MOMENTS FOR CHURCH FOCUS
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012July 29, 2012Summer Camp DirectorsArman Hirose-Afshari, Executive DirectorChristian Feng, Omega DirectorScott Wong, 8th Grade Director
Gale Kondo, Co-chairperson
Love & Support
September 02, 2012, the 14th Sunday after Pentecost, CUPC continued to remember the "Birthday of the Church" when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus' disciples who were filled with the courage to share the teachings of Jesus Christ to all people.
On this particular Sunday, CUPC reached out to the families of Raphael House, whose children received support from CUPC to attend its Summer Camp program.
CUPC members and friends wrote cards to the children and their families inviting them to attend worship and to a luncheon to be planned with them for the near future.
Raphael House, founded in 1971, began as the first family shelter in San Francisco to assist "at-risk children and their parents to achieve stable housing and financial independence while strengthening family bonds and personal dignity". CUPC applauds Raphael House in its support and strengthening of all their families.
Jackie Kwan, Commissioned Lay Pastor
CLERK'S REPORT
Continuing from previous month, the following are ways in which CUPC's committees/board are trying to live out our church focus for 2012: Love God, Love Neighbor. The transcripts below reflect what each committee/board shared with the congregation during worship.
Property Maintenance Committee: Elaine Beatson, Co-chair
Sunday, June 24, 2012
How does the Property Maintenance committee interpret "Love God, Love Neighbor" in its work? As an operational committee of session, our ministry is to care for, maintain and improve this facility to provide a hospitable and safe environment to all who enter our doors. When my daughter toured our facilities last year, she commented about how "warm and comforting" the sanctuary felt. This is the impression we want to give all regular worshippers and newcomers.
However, worshippers are not the only "neighbors" to whom we provide this spirit. We do it for our tenants, Nihonmachi Little Friends, and the renters of our 12 parking spaces as well community organizations that use our facilities for special events such as the JACL's annual health fair and Crab Feed fundraiser.
The committee consists of the Maintenance Team or "Main Team." The skilled members have worked in many, many capacities from changing light bulbs to fixing cracks in the sidewalks around our building and fixing our furnaces, to working with government agencies in order to make our lighting system more energy efficient.
We also have a list of service providers who we contact when equipment does not work. One of our greatest challenges is the elevator. When it's working everyone is happy, but because it is such a highly technical piece of equipment, there are times when it refuses to run and that really puts the "Love Neighbor" portion to the test. We appreciate everyone's patience during that time! And we recently had the railings and landing to the entrance of the narthex refinished and repaired to make it safer.
One of the greatest examples of the "Love Neighbor" spirit is during our all-church clean-up day. So many of our members and friends come out that day, roll up their sleeves and really work to clean windows, blinds, furniture, air ducts, kitchen refrigerator and cabinets and all the places that do not get cleaned on a regular basis. Watching all the folks working together so hard and sincerely is what I think "Love Neighbor" is all about!
Everyone is invited to attend our regular session meetings. If you are interested in how the session, our governing body, discusses ministry at CUPC, please come and join us! You are also welcome to read the minutes, which are public documents. The minutes are available in the church office.
It's so incredibly hard to think of anything to write about that seems relevant or important at the moment. The passing of our dear Karen Choy has left a big hole in our hearts. I can only think of the last time Kelly and I saw her… with a big smile and welcoming arms, inviting us into her home. Karen had enough room in her heart and her home for everyone. She had the joy of Christ in her life and her life brought joy to us all. A celebration of her life was held at Calvary Presbyterian Church on September 1. Please lift up the entire Choy family.
Transportation Needs:
Wouldn't it be nice to see someone in church whom we haven't seen in a while? It could be for a simple reason as not having a ride to church that we don't see these friends. If you are able to provide rides to those members who need transportation on Sunday, please contact one of your fellow Deacons. We will have a signup in the social hall during the coffee fellowship. We will try to organize this by the neighborhood you live in.
DEACONS' REPORT
The Deacons would like to thank everyone who contributed to the coffee fellowship during the months of July and August and the special coffee hour on 8/19 in appreciation of the summer camp directors and leaders.
The Deacons are aware there are others who do not sign up on the list, but contribute. We would like to thank you all!
Jan Der
SUMMER CAMP MOMENTS
Each Sunday during worship in the summer, leaders from our Summer Camp program share with the congregation what has been going on at camp, along with their reflections. You will see what they shared below:
Hello, I am Hannah Ehnle. I am 17 years old, and will be a senior at Lowell High. This year I am a leader of Oldest Girls. I have been coming to CUPC camp since the first grade, so this is year twelve. As a kid, I kept coming back because it was so much fun, while my mom kept sending me because "they talk(ed) about Jesus." Now, I keep coming back because I want to help make the camp as fun for the current campers as it was for me. In doing so, I have found that leaders do a lot of behind the scenes work that I just never thought about as a camper. For example, as a camper, I only vaguely wondered how that cookout food appeared each week. The best theory I came up with was the leaders told the executive director what they planned to make and the director did all the shopping. I had this image of the old executive director, Jill, pushing this really full shopping cart around a supermarket. The idea that the leaders did the shopping, and on a budget, just never occurred to me. However, even with all the work, I never find I don't like all the work that goes into the camp; it all has a purpose, and leads to activities that make camp a much more enjoyable experience for the kids. This week we had our first normal week at the park. To those new to camp this year, the idea that we had to spend the whole day at the park, and one without a playground nearby, caused a bit of doubt as to what we would do all day. However, the rest of us have been looking forward to it since day one. It felt a little weird not making ice cream, having cook out, singing songs at the top of our lungs, and—best of all—playing games in the forest. In fact, the first thing my group did on Monday was play Camouflage, which is a bit like hide-and-go-seek in the woods, with me as the seeker since the campers were so eager to hide in all of these new, exciting hiding places.
On Tuesday we had the Dinosaur Egg Hunt, which led to a morning of digging through every patch of dirt, hoping to find an "egg." Some groups found one right away, and triumphantly carried their find back to their tarps. Wednesday was the cook out and ice cream day for Alpha and Omega, respectively. Perhaps due to the extraordinarily long time it has been since we practiced during training week, quite a few groups forgot essential items like ice cream ingredients or cook out food on Wednesday. Thankfully, executive director Arman went back to Church for our food, and by the end of the day we were enjoying some very good cook outs and ice cream, like the spam musubi of group ABC and Willy Wonka's Surprise ice cream of the Fourth and Fifth Grade Boys, which was a surprisingly delicious concoction of various candies in vanilla ice cream.
The next day, when Alpha had ice cream and Omega had cookout, all went smoothly, with no forgotten ingredients. My group had tacos and, due to some leftover taco shells and cheese, some unplanned nachos. We finished the week with a long anticipated trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo.
This week's devotional theme came from Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." It is the fourth of the Beatitudes, which Jesus spoke of as characteristics of those who are striving to be like Christ. The first four describe the character of a Christian and the last four describe the actions of what a Christian should do. The leaders have been working to develop our attitudes and actions so that we are humble and really put the needs and wants of our campers before our own. This was perhaps most clearly shown at Six Flags on Friday. Even though many of the leaders talked of how much they would have loved to go on the biggest roller coasters, as soon as they were with their groups they instead focused on which rides and activities their campers would enjoy the most.
Thank you everyone for continuing to support the camp through this new direction we are taking. Please keep us in your prayers over the next few weeks as we continue into the summer, and feel free to talk to us about camp. It is nice to be reminded that we have a whole church supporting us.
Hello, my name is Allie Yu. I am currently fourteen years old. I am going to Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep this year. I have been at CUPC Summer Camp for seven years now. This year is my first year as a leader. Last week we went to an area of Golden Gate Park called "Log Cabin." Wednesday and Thursday we had cookout and ice cream Monday we had stone soup, and Friday we went to Raging Waters.
This past week was my first cookout as a leader. We made chili cheese dogs. We weren't sure how much chili to put on the hot dogs, so each camper had a different portion of chili. Most of them had a bit too much. When lunch was ready, all of the kids sat down and ate. At the end of lunch all of the kids had chili all over their faces. It was super messy, and all of the kids were asking for napkins all at once. Luckily they enjoyed their cookout, and we all had a good time
For devotion during week 3, the theme was mercy. We talked about how sacrificing things is important when showing mercy. As a first year leader, I realized that I may not always get cookout or ice cream because there might not be enough. It made me realize that campers are always first, and that being a leader means you have to sacrifice things so that your campers can get their cookout or ice cream first.
Since this is my first year as a leader, camp has definitely changed for me compared to being a camper. As a camper, I always looked up to my leaders as great role models who never made mistakes and did everything perfectly. Now it is my turn. It has been a lot of hard work this summer. But it is also a lot of fun. My summer goal is to make sure each camper has the best summer of their lives. Even though it is a lot of work, it is definitely worth it making all the kids laugh and have fun.
I would like to thank you all for your support. Also thank you for your prayers and blessings. Thank you all for listening, and have a nice day..
Sharon Ma: Being an Older Girls leader has been a great experience. Actually, it's my favorite experience.
Despite the fact that some of my middle school campers are taller than me (and I would only be crazy and want to break every bone in my body if I wanted to wear heels to camp), it's an amazing sight to watch them look over and above my head to see God. It's wonderful to see them grow spiritually and know that everyone at camp is here for mainly one reason: to praise God and further His kingdom.
Here at CUPC, we all gather together to experience His love and grace. I've realized how lucky I am to have this kind of environment where I know I'm always welcome and I'll always be reminded of the CUPC family God has given me. I remember one time during devotion, someone said, "God is everywhere," and it made me smile and look up to Him. Why? Because not many people realize it, but it's true. It's so very true. I am a sophomore now at Lowell High School and I've been going to camp since the first grade. The reason I keep going back is not only my friends, the fieldtrips, the cook out, and the ice cream, but because God is everywhere at CUPC. He is in the walls of the church, in the grass at the park, and in the hearts of everybody there. He is always with us no matter where we are.
Last week, which was week 5, one of my campers, Edna, had gotten stung by a bee. As the other leaders and I ran to the first aid kit and took out the Neosporin and the band aids, she was panicking and I sacrificed my hand to her just as I thought she had squeezed all the guts out of my hand, she let go and they had taken care of her bee sting. Soon enough, the pain stopped and she was perfectly fine. I thought to myself, thank God for He provides. I never knew how difficult it was to be a leader, but camp has taught me to put others before myself. All the hard work us leaders do is always worth it in the end, and I'm not just talking about leader trip, but seeing the joy in the campers' eyes and becoming one, big, happy CUPC family.
God keeps bringing me back to camp and it's become an important part of my life and my relationship with God. He makes me eager to give back and share the love of Christ with the campers like how CUPC did when I was a camper myself. This year's theme for CUPC is "Blessed in the world," and I am truly blessed in the world to have CUPC in my life.
The following are Summer Camp Directors' article in the Parent Night Program pamphlet on August 8, 2012.
The old adage goes that time flies when you're having fun. This summer has gone by at lightning speed and I take it as a good sign. In my other job, I distinctly remember looking at my watch at 2 pm on several days, waiting and yearning for the work day to finally be over. At CUPC, all the logistical planning and long days while stressful at parts, usually don't feel like "work." It seems like before I know it, it's already 6 pm each day. This is a testament to the immense power of this program to transcend its boundaries. Yes, CUPC is a summer day camp for kids, but it's not just a summer camp.
This summer has been a reminder that CUPC continues to be a destination for so many of us, a life changing and life-giving experience. The fun memories and lifelong friendships made at CUPC are innumerable. It is amazing that generation after generation has come through this program and has experienced the same traditions like making homemade ice cream, singing songs and participating in cookouts at Golden Gate Park. It has been an honor to help lead this program this year and play a part in the 36 year legacy of CUPC Summer Camp.
I have the utmost sincere gratitude to the three Department Directors, who excelled in their roles and demonstrated their maturity every day with their leaders and campers. In a summer of significant challenges, you three helped me immensely wherever I faltered with patience and equanimity. Thank you to all of our volunteer and paid leaders, who worked tirelessly to bring an action packed camp experience to all of your campers.
Finally, thank you for the parents who keep supporting this program year after year. Your children bring so much joy and zeal and zest to all of us.
Hey Everybody!
Welcome to Parent's Night 2012. My name is Christian Feng and I had the honor of being this year's Omega Department Director. I am 20 years old and I'm going to be a third year political science major at the University of California at Davis. My plan after college is to get a job that doesn't require any knowledge in the math or science fields because my skill for both fields is, to put it simply, awful. But I digress...
Getting back to the important stuff, this is my fifteenth year attending CUPC Summer Camp, but my first as a director. I didn't realize at the time that I took the job was the amount of work that it takes to be a good director. However, the amount of things I've had to do as a director this year has made me appreciate what my past directors have done for me all these years.
Despite having more responsibilities this year than any other, I've grown to love camp even more than ever because of all the bonds I've built this year with the campers and leaders in my department. This bond is strengthened even more when you realize that a bunch of the leaders in my department were once my campers when I was leader. The bonds that I've built with the campers, leaders, and especially my fellow directors are something I'll never forget.
Thank you to all the campers for being great kids and making every day both unpredictable and unforgettable. Thank you to my leaders for always putting up with my high standards and constant nitpicking. I hope you enjoyed camp this year as much as I did and don't slack off these last few days of camp because you can still lose a dinosaur! Finally to my fellow directors, I will miss weekly dinners, our PRN situations, and all the times things got misplaced this summer only to be found just in time!
A big thank you to all the parents and campers here tonight, as camp wouldn't take place at all without your support. Thank you for coming tonight and, I can't wait to see everyone again next summer!
Hello, welcome to Parent's Night 2012! My name is Jillian Yson and I am the Alpha Director.
After I graduated from 8th grade in 2006, my best friend Erica Sequeira asked if I wanted to work at a summer camp with her. I was a little hesitant, but since I had nothing better to do, I signed myself up for 5 weeks. In the beginning, I was just another face in the crowd. I never really stepped up, and just did what my head leader told me to do. As time passed, I started to get to know the campers and other leaders and because CUPC was so warm and welcoming, I began to break out of my shell. At the time, I had never thought that joining CUPC would change my life the way it did. I was expecting to work one summer and be done with it, but as you can see, it's seven years later and I'm still here.
Summer camp has become such a big part of my life that even my family and friends know that once summer comes around, they'll barely see me. I spent almost all my time either at camp or with the leaders and I wouldn't change that for anything. The campers, leaders, and directors have become like a second family to me. Whether it's bandaging up a scraped knee or giving out billions of ice packs, summer camp will always be where I want to be.
I want to thank everyone involved with CUPC summer camp for making this summer so unforgettable. Thank you Arman, Scott, and Christian for all the work you've done this summer. We survived all the red light situations, lost receipts, lost KEYS, and PRNs☺
Good evening everybody!
Welcome to our annual Parent's Night! My name is Scott Wong, and I am the 8th grade director. I am 19 years old and starting my second year at St. John's University in New York. I am majoring in sports management with a minor in business.
This is my 14th summer at camp, first as a director. As a camper, I always dreamed of becoming a leader, and maybe eventually becoming a director. However, back then I never realized how much time and effort the staff puts into camp to make it a memorable experience every year. Despite all the hard work, I am always drawn back to camp because of all of the friendships I have made over the years. CUPC will always be my second family.
This summer has been just as memorable as any of the others. The seven weeks of camp were the fastest seven weeks I have ever experienced. It still seems like yesterday when I was meeting all of the new campers on the first day. Now all of those kids are a part of the CUPC family. I know that by this time next week, I will be missing camp and waiting for next summer to come.
I would like to thank all of the people that have supported camp over the years. Thank you to my fellow directors, Arman Hirose-Afshari, Jillian Yson, and Christian Feng. Thank you for helping make my transition from leader to director a very smooth one. To all of the leaders, thank you for taking the time out of your summer to come to camp. I know how much work you put everyday so the campers have a great time. To all of the families that attend camp, thank you for coming back every year to making each summer a special one. And last but not least, thank you to all of my 8th graders. You guys made me look forward to waking up every morning and coming to camp. I truly loved spending every minute with you guys. I can't wait to see all of you as leaders next year since I know you guys will be great ones.
Church-wide Clean-up
To the August 25 cleanup crew:
On behalf of the Property Maintenance committee, a huge thank you so much to members AND friends who washed, dusted, scrubbed, wiped, polished, sprayed, oiled, vacuumed, swept, mopped, moved furniture, shredded, hammered, weeded, watered, trimmed trees/shrubs, cleaned the roof top, waxed, composted, recycled on our cleanup day. A shiny CUPC is in readiness for the fall.
Thanks to our grill-chef for doing a superb job of preparing a luscious lunch of grilled items, a fine meal for the day's end.
Without the willingness of one and all, the job would not have been done so smoothly and well.
Relay for Life 2012
This year CUPC's Session made a commitment to participate in the American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" fundraising event. The church's participation was the result of members being diagnosed with cancer. Due to this situation, the church took on the call as a mission to not only pray, but actively raise funds to help find a cure for cancer and provide support services to those with cancer and their families.
Although, the weather was drizzly and a few times it rained, CUPC had members of the church walking during the 24-hour period. Many not only walked, but brought food and drinks for our walkers.
Thank you all who participated by walking, being a team member, donating food, drinks and raffle prizes, attending the closing ceremony and providing financial and prayer support.
A special thanks to Karen Choy, her family and the Tong Family for attending and walking the survivor's lap and the three high school youth who walked 90% of the night shift till 10:00 am Sunday morning.
God's presence was felt at this event. There were over 50+ teams that participated and CUPC was acknowledged as the number one fundraising team (over 7K).
Following the 24-hour event, CUPC had a very nice outdoor worship service at Crissy Field.
Rod Suzuki & Wayne Hiroshima, team co-captains
