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.

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!

Bible Study tonight & Prayer Requests

All college bible study @ NorthLoop tonight, 7 pm. If you get to NorthLoop by 6, Koinonia 1 guys and girls will be eating dinner together. Let me know if you need a ride and can't find one on your own. Afterwards, we'll do something fun.

Here's a couple prayer requests to keep in mind:

• Daniel S. and Will Wu (a2f) are in China with the PESI program. Pray for their safety, and that they'll reach out to the Chinese students they meet.
• upcoming exams: Stephan's DET and Justin T.'s MCAT.
• Taiwan Team: Kevin, Kevin, and Brian are on the 2-week trip, going to different universities. They'll be heading down to Tainan for a week and putting on a Gospelfest presentation. New grad Steve C. is also there (for the whole summer!) and going to take a Chinese class.

Things to sign up for if you haven't already:

• Summer Evangelism Training happening every Tues. night for 8 weeks. Brilliant book by Tim Keller, Reason for God, and one way to equip ourselves in a culture and society where talking about God credibly is denigrated and intimidating. Sign up for SET online.
• 30-Hour Famine is something our church is participating to raise money for the recent world food shortage. Sign up for 30-hour famine online.
• Interested in multiplying your talents and getting Photoshop, Audio, Video trained? There's more, of course, but take a look at the descriptions and sign up if you're interested.
  

Prayer Request: Myanmar & China

Please keep the relief efforts in Myanmar and China in your prayers. As the suffering is great, and much relief and help are needed, please keep all the victims, the bereaved families and children, the effort of the relief workers, and the governments in your prayers.

If you'd like more information on the Myanmar cyclone or the Szechuan earthquake in China, CNN and other news agencies have plenty of information.

Please specifically pray that the Myanmar military junta government would open its country's doors to external relief agencies and nations who are waiting to get into the country and help at the ground level. The Myanmar military junta has been resistant to foreign aid.

a note from Taiwan

From Allen in Taiwan!

It was good to hear from you. Can't believe there are only 4 months left. For sure, I will play as much basketball and soccer and football as I can. Instead of going to Alishan (due to weather) this week, we went out with students for lunch on Wednesday, hit some balls at a batting cage, tested who could throw the fastest (I topped out at 101 km/hr), played full court basketball, played 6-on-6 football in the mud (for some it was the first time playing), came home and showered, ate hot pot together, watched some One Life clips from our class's performance (History of Christianity), and then watched Ratatoiulle. Definitely, there's still a lot of work left to do before we leave, with mission trips, Course 101, FNP's (Eugene wants to think of a topic for me to give a presentation), etc., and I know before we know it we'll be heading back.

Anyway, say hi to everyone for me. Hang in there for the rest of the semester. Anyone want anything from Taiwan?

Let's keep praying for Gracepoint Hsinchu.

Special Prayer Request

Please pray for Eddie Ng and his family. Eddie is one of our college staff brothers at SF State, and part of our GFC San Francisco campus. His younger brother, Philip (age 24) was a victim of a violent crime and passed away from the injuries. Additionally, Philip's friend (age 21) also passed away. The entire family, understandably, is devastated and in need of our prayers and support.

As Eddie and his wife Alison are the only Christians in the entire family, pray that they would experience God's comfort during this very difficult time, and also be a source of encouragement and healing to the family.

Abigail's doing alright

Just wanted to say thank you for all your prayers and concern for Abigail. Thought with everyone asking, "How's she doing?" that I'd let you know. She had bronchiolitis (kid bronchitis) about 3 weeks ago, and it seemed like it got better. But then it took a turn for the worse last weekend w/ fever and continuous coughing that didn't allow her to keep any of her food down. When we went to the pediatrician on Monday morn, Jenny and I were there for 2 hours, and then they sent us to Oakland Children's Hospital, where they took chest x-rays, monitored her, administered some medicine, and checked out her lungs. They ruled out pneumonia (whew), and after 8 hours, sent us home w/ some medicine and instructions on how to care for her.

So, Jenny and I were taking turns watching the kid this whole past week. But she's on the up and up, and finally got out of the house yesterday, and still looked pretty good. She's been happy the entire time, and is beginning to display a temperament that's angry, feisty, curious, and happy all at the same time. Like, she'll literally switch from one to the other within seconds. It's like there's no continuous memory or narrative of her life but every moment is a singular snapshot unrelated to the previous moments. What a weirdo.

Anyway, thank you for your prayers and concern. I've realized how much we (and her) are cared for by all of you and the rest of our Gracepoint family, and am reminded there is great peace in knowing that God is leading our lives.

'Tais' to Taiwan

It's only been about a month since we sent off our Taiwan church planting team, but there are a lot of things going on over there! Especially for those who know Allen Chen and Jon Chou, you may be interested in keeping up with news from Hsinchu, Taiwan... newsletters and links to their website can be found on the gracepoint missions page. Let's be faithful in praying for these guys, many of whom gave up a job or school so they could bring the gospel to college students in Taiwan...