OASIS
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while eveis the Fatherfor vine, and true called “I am the everything friends, youmy I have know his master’s business. Instead, ry branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and in appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about Advocate comes, whom I will se ’ When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the
Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you
TWENTY-THIRTEEN
VINE
SENIOR ISSUE
2
Content
3
ARTICLES
Peter Hao
Brian Wu
Samuel Chung
Lily Wang
SURVEYS
Peter Sun
David Lee
Iris Su
Heidi Michael
Cary Huang
GUESTS
Jason Qin
Mr. Lee
Katie Zhong
Jerry Xu
Alex Wang
Jessica Liang
Sharon Shen
Michelle Shen (E)
Kelly Yu
Melody Zhang (E)
What is Life?
What is life….I was bombarded with this question Sunday August 11th after church by Sharon and Sam. Though they were jokingly asking about this question, it really got me thinking. God, what is life? Is life just something that is just a living organism? Is that it? Is there anything more to life than just being born, eating, pooping, making money, helping people and then just dying? Is there a meaning to life anymore? My answer is yes. There is. Life is Grace. Life is thanksgiving. Life is love. Life is goodness. Life is the very breath you are taking right now and most importantly, life is worship. It’s more than just the actions you are taking everyday. It’s more than just all the homework and tests you receive every week from school. It’s more than just making money and living a nice middle class life or abundant upper class life. I look around me and life is there. Life is in everyone. I see it in their eyes. Through all the emotions whether fear, love, happiness, joy, bitterness, pride or depression. Life is there. Without life, we would be nothing. Without life there will be no challenges or suffering to endure that will make us stronger.
Without life there will be no heart, there will be no goodness, and everything will just be dull. Life is what puts us apart from all the other living creatures that have lived this earth. I can go on and on trying to explain what life is. You have a purpose here on this earth. God gave you life to glorify Him and to worship Him. It sounds a bit awkward right now because it seems so boring…. Is this a one-way relationship? Is it all just for me to glorify God? In a sense, it does seem like it, but when you truly understand the meaning to glorify God and to worship Him, you’ll understand that the blessings from God are tremendous. In fact, when you start believing and worshiping Him now, you’ll understand that later, that when you worship Him nothing else matters anymore. You wouldn’t care about what other people think of you. You wouldn’t care about what you have. You wouldn’t care about what you do everyday. Literally, you wouldn’t have much interest into worldly things anymore and life will become worship. In the end, Life is a huge blessing from God. Next time you think that life sucks or life is depressing, know that you’re not alone on this journey and you have a whole family behind you to back you up!
—Brian Wu 4
Goodbye, Oasis
This is going to be short and sweet, because long goodbye letters are inherently final and, quite frankly, make me really sad. Here’s the truth: I’m scared to go to college. I’m scared to leave behind the things I find familiar, the things I’ve unknowingly incorporated into my everyday life. I’m going to miss seeing my family on a daily basis. I’m going to miss my mom’s cooking and my brother’s incessant guitar practice. I’m going to miss my dad’s daily greeting as he comes home from work. I’m going to miss high school (or at least the good parts about it), Oasis, and, even though I’m beyond excited for Ann Arbor, I’m going to miss Troy. So here I am, on the precipice of saying goodbye to this place and preparing to create a home away from my home. New friends, new surroundings, a new church. Not gonna lie, it’s terrifying. But thankfully, it will be the same God watching over me, and that is something I am truly comforted by. I have no clue where He is going to take me over the next couple of years, and thinking about it too much makes me more than a little anxious, but I know that He has a plan for me and all the other seniors. God is honestly really, really cool, and the more you get to know Him, the cooler He gets. He is literally there with you all the time. Our God is big, but He’s also intimate and personal. If there’s one piece of advice I want to leave, it’s to get to know Him, one on one. I won’t say it’ll be an instant, life-altering moment of connection, but realizing how unconditionally loved you are is going to impact how you live your life.
—Lily Wang
I hate goodbyes, so I just want to leave with a big thank you. Oasis is my extended family, and I love you guys a lot. Good luck with your endeavors, and always remember: God is good.
5
Liquid Fire
Thou shalt not judge, lest ye judge thyself. It is too easy to see this world in shallow eyes. You don’t know what they are going through. Everybody wears this façade because they don’t want others to worry about them or become burdens. They want to go about life in comfort, because realizing the truth that we are all too screwed up is too hard. Stop it. He’ll hear you. Was there ever a time when we just let things go? When hands instead of grudges were held, and our fragile idea of love spread as far as we could? But our love will thin out. Growing older, we will lose all of that… innocence. Yeah, but what if you never had innocence in the first place? He seemed all right. Timid and shy, maybe a bit more so than others, but still kind and sweet. A typical child. Atypical? Nothing special. Just an ordinary little boy growing up in a Christian family. Is it funny how we have created such phrases as “nothing special?” If we, the more complicated creatures on earth, each made with just as much care and difference, are not special, then who ever will be? Looking at him with our physical eyes might be able to give us some kind of picture, right? Maybe a picture that will shatter into a million pieces once you open his heart a little more. He didn’t try as hard as he should have. He fell in the path of gaming. But this is just a normal progression through life. It’s as if he truly is this “first-world” kid that has nothing to worry about more than reputation and public speaking. How important are they, anyway, compared to food and water? Yet he can’t understand that anymore. Every worldly blessing is invisibly double-edged. Really, everything is double-edged. He struggled, sure, but those struggles seemed like child’s play compared to the rest of the world. Of course, the reality of the world has brought such an unfair advantage for him. He has a family, a home, transportation, education, even entertainment. Without really realizing it, he has already reached the top of this world. But I hope he understood that the top of the world meant the greed and selfish desires of himself so much more than what he already possessed. That “mountaintop” is the darkest valley of human emotion. Unsurprisingly enough, he saw the horizons, the sky, the sun and the stars, and he wanted more. From the very beginning, he always wanted more. So there really was no such thing as innocence. Before he knew what was happening, he already lost to the devil. Lust became his god. Did the picture break yet? His mind, body, soul, and spirit slowly degraded. It’s really easy to crumble away. He began to venture on the path most traveled, and quickly lost his way. What could be found anyway, when his only search was for the temporary pleasures of the world that would never satisfy this infinite thirst of our souls? He was filled and empty, filled and empty, so many times. His cup was always half-empty. He needed to be saved. 6
One day, he met Jesus. Not the Jesus of Sunday School, where belief in Him seems to be complete through saying a stupid prayer, or the Jesus of Good Works, where it was only possible to go to heaven through being righteous. No, he met Jesus the Savior one night when his friend decided to give the moment up to Christ and changed the boy’s life. But change needs change. If you haven’t gotten anywhere from where you started, have you really changed? But “change” may be too strong a word. He couldn’t let go of his god, try as he might. He never knew about will and determination. Again, even those “spiritual highs” had jagged edges. In reality, he didn’t change, and thus began the story of the masked boy. It was easy at first. Be really, really nice to people to hide the fact that he had so many problems. He lived in two worlds connected by a bridge, bringing them as close as possible but never daring to let them touch lest his entire world fall apart. It was a delicate balance performed every single day. There was never a “normal” day; every day was hell all over again. Did he even try to improve himself? Is that a question worth answering? I’m sure every person has tried all they “can” before they gave up. He questioned God, questioned the world, questioned his friends, questioned his family, and questioned his existence. Why should I have so much, and yet have nothing at all? Nothing seemed to make sense. If the God of heaven truly exists, why has he not been saved yet? Why was his life not turned around? Isn’t letting go and letting God enough? Yes, but what does that really mean? Picking up your cross and following Christ, how much do you think you need to sacrifice before you even come close to doing such a thing? Life seemed to lack no purpose. Everything became a blur. Without fully realizing it, he was slowly destroying himself. All that he had wished for was being taken away. Love was always embraced in lust. His vision of others turned dark and skewed. His world, his reality, even his dreams were falling apart. Little did he know after so many years of “knowing” God and His stories and His son and His grace and His perfection, Jesus became that teenager’s hope. His only hope; everything else ruined him. He went to the other side of the world and saw the other side of Christ. Something like hope sparked in him. Remember Aon. Of course he would remember. Or at least try to. He was so convinced that nothing could separate him from God’s love. He sincerely believed that Paul was right, that Jesus really did overcome all. That year became a year of bitter turmoil – realizing he really wasn’t that “nice guy” after all – and sweet victory – finally sharing a part of himself he never shared before. But with every victory comes a thousand failures. He fell again. And again. And again. And again. He fell back to square one so many times he didn’t want God to love him anymore. He tried to rationalize it all, but isn’t it so much more insane not to accept eternal love than it is to believe in Christ? He felt he didn’t deserve love, didn’t deserve mercy. It isn’t mercy if we deserve it. He thought God would finally decide to give up on him. He never gives up. He 7
never gives up. Read this line again. God our Father will never, ever, EVER give up on us. He still didn’t get it. This God shouldn’t do this stupid thing! He’s only wasting time on a useless kid that knows nothing more than loving himself. He’s hopeless. Hopeless! Just leave him be. He doesn’t even want you. Have we ever thought that maybe… God can’t stop loving us? Everything He does, it’s for us. He brings the sun to warm our hearts. He brings the rain for us to appreciate the sun. It is almost as if… we were created for Him. We weren’t meant to carry our jar-hearts around trying to find the trickles of pleasure in life; we were meant to be shattered and overflowed by God’s infinite love. He can understand the concepts, but he hasn’t yet taken action. All of us have that choice. What will we decide to do? Sometimes I feel my life is akin to the volatile reaction of water kissing flames. Lust was my “Liquid” and Jesus was my “Fire.” What I see, what I think, what I hear, what I believe, and what I do is the grand stage where this God called Christ wars with my god. I have always lost. It’s not because I didn’t try hard enough though. It’s because I tried too hard. Letting go and letting God doesn’t mean not doing anything, and God telling us to carry our cross doesn’t mean we are alone. After all this time, I have finally come to believe that God is real and He seriously loves me. But I haven’t taken the next step yet. I’m still so afraid to pick up this cross. That in itself is so ironic. If this Creator of the Universe has sacrificed His one and only Son for my sorry excuse of an existence, why would I hesitate to make myself a living sacrifice for Him? Doubt. Insecurity. Confusion. But I look back at my past. In Thailand, I met a girl who accepted me even though she was a victim of human trafficking. The irony sunk deep in me. It was the first time I caught a glimpse of Christ’s love instead of our ephemeral interpretation of it. Living as I am now, would I be able to go back and say that I have changed at all? And my friend who asked me to open myself up for the first time… I have been infinitely blessed. After all of these years, God has given me all I “needed.” Friends who support me. Angels who save me. People that love me. I don’t need to, and I shouldn’t want to return back to who I was. I am new. I’m going to college now. Now that is terrifying. I’m just realizing how scary it is. I won’t be going “home” anymore to my parents and siblings. I’m on my own. But I’m not. There are so many people there for me. There are so many people there for all of us. We are surrounded by angels and demons, but there are far more angels than demons. We just puff those demons up. Mountains only look big if we stand right next to them. Perspective :) 8
Oasis has taught me a lot. Most of all it has taught me to trust in God. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” ~John 16:33 And that teenager decided that today will not be just another day, but a day when he begins to find God. Maybe he will fall away again, or maybe this time he will finally madly pursue after his one and only hope. But he does know now that no matter what, God will be God, and God has become real for Him. Realer than life. What else is there to do now but let everything go for the glory of His name?
— Peter Sun It’s a true story.
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Warnings! Well, this article is just a few pieces of advice to high schoolers. It might be bad advice, but I mean hey, I went to IA, THE International Academy, so it can’t be that bad right? Jk, but I feel like I should warn people about a couple pitfalls of high school. So here goes: MAPLESTORY (AND OTHER GAMES) K I’m pretty sure playing Maplestory was the worst decision I ever made. And I’ve made a lot of bad decisions. I mean really, I’ve Snapchatted while driving and this is still the worst decision. I started playing a lot of Maplestory right when I transferred to IA. I really don’t know what my thought process on that was because the transition from middle school, where you don’t have to do anything because no one will ever see your grades, to high school, where you should to have a good GPA to get into college, is already pretty tough. And IA is pretty tough for a high school. So...I don’t know it was bad. I chose to play Maplestory instead of studying for my math midterm so I got a C which put me in normal math in sophomore year instead of “advanced math”. I got a B in speech class, and the stuff in that class was all credit/no credit. I got a D in Spanish and had to take Chinese next semester. Actually, the only class I had an A in was Product Team (for non-IA people, that’s study hall). I ended my first semester of 9th
grade with around a 3.0 and for the next 3.5 years, I had to dig myself out of that hole. I didn’t qualify for some scholarship stuff because of my low GPA, and it was just bad. But, I guess I’m pretty lucky because the worst thing that Maplestory did was lower my grades a bit and everything still turned out alright because I stopped. Because honestly, videogames can become an addiction. It might sound silly to compare something like playing Maplestory or League of Legends or even Candy Crush Saga to drugs but they have a lot of the same effects. You start sneaking around, you become wrathful, and the worst part is, you start to prioritize it over everything else in your life, maybe including God. So just be careful about how you spend your time and if you start playing a videogame or something, make sure you really really limit yourself and know when to stop. And if you see a friend playing too much, have an intervention for him/her! It literally took about 35 different people to tell me to stop playing Maplestory before I actually stopped. RELATIONSHIPS! I remember in one of my first small groups in freshman year around October, we talked about relationships. At the time, I was kind of involved in a kind of relationship with this guy, but it wasn’t anything serious (duh, I mean, I was in 9th grade). And it was probably 20 minutes into our small group time when, I don’t remember why, but, I realized how ridiculous high school relationships were. So after that little realization, I just started playing around with the toys in the room with Sharon and we let the other two people in our small group talk about boys. 10
After that small group, well, I broke up with my “boyfriend” and ever since then, it’s been my own personal opinion that high school relationships were pointless. High school relationships (most likely) don’t work out, take up a lot of time, usually don’t end well, and have so much unnecessary drama. I seriously don’t think that a 17 year old (or a 16, 15, or 14 year old) has enough control over her emotions (or hormones) and knows herself well enough to have a real relationship. Most importantly, a relationship has to be centered around God to even have a chance of working. I remember in the retreat after freshman year, Anthony Cao (Oasis alumni) did this workshop about relationships and he drew this cute little diagram thing on the right. It was like, each person in the relationship (this can be a platonic thing too, not just romantic) was one of the little balls. As they approach God, the space between them gets closer and closer. But, if one moves towards God and the other stays still or moves away from God, the space between the two people gets larger and larger and their relationship isn’t as good. Ideally, they would move towards God at roughly the same pace so the space between them can be smaller. I thought it was a pretty neat analogy. Anyway, yes, relationships need to be centered around God! And it might not be a good idea to have a high school relationship but hey, if you want to do it, by all means go for it. But I warned you... And if you agree with me, well, first, thank you! But it’s tough to do. A few months after my little declaration that I was going to stay single for the rest of high school, this one guy at school happened. I won’t go into specifics but we both liked each other and I was pretty tempted to date 11
him, not gonna lie. But I resisted. And I remember one night, his friend, let’s call him J, started talking to me on Gmail chat and for the next hour (and really, the rest of the week), he kept trying to persuade me to date the guy. J said it’d be good to get experience dating and pointed out that we were both Christian so it’d be okay. But in the end it didn’t happen and guess what?? You’ll never guess what happened. Like, I bet you a dollar you will not guess what happened (jk gambling is bad don’t do it). Okay so this is what happened. After that school year, J moved to Virginia and we didn’t really see each other again. BUT. A few days ago on August 13, 2013, three years after he moved, he came back and we hung out. And he said, and I quote, “you were right.” Not gonna lie that was really satisfying. He told me about how he finally got a girlfriend in senior year and there was just a bunch of drama involving her and he ended up missing prom and breaking up with her all in one month and it was a really big mess. So the point of that little story was, don’t date someone just because your friends try to get you to date some guy (or girl). I don’t think you should date anyone period, just wait until college. But if you do, make sure God is first and y’all have God as the heart of your relationship. Good luck!! STUBBORNNESS For as long as I can remember, there were some core things that I knew about myself. 1. I hated spicy food. 2. I didn’t want to be an engineer.
3. I was a PC person and Apple was the enemy.
I would never ever ever ever ever (wow I kind of sound like Taylor Swift right now) ever ever like country music. These were seriously vital parts of my life. When I introduced myself to people, these were the four things that I would tell them. Going into high school, these things were as true as can be and I was convinced that the Great Lakes would dry up before any of those statements became false. But hey right now, I’m eating Hot Cheetos, I’m going into the College of Engineering at Michigan, I’m typing this on my Macbook Air with my iPhone right next to me, and I’m listening to a song called “Country Strong” (yes, it’s pure country). I’m not even doing it on purpose my iTunes is on shuffle and it just came on I’m not even messing with you I’m actually surprised it’s this song. But anyway, my point is, things change and you should be open to it. Don’t just write stuff off before you actually try it because it’s great. I don’t really have any examples of why I regret not listening to country or anything but here IS an example of why you shouldn’t be stubborn and you should open yourself up to new things. See, I really like drive throughs, they’re the most convenient thing since the microwave and without drive throughs, the world would be a lesser place. The only places that have drive throughs are fast food restaurants right? So when I first got my license in junior year I ate McDonald’s every day. I’m talking Egg McMuffin, medium fries, and a large lemonade, every day. I loved McDonald’s. I loved the colors, I liked the play pen thing, I didn’t like clowns but Ronald McDonald was my home dawg. So when my friend told me that Burger King had the best fries ever, I didn’t even know what to say. Everything about that sentence was just messed up. It’s called Burger King for a reason, and it wasn’t because it was the king of fries. So for a good three months, my friends and I just teased her and refused to go to Burger King whenever we went out to get food. But finally one time, the drive through at McDonald’s was just too long so we decided to go to Burger King. Those fries were the greatest things since...I don’t know what, they were just amazing. And it might seem like a small thing to you guys, but I take my fast food seriously. I mean have you seen Supersize Me? McDonald’s is gross! But because of my stubborn-ness, I ate McDonald’s fries for months before making the smart switch to BK. It wasn’t until this summer after senior year that I started really thinking about why I used to be so stubborn about everything. Not just country music and Burger King, but like, everything. I’m still not sure why, but I think it all comes down to pride. When I come to a conclusion on something, I just assume that that’s the right way/answer and I’m too prideful to see why that could be wrong. And as we all know, pride is one of the seven deadly sins. I guess we all have pride in ourselves and I can’t really tell you to just stop being prideful because I really don’t know how one would even do that but I guess we can just start by humbling ourselves and just open ourselves up to new things! TENNIS!!!!!!!!!!!! Play tennis. This isn’t a warning, because I played tennis all four years so there’s not a really 12
sad story about how I didn’t play tennis and how I’ll regret it forever and ever and ever. So it’s just a small tid bit of encouragement to play tennis. Like I just said, open yourself up to new things, like TENNIS! It’s the smartest thing I’ve ever done, which isn’t saying much, I know, but still, it’s really fun and you get to meet a lot of people that you never would have talked to before. High school tennis is definitely the thing I’m going to miss most when I go to college so, you should try out! Girls: tryouts start March 10 talk to Amanda Guo or Lillian Liang for Troy High, Morgan Purvis for Athens, and Shirley Lu for IA East!!!!!! Boys: tryouts just started on the 14th ask around! :D GOOD LUCK IN HIGH SCHOOL EVERYONE!!!!!! God bless you all, have fun, and see y’all later!!!
— Iris Su
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After All After all the choked-back tears And fearful hopeful tomorrows Have become darkened yesteryears,
After all dreams have turned hollow And my convictions just as well And laughter tastes the same as sorrow, After every shared storm and swell Miracle and calamity Fades to goodbye upon farewell, I find it all but vanity.
While some part of me desperately wants to give you words that might save you from the mistakes I’ve made, I don’t think I will—even if I could. I’m pretty sure you silly children are going to commit them anyway (and let’s be honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing you suffer a little bit). Just consider it a learning experience. So you get a pointless poem and one last piece of advice.
—
I’ll tell you only to love our heavenly Father for all the days to come. Because, though what you do is ultimately meaningless, your lives are no less beautiful for it. And I pray that you will find and cherish the miracles God has given to you—you guys were mine, by the way (awwww…but really). May the blessings that I’ve had be even greater for you. Enjoy the time that you have with your Oasis family. Give them your all, for you truly have no greater love than this.
Cary Huang 14
I Often Picture
I often picture my Dad, crying Are they Tears of sadness? Flowing with thunder echoing mountains or Tears of joy? With a rainbow behind every drop
through
Is it Flying for freedom? Eagerly exploring the world or Flying to find a nest? A place within someone’s heart
the
Then, I often picture myself seeking Am I Seeking for Him? or Seeking to find something better than Him?
I often picture my Best Friend reaching Is He Reaching out to people? Who are in need of a Savior or Reaching out for help? Yearning for His cup to be taken from Him
I often picture my family loving Are they Loving each other? or Loving themselves?
I often picture a Dove soaring
These questions are needed not to be answered. To each his/her own. It’s YOUR relationship with God. Its in YOUR control whether you believe in Him or not. Please do take some responsibility. Take action. In school. At work. Even at home.
—Jason Qin
You are a missionary. Troy/Rochester/Wherever you live is your mission field. You are basically working a part-time job. Make your boss proud so He can say, at the end of the day, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
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Hello little worshipers~ ^-^ Let me explain the picture a little bit. In God-related terms, the picture shows a person being pulled into the depths of what keeps us away from God. Lust, despair, sin, anger, pain, etc. I bet all of us has experienced something like this before. We've had situations where we've lost our reach to Him, and we've been pulled deep to the point where we couldn't get out on our own. And then...we get reminded. We get reminded by others who follow Christ. They tell you to reach towards the light, and in the light lies faith, love, hope, and...God. Our brothers and sisters of Christ can lead you back to where you need to go---those brothers and sisters are the very ones at Oasis.
—Katie Zhong 16
Fish Out of Water
Walking into a room full of strange faces, upperclassmen, and one really tall pastor can be pretty intimidating—especially if you’re freshmen. That pretty much sums up my first trip to Oasis four years ago. Since that day, two memories have remained in my head. 1. Brent is REALLY tall (and amiable—don’t be intimidated!) 2. Oasis is a place where at least one person will always take the time to introduce himself/ herself and get to know you. In all seriousness, a place where someone will always be willing to venture out of their friend circle to greet the nervous newcomer, that is the image of Oasis that has always stuck in my head. To some extent, that image has held water throughout the years. Four years ago, when I stumbled through that door, a senior approached me without hesitation, and we talked for almost an hour. It stunned me how he genuinely listened and cared for everything I had to say—a trait that I rarely experienced at my previous churches. It was for this reason that I decided to give Oasis another shot next week, and here I am at my senior sendoff. While some people do end up drifting away due to different ideals, I have rarely seen a newcomer sit through an entire night of oasis without getting to know at least one person. Of course, we’re not the perfect church (no church is). But it’d be a lie to say that Oasis didn’t at least try its hardest to provide a sanctuary to bond with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
—Alex Wang 17
Dearest Oasis,
(or just the faithful Vine readers…haha jk everyone reads the Vine because it’s awesome)
You are all now part of my life story, whether directly or indirectly, and whether you like it or not, because I have changed with you. And I’m leaving with no regrets! As I try to look back on freshman year all I can hear is my fourteen year old self saying I’d never be a senior. I’d always be the baby, but guess what, I’m not anymore! Not really, anyway. I can’t even begin to express all that Oasis, yes, Oasis as a collective of four years, has done for me. What’s so beautiful about sticking with this ministry is remembering the people of each year and where I had walked with God and knowing that I could never have imagined myself to be where I am now. That’s why I have no regrets. Being a Christian means always pressing onwards, trusting that God has good and perfect and better plans for you and I, despite what we think. In a way, God is kind of like a GPS. No matter how many wrong turns we take, He always guides us back to the right road as long as we look to Him. (The only difference is that God is never faulty while a GPS can be…) I have fought my way uphill and tumbled my way downhill. To grow involves nurture and willingness to learn, to reach for sunshine and to thirst for more, even if a couple of leaves shrivel up along the way. There will never be a time in your journey with God where you will say, okay, I think I have gone far enough, now let me just sit here and wait until I die. No! On the contrary, you will reach points in your life where you have fallen and you do need to sit down and simply bathe in God’s grace. But then there are times when you will scale still higher heights but with every star you see there are billions more awaiting you. Time is relative, and we are but a speck of dust in God’s ultimate tapestry of creation, but the constancy of God’s love commands everything else into reverent silence. Does His love radiate through you, too, leaving you in awe? Your four years here with the Oasis family is a one of a kind experience. But you have to want it. Oasis for me was just the next step. I had grown up going to Sunday School, then Refresh, and finally Oasis. But it was so much more after I decided I wanted to go all in for Jesus. Your personal invitation to walk with God has already been sent. Will you take it? Will you live believing that we cannot boast in tomorrow? It starts with entering into God’s presence, unworthy, but unashamed because of His mercy. In light of the cross, there is nothing else that matters but this all surpassing peace in Christ, a fountain of hope and joy and love.
—Sharon Shen
So let God take your hand. You are ready.
2012-2013 MVP (Magnificent Vine Perpetuator) 18
Dearest Oasis,
My last four years in Oasis were quite memorable. I remember going to Oasis during the stress of finals, missing Oasis during Robotics competitions, going after Chinese School, going after cross country meets. Oasis was always there, and every week, whether I acknowledged it or not, I was relieved of the pressing nature of the world and reminded of God’s presence. And through it all, through the ups and downs and ins and outs, God’s been working on me. I admit the results aren’t coming as quickly as it would be ideal, as my nature is stubborn and prideful, but results there are. The people at Oasis have really shaped me, the way I see them pursue God. It’s kept me pursuing God. Even when I’m discouraged or unmotivated or lazy or distracted, I feel the pulse of us in sync with God. Even when I feel alone or disconnected with my family here at Oasis, God’s been there through it all. I haven’t given Him enough credit for where I am now. And now, something I’ve been anticipating for so long (and subconsciously, dreading?) college. I’m so eager to taste the freedom and yet a bit scared of the immense responsibility. I can make it or break it. I can ruin everything with a wrong choice or by running away from God. I can choose to stay who I am, stagnant, or choose to move forward and better myself. So many choices. There are still points in my life when I convince myself somehow that I can make choices on my own, but through painful trial and error God has shown me how it is just not so. He purchased me at a price, and whatever I think I have for dreams He has more to reveal tenfold. There’s this Kelly out there, the image of God’s love and the follower of His will, and how I choose to conduct my spiritual life will result in how close I am to the best version of myself God has for me. I want to thank my small group last year and my small group this year for just giving me another reason for joy and for peace. I feel that leading at Oasis has really helped me see God better and also as a chance to humble myself. Because I’ve learned gradually that it is God who truly facilitates small group discussions. Wish me luck as I church-hop! I hope God will show me through prayer or some other way the church that I would serve him best in. There are so many, and I need Him to help me eliminate the ones that are not as focused on Him.
—Kelly Yu
Thank you for bearing with me these years, and as for the incoming senior class, live and breathe this last year with everything you’ve got.
2012-2013 MVP (Magnificent Vine Perpetuator) 19
Last Words
This should be the third anniversary of my first Oasis-the senior sendoff of the Class of 2010., so I’m just going to share a few things I’ve noticed over the years.
PEOPLE-BASED FAITH
ROMANTIC WORSHIP AND SPIRITUAL HIGHS
One of the biggest problems I’ve noticed my brothers and sisters struggle with is basing their faith on certain role models and friends. What I mean is (using myself as an example) because I look up to someone so much, I try to emulate them in every possible way. My role models took these classes, so I took them; they went to work-out so I followed; they did research so I tried to find research; they came to church, so I came to church. While this itself is not inherently wrong or evil, it stunts the development of personal identity and personal faith. I followed their every move trying to be like them and emulate their successes, but it didn’t bring me closer to myself or God. When certain people graduated, people drifted from the church and several didn’t come back. They lost their purpose to show up-Oasis wasn’t about Jesus, it was about their idols.
This is just a personal issue so take this with baskets of salt, but I feel like romantic worship to Christ is rather disgusting. To me, when the only difference between a love song and a worship song is the use of Christ or God a couple times, the song degrades the relationship we’re supposed to have. The Trinity is the ultimate, unchanging and always forgiving good; why are we using the same emotions and actions to describe this love like some temporary high school relationship. That being said, I can understand why these lyrics would try to shift the focus of chasing a relationship with a crush to chasing a relationship with God. However, seeking a spiritual high to love God is still not a good way to stay devout. True devotion is actually devoting your life to God. So many people have this problem where they need a huge event to swing them back to God (aka spiritual highs), but they wouldn’t need this if they were devout to God in the first place.
GOSSIP/DRAMA There is a reputation developing for Oasis where the youth group has become especially cliquey and outwardly exclusive. By this I mean that the majority of people I’ve tried evangelizing to perceive Oasis as cultish and hostile. People circulate rumors quickly and judge by extremely harsh standards that they themselves don’t meet. Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Scripture explicitly tells us not to judge other people to deem worth, because only God has the right to judge because he is the ultimate good. I believe the most correct way to treat other people is with infallible kindness and love. We have to forgive grudges and forget judgments because we have no right to hold them.
My advice to every reader is to discover why you should believe in Christ and what you should do to never lose touch with Him. Everything else that comes with being Christian will follow. Also remember that you need to act like a Christian; it should be apparent so others will be inspired to come to Christ. Be consistent! Nothing comes without hardwork!
—Peter Hao 20
Surveys
WHAT YOU WILL MISS THE MOST The worship time and small group discussions
David Lee
WHAT YOU WOULD DO OVER AGAIN Go to a retreat
WHAT YOU WILL MISS THE MOST Friends/Mom's cooking
FAVORITE SMALL GROUP MOMENT When we had SG on the top of the hill
COLLEGE THIS UPCOMING FALL University of Awesome (Michigan)
FAVORITE MOTIVATIONAL BIBLE VERSE Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.
WHAT YOU WOULD DO OVER AGAIN Treasure the time I had with friends more
HOBBIES Violin, joke officiando, cruising in cars, and smiling
FAVORITE SMALL GROUP MOMENT The hangouts
FUTURE PLANS Become a pediatric oncologist at St. Jude Children’s Hospital
FAVORITE MOTIVATIONAL BIBLE VERSE 1 Timothy 4:12: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
Heidi Michael
HOBBIES Lifting heavy things and putting them back down FUTURE PLANS Do well in college, get a wifey, get a job, be happy!
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Moving Forward
Senior, congratulations! You made it. The horizon in front of you is really wide open now. Before you move forward, I suggest that you take a moment to ponder how you are going to prepare yourself spiritually and mentally for the new journey. The path you choose to walk through in the next 4 years will definitely shape you and impact your life for many years to come. So here’s my two cents. Seek Him I’m not talking about religious jargon, but really really really “pursue” God. I hope I can find a way to let you fully understand how much joy and fun it is to have a genuine relationship with God. Unless you have truly encountered God, you will never understand what God means by “in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Once you have entered an intimate fellowship with Him, His love, kindness and joy will overwhelm you in a way beyond anything you can imagine. So how do you get started? Well there is no short cut or magic way. You simply need to spend time with God in reading His words and praying to Him. You need to go beyond reading Bible just to understand its meaning but to truly believe and take it in as the bread of life. Stop just bringing your need to God in prayer, but wait upon His presence and be patient to listen to what He wants to share with you. You need to be determined to submit yourself and take action to obey whatever God will reveal to you; otherwise, don’t expect to receive His revelation. Don’t give up and be persistent, then one day you will shout “Hallelujah, God is good” from the deepest of your heart. “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul” – Deuteronomy 4:29 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” - Jeremiah 33:3
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Dream big and know you can You are meant to be great in God’s kingdom. You are specially made. If you understand how God sees you, you will be surprised how much He treasures you. There are certain things in His kingdom ONLY you can do because this is how He has planned it for everyone. Don’t under estimate what God can and is willing to do in and through you. Don’t be limited by your natural ability, understand that you have unbelievable strength and authority from Him when you’re aligned with what He has planned for you. Humility comes before greatness. God can only work through a humble person. To know what God wants to achieve for you and to witness things unfold before your eyes as God has revealed will be a really fun part of walking with Him. You can only know the way God has prepared for you when you whole heartedly seek Him. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” – Psalm 139:13-14 “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” Psalm 2:8 “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.“ - Philippians 4:13 “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” - Ephesians 3:20 “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” - John 14:12 Fight the battle through His strength You will face great battles and adversaries. There will be constant temptation from others and from within to try to get you to deviate from God’s way. The most sever attacks always happen when you’re least prepare. Remaining in His love and in His words is the best protection from the enemy attack. Don’t be a lone ranger, surround yourself with godly people and make yourself accountable to others. There will be times you feel like in the wilderness that you cannot sense God’s presence and you don’t see any way out. You need to believe He is still in control and His grace is sufficient for you. If you backslide, it is never too late to come back to God. Though your sins will affect your fellowship with God but they will never diminish His love for you. Trust me, no bad things you do can surprise God. He died for us when we were in our worst conditions. Godly sorry always leads to repent but enemy accusation will only bring you to despair and hopelessness. You need to have the discernment to know what is from God and what is not. Every battle is the opportunity to experience God’s greater power. 23
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 6:12 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “ no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord.” - Isaiah 54:17
And finally, this is my prayer for you… “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Ephesians 1:17-20 Have a great journey and live life to its fullness. If you’d like to ask me to pray for you or share the great things God is doing in and through you, you can always reach me @ hsu_lee_2000@yahoo.com. Ciao!
—Ming-Ran Lee 24
Dear Oasis, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to Senior Sendoff, but to the seniors – Good job! You made it! I don’t really have much to say to you guys except to keep your minds open and to hold onto God. If anything else, to the right is a song that my class presented to the seniors at Grad Night at UMich. It really touched my heart. (It’s to the tune of Home by Phillip Phillips)
Hold on, to Him as you go
As you go down some unfamiliar roads
And although there’s pain (pain) in leaving after so long Just know you’re not alone And you can always come back home. Settle down, it’ll all be clear
As for the rest of Oasis, don’t forget who and what you are. You are part of an Oasis. I found myself so caught up in the title I actually forgot what an Oasis was. (If you really don’t know, please look it up and do some research on it! It’s actually pretty amazing.) Stand up and defend each other. Act as a unit where the leaders and the freshmen (and other classes) can work together in tandem. And provide for those who are wandering in the desert and are thirsty, hungry, and dirty whom God brought to your doorstep. Beyond all else, trust in God.
Don’t be afraid ‘cause His perfect love casts out all fear When everything seems to go wrong, In your weakness, that’s when you’re made strong. Just know you’re not alone And you can always come back home. Settle down, it’ll all be clear Don’t be afraid ‘cause His perfect love casts out all fear When everything seems to go wrong,
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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
In your weakness, that’s when you’re made strong. Just know you’re not alone,
—Jerry Xu
‘Cause when with Christ you’re always home…
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College for Dummies “How was college?” Whatever answer I give to people when asked this question is either small talk or “it was fun.” Due to either time constraint or just because I don’t know the person well enough to have a “deep talk,” I can never answer that question honestly. So now since I’m just sitting here and experiencing blissful food coma, I’ll tell you how college was.
College is a time when you actually feel fully in control of yourself. From picking your classes, deciding to actually show up or not, and managing your time between an 18 credit schedule, extracurricular activities, and a social life, no one is there to tell you what to do. With that said, the amount of power you have can either quickly bring you to maturity or destroy you completely. When people say college, some of you guys will automatically think about the parties. For those of you who do want to go out on weekends or have that “college experience,” be aware that parties don’t guarantee you a fun and rich social life. For example one Friday night at the bus stop, I saw a guy who was clearly too drunk. He couldn’t stand straight and was wobbling until eventually he just leaned against a pole with remnants of puke dripping down his chin. When the bus was coming, he eventually had to force the rest out. To make his night even better, he was alone. I don’t know if he had fun or not with all his friends, but the honest truth of how loyal the friends are was clearly shown when he ended up alone at the bus stop shoving his finger down his throat. I don’t mind people going to parties to let out some steam or have fun, but I do mind people who either don’t have boundaries or go over their boundaries for the hype of the moment. Keep your morals so you can keep your sanity. If you find yourself in a relationship freshman year, it’s important to not dedicate yourself to that significant other. You must must must have time to make friendships so that you won’t lose yourself if you lose your boyfriend or girlfriend. Besides the importance of having accountability partners, it is also important that you allow yourself time to meet new people. Looking back, my best moments in college weren’t marked by crazy activities, but rather inspiring conversations. It’s knowing people and realizing how much you look up to them that humbles you. I’ve met someone who has put aside med school just so that he can stay behind a year and serve the church. That takes immense dedication and courage, which is something I know I don’t have. It is important you surround yourself with people you would want to “brag about” because it’s those people who can give you the best life lessons. Speaking of accountability partners and good influences, a good place to find that is at a church. 26
They may say things you don’t like to hear because it’s an ugly truth that you don’t want people telling you to fix, but that’s the beauty of rebuke. If you allow yourself to accept, it will tear you down until you’re nothing and build you up until you realize you don’t want to go back to how you were. Settling into a church requires you to dedicate a lot of time. Harvest, which is the church I went to freshman year, lasted around 13+ hours a week for me. That does not include serving and extra fellowship time. It may sound a lot, but that much time spent with the church community allowed many miracles to happen. I grew much closer to God and finally learned to love prayer. However there were dark spots to this time commitment too – grades. Spending so much time at church definitely cut down my time for studying. However, worrying about my grades was my biggest mistake in college. Even though studying and working hard are very important and shouldn’t be taken lightly, you must prepare yourself for bad grades. COLLEGE ISN’T FAIR. What I mean by worrying about my grades is the biggest mistake is that I didn’t make college fun for myself. I missed out on a lot of fellowship events because I chose to bury myself in studying. As it turned out, I did poorly on all of them and I felt like such a failure. I turned away from so many great people because I worshipped my studies. I wish I knew then that if I invest in friendships, they would grow and support me, but if all I invest in are grades, not only will they not live up to my expectations, but I come out feeling angry, discouraged, and lonely. I’m not saying you should spend all your time with friends and not study, but I don’t want you to make the same mistake as me, which is not finding balance and letting grades overwhelm you. Saying that people skills are more important than academic skills is easy, but acting upon that thought is more difficult than you think. It actually takes a lot of courage and risk to let go and trust that who you are is better reflected off of people than your GPA. I wish I could say college was fun and I loved it, just like what all of my friends say. I also wish I don’t have to be more scared than excited for college. Grades were, and still kind of are, my greatest possession and just a little slip can make me go crazy. College has truly been the greatest challenge for me because I must start to let go of my academic security and trust that I don’t need grades to succeed in God’s kingdom. So no matter what your sense of security and obsession is, God will most likely start taking that away from you the coming semester. I hope you will make wise decisions, be inspired, be humbled, and have fun.
— Jessica Liang 27
Upside Down The question I always hear is: what makes us different? Well, nothing; but when we step out in faith and live to reflect our God — Who changes everything — people will see that we have something different living within us. Because when we show “love” where others say “hate”, and when we give when others take, our God turns their world upside down. Hearts will stir and they will either want what we have or detest it, but God’s work will not go unnoticed. God calls us to take this broken world and turn it right side up, so how can we not move?
— Sam Chung 28
From the Editors Hey Vine Readers (all of Oasis… right?)! It’s 4:21pm on the Saturday of the Senior Sendoff and the party hasn’t even ended. At this point I’m pretty much done with this issue…but I’m not going to lie, I had the time of my life trying out new themes, fonts, colors, and styles for this coming year. I feel the potential for some phenomenal stories coming up! A word in for the Class of 2013: Thank you for showing me up in your perseverance towards the fellowship especially this past year. I wholeheartedly congratulate you and wish you well. Don’t forget to come back and visit the high school church you made so many fond memories in! :) Since Michelle died on Google Hangout, I’ll just speak for her here. She is super excited to be the NEW VINE EDITOR FOR THE 2013-2014 YEAR! Her favorite design element is, by far, FONTS. You guys will get to see what kind of weird combinations she’ll think of very soon. More on her later. I hope you enjoyed this issue! We worked very hard on it to try to make the Seniors look stunning. Check us out on T and FB!
— Melody Zhang
WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK
CONTACT US!
FACEBOOK.COM/OASISVINE
OASISVINE.TUMBLR.COM
— Michelle Shen
MELODY.C.ZHANG@GMAIL.COM PUZZLEARTIST.SHEN@GMAIL.COM
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