Today was the day of 2014’s E-Crusade, KCCC (Korea Campus Crusade for Christ)’s annual high school outreach event. This year, the theme for the event was “High School’s Got Talent” where students from various EM ministries were invited to display their talents as well as get to hear about God’s love and plan for their lives.
E-Crusade started off with a small fair outside of United Zion Methodist Church in Carson, California. College students who are involved with KCCC ministry from various schools gathered hours before the actual event to set up booths for food and various games for the high school students to enjoy before the worship. The booths included Korean food, hot dogs, ice cream sandwiches, and even a booth for pie-ing their EM pastors for raffle tickets.
After the booths were closed the high school students were invited into the sanctuary for praise and worship led by Undignified Tour. Afterwards Peter Lee (KCCC) led the congregation into the talent show where eight teams were selected to perform before the audience. The teams from various high schools and churches sang song and danced to CCM and music of their own creation. The panel of judges today included Cathy Nguey, a well-known YouTube star with over 300,300 subscribers.
Pastor Tony Nguey (Tanh Le Church, Anaheim) was invited to speak to the high school and college students at E-Crusade. As an alumnus of KCCC, Pastor Nguey was able to grab the attention of the congregation by starting his sermon by telling stories about his days in IMPACT, KCCC’s hip-hop dance ministry.
The key of the message was misplaced identity. Pastor Nguey used the story of how Leah was never loved by her husband Jacob, even though she was his first wife. Likewise, many younger people these days try to place their identity in the wrong things. For girls it was being loved by others. For men it was earning respect from others. However, Pastor Nguey emphasized that such desires and ambitions are futile without God in our lives. He quoted C.S. Lewis who said that if one seeks the things of the earth, one would lose both earth and Heaven. However, if one seeks the Kingdom of Heaven he would gain both earth and Heaven.
E-Crusade ended with a time of blessing the high school students who were present. This year’s E-Crusade was sponsored by KCCC, Ttokamsa Church and New Life Vision Church.