Ribs with Barbecue Sauce from Texas

Homegroup Dinner at the YWCA
Originally uploaded by Kevan & Jenny

This past week, Hannah and Howard surrendered their lives to Christ. Totally great news! We got together last night to celebrate over dinner, which Jenny (and Hannah) prepared: beef and pork ribs w/ authentic barbecue sauce straight from Texas, garlic green beans, buttered potatoes, and even a delicious fruit tart. It was mouth-watering good, and with the summer winding down and so many people in and out the last couple weeks (myself included), it was great to sit down and eat together.

Over dessert, we read through John 4's Samaritan Woman and talked about this fascinating conversation Jesus had with her. It led to an active discussion about the upcoming fall semester. So many of us have been excited at the prospect of meeting new friends, dialoguing with our fellow students about life and God, and we started brainstorming about what we envisioned the fall semester could look like and how we could all be a part of it.

Celebration, brainstorming, good food. It doesn't get much better.

Junior Discipleship Retreat at Gracepoint Berkeley

Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang

It's an annual thing (starting this year) for the juniors to head up to Sierra Lodge during the summer and have a discipleship retreat with Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang. It's a nice getaway from Berkeley, and as beautiful as campus is during the summer, it's just not the same as going to the mountains, rivers, lakes, and meadows of the Sierras.

Pastor Ed Kang teaching archery

About 50 of us--all the juniors of Gracepoint Fellowship Church involved in discipleship classes--took off from Berkeley on Friday afternoon. We arrived (after stopping by In-N-Out) around 9:30. After the requisite registration stuffs, we sat down for a guys-dominated game of King Kong Shower (yes, we crushed the sisters), and then each wrote out one truth, one lie. It was one way to get to know one another, laugh a little, and for names to attach themselves to faces. For many people, it was their first time seeing all their classmates in one room. Last year's Gracepoint Live seemed like a massive throng of people, but this was a lot cozier, and it was a real opportunity to see who our "partners in the gospel" were.

We listened to Tony Campolo's "Seize the Day" message, as well as Bill Hybell's "5 Tests of Leadership". Together with Philippians 1 and the message on Isaiah 40, we were filled to bursting with a sense of calling for our lives to reveal the glory of the Lord as we fill the valleys and flatten the hills in our own hearts.

Singing How Great Thou Art at the Lake

There was a bunch of other stuff we did... organize the basement full of tools, clear the hillside of combustible material, string bows and shoot at our own archery range (2 sisters hit the bulls-eye... no brothers--although Daniel, infamous author of Dis-Gracepoint, hit a granite rock), race on kayaks, throw each other into the water, sing Les Mis, hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, eat good food, have a lot of brownies, use Sierra Lodge rental Nalgenes, miss the Boreal exit, get worked by mosquitos, have our own Sunday Worship Service with college student band, sing How Great Thou Art at the lake, sing all of Beauty and the Beast and The Sound of Music with Emily & HG7, and more. What a list of stuff! Can't do all of that at Berkeley, Gracepoint Juniors! Only at Sierra Lodge!

We had a great time. And, more seriously, I'm very thankful we had this opportunity to reflect on the trajectory of our lives, and how we want to grow as Christ-followers together in the upcoming year.

Thanks to all the juniors, Hannah (who took care of all the food), Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang (for all the messages, challenge, encouragement, and inspiration), Ben (for taking care of the whole trip, not to mention the rides), Daniel (for laughs), and all the other brothers and sisters of Davis Waypoint and Berkeley Gracepoint Fellowship Church who helped build Sierra Lodge so great times like this can happen!

Gracepoint Live: Step troupe

This seemed like a long time ago, but remember this? Kevin D. in the front row!!

Here's the summer news

Hey folks, here's the news:

• DT Groups are changing up so they're student-run, student-led throughout Koinonia. How exciting. Sign up by emailing Grace Lin and she'll plug you into a group.
• We're going on a camping trip to the Sierras, 8/1-8/3. It'll just be our homegroup... Sign up below.
  
  
  
• Junior discipleship retreat this weekend. Get ready, and rides will be sent out soon.
• The rest of us will go on w/ our Friday intramurals, and then maybe we'll do something different for dinner and DT bible study. Maybe we'll go out now that we've gotten rid of those juniors.
• Suggestions for what you want to do is welcome. Things like kayaking, campfire, hide and seek at midnight outdoors. Just throw it into the comments.
  

DT Journals: want one? Last chance

hi - as announced last week, we are making dt journals (with and without lines for writing) for August/September as well. We will only order for those who sign up and prepay.

The deadline is Wednesday. You can sign up online!

In Austin... it's hot here!

The Austin Team

I've been in Austin the last couple days and will return to Berkeley tomorrow night. It's been an exciting several days here (aside from the business trip part!). The first night, I went with the brothers here to play basketball at UT's Gregory Gym. We didn't do so bad, mostly because Bryan S. was playing on my team... while there, we met some UT Austin sophomores and juniors, some of whom are avid Boston Celtics fans. Pastor Manny loved it and they got along famously. The next evening, everyone went to the DCs.I went to a DC called Kinsolving Dining Center, attached to a coed dorm of the same name. I sat down with two incoming freshmen and a junior--undeclared, engineering, and CS. It felt like I was back on the Berkeley campus! We've been meeting a lot of people--some UT students and others who are international or just visiting for the summer. The reception has been really warm and it's thrilling to meet UT students and learn about their university, and share my experiences from Berkeley!

In the evenings, I've been together with the team helping with the websites (UT Koinonia and Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Austin), writing copy for the brochures, and even practicing on the praise band for the first ever UT Koinonia bible study, which is tonight! Life here is hot, but it's wonderful being together with the team. We do DT and prayer in the morning, just like in Berkeley. We even had Prayer Band on Thursday morning, praying for the Hsinchu church as well as the Austin needs. And after bible study tonight, we'll be having shaved ice and go play games. Tomorrow (Saturday), I think we're taking a trip to San Antonio!! Wow!

Pray for the first ever UT Koinonia bible study tonight!

Announcements for H.1 in Berkeley:

• Summer IMs as usual at 6:30 PM @ Wood Middle School. Mike H. is in charge of rides if you need one.
• Afterwards, heading over to Steve & Suzanne's for dinner and DT sharing with some of the other Koinonia homegroups!
• Sophomores are off to Sierra Lodge for their discipleship retreat! Simon, don't get dunked or thrown off your kayak (ahem)!

See you guys soon!

Gracepoint Joyland Archives: Ken is a horse

It's finally been posted: Ken's wonderful stint as a horse at Joyland. I'm so happy it's there. You can watch the "horse" video online, or you can go to our official Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Berkeley, Joyland website and cruise around.

I can't tell you the joy this brings me. I can't wait until Hugo, Simon, or John is put up there on stage. What animals do you think they can be? Tiger? Giraffe? Squirrel? Jumping fish?

Austin Team's really gone...

It's for real. They've left Berkeley and arrived in Austin, and they're there to stay. We had a tearful, joyful farewell last night, and then a sendoff from the airport early this morning. Please keep them in your prayers and thoughts. Leaving Gracepoint Berkeley to start up Gracepoint Austin, while exciting, is full of sorrow because of the parting. But it's all for the sake of the gospel, which we all agree, must go to the ends of the earth.

Here's a picture they took when they arrived at Austin airport.

Gracepoint Fellowship Church: 30-hour Famine cornmeal porridge

UNICEF Corn Porridge

We broke our fast w/ cornmeal porridge. Here's the ingredients so you can make it at home:

• 3 cups cornmeal (one container of the Quaker 24oz is about 4 cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk powder
• 4 cups of beans (eg, kidney, pinto, garbanzo. I mixed 4 cans of these, drained.)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil

Farewell for our Gracepoint Berkeley-Austin Team!

The day is finally here... our Austin team is leaving Berkeley, about to start a new Gracepoint Fellowship Church over in hot Texas, near the UT Austin campus. They'll have their own pastor--not our Pastor Ed Kang or Kelly Kang--but the team will be led by our very own Pastor Manny and Sunny. They're leaving early Thursday morning. But, of course, there's a farewell for them this Wednesday with videos, songs, and words of farewell that'll make you laugh and make you cry. Here's the heads up on all the stuff:

• SET & Prayer Meeting, same time, same place: 7 PM @ First Pres., tonight.
  
• Farewell song practice after prayer meeting... outside in front of Haas Pavilion, on the Berkeley campus!
  
• Last Koinonia picture w/ the Austin team, Wed., 7/9, 5:45 pm on the Sproul steps.
• Austin Farewell, Wed. night beginning at 6:15 pm at First Pres. If you come at 6 pm, you can get some boba.
• and last for this week, Intramurals @ 6:30 pm, Fri., 7/11, @ Wood Middle School. Mike H. in charge of rides so give him a holler.

Gracepoint Joyland Archives: Gangsters

Oh my gosh, so I was looking through our Gracepoint Berkeley website and stumbled across the Joyland site. I had forgotten that a couple weeks ago, Jenny had given the big group message to the Joyland kids on "Peer Pressure."

As part of her talk, Jenny got some of the juniors (ahem, Justin, Mike, and Brandon) to dress up like poser Gangsters. It was pretty funny. If these pictures aren't enough and you want to see the actual video, you can watch the video online.

There's always chances to plug in at Gracepoint, whether you want to help out with the video or web teams, or act in skits (think Gracepoint Live, coming in 2009), and I know a bunch of people are helping out with Impact and Joyland. Kind of cool to see our homegroup stretching out into different parts of our world, Koinonia group, and church to serve others.

Taiwan to Berkeley, Gracepoint Fellowship Church

Caroline, as you know, is in Taiwan w/ our Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Hsinchu, until the end of July. She took some pictures and I just wanted to share them with you guys, and also a note that she sent:

June photos are finally up! It was one PACKED month. At the beginning of the month, we were still with the Gracepoint Berkeley Taiwan team and going to Tainan with them. The rest of the month I was saying farewell to my NCTU Chinese classmates, taking my Chinese finals and proficiency test, and cheering on the NTHU/NCTU students with care packages for their finals! June was also the month where we witnessed our first Taiwanese friend become Christian!! It was almost unbelievable that this was happening so soon, but PTL! I am sure many of your prayers had to do with her decision to accept Christ... We also experienced our first NCTU and NTHU graduations. The graduations here are so different from the ones in America. Definitely more quiet and solemn. Not so hyped up. Actually, we had many students whose parents didn't come to see their graduation. Those students were very happy that we were there to cheer them on and act as their "family". One more thing we did for the first time was going to the theaters! We finally got the chance to go watch Prince Caspian together after FNP. Everyone loved it, but I must say - the book is MUCH better. By the end of the month, our Taiwan team exploded to 19 people as we welcome our new team members + Joy from Davis. God is good!!

thank you once again for your continual prayers!! I have less than one month left (*sighs*)...I plan to use this time to "go all out" with my Chinese and with God's Kingdom work!! I will see you SOON!

Let's keep praying for Caroline and the whole team plus their friends in Taiwan!

Caroline's moving back at the end of July from Taiwan to Berkeley, Gracepoint to another Gracepoint! We're looking forward to her return, and can't wait until our H.1 "fellowship" in Berkeley is completed with our last staff member... plus, did you know Caroline's quite the basketball player?

Worldview Camp 2008

Worldview Camp

A couple weeks ago, a whole bunch of us headed over to CSU Monterey to participate in the second annual Gracepoint Worldview Camp. While we lived in dorms and ate DC food, we were studying very earnestly and listening to some good lectures--some from our very own Gracepoint Berkeley people, and others from the very distinguished Dr. John Bloom, holder of multiple PhDs in Physics and Near Eastern Archaeology. Irene, Jenny, Emily and I attended. It was an opportunity to study how Christian truths and principles apply to areas of our everyday life: abortion, eugenics, sexual ethics, the study of science, cosmology, authenticity and veracity of the biblical account, and more. The sheer amount of stuff was dizzying.

Worldview Camp

The days were packed with lectures, discussions with one another, (decent) food from the DC, games and sports at night, and even a bonfire on the beach on the last night. Add to this that we got a chance to hang out with Koinonia Davis who sent about 50 people, and it was a pretty great, community-building, intellectually-stimulating experience. Come next year!

Big Splash @ the Memorial Day Picnic

Big Splash

Early in the summer, all the college groups from Koinonia to Kairos, and the rest of Gracepoint Berkeley and SF's Praxis got together at Paradise Park in Marin County. It was a beautiful day... near the end of the event, Pastor Manny who was so exultant at his team's victory during the organized sports time, was at the receiving end of a massive conspiracy. This (fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) was the result. Let me just say, it was "exultant" for the many others who were watching.