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Critically acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston spoke at Pacific Union College, May 31, on the “Woman Warrior's Journey to Peace” in the latest and final installment for the year of the Colloquy Speaker Series. Kingston spoke about how she became involved in anti-war activism during the Vietnam War and protested against military action before the 2003 U.S. Occupation of Iraq. Speaking on how she and her husband aided AWOL soldiers in Hawaii during the Vietnam War, Kingston noted the important role one’s conscience plays in life. “I truly believe that what protects us from harm are our values, and our conscience, and being able to know what that conscience is saying.” Kingston said that peaceful values can be traced back through the history. “These values of non-violence, we can trace them to Martin Luther King, Jr., and before him, to Ghandi, and before Ghandi, to the American Transcendentalists,” she said. Thoreau opposed the First American Intervention (Mexican-American War) and even refused to pay taxes in protest, Kingston noted, but he could not get away from the signs of war. “Even in the quiet of Walden Pond, he could hear the music coming from his neighbors, and it was Marshall Music...

When PUC social work major Erica McCray went in to the PG&E office in Napa, Calif., on May 30, she thought she was interviewing for a chance at the company’s Bright Minds Scholarship. She was in for a surprise—PG&E had already selected her from a pool of 8,000 as one of ten statewide recipients of the $30,000 scholarship, renewable for four years of education. “When I walked in, there were balloons, cake, and a giant check with my name on it!” says McCray, emotion still ringing in her voice a day after the surprise award ceremony. “I just started praising the Lord…It blows my mind, and I still can’t stop smiling.” To McCray, the moment seems to be a turning point after many difficult years. When her husband abruptly left her six years ago, he took everything but their three children. McCray suddenly found herself without a partner, a significant income, or even access to what had been their joint bank account. Despite the sudden, unexpected hardships, McCray never stopped trusting God to sustain her through the most difficult times. “I had just been walking on faith,” she says. “I thought that the lessons I had to learn were how...

Elizabeth Talbot, former associate speaker for the Voice of Prophecy radio broadcast, spoke at PUC May 18 and 19 about God’s abounding love and the Holy Spirit’s calling for each person. At Friday night Vespers, Talbot focused on the story of the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus at the well, found in John chapter 4. “She had never met anybody who loved her more than her failures,” Talbot said of the Samaritan woman. Talbot outlined five obstacles the Samaritan woman had to overcome before Jesus could reach her. First came the obstacle of prejudice. Talbot said that this woman had an inferiority complex that prevented her from understanding how Jesus’ love transcended society’s prejudice. “God never spoke the prejudice language and never will,” Talbot declared. Second was superiority, seen in verse 12. The woman asked Jesus if He compared Himself to her ancestor Jacob as a way of giving herself false superiority. “Religious superiority is the worst kind,” Talbot said. “It’s when you bully other people with your religious heritage.” Third was her use of superficial truth, rather than the whole truth. In John 4:17, the woman told Jesus she had no husband, saying nothing of the five husbands she...

Critically acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston will present at Pacific Union College’s Colloquy Speaker Series May 31. In her well-known book The Woman Warrior, Kingston tells of her experiences growing up as an Asian-American in Stockton, Calif. She also wrote the National Book Award-winning China Men and is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to her writing, Kingston was a long-time professor of creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley, before her retirement in 2006. Kingston will present at 10 a.m. in the PUC Church Sanctuary.View additional information about the event...

On April 29, PUC’s fifth annual REVO event raised money for Project Pueblo—an organization working to eradicate global poverty. PUC has partnered with Project Pueblo twice just this year, taking student mission trips during Christmas and spring breaks to aid underdeveloped communities in Arizona’s Navajo Nation. Sunday evening on the campus mall, paper lanterns and handmade tissue flowers hung from the trees and pictures from Project Pueblo were suspended from clotheslines. A band made up of PUC students welcomed attendees with live music. Once the event was in full swing and guests had the chance to fill up on corndogs, quesadillas, rice and beans, and cupcakes, the main band took the stage, opening with The Boys are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy. As the students performed a concert, guests browsed the silent auctions, the Stuff Sale, and food options. The Stuff Sale was a big part of this year’s event. For months, students have been donating their nearest and dearest items—clothes, shoes, accessories, and more—to help the cause. Clotheslines formed a web among the trees on the mall, holding a multitude of hanging clothes. Shoes and accessories filled up nearby tables. Christmas lights suspended between tree trunks flickered on...