Korean Campus Crusade for Christ
SMC KCCC club
As soon as you enter the classroom on a Thursday morning, forty people welcome you with smiles, as if you were back to your parents' home after a year overseas.
After being taken aback, you realize that this is taking place in a classroom at Santa Monica College. The students are not welcome you for your next sociology class, but sharing a moment together during the Korean Campus Crusade for Christ meeting as they worship God.
The club offers a place for students with an array of problems or needs to find solace: Need support because you're struggling with grades 10 weeks before the end of fall semester? Want to pray for someone you care about before your next class? Or just want to make up with God?
Every Thursday at 11:15 a.m. SMC students, with the help of KCCC, organize an open chapel in room 263 of the Humanities and Social Science building.
"Except for the message, which is given by one of the staff that KCCC organization provides for the campus, everything else is led by the students," said Kim Moon, president of KCCC club of SMC.
Despite the fact that it's a Korean organization, the chapel is open to any ethnic groups of Santa Monica College.
"The open Chapel have already welcomed Brazilians, Chinese people, Mongolians, and Hispanics as well," said Grace Ha vice president of KCCC club of SMC
Being a branch of the CCC, standing for Campus Crusade for Christ, that was created 59 years ago by Bill and Vonette Brigh at the University of California Los Angeles, SMC's KCCC carries on the original purpose of the group: to connect people to Christ.
"We are here for spreading out the gospel and the name of the Jesus Christ in this campus," said Ha.
CCC is represented in 191 countries of the world such as Ghana, India, Columbia, Paris, Germany and Philippines according the Campus Crusade for Christ International website. The KCCC was first implanted in Korea in 1958 before reaching Korean-American and Korean-International students later on.
Based on volunteering, students either help out the club by being a part of the band that performs during the open chapel, the organization of the club, or even offering some snacks after the celebration.
"It's really great to share something with someone, being like a family," said Ha.
The sequence offered by KCCC includes prayers, praises, the message, offering, offering prayers, some announcements, and the Lord's Prayer, which is said in both Korean and English.
"Even though they are Korean they also speak English and I really like the way they worship, I feel like home," said Ludimilla Alves, an international student from Brazil.
Moreover, the KCCC clubs also offers morning prayers everyday from Monday to Thursday at seven a.m. in the cafeteria on the main campus. They also meet outside the campus for praying and singing with the other members from different campuses, and also organize a sports day practice every Wednesday and Thursday.
An hour and a half later at the end of the worship, you see students hugging at each other like brothers and sisters usually do to show their support in order to be ready for facing life's capricious whims.