering, Communion, Sermon, Worship, Outro. We always have worship in our church services. The band is on stage singing out their hearts and people are lifting up their hands. What are they doing?

Worship is such a beautiful response to God's character and his being and all that he has done for us.

I remember when I went to a Soul Survivor Youth Conference and there were around five thousand youth just praising God and dancing together. It's so amazing when we, the body of Christ can come together and worship God in unity. 

There's one verse which I think sums up why we worship very well; it's Romans 12:1, which says:

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

Faith + School

I've gone through High School. I've gone through Post-Secondary. I've been in school my whole life. Basically, all I know is school.

High school is a time of decisions: What should I do when I graduate? Is that friend going to be a good influence in my life? Should I go to that party? Should I do this? Should I do that?

and...surprise! Post-secondary is pretty much the same thing!

So how do you make your decisions? And how do you integrate your faith and school?

In my life of school, I've picked up a few things....

MORALS & ETHICS & VALUES
Self check: When that exam is too hard, do you look at your neighbour's answer to 'double-check' your own? You procrastinated or you stayed out too late the night before. Do you give your teacher a made up excuse or do you frantically copy what your friend has written? Is it obvious to others that I value honesty and integrity?

[What the bible says]

CHOICES
Self check:

INFLUENCE
How others influence you
Self check: Are you constantly trying to keep up with the current trends? Do your friends persuade you to do stuff that you know is wrong? What motivates you?

How you influence others
Self check: When people look at me or talk to me, can they tell that there's something different about me? Do I encourage my friends to do the right thing, or do I encourage them to do what everyone else is doing, even if it's wrong?

PRIORITIES
Self check: What do you put first? School? Friends?

3D CAMP!

The four of us went to Camp Charis over the weekend (june 28-30); a beautiful camp in Chilliwack jam packed with fun! It was really exciting as there were many activities, games and free time where we could get to know each other better and take a break from our daily routines. Furthermore, Joshua Cruz, a teacher at Trinity Western came to talk about the Holy Spirit and Spiritual Fillings. We all learned something from this, whether big or small and we are grateful for him coming to speak! 
I just want to share with you some things we learned this weekend on this topic~

First Session - The Battle for Your Soul
Starting off, Joshua drew a triangle on the board. He labelled the corners; thoughts,  feelings, and behaviour. All three are linked together and are influenced by each other.
He told us this story:
Imagine you are on a coach and there are 2 toddlers running up and down the aisle hitting the chairs as they pass and they accidently hit you too. The father is sitting in front of you and you are just wondering why he cannot keep control of his children.

Main messages were that we should not let our faith and thoughts be influenced by our feelings. Neither should we let our desires be driven by them, but by the holy spirit.
If our thoughts are grounded in the Word, then they will guide our actions too.
Like the saying goes: rubbish in, rubbish out. If we ingest the word and understand it, then we can learn to act and behave more as the spirit leads

QOTD #4: Are you scared of the boogie man?

QOTD #4: Imagine this, you are trapped in a room with mirrored walls. It's dark and the lights are flickering. Suddenly, something pops out and scares the crap out of you. What is it?

Howie: Michelle

HP: Michelle

Michy: Clowns

Sim: Michelle

QOTD #3: If you were a candy, which candy would you be?

QOTD #3: If you were a candy, which candy would you be?



Howie: I'm the wrapped candy from candy crush...because I'm...the bomb :D

HP: Gumballs because they taste better the closer you get to the middle

Michy: Pop Rocks because I want to be a rockstar (like Hannah Montanna) (y)

Sim: Black Licorice because no one would eat me. 

QOTD #2: Which High School Musical character do you most relate to?

QOTD: Which High School Musical character do you most relate to?


Howie: none. I'm lame. I don't know what High School Musical is. Never seen it.

*Expert opinion: Howard would most relate to Ryan. Ryan is chill and laid back but he's not afraid to stand up for what he believes in (ie. telling his sister that he's joining the Troy and Gabriella's group). And don't you think he looks like the asian version of Ryan?






HP: Kelsi Nielsen: She's musically talented and doesn't bother a direct confrontation with Sharpay. However, she works behind the scenes with Troy and Gabriella to help them sing their song and beat Sharpay. She sings (okay) and plays the piano =) (Like me). And I prefer Kelsi's version of "You are the Music in Me" to Sharpay's version.




Michy: Sharpay. All the way. (See what I did there? haha). Sharpay knows what she wants and goes after it. It's all about the confidence - she believes in herself and pursues her dreams and passions, even when certain obstacles (ie. Gabriella) get in her way.








 Sim: ummm I've never watched High School Musical.

*Expert opinion: As a self-proclaimed nerd, Sim would most relate to Taylor McKessie. She is smart and competes in science competitions. She is also Gabriella's sidekick and voice of reason.

Faith + (fill in the blank)

We're starting a mini series called  "Faith + (fill in the blank)" where we will talk about some of our experiences, challenges, and what we've learned.

We're all university students so we are by no means life experts but we're gonna use what God has given us to encourage you all :)

In the upcoming weeks, we'll focus on:

Faith + School
Faith + Friends
Faith + Relationships
Faith + Family
Faith + Me
Faith + Us
Faith + the Future

Stay tuned :)

-Mich

TheBACinterns Library

Bonjour, Ni Hao, Hallo, Aloha, Konichiwa, Hola, Readers~

As you can tell from the title, this is theBACinterns library! I'm just going to list a bunch of books that we will be delving through this Summer Semester and we shalt be writing book reviews/interesting things that we have learned, found while reading them. Hopefully they'll interest you and maybe you can check it out yourself :)

Here they are:

#1: Bible
By: God
#2: I am not, but I know I am              
By: Louie Giglio
#3: Gods at war                                  
By: Kyle Idleman
#4: Follow You                                    
By: David Platt
#5: not a fan.                                        
By: Kyle Idleman
#6: Power in Prayer                              
By: Andrew Murray
#7: Thinking in Systems                        
By: Donella H. Meadows
#8: Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road?            
By: Brian D. Mclaren
#9: While Shepherds Watch their flocks
By: Dr. Timothy S. Laniak
#10: Who do you think you are?            
By: Mark Driscoll

Stay Tuned!!

- HP ^_^

Question of the Day (QOTD) #1

So to keep our blog going, we've decided to answer a question of the day (QOTD) everyday! We're gonna choose a random question to answer each day so feel free to message us your questions or comment below with your own answers!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: If you had to be trapped in a TV show for a month, which show would it be?


Michy: Beauty and the Beast (not the Disney movie, the CW show..its SO GOOD) or Arrow. Why? Cuz of the action and drama... and I guess it doesn't hurt that I'd get to see Oliver Queen or Vincent Keller everyday, for a month hahah

HP: Heroes, Full Metal Alchemist (anime? sure that works =P): Lots of action and I get superpowers in Heroes. And in Full Metal Alchemist I get to be an alchemist and fight against bad guys.

Howie: 24 or Burn Notice

Special Guest AuntieJ: Survivor because I can threaten people with coconuts >:)

Summer Rains

Hai guyz!
Weee it's raining once again.../// Weather is really a downer today, but life goes on as usual. And last week was picking up a little bit of speed, but we forgot to blog like we said we would. So here is there next post~

Last Sunday I taught my first ROOTS class (it was just an introduction day), here's how the hour went.
- Introduction of ourselves using Prezi and an English slang game embedded into it
- People Bingo! with chocolates of course
- Survey of what people want to learn and activities they are interested in doing in the summer
- Pandrew introed why it's important to learn more about God
- Children's church sign up!

The Beginning of an Adventure on a Hill

Good Morning boys and girls, men and women, dogs and cats!

I'm so excited to be interning at Burnaby Alliance Church this summer. It's going to be a great experience where I can learn so much more about God and life as well as improve on my teaching, public speaking and communication skills which are always important in whatever career anyone undertakes.

SO, here are my expectations of the summer:

#1) I hope to learn more about God through reading and through teaching. If you didn't know, when you actually teach what you know, it is also a great method to help yourself learn! From this, I hope to be able to strengthen my knowledge of God and my faith in him through different books and devotionals.

Starbucks and McDonalds

Sidenote: some things never change. I have my McDonalds with me as I'm writing this (y)
-----

Me and HP are heading into our second week of work! We've been so busy planning and coming up with ideas and more planning (boys: do you feel guilty yet?). And going to Starbucks. And McDonalds. And guitaring. And watching YouTube videos (if you haven't watched the Boyce Avenue & Fifth Harmony cover of Mirrors yet, go do it now!)  

When I think of working at church for the summer, I think of Starbucks runs, shopping at the toy factory, going outside to the field.... oh and planning children's camps. But since this is my second time around, I thought I'd come up with some expectations - or what I expect to get out of this summer.

I expect to build my vocabulary of English terms. For example, instead of saying 'oh crap' I'm going to say 'oh pants' (with a British accent of course).

Welcome to our blog!

Hi friends!

Thanks for taking the time to pop by and read what us BACinterns have been up to. For those of you who do not know us or what this involves, let me take the time to give you a run down of what we have and will be doing~

So Michelle and Simeon are the Children's Interns and they are responsible for all the summer children's programs for the K's to Grade 6's. They will be running summer Sunday school, Sports Camp, Art & Drama camp, and the kids' programs at Cedar Springs, which we will all be going to later in July. SO EXCITED!!

Howard and I are the High School Youth Interns for Grade 7-12. We'll be running the prayer meetings on Tuesdays, ICON + Connect on Fridays and ROOTS on Sundays!! In addition, we'll be organizing fun times for peoples at the camps :D Yays

SO... here are 3 Interesting Facts about each of us to help you get to know us a little better:

Hua Ping (HP, Ping, Mulan)
#1: I can't study
#2: I spend my free time playing the piano and guitar, reading, playing League....
#3: I prefer chocolate over candy

Michelley (Mitch, Michi, Mimi)
#1: I'm awesome... just kidding :)
#2: I am addicted to McDonald's, Starbucks, Target and Forever21. And candy. Helpful hint: if you want to bribe me, bribe me with candy.
#3: I'm obsessed with Suits, Once Upon a Time and Pretty Little Liars.

Howard (Howie) 
#1: I have a Chinese accent (y)
#2: I'm scared of spiders, snakes, and lizards (cuz they look ugly)
#3: I'm a careless driver when I'm cocky (one night I tried to drift in the snow at school and ran through a stop sign)

Simeon (Sim, Dr. Sim, Simsung)
#1: I have a rainbow unicorn pillow <3
#2: I have 2 cats named Chairman Meow and Empress Meow
#3: I play a lot of video games