WEB EXCLUSIVE
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RE-IGKNIGHT BY JORIE ANTUMA
IGNITING A SHIFT OF FOCUS Yoofi Otabil calls it “preparation meeting opportunity.” Becky Kim credits it as “God’s plan.” The Calvin community knows it as “Re-igKnight.” This monthly worship service is the result of months of prayer and the unified vision of several student leaders. “We were praying for a long time for God to show us the thing that He wanted to get done on campus,” said Yoofi, a junior engineering major at Calvin. “We just have a passion for seeing God’s kingdom manifested on campus.” While Yoofi and his friends were praying for guidance, Becky, a business and social work major, was also trying to discern God’s next step for her. “A lot of the time, people try to fit God into their plans, but really, we should be trying to fit into God’s plan,” she said.
And that’s exactly what she told one of Yoofi’s friends, Nana Owusu-Achau, when he approached her about running together for Calvin’s student senate. Upon winning the majority vote in the spring elections, Nana and Becky began to visualize a senate project that was unlike any in its past. Student senators initiate projects that better serve their classmates or support local or global causes. This project would challenge Calvin students to look inward—and upward. “Calvin is really good at doing external work, but we wanted [student senate] to reconsider the internal workings of our own faith and our relationship with God,” Becky explained. Re-igKnight was launched. The worship service—which typically lasts two hours—has grown in size, in location and in community since its autumn beginning. Several seminary students caught wind of the gathering and began attending, bringing seminary president Jul Medenblik on occasion. Organized in three teams—worship team, dance team and prayer team—the students who lead the worship are from all class levels, a dozen countries and a variety of denominational backgrounds.
Nana
Becky
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