It's more than a church

By Thien N

I have a stepfather and he attended this local church by the name of San Jose Community Church. One day, he invited my family and I with him and at first, I was really hesitant and had a lot of thoughts of being made fun of, judged, or overall not being in a comfortable environment, but I went anyway.

As soon as I entered the proximity, I was already nervous. My stepfather told me the kids' service would be upstairs, so I walked up and went through this hallway and around me was just a bunch of kids around my age. I was already getting tons of looks and it freaked me out. I was the most shy kid ever and usually I don't act that way. A lot of the staff came up to greet me and I was very uncomfortable since I didn't want to talk to anyone there. 

I never saw it coming, but I would be visiting this church for the rest of my Sundays. I didn’t want to but I didn't really have a choice anymore since no one would look after me at home. Time zoomed by and each day I would come to this church.

I would feel bored until one Sunday, one of the staff, Jordan, was teaching and he mentioned two words: “transcendent” and “immanent.” I was very intrigued by his lesson. Each Sunday from there on, I would listen to all his messages and it would soon gain my interest. I started warming up to everybody and getting comfortable. Everybody started liking me more since I spoke and actually used my voice.

When the Coronavirus struck our country and we had to stay in quarantine, that's when I grew lazy. My church would have Zoom services on Sundays and I would never want to join them. The teacher I grew a bond with left our church. Knowing that and having him as my closest ally in the church, I didn't want to be in that environment anymore. Everything bored me. 

I still don't know how someone can show such acts of kindness to me as Jordan. No matter how much participation and involvement I had in these Zoom meetings, events, and group gatherings, they still chose to see me as a member. 

Every week, Jordan Tsai (the teacher I grew a bond with) would come to my house, deliver me snack boxes and check up on me. There was a time when thieves invaded my house and I was terrified, shook for days. I decided to call Jordan to help me get through this discomfort.

He went on to buy me two security cameras to ensure my safety. I would now not take these staff for granted and I attended more services than I usually would, and I grew my bond with the church.

The church ministry was started in 2009 with the help of some volunteer staff who went out to find local churches who were in need of a youth Sunday service program. One of those volunteer staff, Jeffrey Tsai, found himself at San Jose Community Church and now is a fellow staff member for the youth at the church.

Jeffrey Tsai: “So our ministry is called InterHigh and we are stationed in several different churches. Interhigh started in about 2009. Basically what we do is support local churches that are under-resourced, churches that aren't able to provide for their own youth programs, Sunday school teaching, or if they are unable to find a teacher, we provide that program for them.”

These volunteer staff were former peers that he either attended a school or church with. All of them work a regular job but outside of their jobs, they are also preachers and youth teachers.

The InterHigh ministry expands across the country with teachers serving everywhere around the nation.

Jeffrey Tsai: “I would say across the nation, we partner with about at least 80+ churches and more than 800 youth students.”

For a youth teacher, Jeffrey really enjoys the position he takes in teaching teens about God and faith. He remembers that when he was a child he was in the same shoes as the teens nowadays and relates to us. He knows what every teen is going through and wants them to create a relationship with Jesus so they do not have to go through all that depression and stress or with anything in their way.

Jeffrey Tsai: “I wouldn't trade it for anything otherwise. Personally for me, I never saw myself doing this when I was in high school just like any teen. I was very stressed out, I had a lot of things in my mind, and all I could think about is to try and get ahead, and try to survive—anything that reminded me of youth was the last thing I wanted to be around. I think it all changed when I came to the faith, knowing our lord Jesus Christ, coming to understand Christianity and the evidence behind it as well as the reasonableness. It really transformed my life, and transformed my heart to on what I really wanted to do with my life, and that's actually what guided me to do what I do right now. A lot of it was because I want to love God.”

Jeffrey really cares for the students that he teaches. With whatever these students are going through, especially with anxiety and depression, Jeffrey wants to support them and motivate them.

Jeffrey Tsai:  “Who reports anxiety and depression? It's not everyone, right? It's just knowing all the things they deal with and go through—it really motivates me to want to reach out to them, to want to share to them that the hope of the Gospel, the hope that God wants to give them, and so part of that is that engaging in the community and learning about them being an active listener and hearing them out, and I think the most rewarding thing about it is to see from one new student where they were at point A to point B; seeing them really develop transform and grow to me, it's a priceless experience, that I wouldn't really trade for any other. I do really like doing this, because if I really didn’t like doing it, I wouldn’t be doing it.”

Learning about God is not the only thing the church is about. The ministry hosts a huge amount of activities and events. Each one of them has a meaning and purpose for the students (youth).

Jeffrey Tsai: “Recently, we sometimes do a monthly event. They're always themed in different seasons, like for example, if it's Christmas, we have a Christmas celebration and talks about who Jesus is. We have summer or winter retreats, sport nights. We have volunteer programs, mentorship programs. For example, at our church we recently just had a dumpling night and so that was really fun and it was catered because of Chinese New Year and we themed an event over that. Generally, we have events every month. We do volunteer stuff, like car wash to fund-raise and raise money for charities. We did big sales, and a lot of sports activities, a lot of basketball, a lot of volleyball, a lot of gatherings. A lot of opportunities where we get to know youth across the community, highschoolers and middle schoolers alike, and a chance for them to connect.”

The values and purpose as a teacher is to develop the youth since they are the “future of our generation.” It is very important for these staff to help with the students since there are many things distracting these teens nowadays.

Jeffrey Tsai: “Part of our values is that we really want to build the teens and youth because they are the future of our generation. We really much encourage that, going out to the community and interacting, getting to know your community.”

In a digital age like this, teenagers are attached to technology. The goal for Jeffrey is for them to open out of their shells and then build a relationship in their faith.

Jeffrey Tsai: “I think that it is important, especially in this kind of time, day and age where there is a lot of technologies and screens. It's very easy to kind of be isolated and, you know, Covid, it taught us that how important relationships are and how important community is, and the consequences when that is taken away, and our goal is to develop teens to be confident in their faith. Confident in leadership. Confident in speaking and talking about what they believe.”

The staff provides several activities to help students interact with the community and obviously, are always open to feedback. They even make surveys on what students would like more of.

Jeffrey Tsai: “We’re open to feedback, we’re open to what students have to say, and wanting to hear what the students have to say. /e do a lot of surveys as well, to see what they feel about their community, what they think the community needs, what they think the students need, stuff like that.”

The staff have a great purpose in serving the youth, showing things such as communion and love. They care a lot about the youth since a lot of them were in our shoes. Their greatest objective is to grow us in our faith. Serving as a teacher is his favorite job and he wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

Jeffrey Tsai: “Matthew 28, Jesus says that go and make disciples of all nations and one of the greatest commandments is to love thy neighbor as yourself. Hope and faith and love, 1st Corinthians 13: “the greatest of this is love” and so ultimately my purpose is to love God and to love the people he calls me to love and to share that faith and hope to others. My purpose is clear that I want to be able to share that faith and to also show them that you don't necessarily have to buy in what the world and society always tells you, but that there is a God that loves them and that there is hope that there is a community that is always welcoming and open up to them.”