Community & Communion

By Rev. Awit Marcelino, A/PI Young Adults Peer Group facilitator

In October, NBA hosted a weekend retreat in Seattle, Washington for the Asian/Pacific Islander (A/PI) Young Adults Peer Learning and Wellness Group to explore culture, faith, and social justice; deepen relationships with one another and the wider church; and be nurtured by meals and conversations at the table. This peer group, composed of nine young adults between 19 and 36 years of age, represent Chinese-Jamaican, Korean, Filipino, Niuean, Samoan, and Tongan heritages.

The retreat began with dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant with NBA President & CEO Mark Anderson. It had been a year since the group had been together, so as we grilled food at our table and filled each other’s plates, we caught up on each other’s lives at home, school, work, church, and in our respective communities.

The next morning, we gathered in the living room of our rental house. Sitting on couches and on the floor around a small coffee table, we shared about our younger selves and answered the question, “If someone found a box from your childhood, what would be inside it?” Additionally, Rev. Héctor Josué Hernández Marcial, NBA’s Director of Community Engagement, led an art session featuring photos from our childhood to explore our inner child.

In the afternoon we took advantage of a brief window between rain showers to gather around a patio table in the backyard. We covered the table with brightly colored and patterned textiles from home, and topped it with dishes and foods from our diverse cultures: taro leaves, tilapia, japchae (Korean noodles), kimchi (Korean salted, spicy, fermented vegetables), dumplings, spam, tropical fruits, rice cakes, and bowls of rice. We wore our cultural clothes, sang praise songs, laughed, and toasted one another with wine glasses filled with soy milk and yakult (a Japanese probiotic drink that’s a staple in many A/PI households). We reimagined the Last Supper as the beginning of something new: an A/PI feast with disciples who look like us.

That evening, following a trip to the store, we made Filipino, Samoan, and Tongan food for dinner. We fried lumpia (Filipino spring rolls with ground pork and vegetables), sautéed chop suey (the Samoan version features rice noodles, corned beef, and vegetables), roasted lu (a Tongan dish with corned beef, sweet potato and onions wrapped in taro leaves and covered in coconut milk), and baked pani popo (Samoan sweet bread with coconut sauce). We invited our guest speaker Dr. Aron Choi, a naturopathic doctor from Seattle, to join us for dinner and discuss an upcoming online meeting on families, culture, and wellness. As we feasted on our Pacific Islander-themed meal, we quizzed each other on Bible trivia, and shared where we learned it from.

Our second day commenced with a ferry ride to visit the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial for an interactive conversation about race, faith, and social justice. We watched a local documentary about the forced removal and incarceration of 276 Japanese Americans from this community during World War II. Under Executive Order 9066, they were removed from their homes, schools, churches, farms, and businesses. Furthermore, they were part of 125,284 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of which were American citizens, who were displaced from their communities and detained in concentration camps. Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island were taken by ferry and then by train to camps in Manzanar, California and Minidoka, Idaho.

We also watched testimonies of elderly survivors about their experience living in camps surrounded by barbed wire, without running water or heat, and guns pointed down at them from fellow Americans in watchtowers. After watching the film, we had a heartfelt and heartbreaking discussion about the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial’s motto “Nidoto nai yoni,” which means “Let it not happen again.”

Collectively, we were shocked, dejected, and angry both by what these Japanese Americans went through as well as the fact that it is happening again in present day to Latines, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and anyone who looks like they are “not from here.” Then, we headed outdoors and walked the same path to the docks that residents took in March 1942. As we walked, we silently read the 276 names engraved on the cedar Story Wall to remember and honor every Japanese American who was forced to leave the island.

In the evening, we stopped at Pike Place Market and bought fresh crab, shrimp, and fish to make a seafood boil and sinigang (Filipino tamarind stew with vegetables and seafood or pork for protein) for dinner. We invited Rev. Seungil Eo, a member of the 2025 SENT Cohort, the Co-Pastor of Mannam Christian Church, and the Managing Director of YOUR Place to Shine, and his family to have dinner with us. While we cracked crab shells, scarfed down shrimp, and slurped our sinigang made with fish, we talked about our ministries in and outside of the church, family life, and Asian/Pacific Islanders’ love of line dancing.

Towards the end of the night, we gathered in the living room and discussed how each cohort member had heard about the A/PI Young Adults peer group and what being in the group meant to them. One by one, cohort members shared who had encouraged them to apply, what was going on in their lives and with their health and faith at the time, and how they felt about this group today.

Several individuals expressed how rare it was to find a group where you could talk about your culture, family, and faith without fear of judgement from others. In addition, many admitted how it was a relief and a joy to belong to a group of young adult Asian and Pacific Islander Disciples, especially when there weren’t many A/PI young adults and/or A/PI Disciples churches in their area. Their sharing made us nod our heads in understanding. Their stories made us laugh and cry. We then wrapped up the evening with a communion of Asian pastries and mugs filled with water, orange juice, and LaCroix (pronounced very differently by our American friends).

A month has passed since we were all together in Seattle. We met a week after Canadian Thanksgiving and now American Thanksgiving has arrived, and I’m grateful for so many things. First, I’m grateful for my convener and colleague in ministry, Cindy Kim Hengst, who worked with NBA for three years to get the idea of an Asian/Pacific Islander Young Adult peer group cohort off the page and on the ground. I’m also thankful for her leadership and for the trust she extends to myself and so many others so that we can lead with confidence.

Second, I’m grateful for this diverse group of young adults who have taken their seats at this table. They show up with so much heart, faith, questions, and wisdom. I’m thankful for how they connect so deeply with one another through honesty and humor. I love that they love and respect one another and genuinely enjoy each other’s company.

Finally, I’m grateful to everyone at NBA who makes sure that there’s more than enough food on the table and more than enough chairs to go around it. Staff, board members, and donors have prayed for and worked hard to ensure that the meals and conversations we’re having at this table are encouraging, challenging, and life-giving. I’m grateful for the communion we’re sharing and the community we’re building together.

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Rev. Awit Marcelino is the facilitator of the Asian & Pacific Islander Young Adult Peer Learning & Wellness Group. She is a second-generation Filipino Canadian, a third-generation Disciple, and the minister of St. Thomas Christian Church in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.