TC: Vamos A La Gracepoint

Yes, it's really been put on the web and is accessible to everyone: a2f Gold's Vamos a la Gracepoint is online and viewable. Watch out folks. As the caption says,

Please don't watch this more than twice, as it can be harmful for your emotional health.

More to come. Happy Thanksgiving!

Bible Study this Thanksgiving week

Since this week is Thanksgiving and everyone's heading home, we're having a combined bible study on Tuesday (11/25) at 8:00pm @ First Pres!

If you want to join us for prayer meeting, it'll start at 7:00pm, also at First Pres.

In other news, Thanksgiving Celebration was this past Sunday. Pictures and videos will be posted soon, so watch out.

Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Berkeley, Thanksgiving lunch

Thanksgiving Celebration is over, but the turkey is just beginning! For those of you sticking around during Thanksgiving (11/27) and still in Berkeley, we'll be having lunch together with everyone who's around from Gracepoint Fellowship Church. Berkeley? No! We'll be in Alameda, doing a potluck barbecue at Tilman Park. So there'll be lots of food and sports too so we can get started working off all that accumulated Thanksgiving high caloric intake!

If you can come (or want to come), post a comment so we can make sure you have a ride, and also so we can cook together to bring food to the potluck!

News and Thanksgiving Celebration!

This week's news is super-punctuated by Thanksgiving Celebration, which is coming up really quick. But before we get there, let's have at it with this week's news:

• We were originally going to have a Koinonia in-house Thanksgiving Celebration this Friday, but no more! Instead of sending only one Koinonia act to Sunday's Thanksgiving Celebration, we're just going to send all four! That's the biggest change. What does that mean? Read on and find out.


• Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" Bible study on Friday (11/21) begins at 7:00pm @ Lipman Room on the 8th floor of Barrows Hall. Joanna (H.6 Lead) and Dan (H.4 Lead) will tell their personal stories of how they became Christian and committed to follow Jesus. Dinners will be by smallgroups beforehand so ask your smallgroup leader. Afterwards, we'll practice our Thanksgiving Celebration act and get it ready for Sunday's final performance.


• Sunday's (11/23) Gracepoint Worship Service is at 1:30pm @ Kauffman Auditorium in Alameda. Afterwards, we'll have our annual Thanksgiving Celebration right on the gargantuan stage. Each ministry group, from Element to ISM to all the different college groups (including us!), will have stage time to present their act in front of a Thanksgiving crowd of 1000+ people. How exciting!


• After the stage time where laughter and legends are born, H.1 and H.5 will dine together for our own traditional Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, fixings, and everything else. Ya'll will be helping cook too so stay tuned. We're going to cook different dishes by classes.


• This part's really important: We need you to sign up online if you're coming so we can account for rides and food. After all, it'd be really sad if we ran out of food for dinner! Do it right now, just click on the link!

That's it for the news to come, but wanted to briefly talk about the news that's been happening in the last several days. Last Friday, Pastor Manny and Sunny joined us from Koinonia Austin. Pastor Manny gave us a message from the book of Jonah about God's calling for each of our lives. It was so good to see them again, and it's hard to believe that it's only been four months since the first Austin team departed Berkeley!
Saturday's Thanksgiving Retreat was really incredible, as we heard more than 30 personal stories from different brothers and sisters throughout our ministry. Moreover, we Pastor Manny gave an extended report from Austin, and we got a glimpse into what life is like over there.

Also, Prison Fellowship's yearly Christmas program, Angel Tree, is approaching. Our homegroup's been doing it together each of the past couple years. We "adopt" a family with 1-2 kids, children of a parent who's in prison. We buy them the Christmas present they wouldn't otherwise receive, meet the family, and invite them to a Christmas party at NorthLoop. It's been a wonderful experience thus far to touch people's lives, get out of ourselves just a little bit, and serve a community of people who often get lost during the bustle of the Christmas season. If you'd like more information or want to get involved, the H.1 lead on this is Allen, so send him an email.

In other news:

• DT Journals for December-January are available for order. Pre-order online, as usual, for $3. Very helpful if you like being lightweight and mobile! Highly recommended!

Turkey Recipe from Dish-Gracepoint

For all you chefs out there, Tom has posted an article on his wonderful Dish-Gracepoint blog that gives you some great tips how to make a rock star turkey this Thanksgiving. Tim So from a2f actually provided the tips, and let's just say if you're looking for reading material, this one's a knockout. Plus, you can impress your friends (and family!) this Thanksgiving!

Check out the recipe on Dish-Gracepoint.

TC practice!

Hola H.1ers

As Thanksgiving draws closer and closer, we've been practicing hard for our annual Thanksgiving Celebration. For those of you who don't know what TC is, it basically happens every year around Thanksgiving time. We gather together as a church and gorge ourselves with delicious thanksgiving food while watching entertaining skits/dance performances/talent shows! Sounds fun right?

Anyways, this past Friday we went to St. Augustine's for bible study with Pastor Manny. We were all so excited to finally see him! (and his funny hair cut). Sunny was there too! It was such a blessing to see how Gracepoint Austin has been growing this past semester.

Afterwards we had our TC practice in St. Augustine's cafeteria. Together with H.5, we are putting on three performances: 1)Doing it God's way pilgrim dance (i forgot what the name of the song was) 2)Pilgrim puppet show 3)Pilgrim's paridise (hardcore gangster rap)

here are some highlights:
- Sarah Yuen's amazingly precise English accent
- Hugo Hua's "grand finale" in the Pilgrim dance
- Patti Suen, John Kwon, Simon Kim and many others rapping
- many many sick moves that are too sick to describe (come and see them for yourselves)

Hope you guys are excited for TC this Friday and Saturday! on Friday, all the Koinonia groups will be performing. The best group will be selected to perform on Sunday with the rest of the church.

News This Week: Plus TC Preview

Thanksgiving Celebration in-house for Koinonia is just a week and a couple days away! We practiced last Friday (video below!) and are planning on practicing again this Friday. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's give the whole news, starting with the Friday plan:

• Dinner for the guys, 6pm @ Kevin D.'s on the corner of Hillegass and Parker. We'll do dinner, have "meaningful" conversation (maybe), and then head over to "This Is Your Life."


• Dinner for the girls is a surprise. More info forthcoming so check back soon.


• 7:45pm @ St. Augustine's, Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" study of the Bible with our very own Pastor Ed. The reason we're meeting at St. Augustine's is because afterwards, there's...


• ... Thanksgiving Celebration Practice! Koinonia's in-house Thanksgiving Celebration is next Friday (11/21) and our act has to be stage-ready by then! That means we need to practice! Got a small clip from this past week's practice below (which is a sneak preview for some of you peeping non-H.1 folks)! Even if you missed last week, there's still plenty to join in on. We have a special middle section which we didn't have a chance to practice at all last week... if you want details ask one of your friends who was able to make it. This isn't information I can post on the world wide web. :)

This Saturday (11/15) is our annual Thanksgiving Retreat, which you can sign up for online. I've written about it plenty already, and even posted the video. If you signed up to go, one of our Rides Czars (Mike or Hannah) will let you know who's giving you a ride. Just make sure you're ready to be out the door by 8:45am. Update: You can give your Thanksgiving Retreat fee to Caroline or Sieun before Bible study begins. They're the official collectors.

In other news:

• This Sunday at Gracepoint Fellowship Church (that's where most of us go to church on Sundays) there'll be a baptism. Among the 7 people getting baptized, one of them is our own homegroup's Tabby! I encourage you to come and hear her story and the stories of the other candidates getting baptized.


• Thanksgiving Celebration Sunday is 11/23. We'll have worship service at 4pm @ Kauffman Auditorium in Alameda. After that, we'll have the real deal Thanksgiving Celebration, and then a home-cooked Turkeyfest dinner!


• Our Annual Winter Retreat is Jan. 23-25.


• Koinonia Snow Trip, Jan. 15th. This is for all your early planners out there.

That's it for now. See you guys Friday. Below: Check out how awesome Cass is.


Thanksgiving Celebration Practice 1 from kevan on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving Retreat & "More Than A Face"

Just wanted to send a reminder that if you're planning on heading to the Thanksgiving Retreat, please sign up online! This helps us plan for food (and rides!). The Thanksgiving Retreat is this Saturday (11/15), 10am-9pm, and the cost is $20 (lunch, dinner, facility):

• $20 is early bird, if you sign up by Wed, 11/12 (Tomorrow!)
• $25 is the cost of registration on the day of the retreat

And, in other news, Vivian and Kathy from Homegroup 8 are giving their talk, "More Than A Face," at the Norton Hall Main Lounge, Unit 3, tomorrow night (11/12) at 8pm. This talk will address the media's portrayal of women and its consequent effects on the self-image, self-perception, and even conduct. Check it out and invite your friends if you're free!

Election Week News

It's election week and believe me, there's plenty of news. First, we have a new president! And more,

• Gone. Watch out. If you're not paying attention you could miss it... and it'll be Gone. Check the Gone video trailer and pass it along to your friends. 7:00pm @ First Pres, This Thursday, 11/6. Our very own Howard will be part of the Gone video, so if you want to see him on the big screen, you'll have to be there...


• In the realm of really, really great news... actually, I'll just let Joe's email speak for itself:
  

  I just wanted to share with you all the good news that we received today. Annie's CT/PET scan came out clear and there was no trace of any tumors in her lungs or anywhere else. Thank you so much for all your love and support the past several months. Through the surgery and then the six cycles of chemotherapy, we have received so much love and encouragement. So many people brought us dinners, Annie always had a ride to the hospital to receive her shots, we had so many visitors bringing flowers, cards, and snacks. We really experienced being carried and supported by everyone during this time, and so were able to go through it with so much more strength than Annie or I have within ourselves. Thank you so much!! I'm grateful that I can share this joyful news with so many of you who suffered through it alongside us.

  
  Tell me that isn't the most awesome news so far this month. Praise God.


• Koinonia hoodie. Pre-order online because the deadline's this Friday, 11/7.


• Thanksgiving Celebration practice starts this Friday. What's Thanksgiving Celebration? I embedded the trailer video below:
  
  
  
  Basically, we're going to practice for our homegroup's act (Practice is Friday, 5:30-7:30pm, Wheeler), which we'll present (together with H.5) two Fridays from now, 11/21, at Lipman Room. Best of the best go to the Real Thanksgiving Celebration on Sunday, 11/23, at Kauffman Auditorium, 1:30pm.


• After Thanksgiving Celebration practice, the seniors and juniors are hosting the sophomores and freshmen. Guys and girls separate... Guys are going to do something crazy at 8pm, Dana House, and the girls? Well, it'll be a surprise. But it'll be some upperclassman love as they host the underclassmen!


• Our annual Thanksgiving Retreat is on Saturday, 11/15, at GGBTS. We'll hear people's stories from how God worked in their lives this year, and also have a time of Communion together. Don't miss out, by signing up online now! There's even a trailer:
  
  


• Sophomores: you got one-day discipleship retreat on Tuesday, 11/11, with Pastor Ed and Kelly, so make sure you study so you're not stressed that day and miss out!

That's it for now. See you guys soon!

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!
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• 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.

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.

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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