End of Year LifeGroup Outing!

2009-04-29_21.19.40
Originally uploaded by Justin Teng

LIFEGroup last week for H.1 & H.8 took the sophomore and junior brothers and sisters on a car ride 25 minutes away from Berkeley, campus, studying, books, and the looming shadow of upcoming finals. We all started our LIFEGroup on the car ride, talking about life and sharing from our week. Once we got to Lake Chabot, we hiked in about 20 minutes in the pitch black, each carrying a piece of firewood, checking the brush for lurking animals, and the lucky ones carrying marshmallows, skewers, and Evergood sausages.

While we were setting up the fire (Eddie brought a fire starter log!), Kevin D. busted out with the glow-in-the-dark frisbee and someone else magically produced neon glow bracelets and necklaces. There were our teams--necklaces vs. bracelets--and we played Ultimate Frisbee on the field. After eating bursting Evergoods with toasted buns and getting our fingers sticky with marshmallows and s'mores, we sang a couple songs, prayed for the sophomores and for the juniors, and then all committed together to love God and honor Him with all our hearts. It was fun being out in nature (I ran over a possum on the drive home) and being together... although next time, we'll need to make sure we set aside time to tell ghost stories... for more pictures, Justin's got a great set online.


Couple more things to note this week:

Mother's Day is this Sunday (5/10). Make sure to get something nice for your mother. At the very least pick up a card, write something meaningful, and drop it off in the mail. Guarantee you'll make her day!

LIFEGroup for the guys this week will be dinner at 7:30 PM at Chang Luong, Wednesday night (5/6). We'll get dinner together, talk, and pray.

Friday, there'll be dinner before GTS. And then GTS at 7:00 PM (as usual) at First Pres. Afterwards, all of Koinonia, freshmen through seniors, will gather together at the YWCA to have our informal farewell for the seniors as we start to close out the school year.

As long as we're rattling off announcements, here's a bunch:

• Worldview Camp signups are open through May 15th. The Camp will feature guest speaker Sean McDowell, and run from 6/17-20, Wednesday to Saturday.
• Signups for Impact's SummerFest have closed, but if you'd like to be a part of Joyland next year, Joyland Teacher applications are online.
• Discipleship Retreats are coming up for this summer. If you're a junior or senior-to-be, have completed SK1, will be in town this summer, and want to invite discipleship into your life, sign up online for the discipleship retreats. As always, it's a time to recapture our vision, ignite our spiritual fervor, and spend time together with other class brothers and sisters of Gracepoint Fellowship Church.
• Order your summer DT Journals by Wednesday (5/6) and you'll get the discounted price. Otherwise, pick them up at the book table starting this Sunday.
• Gracepoint Berkeley's annual tradition, Multiply Your Talents, is just around the corner for this summer. Stay tuned for signups and the cool video.

The H.1 & H.8 "WAIT" Weekly

Special LIFEgroup this week. Brothers and sisters going together to Lake Chabot, where we'll hike in carrying our firewood (and marshmallows), get a roaring fire going, sing some worship songs, pray for one another, and close out the semester thanking God together. We're meeting Wednesday (4/29) at 8:25 PM on the corner of Parker and Hillegass. It'll take up pretty much the whole night, so get your studying done! If you have questions, ask your smallgroup leader.

(Updated 4/28) Thursday night, 4/30, Kevan & Jenny will be at Cafe Med on Telegraph from 7:00 - 9:00 PM. If you come by, we'll buy you a cup of coffee, and you can ask your questions, receive prayer, or just talk and hang out. Please sign up online. Of course, if you just want to drop by, come on by: Bring your books, study, and sit around with us!

Worldview Camp 2009 signups are available online. There's more info about what to expect on a previous post. Also, found the Worldview 2008 pictures so you can take a look at what we did last year.

Last Friday, we had a blast. After GTS, everyone crammed into the First Pres Gym to watch the SICK music video the freshmen made for their freshman staff following the smashingly successful GLive.

Then Homegroups 1 & 8 went to Westminster House, where we took personality tests, and then laughed at each other because of how accurate some of the descriptions were. Ice cream sundaes, line charades, hot wings, and acting out movies, it was a nice way to decompress on a Friday night. Some more pictures below, which, as always, are online at Flickr.

Super Santa Cruz Saturday

At long last, I uploaded our Santa Cruz pictures online. What a day that was. The junior guys across Koinonia and Kairos took time off from their busy schedules and decided to go on the mother of all one-day outings. The night before, we had GLive practice at NorthLoop, and decided to just stay the night in Alameda. First though, we packed the supplies, got the firewood, and then rewarded ourselves with late night In-N-Out. The next morning, we packed up our stuff, cooked up home made egg mcmuffins, and did our devotions together through Luke 11.

The day was packed:

• Dangling 60 feet in the air, tramping through the ropes course, swinging from platform to platform, balancing on thin cables with nothing to hold onto except one another, conquering our acrophobia; fear can contribute to a real bonding experience.


• Rock climbing on three climbing courses. We cheered each other on, egged each other on, encouraged one another, and experienced really sore forearms all together.


• Ultimate frisbee on the field with the Koinonia sophomores who had also come. In a sophomores versus juniors face-off, the juniors lost: 2 games to 0 (10 points each game). But through that time, I realized Brian J. (jr) is a scoring machine, and John X. (so) is a defending monster.


• Beach football. Tackle. 'Nuff said.


• Barbeque on the Santa Cruz SeaBright Beach with the setting sun as our backdrop, cans of clam chowder and hearty potato soup our dinner, marshmallows, s'mores, and good laughter.


• Time of singing songs around the campfire, remembering that God's the one who's placed people in our lives to shape us, mold us, love us, and with whom we can run this spiritual journey. Time of praying for one another, committing to God and to each other, and experiencing a fresh sense of fellowship as brothers.

And then it was time to go home. Chime in if you had a good time.

Fatkins Diet over the Fire

Last night the frosh smallgroup in its entirety (except for the really studious ones in the library) took off from Berkeley and went to the mountains. Sporting a caravan of four vehicles--two vans, a sporty mazda, and a ferocious looking truck--we left the glittering lights of the city and (b/c we couldn't drive all that far in 30 minutes) went to a distant mountain top where we could see those same glittering lights from afar (read: 23 miles).

We saw a fox run across the road (read: almost roadkill), pointed at a bunch of deer along the side, and generally had a pretty good time hiking in, setting up a fire, and roasting an assortment of meaty and sweet items on our sticks. We had about 3 Evergood Sausages available per person, although I think only Steve actually ate that much. In between scaring one another w/ ghost stories and telling just about any and every thing we've heard remotely related to ghosts, scary houses, and TVs turning on by themselves, we tired ourselves out and headed back home. Along the way, we found out a couple funny things:

• Daniel had no idea who Prometheus was, even as we were gazing at the roaring fire.
• Steve introduced us to the Fatkins diet. He's currently on stage 2.
• Daniel, Steve, and Justin can sing just about every Disney song out there (although you might not want to actually hear it from them)
• Joe looks scary in the firelight.
• Roy really knows how to build a fire.
• Safeway fire starter can be a lifesaver.
• Someone forgot to get veggie dogs for Alan.
  

We had a good time and I'm glad.