Karisa You said she had a vision from God during her senior year of high school depicting her role in organizing a Christian worship festival.
Now, she’s working with students from 11 Christian fellowships to make her vision a reality.
You, a fourth-year international development studies student, and a team of approximately 25 students will put on the Beracah Music Festival on Saturday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center, featuring headliner Kings Kaleidoscope, a Seattle-based Christian rock band, and various presentations and testimonies. Hannah Roberson, a third-year sociology student, said the festival’s purpose is to unify the different Christian fellowships across campus and welcome people of all backgrounds.
Organizers named the festival based on a Bible verse that tells the story of a battle in the valley of Beracah. During the battle, the people of Israel who were under attack cried out to God, singing worship music and praying. The following morning, they found that all of their enemies had already been defeated.
You said the valley battle is about turning to God in the face of discouragement and trusting in worship. In planning the event, You said the students learned from the verse and turned to prayer when encountering complications, such as financial and time constraints.
You said she first came up with the idea for Beracah when an image came to her mind of people surrounding a grand stage, lifting their arms and singing. Although she didn’t see where or when the festival would take place, she said she envisioned it as something she wanted to arrange in the future.
During her first year at UCLA, You said she met Molly Grant, a fourth-year theater student, the original organizer of the event until You took over, who said she had experienced a similar vision from God about solidarity among multiple Christian fellowships on campus. Although the two had similar experiences with their visions, You said their idea began to fade as time passed.
You said she began considering the idea again about two years later after she felt God randomly reminding her of it. She reached out to various members of her own Christian fellowship, Cru at UCLA, including fourth-year biology student Rhiannon Imbeah and Roberson. From there, Cru members networked across the Christian community on campus, collaborating with about 25 students from 11 different fellowships.
“There are so many Christian fellowships at UCLA, but we are really separate and disjointed,” You said. “How awesome would it be if we could all come together for one night of community on our campus, where we show UCLA that all of God’s children can come together, no matter what.”
To facilitate such unity, the organizers of Beracah hope to make the event open and understandable for its attendees with student presentations and testimonies. The testimonies will feature students sharing their experiences with drug abuse and family conflict and how they overcame personal struggles through their faith, Roberson said. Rather than having a pastor speak to the crowd, Roberson said students will engage with the people around them, offering familiar perspectives.
“We have student speakers to share their testimonies about how they came to know Jesus Christ and share the gospel in a way that is maybe not what everyone is used to in the traditional church setting; … just making it more relatable and breaking it down,” Imbeah said.
The festival is open to everyone, including non-UCLA students and people of all faiths. Beracah organizers hope music will bring people of different backgrounds together and implement a sense of togetherness, since people often enjoy music and entertainment regardless of its context, Roberson said.
“(Beracah) is completely different from a church service in that the focus for the event is a concert,” Roberson said.
This year will mark the first Beracah Music Festival and club members hope to continue the tradition in upcoming years, Imbeah said. She said she feels lucky that she gets to participate in the festival before graduation, and hopes the younger students sustain the momentum of the club’s focus.
“Our job is to not be discouraged, to not be afraid, and God will do all of the fighting. He will take care of everything and bring it all together,” You said. “All we can do is just worship and praise him, and then we get to reap the reward which is seeing him being glorified on our campus.”