AACF Retreat 2012

Dah Oops sorry for not writing in this blog more frequently. I'll do at least once a week if not more. haha. Anyways AACF Retreat was really really good. We went to Blacklake near Olympia. This was just before Snowpocalype was in its full swing. It actually started snowing on that Saturday night. But more importantly God's Spirit was truly there that weekend. I was amazed because not only did I get to know some of the students better AND not only did I learn something from preparing part of the prayer workshop, but I ALSO was really impacted by the messages that Vivian Lin gave. It's that idea that we are the ones who is pursuing God (image is us striving to draw closer to the light) when in fact it is God who first loved us. It's more important to remember the fact that we are like that child who barely can run trying to run after their father. The Father is letting us run after Him and is letting us catch him. Good stuff.

The Hunger Games

So I saw this trailer for an upcoming movie and it reminded of a very similar Japanese movie called Battle Royale. And so apparently this Hunger Games movie is off of a very popular young adult book trilogy. So in my curiosity I decided to read the first book to see if it’s any good. I must admit I could not put it down and found myself reading all 3 books in no time. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which the United States is reduced to a small population made up of 12 districts who live in poverty and serve The Capitol who live in luxury. The Hunger Games is a tournament to the death where 24 young people from the ages of 12 to 18 are pitted against each other with only 1 survivor (The Victor). This is meant to remind the district people who’s in charge while at the same time providing entertainment (since it’s all recorded live via remote cameras).

Battle Royale is the same where they put a full class of students on an island and are told to kill each other. They are made to wear these collars that can instantly kill them if they disobey, and with the threat that each of them are given deadly weapons they are forced to make a tough decision to either fight or give up and be killed. The Japanese movie actually was pretty controversial because of the violence towards youth and didn’t have a dvd release deal with the US until only recently (which seems to coincide with the Hunger Games movie release).

I think what makes this book series so interesting is that it delves into the idea of how media/tv can be used for both manipulation or transformation. Manipulation in the sense that people can value entertainment over justice. And transformation in the sense that you can also use this medium for bringing positive change to society. There’s something to the notion that whatever you are doing if there’s a huge number of people watching (cheering you on or even shouting against you) then the stakes become incredibly higher. Think of watching a pick-up football game versus watching The Super Bowl.

This makes me think about The Church and how we as Christians can positively use the media as well. Check out this video. Great message: