A Taste of Fudge Ripple

California State University-Sacramento is one of the most racially diverse campuses in California. However, a walk through the campus will reveal the segregation: Asians in the union, Caucasians in the quad, African Americans near the bookstore, and Latinos near the library. InterVarsity student leaders and staff are trying to change that so that the chapter becomes a model of reconciliation in this age of racial tension.

One of the main parts of our reconciliation effort is Fudge Ripple, an event held about twice each semester. On these nights students share concerns, hurts, and fears around racial issues and assumptions. During the first part of the night, each racial group talks separately about shared experiences, and then the whole fellowship comes together to discuss desires for racial unity. After two or three hours of intense discussion, the students relax and enjoy fudge ripple ice cream! Every year some new students are surprised by our focus on racial reconciliation. Often they say things like, “Underneath, we are really all the same” and, “Can’t we all just get along?” But after students experience Fudge Ripple and begin to delve into Jesus’ desire for reconciliation, they sing a different tune.

Along with Fudge Ripple, our worship team focuses on leading with a variety of cultural forms at our chapter fellowship meetings. The worship team incorporates songs from the wide-ranging backgrounds of the students: gospel choruses, songs in different languages such as Tagalog, Swahili and Spanish, traditional hymns, praise choruses and many more. Students are eager to share songs from their different backgrounds and the worship team works hard to honor every song.

Last year, after two Fudge Ripple events, plus diverse weekly worship and many individual conversations about reconciliation, we tried something new. During the last regular chapter meeting of the semester we held an extended worship night. Students were invited to share something with the fellowship that reflected who they are and what their relationship with Jesus is like. Over 100 students filed into a meeting room filled with nervous energy. A wide range of students and small groups signed up to share about what Jesus was doing in their lives. The evening started with the worship team leading the fellowship in an opening song and a short exhortation to worship God from Psalm 50:

“Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his exceeding greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!” (RSV)

The songs, poems, skits and slide shows that the students shared truly celebrated the variety of cultures represented in our fellowship and the ways Jesus has been moving in our hearts. Because of the precedents set by Fudge Ripple, multiethnic worship and our value of reconciliation, students felt the freedom to express their love for Jesus in the fullness of their diversity at the chapter meeting.

For example, Robert, an African American and his roommate Steve, a Caucasian, composed and performed a rap about Jesus’ love in their life. They were accompanied by Dennis, a Korean American on guitar; Alf, an African/Indian American on keyboard; and Anthony, an Asian American on drums. What a beautiful picture foreshadowing worship in heaven.

A group of roommates sang a four-part a capella gospel rendition of “O Holy Night.” This group of two African-American and two Caucasian women intentionally chose to live together to model crossing cultural barriers. Before their song, they shared their fears and worries about living together and how their love for Jesus bonds them and helps them understand and celebrate their differences.

Dustin, a Hispanic American, combined the song, “Roll Right” by Rage Against the Machine, with pictures of the civil rights movement. After the song and slide show ended he shared Ephesians 2:14-16, “For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end” (RSV). It was a moving representation of the racial struggles that have plagued our nation for so long.

In addition to his work at the keyboard, Alf also translated a Spanish song “Heme Aqui” into Hindi, his father’s native tongue. Alf shared how this song has touched him and how he is learning about what it means to be biracial and follow Jesus at CSUS.

The night ended with the worship team leading us in “Mache” (a song in Haitian Creole), “Montaña” (a song in Spanish) and “I’m Trading My Sorrows” (a gospel chorus). The energy in the room was electric. Students didn’t want the night to end and kept repeating the chorus to the last song. There were tears and hugs and finally we parted.

Since then, students have been discussing the next extended worship night and are eagerly waiting to repeat the experience! And we will. What a tangible representation of our diversity, what a celebratory way to demonstrate Jesus’ love in our lives and what a message to the campus: reconciliation is worth it!

—Joy Dickinson joined InterVarsity® staff in 2003. She graduated from California State U-Sacramento in 1999 and worked for a while as a health educator and IVCF volunteer. Joy’s husband, Kyle, joined InterVarsity staff in 2001 and they are looking forward to adding a puppy to their family soon.