training chamber

In many fighting anime like Dragon Ball Z, there is a lot of growth in power in the main characters. They usually undergo different seasons of training to get themselves stronger to fight new powerful enemies. Usually, they like to hack it, and use a "training chamber" in which time runs slower. So one year inside the chamber equals to 1 day of real time. Therefore, they can take advantage of this chamber to get themselves a lot stronger in no time. Many other anime follow the same idea... Good childhood memories :)

I personally see CCF has a training ground. University is a very critical time, and for myself it was a time to develop my character, mature mentally and spiritually, commit seriously to my faith... many things that will probably impact the rest of my life.

And particularly serving has been one aspect of my Christian faith that has mold me and developed my character, and convicted me that I need to commit seriously to the faith I profess. If I didn't serve, I wouldn't have been able to integrate into the CCF community and get challenged to grow in Christ.

The usual question, where can I serve? Within CCF, there are many different ministries: worship, caring, outreach, av, bible studies, prayer, discussion leader, committee, personal initiatives, etc. Since there is only so much time, what factors should determine where I spend my time serving?

I started with welcome team (now part of caring ministry) in my 1B term. One of my main struggles during 1A is that CCF is twice the size of my home church, so it was very intimidating for me. So in my 1B I decided to join welcome team was my choice because I found an issue with the welcoming aspect of CCF, so I want to do something about it, and I am also able to understand how newcomers feel when coming to a big fellowship. That was a good experience as I got to know many of the members of the fellowship.

On 1B work term, a brother challenged me to lead bible study, and I said yes just because I thought this is a good area for me to explore and learn from. The first few experiences were slightly tough and difficult, but I really learned a lot, and discovered that I was able to handle small groups decently well.

Later on, I served on other areas like coordinating serving team for coffeehouse, stage crew for Lifesong, and coordinated a Lifesong. Many of these experiences developed my organizational and interpersonal skills. Eventually, the opportunity to run for committee came, and I took the step of faith to do it. And the role I was more affinitive is Program Coordinator, because of my liking for organizational stuff.

Based on my experience, there are a few things that I look at when deciding where to serve:

• what is God teaching me recently?
• what areas do I need to improve in my spiritual walk?
• what apparent needs do I see in my fellowship? Is there a way I can be part of the solution?
• what are my strengths, and how can I use these to serve God?

I can't say that all the answers will be crystal-clear, but they are good guidelines. We might not always get a clear answer, but the beauty of life is to trust in our God in midst of uncertainty.

Even though there is a lot of "I" in all these paragraphs, it's all God. Is He who pushed me into these ministries, is He who equipped me, is His power who prepared and enabled me to be effective, is He who sustained me. All glory goes to Him.