Angels We Have Heard On High

Yes folks, Thanksgiving is over, let the Christmas songs begin.

As the sounds of jingling bells fill the malls and the sound of jingling registers mark the onset of the frenzy of Christmas shopping, there are some children out there who look forward to - not shiny gifts wrapped with bows - but a Christmas spent without one or both of their parents. This is where Angel Tree steps in.

Chuck Colson, of Nixon Watergate infamy, had a serious encounter with the gospel while in prison, and when he was released he devoted his life to ministering to those who, probably more than most others, truly grasp the Bible's diagnosis of man's greatest problem. Thus was born Prison Fellowship.

This year our HG has the opportunity to serve 2 young children (ages 8 and 3) whose father is in jail. We will be bringing them a gift that their father picked out + a nice item of clothing, and inviting them to a Christmas party to be held at NorthLoop on Sat., 12/15.

I remember when I was in college, a couple (ok many) years ago, opportunities to serve the underprivileged, while alluring, were a bit hard to come by, given the lack of car, resources, network. I think this opportunity to "welcome a little one" in Jesus' name provides an opportunity to express some of our gratitude to God for our own blessings.

If you're afraid of kids, we'll help you work through it =) If you love kids but don't have a whole lot of time, we'll find a way for you to participate. So if you would like to participate in any way, shoot me an email or call me up (510-919-0456).

If you missed Thanksgiving Celebration...

You might be hoping for a link to Manny's hammer dance video. Sorry. But one of the things we did do at our Thanksgiving Celebration was get a 5 minute video recap of the whole year for each department. Ever wonder what happened outside of Koinonia? In acts2fellowship or Kairos? Or what about across the bay in SF? You can check out the videos online. The Praxis video is snazzy, using hand-drawn cutouts to tell the story of 2007.

If you missed our Thanksgiving Celebration, you can check out a part of what you missed.

Changing the Norm: news for this week

Hey, just to keep you guys on your toes with finals just around the corner, we're changing things up a bit, starting with smallgroup day:

• Smallgroups for both frosh and sophs are on Thursday, Nov. 29, this week.
• Frosh are meeting at 6:30 PM, beginning with dinner, at the YWCA on Bancroft, in the Chapel room, the one on the far left once you go upstairs.
• Sophs are meeting at 8 PM, also at the YWCA in the Chapel room.
• Manny is going to lead the smallgroups this week! If you're lucky, he might do a rendition of the hammer dance he performed at Thanksgiving Celebration.

Joe, Ben, Maurice, and I will be gone from Thursday to Saturday on a retreat with Pastor Ed and Kelly. In other cool news:

• Bible study this Friday is at Lipman room, 7 PM, as usual. Afterwards, Koinonia is headed over to the Oakland Ice Rink, where we've rented the whole place for ice skating. Make sure to bring warm clothes.
• Don't miss out on the college winter retreat. It's the highlight of the year for many of us, and really marks some spiritual breakthroughs in many of our lives. You can sign up online. The dates are Fri., 1/18 - Mon., 1/21. You might be wondering, "Is it worth changing your plane tickets for?" And I would answer without hesitation, "Yes, definitely."

Barbecue, sports, and turkey for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend caused Berkeley to clear out pretty quickly as everyone headed back home to visit family for the holidays. Here's a rundown of all the good stuff that happened.

Wednesday night, everyone who was around had dinner at my place. Some people were in transit, waiting for a plane the next morning or for family to come into town. It was cozy, filling, and afterwards, we played Blokus, Turbo Cranium, and Bang. It was Tabby's first time playing the Wild West shoot-em-up game, but she quickly came up to speed as she joined me in taking down the sheriff: our hostess and my wife, Jenny. Incidentally, it was revealed that Brian is dangerous, whether friend or foe. You can never tell what he'll do.

Thursday afternoon, we had a wonderful barbecue kalbi picnic at the local park. There were about a hundred people there. Baseball, soccer, Turkey bowl football, ultimate frisbee, basketball, volleyball, we played everything and anything. The barbecue was a welcome prelude to Thanksgiving turkey dinner, and a good break from all the mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, corn, and turkey which we had already consumed the previous weekend and which was staring us down just a couple hours later.

Thursday night, all the Koinonia and Kairos people who were in town (but didn't have family) headed over to Manny & Sunny's to eat and hang out. I had to skip out because my parents were visiting, but I heard more than fifty people crammed into their townhouse, and they had to spill out into the neighboring townhouse living room (don't worry, we know those people!).

Friday was all quiet as everyone recovered from the eating frenzy and others braved the Black Friday crowds (I did!). Saturday came and went, and some people came over to my place for dinner, and Jenny Y. even brought homemade pumpkin pie. Sunday's Worship Service continued with The Remarkable Jesus, and it was pleasant times catching up with people who were trickling back in from Thanksgiving weekend. Everyone had a soporific look, the kind of demeanor one ought to have after finals. Probably not a good sign with finals coming up...!

Welcome back everyone. Study hard. It's the final stretch.

Thanksgiving Weekend in Berkeley?

Thanksgiving Celebration was such a blast: Jasper's nien-gao dance move was immortalized in the senior performance, Manny & Joe hammer-danced across the stage in a shameless (sacrificial) declaration of their solidarity with the sophomore class, plus the food coming out of our ears afterwards, the traveling Mo-show complete with cheering entourage, and all hundred of us crammed into an apartment (or standing on the ledge outside)... more on all this later, plus pictures.

For this week, if you're around, wanted to let you know what's up:

• dinner & hang out at my house tonight, 6:30 pm. Let me know or give me a call so I make sure you have a ride.
• Thanksgiving picnic & sports at Tilman Park. Barbecue kalbi is the menu, I believe, plus an opportunity to whack the softball out of the park or dunk on me.
• Thanksgiving dinner is hosted by the Praxis groups. Again, you got to let me know if you or your friends are planning on coming.
• Friday night: hang out.
• Saturday night: go to the City. Yes, San Francisco. Not Union City.
• Sunday: after church, sports or something.

We're just trying to squeeze out all the fun from your bones so you can gear up for those finals just around the corner.

Thanksgiving Celebration: New Time!

Thanksgiving Celebration is happening at a different time on Sunday than previously announced! We'll begin at 2 PM with Gracepoint worship service (at the same place in Alameda, at the Kaufman Auditorium), and then have our Thanksgiving dinner altogether. Then comes the entertainment... Jenny and I will be cooking a turkey this year, so watch out.

Speaking of entertainment, we're practicing for Thanx Celebration after bible study this Friday. It's not too late to participate!

Speaking of more entertainment, it's Open Thursdays again, and you're welcome to come over for a home-cooked meal and study. Drop me a line if you need a ride. Howard's already got shotgun.

Staying informed

I hear from different people, "I didn't know bible study was at..." or "I wasn't sure if we had smallgroup this week..." or "I didn't know Ben was staff, I thought he was a sophomore." Yes, for those who are poorly informed or find themselves murky about what goes on week to week, never fear: this homegroup blog is here.

It's actually been here the last three months, and you can find all our meeting times and places on these very plain, but informative pages.

That said:

• Frosh & Soph smallgroups are Wed. night in Dwinelle: 6:30 PM & 8 PM respectively in rooms 211 & 204.
• Friday's bible study is 7 PM in the Lipman Room. Afterwards, we're practicing for Thanksgiving Celebration. It'll be the last practice for the frosh/sophs, altho the seniors will be meeting again on Saturday.
• Those of you in SK1 & Church 101, it's happening Saturday morning, 10-12. SK1 is on Berkeley campus and Church 101 is at NorthLoop.
• Thanksgiving Celebration is on Sunday, right after Gracepoint's worship service. The time is either 2 PM or 4 PM. We're having some difficulties securing the venue so more info to come soon.
• We're cooking together for Thanksgiving Celebration so stay tuned. Help will be needed Sunday morning. If you think you know how to cook a turkey, or candied yams, or any of the other Thanksgiving fixings, then get prepared to show your stuff.

Thanksgiving Celebration mp3s online

Hey folks (freshmen, actually), if you need to practice "Awesome God" for Thanksgiving Celebration, Emily (your fearless conductor) has uploaded the mp3s for you to download and sing on your own.

Thanksgiving Celebration is this Sunday, 11/18. It'll be in Alameda, at the Kauffman Auditorium, and will follow Gracepoint's Sunday service. Make sure to get in touch with one of the seniors or your smallgroup leader for a ride.


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What's Happening this week

What's Happening used to be a 70s sitcom featuring the infamous Rerun and his buds. It's way before pretty much everyone's time, but I thought a little historical education couldn't hurt. But seriously, here's "what's happening" this week:

• Bible study this Friday also turns out to be the first message of our annual Thanksgiving Retreat. It's at First Pres right across from Unit 3, beginning at 7 PM. Acts2fellowship, Kairos, and Koinonia will all be there, as well as Praxis.
• Frosh smallgroup is meeting Wed., 211 Dwinelle at 6:30 PM w/ scrumptious dinner and discussion time.
• Soph smallgroup is meeting in the parking lot next to Sather Gate and Sproul Hall. We're going to famous Fentons to celebrate birthdays and hang out. Wed., at 9 PM. Note the time change.
• Thanksgiving Celebration is next Saturday, 11/17. If you want real home-cooked turkey before the actual turkey day, join us for laughs and great food.

See ya'll soon.

A culinary sort of post

Recently, our homegroup has had to demonstrate its culinary talents. And pretty much, if happy mouths and satisfied stomachs are any indicator, you can call us Ratatouille.

Of course, our menu generally consisted of meat, meat, and more meat (sorry to our one vegetarian representative, Alan). It started with grilling 600 lbs of tri-tip for our Gracepoint Anniversary. The grilling took four hours, and although it started off with a bunch of laughs and "sampling" all around, by the end we were all business grilling to medium rare perfection. Afterwards, we showered and showed up at the Gracepoint anniversary. There was a real live orchestra, which served as a visual and auditory example of the message series, Divine Symphony. Then we watched a video in which different people shared their stories of how they experienced Gracepoint and the community of faith. Even I was in it! We had a wonderful time together, and then celebrated afterwards with a rock-awesome dinner, topped by 600 lbs of our medium rare tri-tip.

More recently, we had a Koinonia and Kairos potluck at Northloop this past Friday. Again, we decided to cook 30 lbs of meat (it was Maurice & Wenjie's idea) to represent our homegroup, and also prepared some beautiful appetizers. We cooked a lot, ate a lot, and then had bible study all together, reading an excerpt from Joshua Harris' I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Seeing everyone from Koinonia and Kairos stuffed into the conference room at NorthLoop was a sight to see, but it was great having a chance to learn new names, and at last to sit down and talk to people we see all the time at our activities but with whom we hardly exchange a word. In addition to the Thanksgiving Celebration practice we had afterwards, another highlight was the magic show Maurice put on after we finished cooking, before we ran off to NorthLoop for the potluck.

There's plenty of other stuff I could write about, but I'll spare you guys. Plus, all this writing and keeping up to date stuff is tiring work. I'll put up some pictures instead with the Flickr link. It's easier, and it's worth more words, so they say.

Every Thursday there's home night at my place and Ben's place. People come over for dinner, hang out, and study. Some people are regulars... which is a good thing. Getting out of Berkeley every once in a while is good for your sanity.

A little while ago (in keeping with "meat" theme of this post), the frosh went to Fuddruckers during smallgroup. It was a gross display of oil, grease, and good ol' fun.