Get to Know a Garden City Member: Kobi Boateng

Hey Garden City!

My name is Kwabena Boateng, but everybody just calls me Kobi. I serve as the Worship & Communications Assistant at Garden City and am a student at SJSU pursuing my MS in Aerospace Engineering.

I was born in Accra, Ghana but I moved to Maryland with my family when I was just 3 years old. I’ve lived in a number of cities in MD since then but I’ve spent most of my life in Bowie (pronounced BOO-wee NOT BOW-ee). So, Bowie is as suburban and generic as it gets with new cookie-cutter houses springing up everywhere but if you look hard enough there’s plenty to do. During winter, if we were lucky, it would snow hard enough to close schools all across the county for a day and every few years it would snow hard enough to close schools for an entire week. 

On one such week, a couple of guys from the neighborhood and I left our warm, cozy homes and trekked out into cold to find a spot to sled and shred. After looking for sometime we found a house on a hill under construction and decided to spend our afternoon shredding there. We spent so much time on this hill that the snow started to be stripped away to expose the dirt that had not yet been layered with a sod grass covering. Eventually, we were covered in brownish snow staining our snowshoes and pants! Which I’m sure my mom was not the biggest fan of. When I think of this I’m reminded of the beauty of the changing seasons and constantly changing the landscape of Bowie. 

Since moving to the Bay Area, I’ve had the pleasure of joining the Garden City community on Sundays and also at the Pursell’s Life Group on Wednesday nights. When I think on the isolation I felt when I first moved here and the community that I eventually found, I’m reminded that our Father in heaven truly a giver of good gifts. I’m thankful to the Pursell’s Life Group for being a part of that. Speaking of the Bay Area, I’m thankful to be blessed to be able to hike or drive to the many mountain peaks around and take in the vast expanse of God’s creation. No matter how many great tacos I have this is probably my favorite thing about living here.

At the moment, my God-sized prayer is for this new city that I’m in. Since moving here I’ve witnessed a lot of hurt and broken people living out on the streets and I’ve seen an increase in violence. Whether or not it comes while I still reside in San Jose, I’d like to see God bring healing to the hurt here, and rest to the overworked and weary.

I look forward to getting to meet more of you in the days ahead. So when you get a chance, come to say “HI”.

-Kobi