by Humphrey Lin
The church was unrecognizable, as black and white streamers drooped from the ceiling, string lights snaked up the sanctuary poles, and hand-painted portraits of flowers, fruits, and sceneries covered the walls of the foyer. A hundred collegians crowded the foyer, the men dressed sharply in black and white, and the ladies looking stunning in colorful dresses and elegant heels. A hush came over the crowd as a voice announced: “please enter the sanctuary, Sister’s Appreciation night is about to begin.”
The Preparation
Hours before the event, the church was bustling with commotion, as the College Life men busied themselves decorating the sanctuary and foyer, setting up chairs and tables, and creating centerpieces for the night. Twenty to thirty collegian men of all classes worked tirelessly as the church was slowly transformed into an elegant banquet hall, while more labored in the kitchens of the Costa Verde apartments, creating over a hundred portions of stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta, pork loin, and panna cotta. This night would be the culmination of weeks of planning, deliberation, and practice, not to mention hundreds of dollars in donations. But it was all worth it—to appreciate our sisters to the glory of God.
The Night
The freshman guys darted between tables of excited diners, delivering food, clearing trash, and refilling empty cups of water. Dinner was in full swing, as collegians laughed and conversed over plates of handmade Italian cuisine and an eclectic band of College Life men played Italian folk songs in the background. A short intermission followed dinnertime, and as the guests sat back down, stage lights dimmed, and an unexpected video started playing. A moustache-twirling villain had stolen the freshman guys’ meal cards, and the girls must solve a riddle to get them back. It appeared that each class of the collegian men was in some sort of danger, and the girls must rescue them in turn. As the villain’s plans (and accent) evolved, so did the challenges, and interweaved between hilarious videos, chaotic games, and over-the-top theatrics, each class of College Life men shared special performances to express their appreciation for their sisters in Christ. More than a few tears were shed.
The Reason
The Bible instructs us as a church to encourage one another with words and acts of service (Ephesians 4:29; Romans 12:10-11). Nights like these are for the purpose of building up, that through our displays of gratitude and service, members of the body would be pushed more towards love and strive more towards Christlikeness (Ephesians 4:15-16). But why specifically the sisters?
Throughout much of history and in many places around the world today, it is incredibly difficult to be a woman. The curse of sin resulted in cruel and oppressive cultures in which the women are regarded as second class citizens and objects of men’s selfish desires. Even though it is much easier to be a woman socially and economically in modern day America, Bible-believing Christian women face pressures from all sides to conform to the twisted beliefs of the world; on one side, media and pop culture seek to objectify women and glorify the physical image and on another, feminism seeks to destroy the Biblical foundations of marriage, submission, and the sanctity of life.
The women of Lighthouse Bible Church College Life live in a world that says physical perfection is beauty, submission is humiliation, and gentleness is weakness. But as a shining light in a time of darkness, they live in a way that demonstrates that the Bible is their foundation and Christ is their Lord, and to be wise is to be beautiful and to submit is to be exalted. Their worth is not found in physical beauty or social status, but rather in “the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Peter 3:4). The women of College Life are rare and beautiful, and they often don’t realize it. But we (the brothers) do, and so does the Lord our God. So with a collective voice and a small token of our appreciation, the men say “thanks, hope you enjoyed the night.”