Relive the Magic of ABF's Respond

It was February when Asian Bible Fellowship had invited the InterVarsity Multi-Ethnic Chapter to participate in "Respond: Humble Reflections Rendered to a Creative God." It was to be an event in which creativity and art would be displayed and performed as a response to the Creator.

ASUIV student leadership had found itself faced with a tantalizing opportunity.
But how to respond to God? Art? Song?

The thoughts were stirred around in futility until March 17, when the search for a 'response' drove a pair of leaders all the way to Blakely Manor in Seattle, to seek the counsel of the Beaver, a former leader in their ASU chapter. With the wisdom they received, perhaps mixed with the continuous rain, foraging for food in dumpsters, and torturously long back to back days of Settlers, creativity and clarity were soon to pierce into their classroom-stiffened minds.

Music from a band playing in the living room at the Blakely Manor's St. Patrick's Day party vibrated picture frames hanging on the wall in the small room into which the two had retreated from the crowds. They had convened yet again with the Beaver. It was 2 AM. Sounds of people jumping and shouting filtered under the closed door, while one of the two sat slumped in a threadbare futon, drifting in and out of consciousness, with rain and art sifting through his half awake mind. The few others were softly reading, almost chanting, pages of words and phrases from an Indonesian dictionary, pausing to hear the thump of Irish jig dancing beginning in the basement.

Someone left to get more soda bread. Then a spark of vision! The futon was now empty. Paper was in hand, figures were being drawn, outlines and sticks, platforms, wheels under hollow trees. The two chattered and laughed and others looked on in curiosity. Poetry, sculpture, trees…El Bee, of course.

Time was short. The pair was soon flying back to Phoenix to share the vision with the others, to procure materials, and measure the back hallways of the MU and ride the freight elevator.

The answer they searched for was found in nature, where God speaks so clearly and so constantly and still many fail to hear Him there. This tree was made to celebrate Him, His voice, in nature and trees, in symbolic destruction and creation, to celebrate the best response to Him in the true acknowledgment of a changed life.