In Community:

November 2018 Newsletter

The Joy of Photography

by Pastor Dave Bauson

I love taking pictures of people! Did you know that people are the most-photographed subjects in the world? A people picture impresses me the most when it looks like the person is “really there.” It has that quality that makes a flat image on your monitor or in a frame look like it’s three dimensional. If you ask someone who’s into photography, we’d say something like: “A good people shot has an unobtrusive background, handles perspective well through an appropriate choice of focal length and distancing; the lens has good bokeh, renders true colors, and captures micro contrast. Besides all that they’re doing something interesting. Oh, and it’s in focus.” When you see me prowling about getting ready to take a picture I’m trying to think of all this at once. That’s a lot to take into account when you have about half a second between deciding to take a picture and pressing the shutter button!

Allow me to give you a quick guide for taking pictures of people. The key to it all is to get yourself psyched up and set up. It’s not too complex if you’re used to it. Let’s leave your camera gear out of the picture, because the best camera for the job is the one you are carrying. Get yourself psyched up: “I’m going to take the best picture in the world!” Then get yourself set up. Maneuver yourself around. Can you get in a position where your subject and what they’re doing is clearly the central idea of your picture? Can you get focused on them quickly? Is there enough light? When everything is optimal press the shutter button.

The joy of photography is found in the excitement of shooting the picture then in having a memento of that moment. It’s even better to share that joy with someone else. Does the process of picture-taking sound familiar? I hope so. Words like “focus,” “perspective,” “light,” and even the process of keeping your eyes on your subject are so much like what we have to do when serving the Lord.

When you’re involved with doing something for God, no matter what He has you doing, it’s the best job in the world. Half of the joy of taking a good picture is in the knowledge that your subject is the most important thing to you in that moment. That’s exactly why you’re serving Christ! He is the focus of the work, the center of attention. Every move you make keeps Him in view, every decision is calculated to keep Him in the limelight. When your work is finished He has been glorified, you have a treasure in heaven, and you have a wonderful memory of the joy of keeping Him in the center of your vision.

Fall Conference 2018

by Pastor Mike Kurtz

For the past few months, the focus at FBC has been on discipleship – Growing Deep and Sharing Life. To keep this emphasis going, we asked our various camps to consider that more fully in their respective sessions. For the youth, Kenny Kumasaka spoke on the fundamental topic of “Is God Real?”. Pastor Ray Gosden spoke on the topic of “Christ at the Center” in the Japanese sessions. And Dr. Paul Metzger spoke on “Going Deep with Jesus and One Another in the World Today”.  These fundamentally important topics were stepping stones toward becoming stronger, more deeply rooted disciples of Jesus Christ.

In addition to the youth, English, and Japanese sessions, the Lau family returned this year to work with our children. I am always amazed at the creative ways they teach truth to our children. We are privileged to have such a resource available to us.

English Camp:

Dr. Metzger challenged our participants on what it really looks like to “live the good life” as followers of Christ. Working through portions of the beatitudes in Matthew’s gospel, the “good life”, he shared, is found with those who mourn, those who are meek and humble, in those who live for eternity and not for the present. His challenging words taught us to consider a different perspective on our struggles and weaknesses. We shouldn’t think of our hardships as curses, but rather as blessings. Dr. Metzger’s words were deeply relevant particularly in our culture that seeks to move away from struggle toward comfort.

Highlights of the English Camp

Our feedback for this year’s conference revealed the following:

• Small group discussion was consistently mentioned as helpful for applying the content of the sessions, but also for people getting to know one another. This year we incorporated a small group discussion time with every session. We felt it was especially helpful for those who may have only attended Sunday’s session, where relationship-building is limited by time. A special thanks to Dave Bauson for assembling the groups this year.
• There was a continued consensus that people really liked Dr. Metzger’s topic and style. His conversational approach engaged people and helped make his content more relevant.
• The Saturday evening Q&A session with Dr. Metzger was especially important to the young career people as Dr. Metzger was able to field questions related to his expertise in engaging the culture. It is interesting that this segment of the camp was not actually included in the schedule, but some people remembered doing it last year, and it just occurred naturally this year.

As we move forward with discipleship and going deep with Jesus and the world, my prayer is that we would find meaningful and practical ways to do just that. As we work together, there are many ways to forge ahead as we listen to one another and care for people in our spheres of influence in both our church family and in the world around us.

ROCK Puyallup Fair &
Fall Conference 2018 – Youth Camp

by Amy Li

Hello from the ROCK group! We have two events to report about in this October newsletter. First, we had a blast on our trip to the Puyallup fair on Sep 23rd. Second, we had our combined youth (ROCK and WASABI) sessions at the yearly Fall Conference. All I can say is, praise the Lord for what a great year it has been so far! It only makes me more excited about what is to come.

Puyallup Fair:

Our group of six students, and three “adults”, drove to the fairgrounds after church, even with the threat of rain as clouds loomed in the distance. Thankfully, the rain stayed away, and the weather was great for the last day of the fair. Upon arriving, all we really wanted was some good ol’ fair grub, so we opted for “2 for 1 Burger” where as you can guess, two burgers were sold for the price of one! What a deal! The food was as expected from fair food and at least put us in the mood to walk around, if only to want to burn off those extra calories. We rode some coasters, waiting 50 minutes in line for 2 minutes of actual ride time. We ate more food, including gigantic milkshakes, dole whip ice cream, dippin dots, and a literal brick of fries. We watched Isamu play some (rigged) carnival games and did some people watching. To end our time, we chose to go to the “Haunted Mansion” as a group. We split up into two carts of four people. The first, braver group (Abby, Sammy, Hikari, and Nathan) went in and came out in what seemed like less than one minute, belly-laughing, as the second, more nervous group (Amy, Beth, El, and Kulani) rode in. It turned out to just be a dark room, with weird flashing lights and stuff straight out of a Halloween themed store, but the best part was when El let out a blood-curdling scream near the end, leading to a chain reaction of screams from the others, with the loudest, most high-pitched scream coming from Kulani.

With full bellies, tired feet, and joyful hearts, we knew it was time to go. Sadly, with it being the last day of the fair, the highly acclaimed Fisher scones were sold out. Yet, I had the best time with the best people, and I would not have traded that for anything, even those buttery, flaky pastries. I am praying that this new group of students can develop strong bonds of friendship and to know the true blessing it is, to walk through this life (and ride roller coasters and “scary” haunted mansions) with one another.

Fall Conference:

It is crazy to think that it has been a year since the first Grapevine article I wrote about my first Fall Conference experience with the ROCK and WASABI group. This time, we had several ROCK leaders present (including Chris Jo, El, Beth, Stacie, and Kenji), some ROCK alumni (Reeghan and Julia) as well as Jana and Kenny Kumasaka as our speakers for the weekend.

The theme of the weekend was “Is God Real?” and Kenny shared bits of his testimony, his own life experiences, and teachings from Scripture. Our first session started off with an anonymous poll (using Kahoot) with light-hearted questions about what kind of candy they like to more personal and profound questions about their belief in God and what they think about church. During small group time, we explored topics of weakness turned to strength, prayer, and authenticity and reflected on our own stories of God’s realness in our lives. I was so blessed to hear the students openly share their thoughts, and even for the quieter ones, to see them thinking deeply about some tough questions.

We were also blessed and surprised with a prayer room for our students, designed and constructed by Jana (along with Kenny and Colby, sacrificing their time to set up before the retreat), complete with a dreamy canopy, fluffy faux fur rugs, warm blankets, pillows, and plants. It seriously looked like it had come straight out of an interior design magazine. We cannot thank Jana enough for putting together this beautifully sacred and safe place to quiet our hearts and come before the Lord. Jana had even planned specific prayer activities for the students, including writing our burdens and anxieties on rocks and setting them at the foot of the cross, drawing a flag displaying what we are thankful for, and on the last day, doing a bible verse search activity on our phones. We ended our time during the last session, in that special room, with a guided prayer activity and the students praying over the leaders. It was such a powerful and meaningful time, to say the least.

Over the retreat weekend, we were led in worship by El and Reegs, shared meals together, laughed while playing blacklight dodgeball, spike ball, Mafia (continuing the tradition for Daniel Wang!), and other organized games planned by our game masters, El and Beth, and just learned more about one another. We were so blessed to have a space to meet in and sleep in and snack in. The theme of our church this year, “Go Deep. Share Life” is really starting to bloom within this group and I am excited to see all the ways that this group will grow in relationship with one another and with God.

Fall Conference – Japanese Camp

by Mina Chen

This year’s theme for the Japanese sessions was “Jesus at the center of our Faith,” and we were glad to have Pastor Ray Gosden back with us to share the message.  Although he hasn’t had much opportunity to use Japanese for the past 7 years since he moved to New Mexico, his Japanese was perfect and we enjoyed his messages.  Pastor Ray shared 4 messages with us – 1) the presence of Jesus, 2) the power and authority of Jesus, 3) the promise of Jesus, and 4) the return of Jesus.  He quoted over 50 verses during his messages and it was such a great reminder of what we believe, where we stand in our faith, and what we hope for. During the small group discussion following each message, we had different groups each time and since there were only 3-4 people in each group, it was great to get to know each other better.  It was also a time of reevaluating our faith. Especially after the last session, we discussed how we can prepare for the return of Jesus and how we can live our life representing Christ so that our family and friends who don’t know Jesus will be able to see Him in our life.  We were reminded of the importance of living this life faithfully by recognizing the presence and power of Christ in our daily life and having our eyes on the promise and return of Jesus.

FBC Fall Conference Recap Video

by Daniel Mayeda

JxJ Camp 2018

by Yui Mizuno

Thank you so much, FBC church family, for your prayers and support for JxJ camp and for this opportunity to share about it.

JxJ had a partnership with JEMS to have our summer camp for 10 years, but this year’s JxJ camp is the first camp we held separately from JEMS Warm Beach Camp and planned everything from scratch.  We had many struggles and worries during our planning time and we were wondering if we would have enough people to attend or be able to hold this camp.  However, God was always by our side and led us through to the end.

This year’s theme for the camp was “Who am I? -What is your identity?” and we planned this camp mainly to talk about where our identity comes from and what it means to have our identity in Christ.

Our speakers were Mao and Setsu Shimizu from California as in previous years. They talked about how we are loved unconditionally by God; we exist for a reason; and our identity gets reinforced by knowing God’s love for us.   Their message was relatable to non-believers as well and we had a great discussion in small groups.  Some of our Christian attendees got to share their testimonies.  It was truly a camp filled with God’s blessings and love.  We ended up having 25 people attending including day campers.  Among them, 5 of them were non-believers.  Not only during the session and small group discussion, but also through meal times, activities, and free time, we were able to have a fellowship with Christ as the center and deepen our relationship with each other.  I appreciate your continuous prayers that we are able to share God’s love with many people through the JxJ students outreach ministry.

– Yui Mizuno, 2018 JxJ leader

Meet Our InterVarsity Interns

Matthew Kiyoi, Wyietah (Weda) By, and Westin Saito are interning with AAIV this new school year at University of Washington. Their lives are a testimony of the value and commitment AAIV has for its students and Jesus Christ. We are highlighting each intern as they continue to raise prayer and financial support. This month, we introduce Westin Saito.

I recently finished my time at Seattle University graduating with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, and it truly has been a transformative experience in and out of the classroom. I’ve made amazing friendships and have been stretched and pushed to become a citizen who is well-informed about the world around me. A huge contributor to that growth has been the ways that I’ve invested time into areas that are important to God, and the healing and restoration that he wants for me and many others. Following on that calling I have decided to dedicate the following year as a Ministry Intern for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Washington, Seattle.

InterVarsity was introduced to my campus in my freshmen year as a community for college students to grow in their faith as well as in fellowship with one another. In retrospect, I feel that I’ve grown along with my chapter, seeing it go from a handful to dozens of people, all of whom are striving to show God’s love wherever they go. I’ve seen God work personally in the lives of students as a Bible study leader in one of the freshmen dorms. I feel that it is imperative for me to spread the love that I have so graciously been overwhelmed with in experiencing Christ, and I cannot wait to continue that mission in the coming year.

I believe that God has amazing things in store for students at the UW, and I can’t wait to be on campus being a part of that! I’m also excited to invite you to be a part of this work as well! I need people who will commit to praying regularly for me and for students at the UW. I will be taking on another part time job to support myself, but I also raised $1,848/month to cover ministry expenses for this year. The budget includes a stipend, which allows me to attend conferences and training events, giving me the necessary resources/skills to live out this year well! Thank you to those who are supporting me currently, you are so appreciated!

If you feel inclined to partner with me financially you can visit:
http://donate.intervarsity.org/support/Westin_Saito

To receive updates and prayer requests please go to this address so I can send them your way:
https://mailchi.mp/42480742c4e4/westin_updates

I’d also love to hear your questions/concerns so please contact me!

God Bless!

Westin Saito
westin.saito@intervarsity.org

Sharing the Joy of Christmas with the Yakama Children