Amongst a handful of events also occurring on October 9th, the Andrews Society of Indonesian Students, or ASIS, held their first official event of the semester—a Friday night vespers program, led by the ASIS officers and members, in the Pioneer Memorial Church (PMC) Youth Chapel. Upon entering, the first notable change was the socially-distanced chairs, to be expected with Michigan’s strict COVID-19 regulations. People slowly filtered through the door; the first ten occupants received a pack of Indomie, which is one of the staple Indonesian instant noodles. Although the seat capacity was 40 people, the worship was no less impactful. Daranthea Atmadja (junior, biochemistry) commented, “It’s been a while since I saw other people. It was nice to have a relaxed, chill worship.” At 6:30 p.m., the event commenced with a prayer by Richla Sabuin, alumna of Andrews University and one of the co-presidents of ASIS.
After prayer, Ms. Sabuin greeted those in attendance and invited the praise team to begin the praise portion of the vespers. The singers, pianist and guitarist led out in a handful of songs, calling the guests to a harmonious worship. Next, she started the program with an icebreaker event, instructing attendees to divide into three groups according to their seating arrangement. Each group was told to share a blessing that had happened to them that week, and upon completing that, to come up with a skit for other groups to guess. The blessings from each of the skits were guessed correctly and the worship continued with lighter spirits.
After the icebreakers, one of the ASIS members went on stage and performed special music on the ukulele. Following the special music was a personal testimony. Both related to the theme of the vespers, “Connection.” Alef Sabuin (graduate, business administration) gave the message of the night, also correlating to the theme. “A major question I wanted to answer,” he noted afterwards, “was whether or not being affiliated means that you are connected with the person or thing you are affiliated with.” He connected the stories of Samson, Balaam and Judas and answered his query, showing that, although these Bible characters claimed to be affiliated with God or Jesus, they were not “connected” with Them, as their purposes did not align with Theirs. He directed the attendees to a specific phrase in John that showed the tool to “connect”, that being “If you love [Jesus], keep [Jesus’] commandments” (John 14:15, NKJV). Kimberly Supit (senior, information systems), said she enjoyed the service and “the opportunity to have in-person worship, because it fosters a lot of community and intimacy with each other.”
ASIS will have more events soon, all of which can be found on their Instagram page, @au.asis.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.