Gracepoint Monthly: @ Golden Gate, not in Berkeley!

For those of you going to Gracepoint Monthly | Extended, make sure you sign up online. We need to make sure to order enough food for everyone coming. Unless, of course, you're going to bag your own lunch and bring it with you! It'll be most of the day, from 9-6 PM at Golden Gate Seminary... not in Berkeley! Gracepoint Fellowship Church Sunday service (don't forget) is at Willard this week, and no longer on campus at Pauley. Yes, so many places and names to remember. It's part of being a college student.

What happens at Gracepoint Monthly, you ask? Here's a short blurb from Pastor Ed,

It will be like our usual one-day Fall Retreat, except that we will fill the day listening to all the ways in which God worked this past summer through our mission trips, worldview camp, 30 hour famine, etc. People will be giving reports, sharing testimonies from all that happened this past summer, and it will be a time for all of us to get on the same page, and glorify God together as a church.

New Student Welcome Night is here!!

New Student Welcome Night is here! Well, technically, I guess it's tonight (Wed.), beginning at 6 PM, Pauley Ballroom, right across from Sproul Hall. I'm so excited.

The past couple days have been really full though. Sophs and Juniors from our homegroup have been out helping our friends move into the dorms. We've gone to Fenton's for ice cream, SF for In-N-Out and Ghirardelli's, played basketball on the Willard Courts, so much ultimate frisbee it's coming out of our ears, shaved ice, eating at the DCs, and just meeting a lot of people-friends from previous years just returned from their summers, and new students to our Cal campus.

I guess the best part is the laughter and new friendships. It's a special time of year these first couple weeks.

I can't wait til New Student Welcome Night. Music, a short sketch, lots and lots of people, and even a free barbecue, the main event will be the funnies, and the guy who talks for a bit trying to connect with each one of us. See you there, and invite your friends!!

Finals Overs, Barbecue Time

Hot Links
Originally uploaded by Kevan & Jenny

With Summer finals over, it's time to have a barbecue and throw the frisbee around in the waning days of summer... yes, folks, summer is almost over! Tonight, we're heading to the park to grill, throw the frisbee around, and stroll around in the early summer evening.

Afterwards, we'll head to NorthLoop to join the rest of the college groups and having a combined bible study (7:30 PM). Then, Olympics on the big screen in digital HD. Awesome.

Prayer Request: Battling Cancer

Annie on the left and her sister-in-law, Julie
Originally uploaded by Kevan & Jenny

My friend, Joe, recently posted about Blessing in the Midst of Cancer, by which he means, Annie's cancer and the current round of chemo being administered. Here's a bit from Joe's entry:

As Annie just finished her first week of chemotherapy last Friday, I had a chance to see how her battle with cancer, while frightening, has also resulted in an unexpected blessing of allowing us to experience God’s love through the encouragement and support of many people at our church.

I've been Joe's friend for more than 10 years now and we've gone through a lot of ups and downs. Jenny and Annie, likewise, have been friends for just as long. One thing that's clear to me is that Annie's illness is very much our illness too, as it is our whole church's, and we're praying for them, helping out wherever we can, being together, and just trying to live life together each day.

Please pray for our dear sister, Annie, and for Joe as well. When you see them, give them a smile and say hello.

Koinonia - Why I Love the Olympics

This past Friday Koinonia watched the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. It is difficult to express in words what we saw, but it was a mixture of awe, wonder, excitement, and intimidation. Everyone was blown away by the sheer magnitude of the spectacle. WOW. Even people who were remotely connected to China were suddenly being filled with Chinese nationalistic pride. Needless to say, I am really excited about this year’s Olympics.

There are so many things about the Olympics that I love. There's the awe-inspiring physical skill and strength of the athletes. There's the national pride in which the athletes compete not just for themselves, but for something greater than themselves. Then there are the things in the Olympics that simply transcend sports. In history, there's Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (embarrassing Hitler and the Nazis), the U.S. Men’s Hockey team defeating the Soviets in 1980 (inspiring America in the midst of the Cold War), and Eric Liddell refusing to run on Sunday (honoring God first above country).

A few years ago, I saw a replay of an Olympic moment from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics that impacted me. It was a simple yet memorable last-place finish by a sprinter, Derek Redmond, from Great Britain. He was one of the favorites to win the 400m dash, but collapsed in the middle of the race because he tore his hamstring. Courageously, he still tried to finish the race, but struggled. Then a figure from the stands broke through security and rushed to help Derek while Derek was weeping. They finished the race together. Who was that figure? It was his father.

New Student Welcome Night... around the corner

Believe it or not, it's that time of the year again: Fall Semester. You know what that means. Anyway, the New Student Welcome Night website is up, and it's cool.

Here's the tag line:

New Student Welcome Night 2008 @ UC Berkeley is sponsored by three campus fellowships to introduce you to Cal, student life, and who we are. (Loud) Music, skits, video, a brief talk, some laughter and even food, we're into community, culture, our campus, and a God who's got something relevant to say to all of us.

And here's the video trailer for the evening.


Trailer: New Student Welcome Night from kevan on Vimeo.

Or you can grab the video from Youtube if you'd like.

Running a Marathon

Steve Suh is the man. He ran the San Francisco Marathon last week, averaging 10 minute miles. Afterwards, he even went to Sunday service. He is the biggest man I know.

Since H.1 went to the Sierras to camp last weekend, we couldn't even run the Alameda 10K. But hey, forget the 10K, try a marathon. Read more about it and even watch a 2-minute documentary on the experience.

EXTRA: I found him in the official registry of runners who finished the full marathon, listed as runner "Stephen Steve Suh" from "Alameda, CA," placing 1874, finishing in 4:37:50.

Sierras Camping: Homegroups 1 & 5

We went camping to the Sierras this past weekend. We roughed it. However, "roughing it" applied differently to different groups of people. We arrived to Hampshire Rocks when the sun had already set, so the girls got busy pitching the tents and getting hot food ready. The guys... well, they got lost and took a sightseeing trip all the way to South Lake Tahoe before joining up with the rest of us.

Some trip highlights:

• S'mores around the campfire... not one night, but two.
• Running water
  
• Off-roading in 4 tough trucks
• Kevin D. playing guitar (his favorite song: Let Me Sing)
  
• Bowman Lake sweeping across the horizon
• Lake Faucherie, the most beautiful place in the Sierras
• Bigfoot Sighting

• Freezing cold waterfall
• Hiking at Faucherie
• Attacking the unsuspecting, trusting Homegroup RED
• Kayaking on Spaulding Lake
• Barbecue grilled dinner
• Hannah and Howard's stories
• Jenny's ghost stories
• Wendy and Maurice's jokes (turtles, "disagree," "can, nut, bread")
• Colossians 3 along the lake's shore at dusk
  

Sorry if you couldn't make it... maybe next time!

Element Road Trip to Oregon & Centrifuge

Centrifuge: Gone
Originally uploaded by gracepoint.element

Element's the high school youth group at Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Berkeley. They recently did something neato--Centrifuge: Gone. And now they're off on a road trip to Oregon. Talk about cool. I wish I could go with them.

They sound like they're having a ton of fun... how do I know? Well, they got their own Element Twitter feed, complete with pictures via iPhone.

And if you check out the pictures of Centrifuge, it looks pretty... well... youthful.