The Great Divide: V-Day

One of my favorite traditions of Campus Fellowship, a Christian organization here at Drake, is the annual Valentine’s dinner. It’s a night where the men of CF treat our sisters in Christ and other girls at Drake they way they deserve to be treated by all men at all times. We use this night to love girls the way Christ first loved all of us (1 John 4:19).

I was awestruck the first year I participated in this event (my freshman year) because of how the type of love the men of CF displayed contrasted with the type of “love” that is commonly found in the world. In general, the way women are valued in our society by men, especially in college, is based off of what they have to offer. Girls are valued by how smart, physically attractive, funny, etc… they are. If they don’t have anything to offer a guy that he can benefit from, he’ll usually just ignore her. For the Valentine’s dinner, our goal is to serve the girls, make them a nice meal, and put on an entertaining show, without wanting anything in return from them. It’s a formal event, and the girls love to go all out and dress up! The night looks something like this:

7:00 pm – girls are chauffeured from Drake’s campus to Walnut Creek Community Church, the location of the dinner and show
8:00 pm – after all girls have arrived, dinner begins (salad, entre, and dessert)
9:30 pm – show begins – this year’s theme was “Battle of the You-tube videos” and there was a mix of videos made by men in our fellowship, and on stage acts. This year I was a part of two videos – A Rebecca Black “Friday” parody with the other guys in the class of 2013, and a dinner featuring famous you-tube characters (I was the numa-numa guy). I was also in an onstage act with other members of my Bible Study. We created our own evolution of dance, which featured 18 classic songs from the 1950s, all the way to 2000.
After the show is over, one of the guys presents the gospel. Many of the girls who attend this event have already heard and accepted the good news, but a lot of them never have. If there’s one thing that can really bring lifelong and eternal satisfaction and joy, it’s developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
There are lots of photos taken throughout the night, and when this ends the girls are escorted back to Drake. It’s a crazy busy day, but so worth it! Most of the guys start setting up the church at 2:00 pm, and don’t leave until the auditorium is set up for church the following morning, at 3:00 am. The fellowship and bonding between the men is fantastic. A little known secret is that the guys enjoy doing the show just as much as the girls enjoy watching it!

When I think of this night and everything that occurs, 1 John 3:16 comes to mind:

“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (NLT)

It’s an awesome night of fun and service, all for the Lord’s glory. Check out some of the videos and pictures below!

Click HERE to see the Junior Video