To the Driving Range

Last night, some of the guys came over. None of the sophomores (maybe because they're still reeling from their bowling defeat?) We made some quick dinner, thanked Annie profusely when she brought over extras, and then cleaned up. After dinner we crammed 9 of us into a single van and headed out to the nearby golf course: the driving range. None of us really know what we're doing when it comes to golf, but that's alright. Figured it'd still be fun and a nice way to relieve stress. Plus, the driving range is usually empty and last night was no exception. We paired up, got a couple buckets of balls each and started to whack at the balls. Mike, our in-house Tiger Woods, gave us some tips on swing, posture, form, and everything else. He's pretty good and we were impressed.

After some fun and good coaching at the driving range, we stopped by for frozen yogurt, and then sat down to study for a good hour and a half. We even had baked cookies and ice cream for brain food. Pictures from the night are online, as usual.

Forgot to mention at the driving range, we saw H.2 guys: Joe, Sean, Paul, and Newton. Here's an inspiring video from Joe showing us proper golf form:


Joe at the Driving Range from kevan on Vimeo.

But seriously, here's a video where someone actually hits the ball further than 10 feet, and does so in style.


H.1 Driving Range from kevan on Vimeo.

The News in These Parts

The news in these parts:

This Friday, H.1 and H.3 are in charge of setting up. That means:

• 5:15pm setup at Dana House. We'll load the audio equipment and then head over to 155 Dwinelle. Here's the house!
  View Larger Map


• We'll finish setup at 155 Dwinelle as soon as we can and then eat dinner together. The best part comes after dinner! With the upcoming Thanksgiving Celebration (if you don't know what this is, don't worry, you'll find out real soon), we'll watch some of the Thanksgiving Celebration acts from previous years and have some good laughs beginning at 7:15pm.

As usual, we'll start Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" bible study at 7:45pm. And afterwards, all of Koinonia is heading to Alameda High gymnasium for Sports Nite Halloween Extravaganza! That's not really the name, however. I don't think we even have a name. But that's what I'm calling it in the absence of anything better! Make sure you come dressed (or with a change of clothes).

Let's see, what else is going on... I'm going to give you the whole 9 yards so hang on:

• Next week's prayer meeting (Tuesday, 11/4) will be different: we'll still be at First Pres, but sisters 6:00-7:50pm, brothers 8:00-9:50pm. So take note of that.


• All college event, Gone, Thurs., 11/6, First Pres. It's sort of like New Student Welcome Night-light, so it'll be great fun. Not only that, but we're changing things up from normal and will share stories, music, have talk interspersed in between more stories and music.


• Our annual Thanksgiving Retreat is on Sat., 11/15. If you want to join us, you'll need to sign up online by 11/12.


• Thanksgiving Celebration. Stay tuned. More info coming.


• Our annual Winter Retreat is coming up, Jan. 24-26. Plan accordingly. It's not something you want to miss!


• The sophomores are cooking dinner (b/c they lost) so stay tuned for that too.

Girls up at LBL for H.1 Friday

This happened a couple weeks ago, but because I just got the picture, wanted to post it. While the guys were at Cordonices Park, the H.1 girls were hanging out with Homegroup 5 girls. They took off to the Berkeley Hills, and while the guys were going down concrete slides on cardboard pieces, the girls were sharing a "special moment" gazing across the panoramic view of the Bay Area together... eating burritos (the remnants of which, were found in the trunk of our car 3 days later. Sick).

Thought it was worth sharing. Looked awesome.

Friday Fun - Bowling

Greetings, This past Friday turned out to be lots of fun for the Juniors and Sophomores as well! While the Freshman flocked to Steve and Suzanne's, the Sophomores, Juniors, and Staff (Kevan, Jenny, Eddie) decided to try our luck at some good ole' bowling.

However, getting there turned out to be trickier than expected. All three of our cars got lost at one point or another. After a bunch of calling and driving up and down the same street 3 or 4 times, we finally arrived at our destination! We were all eager and ready to relieve the stressful experience by crushing the little bowling pins with our 15+lb bowling balls.

Once we got settled, we decided to play Staff vs Juniors vs Sophomores - loser had to cook a homemade meal for all of us :) We played two games and averaged out the scores. Here were some highlights from my lane.

• Irene Kwan (who said she had only gone bowling twice prior), the only undergrad sister that went (ahem), getting gutter balls and then strikes! A+ for improvement Irene!
• Michael Kim's "finishing pose"- basically after he released the ball each time he would turn around before the ball hit the pins and raise one arm in the air like Superman. Amazingly it actually worked. There was one point in time when he had 5 or 6 strikes in a row!
• Kevan Ho getting 4 strikes in a row!
• Kevin Ding almost broke 100 but could not knock down the last pin on the last try and ended up with 99 :(

In the end, the Staff came in 1st, Juniors in 2nd, and the Sophomores in 3rd (aka last). We are all anticipating the wonderful home-cooked meal that the sophomores plan for us :) thank you in advance sophomores!

anyways in the spirit of fall I thought this would be nice:

Freshmen Gathering at Steve & Suzanne's

After bible study on Friday, the girls and guys from H.1 found themselves being ferried to Steve and Suzanne’s place. After some interesting car rides, everyone arrived at the house excited and ready to have some fun. The focus of the night was to get the Freshman to know each other better.

Other than the awesome food, which included shaved ice with tons of toppings, there were fun games as well:

• When playing the speed naming game, the twins Brandon and Brian confused everyone with their jacket switching. The game ended up at 4-2, with certain teams going negative at times. (there was a guessing penalty)
  
  
• Electricity was the last game of the day. Despite some scoring and referee issues, team 1 emerged as the clear winner.

the weekly scoop

I don't know about you, but it's amazing to me how much stuff goes on each week. Justin over there is pointing at the announcements you should be reading just below.

We'll start first with Friday night, which is always a weekly favorite:

• 6:00 pm, H.1 Guys over at Kevin D.'s place on the corner of Hillegass and Parker. We'll start with home-cooked dinner. No concrete slides this week... however, Chefs Kevin and David will be contributing to our collective culinary experience.


• 6:00 pm, H.1 Girls over at Virginia's place, also starting with dinner.

Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" bible study is at 7:45 pm @ 2050 VLSB. Afterwards, by popular demand, we're going bowling! It's going to be tons of fun. See you there.

UPDATE (10/24, 10:00am) All Koinonia freshmen going to Steve and Suzanne's afterwards! It'll be a chance to meet all the other freshmen and spend time with Steve and Suzanne.

Sign up online for our annual one-day Thanksgiving Retreat, which happens on Saturday, November 15. Sign up deadline is 11/12, so do it soon!

What's Up

Here's the news for this weekend, starting with Friday dinners (Oct. 17):

• H.1 Guys are meeting at 5:45pm @ Anna Head West parking lot on Channing. We'll be heading up to the Rose Garden and Cordonices Park to hang out, eat dinner (we'll bring the food!), and get away from Berkeley. Yes, it's only 10 minutes away from Berkeley, but it'll be fun.


• H.1 Girls are meeting at 6:00pm @ Anna Head West parking lot. The girls will head up to LBL for a nice dinner and hot chocolate. There's a Berkeley LBL webcam, but personally I don't think it does the view any real justice. You'll just have to go there yourself to experience it in person!

Afterwards, we're headed to Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" bible study. Pastor Ed'll be talking about the reliability of the bible, how we can know it's trustworthy as a document that tells us about the life of Jesus and about God. "This Is Your Life" will be at 7:45pm @ 2050 VLSB.

After VLSB, some of the juniors will be taking off for the Junior Discipleship Retreat with Pastor Ed and Kelly. Come to 2050 w/ your bags already packed because we're leaving directly from the parking lot! Pack appropriately: it'll be mostly low to mid-70s during the days, and low to mid-40s at nights.

The rest of H.1 will be going over to Steve and Suzanne's to hang out with them, and also with H.5. We'll watch GLive, laugh at the juniors and seniors, and look ahead to the Spring semester when we'll be putting together GLive for 2009! Wow. Crazy.

Extra: This past weekend the Koinonia staff went to Sierra Lodge to work on the Barn. It's awesome right now. There's a ton more pictures, but here's a small taste. For those of you going, you'll see this very soon.

H.1 Convalescent Home Visit

On Sunday morning, 14 of us (plus a little half-person) went to the Crown Bay Convalescent Home to spend time with the men and women living there. Richard and Lauren's Praxis homegroup goes each week to Crown Bay convalescent home to spend time with the residents and lead a worship service. H.1 got to join them this past weekend on Sunday morning. We sang a song we had prepared, "How Great Thou Art," listened to Allen give a brief message through 1 John 4 on God's love, gave a potpourri gift to each person, and spent time talking and being with each of the men and women who live at that home. I think we were the ones who walked away most blessed. Here's some words from people who went:

• I was thankful that the people enjoyed the service. I was touched when they sang along with us. I didn't expect to have such an memorable experience. (fr, Mindy C.)


• was touched that many old people show a tremendous thankfulness and passion about life through their smile when seeing Abigail moving around with Jenny. I was also touched when they tried to remember the joys and happiness in their early lives and the peaceful way they present these stories to me. And these stories teach me how rich life can be, and how well a person can enjoy from his journey of life. (fr, David Y.)


• I was thankful God helped me get past my mind block. Going into the convalescent home I felt intimidated to start a conversation with the elderly. Graciously God lessened the age gap and gave me questions and things to talk about. Eventually, one grandma, Joy, was able to brighten up for me and I was glad she was so open to listening and responding to me. I hope to visit her again. (jr, Hannah P.)


• I was thankful for meeting a woman who served God through years of missionary work in China. Her testimony displayed the timelessness and power of the gospel throughout generations. (jr, Madelaine B.)

On Friday, H.1 guys ate at Mike's apartment (barbecue chicken) and the H.1 girls joined with H.5 at Virginia's. At Koinonia's "This Is Your Life," Pastor Ed posed the question: How can we have reliable knowledge about God? How can we know God? He talked about revelation, and how the Bible fits into this picture of God's self-revealing to humanity. It was cool stuff, and the Q&A time afterwards was packed with good questions. Seems like people really like the whole text messaging thing as a question and answer format.

After VLSB, our group went to Dana House. While we were there, we prepped for the upcoming convalescent home visit, ate some brownies and ice cream prepared by our marvelous chefs (David Y. & Kevin D.), and even played some silly Guesstures game. We loved it when Daniel S. kept on pumping his fist in the air, trying to communicate "clench" to the rest of us, and doing nothing except clenching his fist and waving it in the air.

Hebrews 11 DT from Kelly Kang

For those of you who meditated on Hebrews 11 for this past week's devotion, here's some words from Kelly Kang. She writes often from the week's devotion on her Wordpress blog and I'm always thankful for her insight and reflections.

These words from Kelly's Hebrews 11 reflection really hit me:

Although God’s salvation and His grace are free, living by faith is costly.

Take some time and give it a read.

The Weekly News

It's like an annual tradition, except it's weekly. Here's the news, fully documented and published for your reading enjoyment.

Thursday, 10/9, 7 PM @ Wheeler Christian apologists and philosophers Mike Ramsden and Os Guinness present two lectures, "Is Faith Delusional?" and "A Thinker's Quest for Meaning." Admission is free and seating is limited. I say go for it if you have the time, and maybe take some good notes so you can share it here with the rest of us!

Homegroup Friday, 10/10, 6 PM

• Guys at Mike K.'s on Haste. Dinner will be provided and we'll catch up on each others' lives.
• Girls at Virginia's at Parker/Hillegass. Dinner and smallgroup time together w/ HG RED.
• Soph bros discipleship @ Dana House rooms 1 & 2.
• All Koinonia soph girls dinner with Suzanne at Dana House living room. Invite your friends!

Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" with Pastor Ed Kang. Friday, 7:45 PM @ 2050 VLSB. Afterwards, we're headed to Dana House to hang out, do smoothies (provided by our new Chefs!), and hang out. We'll also be preparing for Sunday's convalescent home visit by practicing a couple songs and putting together some gifts.

Sunday, 10/12 8:30 AM. We're meeting at Anna Head West to visit Crown Bay Convalescent Home. We'll spend time with the elderly, sing them some songs, give them gifts, and just talk to them and be with them. Transit Chiefs in charge of rides. More info? Just ask Caroline.

H.1 Committee
Here's the people who are helping our homegroup run. They're also the contact people if you got questions about their respective areas.

• Transit Chiefs: AKA rides. Hannah P. (for the girls) & Mike K. (for the guys)
• Chefs: AKA food. Kevin D. & David Y.
• Media: AKA photos & video. Irene K. & Justin K.
• News Reporters: AKA blog. Brandon T. & Min C.

Special Video: Pastor Manny "Usain Bolt" Kim on fire once again.

Earthquake Competition

Sometimes we look at the things we've done and we just don't understand why we did it. In this case, it's the Ghirardelli's Earthquake challenge this past Friday: my car (Allen, David Y., Mindy, and Hannah) against Jenny's car (Brandon C., Brian, Andy, Tabby, and Melody). Here's my video. Pay special attention to the MVP. I excerpted several incredible feats, never before seen on the world wide web.


2008-10-03 H.1 Ghirardelli's trip from kevan on Vimeo.

Yes, my car, ultimately came out the victor. There was heavy disqualification because the other team had an extra player on the field, and also left a whole tub of chocolate fudge untouched. It was abominable that they were trying to get away with claiming the win. Really, that's just too much.

The context surrounding all this is that some people went to go study after Koinonia's "This Is Your Life," but the rest of us went to Ghirardelli's in SF. We did do civilized things like take pictures in the chocolate shop (after pilfering their shelves for photo filler material). And then we took some more pictures (braving the rain to do so) at Treasure Island. We had a really good time and wish you could've joined us!

I think this upcoming week's after-This Is Your Life" activity has something to do with hanging out together to laugh, talk, and catch up. No field trips to SF or bowling alleys or mini golf courses (those are for later!). We also need to practice a song since we're going as a homegroup to visit a Convalescent Home this Sunday (10/12) and spend time with the elderly. You can ask Caroline for more information.

Anyway, as always, there's more pictures online. See you guys soon.
(Update 10 AM, 10/8: video uploaded to Vimeo where the quality's better!)

Summer Favorite Moments: Pirates

In the spirit of videos that are too good not to share, I feel compelled to post this for your enjoyment. The antagonists are Joe and Annie, H.2 leads:



Thanks to Jon over at H.2 for the priceless video.

Austin Farewell Dance!

Thought that this would bring back some good memories! Props to A2F-Gold junior brother Jeff Chiu for filming it!

The Real Long Version of Announcements

I don't know why each week there are so many announcements. I guess it just goes to show you there's a ton of stuff going on... which is a good thing! It also means: you got to pay attention! (update: video at the bottom of Kevin losing in pushups contest)

Here we go:

Jam-Packed Friday
For the guys: 6.30 PM dinner at Unit 3. Jrs & Soph guys will do setup beginning at 5.30 @ dHouse, and then we'll meet for dinner and decompress from the week @ U3. We'll grab a lounge or maybe the multi-purpose room. Just make sure you have your friend's cell number handy so you can find where we are!
For the girls: 6.30 PM dinner in the First Pres. Courtyard. Registration setup is at 6!
For both guys and girls, dinner will be provided!

This Is Your Life Koinonia bible study is at 7:45 PM, First Pres.

Afterwards, there's study hall or Ghirardelli's in SF. You make the call and bring your gear: books or spoons.

The rest of the announcements:

• 9 AM at the YWCA: Sophomore guys' discipleship group. Remember your homework!
  
• 11 AM, it's our turn (plus homegroups 2, 5 & 6) to clean NorthLoop. Afterwards, we'll eat lunch together, and for those who want to watch the Cal game (Homecoming!), we'll watch it together. Otherwise, you can study at NL or head back to Berkeley.
  
• Sierra Lodge construction (10/11). Yes, if you want to go and help build the Barn, make sure to let me know. It'll be all day Saturday. Not for wimps. If you were ashamed of your performance at the Sierra Lodge booth at the Gracepoint Open House, then come and get trained.
  
• Convalescent Home Visit (10/12). Our homegroup is going to the Crown Bay Elderly Home Sunday morning from 8:45 -10 AM. We'll spend time with the elderly there and have a small program for them. Please contact Caroline if you'd like to get involved.
  
• It's never too early to plug the College Winter Retreats! You don't want to miss this just because of bad planning around airline tickets! The dates are Jan. 23 - 25 (Friday to Sunday). Signups will be up soon so stay tuned!

Last but not least, there's the H.1 committee "To Keep Things Running". There's plenty that goes into helping our homegroup run and we need help! Thought some of you would like to get involved or maybe get trained? Check these out and email me what you'd like to do:

• Transit Chief: need one guy, one girl to take care of rides for the various events we do. Whether that means coming over to Alameda in the middle of the week, rides home after a Friday night, or when we head out to bowling or SF, you the man (er, woman). Pluses are that you get to meet everyone. Recommendations: cell phone, email, and text messaging is your friend.
• News Reporter: Be a journalist. Write about messages from Friday or Sunday, maybe a brief summary, a funny line. Write about life on campus, or the people in our homegroup. Offer your perspective and help broadcast some news. You can even video yourself and be an anchorman/woman. Short description: blog.
• Media Guy (or Gal): like photography or videography? Want to share them with people? This one's for you.
• Chef: food makes people happy. Food makes you happy and you like seeing people happy because of food. You got menu ideas for refreshments or meals? Want some guinea pigs to try it out on? What better place than for your homegroup!
• Entertainers: when we hang out as a group, it's not always fun just talking in little clusters here and there. Lots of times we need activities, games, icebreakers, and ways to jazz up the time together. Help plan out activities, make phone calls to bowling alleys, game times, and think of ways to help people bond and have fun!
  

The names are just for fun, of course, but each one represents an important role in keeping things running! Thanks for reading so much! (It's good for the engineers! Yes, Kevin, Howard, and Irene, I'm talking to you guys)

Here's a video of the push-up contest from two Fridays ago, when people came over and we played games. Not sure why we had a push-up contest, nor why it was 4 guys and a girl. But it sure is fun, especially Justin's quip at the 1:45 mark.