Welcome Back & 411 this week

Hey hey hey, here's what's happening this week:

• GTS Sunday Course 101x makeup Wednesday night at the YWCA, 7-8:30 pm in classroom 2.
• Course 101 Dwinelle, same place and same time on Wednesday night.
• This Friday's Gracepoint Monthly, all together at 7:30 pm @ First Pres. Afterwards, we have RSF sports night for the guys. Dress appropriately and be ready.
• Calendar date to circle: Fri-Sat (Apr 25-26). K1 (and Kairos) is headed to an overnight trip at Sierra Lodge. If you missed Yosemite, it's alright. You don't have to be sad. You can come with us to our very own Sierra Lodge. More details forthcoming... but study hard so you can make it.
  

I think that's all... look out for more posts on this past weekend's Impact-Springfest meeting, as well as some videos from our Spring Break Yosemite trip.

Spring Break Friday @ North Loop

Since everyone was mostly gone for Spring Break, instead of our usual homegroup bible studies, we opted to meet all together across Koinonia, acts2fellowship, and Kairos at NorthLoop. Big delicious potluck (all the college staff cooked), great dessert (although someone brought a bag of Verona cookies), some silly boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-boom-boom icebreaker, bible study from Pastor Manny through Luke 24, more silly games including scavenger hunt, people singing ridiculously high onstage, one-arm push-ups, and animal impersonations, everyone was pretty relaxed and delirious with vacation joy.

School's back in session, however, but still, the glow from spring break here in Berkeley continues to live on.

Spring Break Yosemite Trip

When it comes to entertainment that fills, there are few things more rewarding than heading out to the great outdoors. We took off Sunday to Wednesday of Spring Break and went to the grand, sheer granite faces of Yosemite National Park.

25 guys across Koinonia 1 and Kairos went together and stayed in the ol' Bear House, which was full of all kinds of strange trinkets, paintings, and stuffed animals of bears. Frankly, with so many vacation-frenzied young men we were scared we were going to break the place to smithereens. our K1 sisters and K2 groups also went to Yosemite, stayed in the same Pine Mountain Lake area, and spent a lot of time with us throughout the trip.

The first night, all of K1 gathered at our house for ramen and steak. Kind of a strange combination, except you have to remember ramen is cheap and fast and easy to prepare. And steak... well, we had plenty of it that same day Easter Sunday at Gracepoint Fellowship Church at our first annual Easter picnic.

Monday, we all went into Yosemite Valley together. We tried the Nevada Falls hike, only to be blocked about a mile and a half into the hike by dangerous snow and icy patches that wouldn't allow our group to keep going. Some people up there kept going, not really acknowledging the warning signs, and eventually one old woman was having a difficult time getting down. It was a good thing we turned around. We ate lunch together, and then headed up to Vernal Falls, which was full of glacier melt and really wet, but extremely beautiful in the afternoon sun. That pretty much took the whole day, so we went home and prepared dinner. All of K1 and K2 (and Kairos!) got together at our Bear House for dinner, and after some laughter, we sat down and watched Glory.

The next day we went to Tunnel View, Bridal Veil Falls, and then had a wonderful time singing,"How Great Is Our God" (w/ Ben on the guitar), and praying in the middle of the Valley. The brothers finished the day in the Valley playing ultimate frisbee, soccer, and football beneath the shadow of El Capitan, headed home for a barbecue rib dinner, and then played games into the wee hours of the night.

After cleaning the house the next day, eating all the leftovers, doing one last hike at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, we ran back down to the cars and made good time to end at a buffet. Stuffing ourselves silly seemed to be one of the themes of the trip. Wish you were there. Here are some other highlights:

• When to use roger, copy, and over.
• John K.'s quotable: "One thing I learned on this trip: Eddie's a pretty funny guy."
• John T. was a striker on an 18-0 soccer team.
• Apples to Apples is fun.
• 3 tubs of cookies gone.
• Daniel S. is the most beat-up-able freshman, according to Kenton.
• We're thankful for all the Easter Service leftover meat
• Singing in Yosemite Valley is awesome
• John K., Daniel S., Kevin T., and Jasper beat us (Eddie, Kevan, Mike) in football, 13-12 by ones, although the last touchdown was worth 12 points.
• Yosemite glacier melt is pretty dang cold.
• Everything tastes good when it's barbecued.
• John C.'s horse was eating his one flower.
• Food is key to having fun.

Special Prayer Request

Please pray for Eddie Ng and his family. Eddie is one of our college staff brothers at SF State, and part of our GFC San Francisco campus. His younger brother, Philip (age 24) was a victim of a violent crime and passed away from the injuries. Additionally, Philip's friend (age 21) also passed away. The entire family, understandably, is devastated and in need of our prayers and support.

As Eddie and his wife Alison are the only Christians in the entire family, pray that they would experience God's comfort during this very difficult time, and also be a source of encouragement and healing to the family.

Joyland Applications and Information Packet

If you missed the Joyland informational meeting this past Sunday, that's all right. Teacher Michelle has made the info packet available if you need it. You can let me know and I can send you a soft copy. Signups for Joyland close at the end of April.

You can sign up to be a Teacher (or Assistant Teacher), or you can sign up to be an Administrator and part of the Operations team. I believe more details are available if you follow the links.

There's an assortment of other things to be on the look out for:

• Impact SpringFest signup deadline is tomorrow, Thurs., 3/20.
  
• Summer mission trip signups online end this Friday, 3/21.
• If you have PESI questions, let Kate know. She's our rep.

A Hymn to Dwell On

We sang a hymn tonight, Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted, at prayer meeting. The words were so dense and packed with meaning, I thought it'd do us good to have them here so we can think and reflect on them a little bit more.

        1. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
       See Him dying on the tree!
       'Tis the Christ by man rejected;
       Yes, my soul, 'tis He! 'tis He!
       'Tis the long-expected Prophet,
       David's Son, yet David's Lord;
       Proofs I see sufficient of it:
       'Tis the true and faithful Word.

       2. Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
       Was there ever grief like His?
       Friends through fear His cause disowning,
       Foes insulting His distress;
       Many hands were raised to wound Him,
       None would interpose to save;
       But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
       Was the stroke that Justice gave.

       3. Ye who think of sin but lightly
       Nor suppose the evil great
       Here may view its nature rightly,
       Here its guilt may estimate.
       Mark the Sacrifice appointed,
       See who bears the awful load;
       'Tis the WORD, the LORD'S ANOINTED,
       Son of Man and Son of God.

       4. Here we have a firm foundation;
       Here the refuge of the lost;
       Christ's the Rock of our salvation,
       His the name of which we boast.
       Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
       Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
       None shall ever be confounded
       Who on Him their hope have built.

Passion Week news

Every year, Christians around the world observe Passion Week, the last week of Christ. For those unfamiliar with its Latin roots, "Passion" in this sense doesn't refer to love or emotional romantic fervor. It refers to suffering, as in the suffering of Christ. Wanted to let you know some of the things happening this week:

• Prayer meeting tonight (3/18) will include Praxis as well, and starts at 7 PM, First Pres.
• Ben's having reading and reflection time at the YWCA everyday this week from 9-10 PM. From 10-11 PM, there are prayer rooms available for people to use as well. You're welcome (and encouraged) to join him if you have time.
• Mid-week Course 101: same place, same time on Wed. night.
  
• There's a viewing of Passion of the Christ on Thurs., 3/20, 8-9:30 PM @ 145 Dwinelle.
• Good Friday Service is at 7:30 PM, Willard Middle School.
• Saturday, 3/22, some of us are going to Golden Gate for a one-day prayer and reflection retreat. If you'd like to join us, let me know.
• Following our Easter Sunday Service, we'll have a barbecue picnic together as an entire church.
• Spring Break Yosemite details coming up soon. Stay tuned.
• If you need to pick up Passion Readers, you can pick them up tonight at First Pres. Just look for the book table in the lobby.

Lots of announcements, huh? Very full week.

Also, it's a tradition for many Christians to fast on Friday in observance of Christ's death on the cross. It's not merely an exercise in denial or self-inflicted starvation, it's to set aside time to reflect and pray throughout the day. Just wanted to let you know as many of the staff will be doing this.

SF Outing, Frosh & Seniors

This past weekend, the freshmen and seniors went out to San Francisco. Kind of a 1/2 day sort of thing. For some, it was a nice time to get away from studying. For others, they rolled out of bed and joined us for our departure at 3:30pm.

We went to Palace of Fine Arts first, took some pictures, and looked at the swans in the lake. We were going to play hide-n-seek, but the place was closed for renovation. It didn't prevent us from taking some pictures, nor from trying to come up with a compelling CD cover.

Afterwards, we went to Chrissy Fields where we watched the sun set behind the Golden Gate. Pretty awesome sight. While there, the guys couldn't help attempting a race across the sands to determine the fastest man award (notice Nick eating it at the very end..):




Then we went to eat at a Chinese restaurant, and headed back to Berkeley. Fun. More pictures online.

Springfest 2008

Springfest is a 4-week program hosted by ImpACT (a non-profit organization that our church started), for 2nd graders from underprivileged backgrounds in Oakland. There's a lot more of the ImpACT story to tell, but here I'll just say that Springfest 2008 will happen this April! This has been a wonderful way to reach out to the community, sharing God's love in tangible ways such as fun outings, inspiring workshops, and homework help. There are many volunteer opportunities of varying levels of commitment, and you are all invited to help out. There's more information (including a brief history of ImpACT) on the signup page. Signups are due this Thursday, so check it out soon...

SF Eats, Maxwell Field, GP Monthly setup

Hola.  Here's a picture of bald people for your enjoyment.  It has nothing to do with the nature of this post other than the fact that it happened this week.  These other things are happening this week.  Some of it might be of interest to you:

• Night Trip to San Francisco this Saturday evening, 3/8, for the seniors and freshmen.  We'll meet at Anna Head West at 4:30 pm, catch the sunset at the Battery, and then head into the city from there.  Bring $$ since we'll be swinging by Beard Papa's, In-n-Out, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, Palace of Fine Arts and some other good eats.  Let your smallgroup leader know you're coming so you make sure you have a ride.
  
• Koinonia 1 in charge of setup for Gracepoint Monthly this Friday, 5:30 pm @ Willard.  We'll have food together in the courtyard after we're done.  But we need your help, so come on by.  If you can't make it, that's alright.  Just come by the start time, 7:30 pm.  Afterwards, we have Maxwell Field Night, so dress appropriately.
• Spring Break Yosemite Trip is 3/23-3/26.  Deadline to sign up is this Friday, 3/7.  You can sign up online.  There's tons of info for this, but at the risk of overburdening an already verbose post, I'll leave that info for later.  We'll dedicate a whole post to it.  If you can't wait, you can ask one of the staff.

That's it.  Props to Howard's computer for taking the awesome picture.  To all the other bald bros in our group: too bad you weren't here.

Summer Internships @ Bayer

If you're interested, there's summer internships at Bayer, which is located about 15 minutes away on Shattuck. Follow the link and find a wide variety of internships, ranging from accounting to IT to biochemistry and product development. Figured this would be helpful. Thanks to Carol for calling it out.

Some Things For This Week 3/3-3/9

hey guys, back from my BAR-hibernation! Thanks for praying for me if you got a chance to, not sure how I did, but I'm glad it's over and excited to be seeing you guys more again. But enough about that, on to some announcements for this week:

*Mid-week Course 101 not happening this week because this seems like big midterm week for a bunch of guys but...

*Study break at Norton in Unit 3.
Wednesday, 10:00-11:00 pm in first floor lounge. I'll make something fresh-baked and comforting (e.g. brownies or smores or cookies or something). Drop by anytime in that window just to satisfy the late night appetite or hang out for a while if you want to give the brain a breather. And of course feel free to bring any of your buddies along, i promise there will be more than enough food. Give me a call 415-271-3800 and I'll see to it you get signed in.

*Friday is Gracepoint monthly and sports at Maxwell field afterwards. More info upcoming.

*Saturday: Someone may have already contacted you about this, but we're tossing around the idea of combining with some of the other brothers and sisters in koinonia for an outing to SF on Saturday late afternoon-evening. Of course all this hinges on people's interest, so email me if you would be interested.

Okay that's it, hopefully I didn't forget anything and if I did I'll just chalk it up to post-BARmatic-stress syndrome.

Abigail's doing alright

Just wanted to say thank you for all your prayers and concern for Abigail. Thought with everyone asking, "How's she doing?" that I'd let you know. She had bronchiolitis (kid bronchitis) about 3 weeks ago, and it seemed like it got better. But then it took a turn for the worse last weekend w/ fever and continuous coughing that didn't allow her to keep any of her food down. When we went to the pediatrician on Monday morn, Jenny and I were there for 2 hours, and then they sent us to Oakland Children's Hospital, where they took chest x-rays, monitored her, administered some medicine, and checked out her lungs. They ruled out pneumonia (whew), and after 8 hours, sent us home w/ some medicine and instructions on how to care for her.

So, Jenny and I were taking turns watching the kid this whole past week. But she's on the up and up, and finally got out of the house yesterday, and still looked pretty good. She's been happy the entire time, and is beginning to display a temperament that's angry, feisty, curious, and happy all at the same time. Like, she'll literally switch from one to the other within seconds. It's like there's no continuous memory or narrative of her life but every moment is a singular snapshot unrelated to the previous moments. What a weirdo.

Anyway, thank you for your prayers and concern. I've realized how much we (and her) are cared for by all of you and the rest of our Gracepoint family, and am reminded there is great peace in knowing that God is leading our lives.