Thursday 27 February 2020

Christ? Culture? Christ and Culture?


By Daye Jung
Every weekday, my afternoon consists of extremely brain-power required classes: AP statistics, Christ and Culture, and finally, AP English Literature and Composition. The two Advanced placement classes sandwich the harder of the two senior Bible classes taught by Mr. Patrick Kilgo. Christ and Culture is a semester-long Bible class all seniors are required to take. The curriculum requires all students to participate in discussions regarding debated topics around 1st world countries. The point of this class is to prepare Christian teenagers who are about to embark on a new world. The real world. Full of alcohol, drugs, and dying in their 50s.

All sarcasm aside, being confined in this Christian bubble for 10 years has really dulled my sense of reality. I’ve only seen two extremes portrayed to me in media, trying to show how beautiful or miserable one’s life is. Christian censorship blinds one’s eyes, and Christ and Culture opens them--slowly, but surely.

Many different genres are discussed in this gathering, from social issues to political opinions. Nothing is labeled as right or wrong except the Bible. God’s words are kept as the basis of all debate, requiring students to research verses of the scripture to back up their arguments and opinions. Discussions of Christ, Culture, and the combination of Christ and Culture becomes the primary purpose of said class.

The class not only shows what one should do when such a crisis (of having to decide what is right and wrong) arrives, it teaches us how to come to a conclusion and why it is so. Instead of blindly memorizing some fact or another, these thoughtful discussions provoke critical thinking, allowing students to grow as an individual.


Monday 24 February 2020

The Life-Giving Power of Death


By Jia Yi Lim
            Death is the killer of the life that we cherish, but at the same time, it can bring beauty in our lives―if we let it.
As uncomfortable as the thought is for many of us, we will have to face its full power one day. For some of us, it can mean a new journey; for others, it can mean the absolute end of everything. Whether into the afterlife or into nothing, we will have to leave those wonderful memories behind one day. For many of us, a small death is already waiting a few months away.
            This is our last semester, fellow seniors. After that, we will embark on the next journey. Some memories will perish. Some of us may never see each other again. We will lose the little moments that we enjoy here every day. Only when we prepare to go our separate ways will we understand the gravity of the word “goodbye.” As much as we love our friends, can this love really conquer time and space? That, we will have to leave it up to Fate, our old “frenemy.” As with real death, this metaphorical post-graduation death may come with regrets.
Laviynia Menon (12) says, “I’m scared I’m going to regret things. I’m scared I’m going to regret not taking that class or making that friend. . . I’m scared that when I walk out of high school, I’m going to feel like I never really lived it at all.”
We are hard-wired to dislike death. Every day, the decisions we make are for life and against loss. We wear seatbelts (hopefully) when we drive and visit the doctor when we are ill because we value our lives. However, we sometimes don’t value them enough to seize the moment. We like to think that we are only happy when we have full control over our lives, but that is just an illusion. While we are busy laying out the path-stones, life often wooshes by. Sometimes, we need to learn to let go and allow it to take us to wonderful places. Real success awaits us when we find the balance between work and fun. 
 Death can help us realize the beauty of life. Part of what makes life beautiful is its fragility. The truth is, we often take things or the people in our lives for granted and value them more after we lose them. By seeing life from the perspective of death, we can see how miraculous this gift is.  Death also teaches us to practice what we preach and nudge us towards our nobler sides. No one wants to die a traitor or liar. 
Let’s give death a proper place in our lives. Some people might think that death means we have nothing to die for. I, on the other hand, believe that death means we have everything to die for. Let us walk forward in life with both fun and force.


Ready, Set, Go.


By Laviynia Menon
You do it all the time. On the way to school, finishing your assignments, getting work done. We rush all the time. Some may argue that rushing is largely situational; that it only happens when we’re running late or failing to meet a time obligation. While that may be true, it doesn’t encapsulate all the other times that we look straight ahead instead of at what’s around us, like horses on a race track. 

I was talking to some middle schoolers a while back, and out of jest, I asked them why they were participating in so many activities when they didn’t have the least bit of interest in them. I was expecting some sort of reply on the basis that it was to hang out with friends, but instead, their replies came easily, automatically, even.

“My mom says it will look good for me to do that when I go to college.”

I had to stop and process that for a while. These kids weren’t even in high school, and they were already acting in accordance with things they would need maybe five, six years later. Of course, it’s wise to start planning early, but how early?

As a society, we are never satisfied. We are insatiable, greedy, thirsty for more. Once we climb one mountain, we want to climb another, then we shoot for the stars. When we enter middle school we stare starry-eyed at the high schoolers, wondering when that will be us in those yellow striped shirts. When we’re in high school we other ogle college students, imagining ourselves in their place. The cycle repeats, over and over whether we’re working adults or kids on a play-ground.

We’re so lost in what we want out future to be, that sometimes we forget that our time now was, in fact, part of the future we had been striving to reach at one point. Shasha Menon (7) states, “I was really excited to be in seventh grade because we can do more things than in sixth grade, but now that I’m in seventh grade I think eighth grade looks a lot cooler.”

I think that’s something we all struggle with, and as graduation approaches and university decisions approach, we all need a reminder to remember that our future is composed of nows. Our time now is just as important as any future you’re planning for. Stop and appreciate the things around you, because what you’re living now was a vision you were chasing after at some point. We don’t need to stop chasing our goals, we just need to know to slow down and admire the view sometimes.

Tuesday 18 February 2020

More Than Basketball


By Jae Cho
           
The varsity guys and girls basketball team headed to Manila, Philippines on February 11th for the ACSC tournament. As I was part of the varsity basketball team, this trip was unique and different because it was going to be my last ACSC trip. I knew that during this trip, it was going to be something more than just competing and playing basketball. It was also about building more memories and friendships as I wanted to capture every moment with my friends. On the last game before the actual playoff game, I went up for a layup and got fouled and landed on somebody's feet. At that moment, I heard a loud pop in my ankle area, and I fell down in pain. As I was carried on to the medical bed by Coach Lee and Wansuk Kunawaradisai, I had a lot of stuff going through my mind. I was mad, sad, and devastated. I was mostly devastated and heartbroken because I knew that I would not be able to play anymore.

As I was lying down on the medical bed and waiting for the team doctor to come and check up on me, I was praying really hard. I did not want my senior season of basketball to end like this. This was not the ending that I had been picturing in my head.

After praying for 30 minutes or so, I suddenly had this feeling in my head and mind which made me calm down and think of ways to support my team in other ways off the court. Now that I look back, I found it grateful to be able to support my teammates mentally off the court as they participated in high competition. I am also very thankful for my teammates as they helped me a lot when I could not do much with just one working leg. I am genuinely grateful for my team.

We, as a team, also made many fun memories together that we will not forget. As one of our team captains, Wansuk Kunawaradisai (12) said, "The ACSC trip turned out to be so special because it wasn't only filled with great competition in basketball, but it was also filled with huge amounts of laughter and joy."

I think that at the end of the day, sports are not just all about competing. It is also about brotherhood and friendship. As Edward Seong (12), who had earned an all-tournament this ACSC, says, "It was more than basketball. It was brotherhood."



Taking Over the AP World


By Corinne Fraley

“We’ve been planning to take over the world, is that ok?“ After a conversing and heckling among a group of guys during one of Miss Keister’s AP World class, Jarrett Lohman (11) asked this question to his history teacher. Without batting an eye Miss Keister responded deadpan, “Yes, but not in my class. This is a benevolent dictatorship.”   

Miss Keister is one of the new arrivals to Dalat’s high school, only beginning teaching at the start of the 2019-2020 year- and thus far she has built quite the repertoire. From teaching Bible 9, to Media Lit, to Capstone, all in impeccable attire, Miss Keister has cemented herself within a variety of subjects among all high school grade groups with her dry witty and amiable nature. Though, she has, perhaps, made one of the largest impacts by teaching her favorite subject in her AP World History class.

Made up of primarily sophomores with an odd junior and senior thrown in, AP World, for years, has been notorious for its difficult content and massive workload, leaving students often feeling crushed and overwhelmed by the class. While the rigor remains, unfortunately, unchanged, Miss Keister’s presence has made history itself more manageable and enjoyable for her students.

“Class is always fun with her around,” Ethan Chan (10) confirmed when asked about his AP teacher. “She makes jokes, she talks to everyone, she knows her stuff, and she’s able to explain it in a way that we are able to understand.”

Since taking on the class, Miss Keister has brought new vigor to the history of the past thousand years. “I think she makes class so engaging because she is so passionate when teaching,” Grace Chung (10) commented.

This passion takes center stage when she lectures, often emphasizing many of her favorite facts, phrasing them in laymen’s terms to the delight of her students. She always takes time to address any question she can, never failing to both answer students, helping them to understand what she’s teaching but also to go over time in her talks even with a timer set. Every lecture guarantees understanding to some degree for her students and once Miss Keister even treated her students to a lecture backed by the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. Many students agree this is their favorite part of her class.

So, while AP World is not becoming any easier, Miss Keister had stormed the AP classroom and created an empire in her student’s hearts. Will her imperialist endeavors end at AP World, or will she eventually colonize the rest of the high school?

All or Nothing


By Aaron Worten

This is it. My last ACSC and basketball tournament as a high school player. I woke up at three in the morning, and my dad drove my sister and I to Dalat. I saw all my teammates with messy hair and tired faces. A senior on the team, Onyu Kwak, even forgot his bag, the one thing he needed to bring. We sat around for everyone to arrive, and we got on the bus to the airport and started our journey to Manila.

This ACSC basketball tournament was unlike any other ACSC in the history of the conference, due to the coronavirus. Many teams dropped out of the tournament, and this was the first year where boys and girls would be traveling together. It was a bit disappointing at first hearing that there would only be four teams coming to the tournament, but as a team, we decided that we were going to make the most of it. The four teams coming were Grace, Faith, Dalat, and Morrison. When we arrived in Manila, we got more bad news, Morrison had come, and they got detained and had to go back to Taiwan because of the virus as well. That made it even more disappointing, but our team still went in determined to win.

After the opening ceremony, the first day of the tournament started with pool play. We played Faith first, playing them close the whole game; but we ended up losing by two points. After our first loss, we were down, but we went on to the next game ready to play hard. Even though we played hard, Grace beat us by a lot, and that brought our team to an all-time low. We were down and frustrated. The next day, we knew we had to win and start playing better. We went on to win four straight games and won 2 of those games against teams we had also lost to. We finished pool play with four wins and two losses.

Heading into tournament play, we knew we were as good as any team there and could possibly get first place for the first time ever in Dalat history. We were the second seed playing against Grace who was the third seed. We played them close the whole game, but they ended up pulling away at the end and beating us 46 to 38. We would then play the third and fourth place game, winning it by a large amount of points.

Even though we didn’t place first, I couldn’t have been more proud of how my team fought and played hard. Senior captain Wansuk Kunawaradisai (12) said, “I am proud of everyone on our team. Even though we placed third, we worked hard and were able to knock off the first and second place team in pool play. It was also fun getting to know my teammates more and being able to help serve the people there in Manila.”

Senior guard Onyu Kwak (12) also chipped in, saying, “ACSC was a time for us to bond with people from different grades. We slept together in one room and were able to tell each other more about ourselves. It was a very bonding experience.”

After the tournament was finished, we came out better players and people, growing closer as teammates and friends. We bounced back and even though we didn’t place first, we tried our hardest and were one of the best teams there. We competed, and I am so proud of how our team performed.


Tuesday 11 February 2020

The Impact of Service


By Elizabeth Horton
Service, often times, is the exact opposite of what it’s expected to be. Though that may sound strange, we go into service expecting to give, but sometimes, we end up receiving more ourselves! I lived out this truth while on my Impact trip to Northern Borneo. I had full intentions to give up my time and energy to make some sort of difference in a stranger’s life. What I didn't expect was for those strangers to leave a permanent impact on my heart.
                On January 23rd, a team of 11 Dalat students touched down in Northern Borneo for their Impact trip. Throughout the week they would run a beach activity day for handicapped children, dig mountain bike trails, and visit a children's hospital. Most of the trip was spent working in the jungle, but for one morning the team got to play with the children at a local hospital.  
When we reached the hospital, we split into groups and were assigned different rooms. In my room, I chose the first bed on the left. Perched in his mother’s lap, a small boy, around 2-3 years old, looked up at me with his big brown eyes dressed in cute pajamas. Since he didn’t speak English, communication was difficult. Multiple times he turned around and would cry into his mother’s embrace, however, I didn’t give up. While he was still unsure whether to trust me, I quickly folded him a paper airplane with his name, Khalid, and favorite color, red, on it.
That was it!
That was all it took!
In a matter of minutes, Khalid, had transformed into a completely different child. Dancing around the hospital room, throwing his paper airplane in every direction, giggles and squeals echoing off the stark walls; he had finally opened up. I made a couple more planes which he gleefully proceeded to launch at other helpers. Pretty soon the confines of the hospital room became too restrictive. Suddenly, the two of us were disrupting other rooms with our paper airplane battle!
                As we took our battle back into the hallway, an unidentified aircraft glided towards us. An ally, a little girl peeked out from behind a door frame, and I beckoned for her to join! Eli Davis had been having a similar airplane battle with the little girl! We joined forces and doubled the volume of our laughs and giggles. Staff from all over the hospital gathered to watch the spectacle! It reminded Eli and I of what it felt like to be kids. “Being with the kids helped me joke around and have a fun time,” reminisced Davis.
All too soon, it was time for us to leave. As we walked out the door, my heart wrenched. That little boy touched my heart in a profound way I can’t quite explain! We gave them a couple hours of fun, but they gave us something much longer lasting in return, a precious memory and a warmed heart.

A Trip With God


By Luke Lindsey
On February 6th, the Leadership class was blessed with the opportunity of a two-night retreat to the Cameron highlands. Over many hours of time spent together, our class and teachers developed a special bond with each other. In addition, the presence of God was present the whole trip, leaving no one untouched by his love. No one was ready for what God has in store for us this trip.
                The trip started off with a 5-hour bus ride, although it didn’t seem so. Jamming to loud music, sharing stories, and our excitement for the next couple days made the trip seem short. After arriving at the guest house, our hungry bellies were joyed to find an amazing meal prepared for us by the McClary’s. We finished the night by spending some time with God in worship.
                In the morning, we surrounded around the warm fireplace and soaked in God’s presence. We spent a lot of time reflecting and asking God to speak to us. As we spent time admiring God’s creation, we thought about anything in our life that is leading us away from God and living in the fullness that Jesus gave us. We then discussed in our groups and prayed, bringing our struggles and lies to the surface. These chains were put among us by the enemy and no longer will we hide them.
                For lunch we all went down to the town to eat, most of us got delicious Indian food. Soon after that we went the tea plantation cafe, enjoying the scones and fresh tea. We then all explored the massive tea fields. It was a much-enjoyed afternoon. That evening, we wrote down on a piece of paper the lies and other struggles the enemy holds over us. We all one by one walked into our true identity in Christ by casting the lies into the fireplace, following with powerful prayer by the class and teachers. Lasting four hours, we prayed, and God broke chains that some have been carrying for too long.
Elizabeth Horton said, “There were lies in my life that I’d been believing for years that were broken that night. God changed me from the inside out and I can feel a difference in the way I live!” God transformed each one of us that night.  No one left the Cameron Highlands the same as when they arrived.”
               

On Fire for Jesus


By Christina Beaman
 “Spill the tea, lets go!” said Mr. Ronzheimer as Lydia Brooks (12) and Hannah Peek (12) started sharing funny stories about their past, but this was cut short by a voice from the back of the van.
“Dad, I’m hungry!” said Joseph Chandra (12) to Mr. Kirk Ronzheimer, the “dad” of the 15 students in a van on the way to Cameron highlands for the leadership class retreat.
“Do you want a granola bar?” yelled Luke Lindsey (12) from the front seat as he chucked a granola bar at Joseph.
“Dad, are we there yet?” added Duncan Magruder (12). Some people put in their headphones to block out the loud noise, while others laughed and added to the sound by yelling “shut up” to Joseph and Duncan.
After a five-hour bus ride, the van pulled up to the guest house where the students would spend their retreat. Since it was already night time, they ate dinner and then went to bed.
The next morning started with a solo reflection time and then a group time where guys and girls were able to split up and process through stuff and pray for each other.
“The purpose of this retreat was time away to meet God. I sensed with seniors a weariness and purposelessness. This trip was a space to reconnect with God and let him give us his passion for why we are here” said Mr. Ronzhiemer.
The second night there was a time of prayer for each person. This turned into a wonderful time where the Holy Spirit really spoke to others through people and it was a time of declaration that identity is found in Christ, not in anything else.
Students spent the next couple hours praying for one another and speaking to others through what the Holy Spirit was telling them. This went late into the night. As the fireplace burned with flames and kept the room warm, the fire of the Holy Spirit was also in the students.
“It was so good, I loved it, even though it took five hours to get to Cameron highlands when we were praying it didn't seem like that long even though we spent five hours praying, it was amazing,” said Dael Kim (12).
Students left the retreat refreshed and on fire for Christ after experiencing the Holy Spirit in a unique way on the retreat.



A Family Following God into the Future


By Hannah Peek
This past Thursday the fifteen-person Leadership Development class piled into a van and drove up to Cameron Highlands for a weekend of relaxation and future planning. Little did we know how God would change our lives in this time and form a family.
After a crazy van ride, we arrived at a quaint guest house in the Cameron Highlands and our team set out on a journey of many discoveries and tears. It began by taking a lot of time to ourselves, we had time to appreciate God’s creation through our house’s stunning views and beautiful garden as we considered our spiritual lives. Then we were encouraged by our teachers, Mr. Ronzheimer and Mr. McClary, to express what we had realized during these times with others. Ultimately the vulnerability shared during the small groups would collide in the climax of the trip; a five-hour long action of God.
“The most memorable part of the whole trip was the five-hour long prayer,” says Lydia Brooks (12), “It was really cool how we could all lay hands on each other and pray for each person individually. Being able to speak God’s words and see the resolutions in people’s lives was amazing.” What was it about this process that had such a huge impact? Each person wrote down things that were holding them back and threw it into the fire, then had a statement of renewal spoken over them. After that they would join the group and whoever felt led would speak truth to them. There was never a silent minute. That night so many wounds were opened in order to be healed and a deep bond was formed.
Elizabeth Horton (12) reflected on this time by saying, “We went to such relational depths with each other that we became our own family unit that although dysfunctional, is full of understanding.” Returning from those literal and physical mountaintop moments has been a journey all its own for us but we know that we can always fall back on our family and our God.

Monday 3 February 2020

Happy Belated New Years


By Mao Inoue

January 25th was the Chinese New Year’s Day. Within about seven years of staying in Malaysia, I have experienced the first Chinese New Year party on this day and obtained some cultural knowledge and images regarding how people celebrate New Years here. When people experience Japanese and Chinese styles, they will discover that they have some similarities, but at the same time, they have their own way to celebrate too.

Japanese New Years is the first of January. Throughout the new year holiday, we gather with family and relatives and have a reunion time. Buddhist temples perform the tolling of a bell 108 times, starting from midnight on New Year’s Eve. Although there are some opinions about the 108 tolls of the bell, the most famous reason is that it symbolizes the casting away of 108 earthly desires, bonnou, which are believed to cause human suffering.

On New Year's Day, people visit Shinto shrines to offer prayers and draw a fortune slip. They offer a lion dance and many stalls. Osechi is the traditional food we eat on New Year’s Day; colorful varieties of food, which are embedded with different meanings for each, are packed in ju-bako, which resembles bento boxes. Children look forward to getting otoshidama, the money they get from the adults as a New Year’s gift.

On the other hand, Chinese New Years follows the lunar calendar. Jia Yi Lim (12) explains Chinese New Year as, “It's an important event for the Chinese all around the world. As Chinese culture places importance on the family, Chinese New Years is a time when cherished ones come together to celebrate the new year.”

Before the New Year's Day, her “family comes together to have a reunion lunch.” They “have several steamboats around the table and a variety of dishes to choose from.” They also eat special desserts: “mandarin oranges and soybean pudding.”

Although Japanese spend most of the time with family, Chinese families “invite friends and relatives over to our house and enjoy ourselves… and spend much of the event with friends, eating and playing.”

In Chinese culture, “unmarried people like me would receive red packets,” with money inside. They also observe more authentic “lion dances, which are accompanied by loud music…meant to scare evil spirits away.”

Because our cultures are very similar, the way we celebrate is similar, but slightly different like our two cultures. I feel that this new year even reflects on each of the characteristics of our cultures. It is very fascinating and important to open our eyes and seek out these sorts of relationships more; we can learn a lot from experience, and that will be the first step to understand each other.
           


How Small Questions Blow Up


By Grace Moon



One simple question can take you a long way. It can even steer your career preference for the next fifty years. Here’s how.
Imagine yourself sitting down next to Johannes Vermeer as he paints a fresh stroke of bright ultramarine blue onto his canvas for the first time. Why is it that he’s never had the chance to use blue before this?
It’s because for the most part, looking back in history, color came from the earth, which meant that different geographical regions had different colors to offer. The blue I told you about was actually from a gemstone called lapis lazuli, and Vermeer probably got his small share of the expensive treasure all the way from Afghanistan -- a perfect story of how movement of culture was more than just ideas or trinkets, but whole new experiences.
But with OLED displays and CMYK cartridges, we don’t see instances like this anymore--it’s nearly impossible to come across unfamiliar colors today, in spite of the fact that just a few hundred years back, our ancestors had never seen electric purple or cantaloupe orange. This small realization sparked in me a curiosity of humanity’s interaction with the concept and usage of color. More specifically, the story of pigments and the discovery, purpose, and movement over time.
And this is where I am today. As of now, I’ve completed a 12-piece collection of infographics of unique stories that various historical pigments carry. From the story of Scheele’s Green, a toxic pigment that possibly caused the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, or Red Cochineal, the bright pink “bug powder” that dyes Sour Skittles, I wanted to recognize and celebrate not just different colors’ typical function in Western symbolism today (such as red being a color of love), but their origin and relevance to humanity due to their social and scientific implications.
By no means am I writing this to brag or boast about my accomplishment. Rather, I’m here to ask you to find your own “stories of pigments.” It is true that the fashionable word ‘global’ from twenty years ago is a reality today. And although we can now be proud of participating in a bigger picture, it’s crystal clear that us high schoolers have a significantly harder time finding incentives to dig deeper into pretty much any topic out there. Especially in as diverse a community as Dalat (that often offers variety in activities but not a depth in many), that can be an even harder thing to do.
All this to say, I hope my story of how a small inquiry blew up into a passion--that also developed into a potential career--drives you to really take this as a goal of yours as well. As senior Joseph Chandra once said, “There’s really nothing to lose by doing this as a student now: you can use this small question to start off your English 12 Capstone research, to write your future college application essays on, and maybe one day, make your Asian parents proud.”