One Year Later

Dear First Year Me,

At this point of the year, you are about to make one of the greatest decisions you’ve ever made to this day. Exhausted and reluctant, you'll find yourself at an ACF prayer meeting on a cold November Friday morning. You'll be reluctant coming in, but you'll be blessed coming out. You'll feel immediately welcomed; you'll be prayed for, and most of all, you’ll find yourself immediately surrounded by such an awesome group of brothers and sisters in Christ. Without a second thought, you’ve immediately committed yourself to this fellowship. Just like what the person who invited you said over text, this fellowship indeed felt like family.

You’ll find yourself taking in so much in so little time. You’ll immediately realize that the body of Christ on campus is much bigger than you think it is. ACF alone doesn’t give justice who made the ultimate sacrifice just to make God's name known on campus. At Unity Worship Night, you’ll find yourself surrounded by many who also decided to follow Jesus, as the hymn of old would go. You’re going to sit back after that evening with so much to take in yet again. And by then, you have realized how the Kingdom of God is indeed at work contrary to the pessimistic notions you had before.

You’ll find yourself day by day being transformed as you dive yourself deeper into the fellowship. The man that once was a two-faced, lukewarm Christian will become history. You’ll take your relationship with Jesus Christ with more commitment that you’ve had before. You’ll desire more of the Scriptures and even more of what the Gospel really says (not the watered down Bridge to Life deal, though that’s a good starting point).

Coming into ACF at the second half of the fall semester, you’re going to make a last minute decision to join the winter retreat that everyone's talking about. You’ll have the money and the resources to volunteer through music worship, but apart from that you’re in for one of the greatest three days you’ll always look forward to during the start of the year. You’re going to meet a lot of people you’ll become close with, you’ll get to share parts of yourself that you dare not tell everyone else, and most of all, you’re going to have a lot of fun.

And the blessings don’t stop after you have left the retreat to go back to your typical caffeine-driven routine in the city. The relationships you created will be developed even more. Including one in which you’ll be challenged to let go of your pride and be real. It is going to be one of the most awkward encounters you’ll have, but I promise you that showing up there the one day after retreat, is worth it. Then, months down the line, you’ll be really thankful for this person. (You know who you are, and if you’re reading this, allow me to say I’m really blessed to know you and I really praise God for you.)

A couple of months and a lot of memories later, you’ll find yourself in a week-long challenge of making His name known. You'll be required to wear a shirt that makes you stand out from everyone else on the campus. You’ll meet awesome people who made it their week-long mission’s trip to assist the cause you’ve joined. You’ll know Jesus like you’ve never known Him before. You’ll meet radical people who have boldly reached out into the cold world that desperately needs a saviour. You’ll even find yourself in a flashmob at the Student Centre's foodcourt one morning. You’ve never done something like this before. This week will go in a flash, capping it with a trip up the CN Tower with some of the volunteers. After everything has been said and done, you'll wish that you can do it all over again. Yet of all things, you’ve learned something that stuck to your mind ‘til this day – that every day of our lives we have the opportunity to attract people to Jesus not just through explicitly proclaiming His word, but also through our actions. You'll from then on strive to be a better you, not by your own but by His spirit.

The memories go on. I wish I could continue to write here on how making this decision will turn your walk around with Jesus in a really radical way. Yet my words will only give little justice to what joining this fellowship has done to you because you’ll find yourself investing in so much time, energy, and resources to this tight-knit family of brothers and sisters in Christ. But to sum it all up; you were already blessed coming in, but you are going to be even more blessed coming out. The investments you’ve made here will come back to you at a rate you’ll never imagine.

Leading up to this point, you'll realize that you’ve made the best decision of your life as far as being in UTSC is concerned. It's time to make some memories!

Welcome to UTSC's ACF.

JohnDy