Sierra Lodge Trip: 4/25 - 4/26

A few of us left for Sierra Lodge on Friday night and came back Saturday night. I can not say much about the drive over there because I knocked out the first minute we drove off. After settling in, unpacking and introducing everyone, we saw some hilarious Manny videos. Some of these videos are better left unseen (football Korean drama one)! Afterwards, we played games with a bunch of snacks (kimchi chigae, chips, chili) starting with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. We split into teams of six and sad to say, my team was eliminated after getting the very first four questions wrong. We thought that a Blondie’s pizza slice was cheaper than a small Yogurt Park but we did not listen to the crucial piece of information that it was a Blondie’s “pepperoni” pizza slice which is actually $3.50! Then we had some harder and more serious questions such as naming all the devotions since January and message series since September. We then played a game of Subjective Bingo and this is when everything got interesting. Here are some highlights of what we saw:

• John Cai’s version of martial arts.
• Brandon Tsai’s break dancing that entailed moon-walking and Styrofoam.
• Mike Kim getting beat by one of the sisters eating a slice of bread in a minute.
• Nick Yoo’s version of Manny’s hammer dance.
• Derrick Chen’s amazing piano piece.
• John Cai juggling tangerines while speaking in his old man voice

The next morning, we had breakfast and started the day with the word of God. Manny gave the Bible study on Psalm 23 but before we did that, we split into our teams again and had to come up with a way to present Psalm 23 creatively. And of course, we shared among our groups. Some of these presentations were very meaningful and moving such as Ben Park’s group, some entailed acting like Brandon’s and Howard’s group and others just were ridiculous such as my group that included rapping, acting, imitating Wenjie, mocking Brandon and being flat out gross. If you are dieing to know what these actually looked like, Roy Lo got it all on video! Afterwards, of course, Manny gave his message on Psalm 23 going through each verse and focusing on the restlessness of our lives as a result of our fears and anxieties and having a personal Lord to guide us.

We then went on a short, leisurely hike in the nice sunny weather. Before we went on the hike, however, some of the freshman (Isaac and Nick) gave Manny a t-shirt that said “2 Young 2 Care.” Manny obviously was flattered by this gift because he ended up wearing it for the whole hike. We then went on the hike enjoying all the nature around us.

After talking trash about staying in the water the longest barefooted (like at Yosemite), Manny challenged all of us to do it with him. Having experienced this already, the people from our group were pretty confident that we could hold Manny off. We all took off our socks and jumped into the water, which happened to be warmer than the Yosemite water. Manny, however, could not take the pain any longer and jumped out within the first minute. Surprisingly, the sisters were holding on really well and even Sunny was able to stay in the water the whole time! Manny was shocked and amazed at this sight and in the end, he was left speechless. Then, we all headed towards the picnic area to eat our lunches. A bunch of the brothers gathered on this little island located between the creek to eat. To get across, you had to leap (not jump) across some slippery rocks. All of us made it across but Manny, wanting to join “the boys,” attempted this for himself. On the very first step, Manny slips immediately and falls straight into the creek. Manny rushed out soaked with his drenched sandwich in his hand and a look of shame on his face! After this unfortunate experience, Manny stayed on the other side and ate with the sisters in shame occasionally asking us “how are your lunches over there?!” This is when you truly know that Manny is beginning to join the realms of the elderly.

We then all spent some time together in the outdoors playing volleyball and throwing a frisbee and football. At this point, you would think that Manny took on enough embarrassment for one day. But, NO, he asks for more by challenging us to a football game. With Wenjie, Aaron, FX (new sophomore we met) and Roy on his team, Manny took on the position of quarterback which resulted in multiple interceptions. Our team consisting of John, Howard, Ben, Henry and Mike had no problem taking it down field with a no huddle and quick plays. Our team eventually won 21-7 and Manny again, was left speechless and in shame.

We went back to the house, cleaned up and headed back home. Before we got back to Berkeley, we stopped by In N’ Out to eat dinner. Overall, the trip was super fun and amazing!

News in these parts

Here's what's happening this week:

• For those of you going to Sierra Lodge, meet at Anna Head West parking lot w/ all your stuff at 6:30pm. If you need more info, give Ben P. a call.
• Those of you staying in Berkeley, we'll have Homegroup bible study in Berkeley at the Rowland Heights guys' apartment: 2519 Parker St. #102. We'll start with dinner at 6:30pm, and then study Psalm 23, and hang out afterwards.
• If you need a computer science internship this summer, let me know right away. One of the a2f staff just told me about it and I can refer you to him for more info.
• Sunday is baptism! Steve Choi & Brian Chang from our homegroup are getting baptized. It starts at 4pm, @ Willard Middle School.
• A reminder that the deadline for Joyland volunteer signups is quickly approaching. I believe Impact volunteer signups for the summer and next year have passed... but I suspect that if you earnestly apply, you won't be refused.

Even as I am fully known...

On Tuesday night, I found out a critical piece of information about our friend Kevin Ding: when you ask him a question, he'll often repeat it before answering. For instance,

Me: Hi Kevin, how was your day today?
Kevin: How was my day? Oh, it was good.

Aside from this being a bit quirky, it's quite normal and you won't notice this in normal conversation. Unless, of course, you actually don't want him to repeat what you asked. This past week we planned a quick celebration for Kevin Huang's birthday which involved Brian and myself buying a cake from Safeway, barging into the apartment with cake in hand, candles lit. Question was, were there candles and matches already there at the apartment? The phone conversation went a little something like this (bolstered with a few extra words for context and comic effect):

(ring ring)
Kevin: Hello, Brian?
Brian: Hi Kevin. Hey, do you know if we have candles and matches at home?
Kevin: Oh, do we have candles and matches at home? [pause] Oops.
Brian: Uh-Did you just say that with Kevin Huang standing next to you?
Kevin: Kevin Huang? Yeah. He's right here next to me. [pause] Anyway, yes, we do have them.
Brian: Ok, could you just put them out into the hallway?
Kevin: Put them in the hallway for you? Yeah, sure.

Haha, yes, this is just a bit exaggerated. But needless to say, Kevin Huang knew exactly what was going on outside in the hallway when he chose to open the door on us, and pretend not to see us scrambling to hide behind the hallway trash can. Happy Birthday, Kevin. :)

So do we still ask Kevin Ding questions? Of course! But if you don't want him to give it away, be sure to warn him before you begin.

The Funnies

There are days when I look at my computer in the movies folder and watch Pastor Manny dance on stage in his pink han-bok, MC-hammering across the stage at the '07 Thanksgiving Celebration. I watch it, and then I entertain the idea of putting it on our blog. Then I quickly dismiss that, thinking, "That's too much. I would feel too awful. That would be a disgrace."

Now, I needn't feel too awful anymore: I can have my cake and eat it too. Daniel's posted the long-awaited Manny hammer-dance video online so we can all re-live the moment. His blog, in general, is a tribute to humor at Gracepoint Berkeley. The disclaimer is a worthy, very funny prologue:

The views expressed in this site are those of the poster, and not necessarily those of Pastor Ed Kang, Kelly Kang, Gracepoint Fellowship Church, its leaders, members, or anyone in all of Christendom, for that matter.

iMixlist for Gracepoint Berkeley's SWS

Ever come to a Sunday service and wonder to yourself, "That song sounded real good. I wonder what the title is or who sings it..." But by the time that pastor guy finishes talking, you've been so addressed by biblical truths and your mind is aflutter with how God's Word is going to apply to your life that some ol' song is nothing more than a buzzing nuisance or faint recollection. You've forgotten you ever had that thought.

Well, no longer. The Gracepoint Berkeley Praise Band has an iMix:

You can check out their song selections from previous and upcoming music sets, and listen, preview, and even purchase on iTunes if you'd like. Or, if you want to listen free and don't mind searching for quality recordings, you can go to Songza.

K1 Sierra Lodge trip, 4/25-26

Koinonia 1 Sierra Lodge trip this weekend, Friday to Saturday (4/25-26). Sign up online so we know who can make it and can plan for the most important part... food.

For those of you sticking around Berkeley, don't worry. You won't be forgotten. We'll do something too... but more info later.

Brandon’s First Moving Violation

So if you guys don’t know already, before the Friday Bible Study on April 18^th, Brandon received a ticket for a traffic violation. This is the story:

Before Bible Study on April 18^th, Brandon and I were deciding on our mode of transportation. Having not skateboarded in over a week, I passionately desired to ride my longboard down to First Pres. Brandon, however, preferred the alternative labor-inducing mode of walking and was firmly against us skateboarding. After much fervor debate, I came out victorious and convinced Brandon to skateboard down. Not having ridden his skateboard for over a month, Brandon was in for an adventure.

When you don’t skateboard for over a month, I guess you get really anxious to do it again because without any hesitation, Brandon starts zooming down the hill as if he owned this territory. Unable to catch up to his pace, I leisurely went down behind him. When we reached the intersection of Channing and Bowditch (where Crossroads is),

View Larger Map
we saw an accumulation of cars lined up at the stop signs. Being as anxious and crazy as he was, Brandon decides to pass the intersection without stopping. However, Brandon didn’t realize that he cut off the car turning into his lane forcing the car to make a quick stop. Another thing that Brandon finally came to the realization to was that the car that he caught off was a cop car. Without any hesitation, the cop pulled Brandon over with his flashing lights and megaphone saying “SKATEBOARDER, STOP!” After observing this, I didn’t have the slightest bit of courage to skateboard down anymore and hid behind an apartment complex watching what was going on. I eventually walked down the sidewalk and passed them but the cop ended up talking to Brandon for about 15 minutes. The cop told Brandon that he ran the stop sign and also, that he was supposed to be skateboarding on the sidewalks when they were available. Another factor to take into account is the fact that Brandon cut the cop off which probably didn’t go to well with him.

In the end, we were late for Bible Study and Brandon received his first ticket ever of an amount that we are still not sure of. The cop never had to deal with such an issue that he didn’t know how much the violation cost. He told Brandon to call the police department to figure out how much his ticket is going to be. Now, Brandon is determined to NEVER longboard again and plans to sell his skateboard soon. So, if you guys are looking into buying a used longboard that is in good condition still, you know who to contact! This story is a fair warning to all skateboarders out there to never cut off police cars even when you are late to Bible Study because a cop will pull you over and you’ll be late anyway.

Combined Bible Study, College

Hey, no homegroup Friday today. We're combining for bible study w/ all the groups from Koinonia, acts2fellowship, and Kairos at 7 pm, First Pres.

Heard last night's cookie-fest at the YWCA was full of barbaric young men jostling and grabbing and pushing to get the fresh cookies, forgetting all rules of civility, much less love (1 Corinthians 13!)... but, pretty much, it was fun.

1 Cor 13 Devotion from Kelly Kang, Gracepoint

This week's devotion is from 1 Corinthians 13. Here's devotional sharing from Kelly Kang, pastor's wife at Gracepoint Fellowship in Berkeley, whom many of you know. Thought it'd really help us all.

How is God speaking to me today?

• Rather than wanting to increase in love, people want to go for more showy options:
• Speaking in the tongues of men and angels
• Gift of prophecy and fathom all mysteries and all knowledge
• Have faith that can move mountains (rather than faith to continue to love someone difficult)
• Giving all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames (but without love)

But this passage is very clear that only thing that matters is LOVE. How much am I being patient with people? How much am I refusing to give up on loving someone? How much am I holding back my anger? How much am I extending kindness to someone who is unable to return my acts of kidness? How much am I trusting and hoping? How much am I protecting as love covers multitude of sins?

How can I increase in love?

• “patient” -> by not reacting to some angering and frustrating situation, by pausing
• “kind” -> by not being shy, awkward or lazy about expressing some kind words and deeds.
• “does not envy” -> by sharing good things about others, by celebrating other’s strengths, accomplishments
• “does not boast” -> by confessing some ugly or vulnerable things about myself
• “is not proud” -> by regularly acknowledging that all I have comes from the LORD, by self-examination and confession
• “not rude”-> by being proactive about being kind
• “not self-seeking” -> considering others more important than myself, considering other people’s time, energy, feelings, money more important than mine
• “not easily angered” -> by becoming more merciful as I reflect on that fact I am a sinner and so are everyone else, by being slow to speak
• “it keeps no record of wrongs” -> by remembering the good things
• “does not delight in evil BUT rejoice with the truth” -> don’t pass around negative information about others but pass around good things that are true;
• “always protects” -> always opt for the way to protecting people even if it means paying some kind of cost on my part
• “always trusts” - > have faith in God rather than in people. Look to God for comfort and security
• “always hopes” -> acknowledge God’s sovereignty and my own weakness and limitation, and always look to how God may work out current hopeless situation
• “always perseveres” -> Think about the saints throughout the world who are persevering for the LORD

Zachary's as post-midterm celebration

After their midterm, Eddie, Kevin D., Kyle and I took Andy and Saoji (w/ their floormate Harry) over to Solano in North Berkeley. We went to Zachary's, and man, was it good. Probably because we got the food at 9 PM so just about anything at all would've tasted like a culinary delight.

Saoji and Harry want to play basketball one of these days. Any takers?

Study Break This Week 4/17/08

Hey guys, i know many of you are studying for midterms or finishing midterms this week...so I thought maybe you'd appreciate this upcoming study break. Drop by for a few minutes or as long as you want for some constantly fresh baking cookies (i'm bringing some toaster ovens and slowly churning them out) and milk and of course to catch up with the rest of our homegroup. And as always, feel free to bring your buddies along.

When: Thursday, 9:30pm-10:30pm
Where: Chapel Room at YWCA at 2600 Bancroft Way (bancroft and bowditch....give me a call at 415-271-3800 when you get to the front door and I'll let you in).
What: I just told you!
How: however you want
Who: Your homegroup buddies

Cream Puffs

Last week, some of the frosh went out w/ Jenny, Abigail, and I to SF. Ate some cream puffs, good Korean food, and even stopped by Treasure Island to check out the stellar view.

Over dinner, we talked about:

• Memorable moments from the past year
• Gracepoint Monthly last week & Perry's very moving testimony
• Dating and the godly way to relate to girls & sisters
• Whether or not we're a "conservative" church
• Hugo's first fight
• the bully in Simon's life
• Ways we wanted to grow in the upcoming year
• Course 101x, seekers, midweek
• the value of clean bathrooms
• God's sovereignty and salvation plan in tension with human free will (thanks to David's very challenging question the week before)

Special Guest on Tuesday: Dr. Thom Wolf

Normally, we have college prayer meeting on Tuesdays. But this week, Tues., 4/15, Dr. Thom Wolf will be joining us!

Pastor Ed Kang and some of our church's other leaders first met Dr. Thom at Golden Gate Baptist Seminary, and inspired by his spiritual leadership and deep Christian character, continued to invite him to our church to speak. Over the years, Dr. Thom has visited us on numerous occasions, even speaking at Berkland Baptist Church's 20th Anniversary (the funny name comes from "Berkeley/Oakland"!), and charging us that "The Gospel which has come to you, must now go through you to others." It was very challenging, and even as Gracepoint Fellowship, it continues to inspire so many.

Dr. Thom is currently serving as a missionary in India w/ his wife, Linda, and will be joining us for a very special Tuesday night. In many ways, their zeal and fierce God-centeredness reminds me very much of Pastor Ed and Kelly. For those of you who remember Dr. Thom, he's come about 2-3 times in the last year and a half, and each time it's been a real treat.

7 PM @ First Pres., Tuesday, see you there.

Hungry? Feed Yourself.

The early crew this past Friday was in charge of dinner: burritos & carnitas. We finished in about 20 minutes and decided to go to the park next door and throw around a football. What ensued was a bunch of guys throwing around the pigskin, taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Some guys ran barefoot in the grass, and others--mindful of the frequent visits by neighborhood dogs--decided to stay w/ a shoes-on policy.

The seniors joined us this Friday, which was really nice. Together, we all watched New Hope's Wayne Cordeiro's Divine Mentor message on the importance of the bible to give us God's wisdom for our lives. I think a lot of it will remember it for his very poignant line: "Hungry? Feed Yourself."

Afterwards, we went to North Loop to participate in the Impact runthru. About 9-11 guys from our homegroup are serving as either instructors, teachers, team leads, photographers, and even a sound guy (really, just a sound boy, if you ask me). We got to participate as stand-in 2nd graders. It was pretty cool.

Tug of War, caught on video

This is for the seniors, who turned to me right after they won and asked, "Did you get that on video?" This is real documentary footage from the brothers' RSF night after Gracepoint Monthly.

Joyland Open House

An email from our Joyland Director, Michelle Sun:

For those of you who are interested in serving in Joyland, you are invited to the Open House this Sunday(4/13) at 1:45pm in the Willard gym.

We are currently going through a series called "Bourne Again" where Chris Bourne(a brand new Christian) discovers how to live a Christian life each week. The service will last about 40 min and you can come and observe our service in the back. Only catch is that everyone who is in the gym has to be fully participating in the praise moves :)

Please join us if you would like to check out our Joyland ministry and possibly serve in some capacity during the next term which begins end of June this summer.

All Sports All the Time

As usual, the first Friday of the month was Gracepoint Monthly. We met in Berkeley at First Pres., Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang sat in the front, interspersing the entire night with words of wisdom and their thoughts, had good music (this time w/ real drums!), and listened to some really moving testimonies from Ray, Aileen, and Perry. Thank God for how He works in our lives and in our faith community.

Afterwards, all the guys went to the RSF. From Praxis all the way to Element, we had our first ever Bros Sports Night. It was awesome. Although shooting hoops was one of the events, it was really Tug-of-War that took center stage that night. Out of three ropes, two were completely incinerated because of the sheer brute force. You don't have to be a physics major to know the rope got the big hurt. Anyway, I was as surprised as everyone else that the seniors and first-year grads took first prize. As huge as the freshmen were, maybe they were too young and too passionless to really contend for the grand prize. We had free time for an hour, playing basketball, volleyball, and even indoor soccer.

On Saturday, sophomores from Koinonia 1 & 2, and acts2fellowship 1 & 2 pulled themselves away from studying to go catch, hit, and field on the baseball diamond. When I asked for a show of hands for first-timers, very few people raised their hands. But, as Ben memorably added the group of those for whom "it might as well be the first time," about 80% of the 25 raised their hands. So Bryan, baseball junior Olympian, ran drills and taught us how to field grounders, snag pop flies, and what it ought to look like to whip the ball around the bases. The ensuing softball game was much more productive as a consequence, and it was cool just to be there with sophs from other groups and fellowships, as well as hanging out with their smallgroup leaders. 30 lbs of sirloin skewers over a barbecue plus hot chili was our dinner. Afterwards, all of us headed over to Ben's place for dessert, and we sat around, talked about sophomore year, sang some songs, and shared about the things that encourage us and strengthen us during our moments of weakness. Definitely something we have to do again.

An all sports type of weekend. Very good.

ImpACT Springfest Workday 2!

Impact is going really well and so far, the work days have been super fun and efficient. We usually start the night with dinner which has been pretty good even though we had SALAD yesterday! I was surprised myself. I think it was heavily sister influenced.

We started the night by all meeting in the multi-purpose room. Some areas still needed volunteers so we finalized where everyone would be working. The Rowland Heights Boys wanted to volunteer me to be in the skit so that they could see me dress up in a super hero costume but luckily, they were out of the room when they asked for volunteers. I volunteered as a helper so I was open for any position but now I'm helping Jasper with Photography! I'm still really new to the whole photography stuff but I've been learning a lot from Jasper and Mike Zhang. Justin Woo was kind enough to let me borrow his SLR for all of Springfest! Go JWoo!

Besides taking a lot of photos of people working, I helped with decorations also. The multi-purpose room was filled with projectors against every wall, drilling machines and people working on life size posters of super heroes and banners. Everyone was super busy drawing, painting, cutting, gluing, and anything that arts and crafts would entail. If you thought that was a lot, there were more people in the couch area where they were planning lessons for various classes (Chemistry, Bridge Building, Physics, etc.) and numerous other groups planning out games, registration and other logistics. The skit team worked upstairs where they were super loud and could be heard from the multi-purpose room. From what I heard, the skit should be awesome! The other smaller classrooms were busy with people decorating and getting everything set. The computer room had people rushing around to get all the logistics down and printing out any material needed.

Through it all, Andy Tung was able to keep his composure and he's been doing a great job coordinating everything! By the end of the day, I learned how to use an SLR camera, Brian Jue became an expert bridge builder, Justin Teng and Kevin Ding were covered in sawdust from all the wood drilling, and all of us helped out with decorations at some point. We gathered together at the end for some good prayer time with each other and called it a night. It was awesome to see everyone coming to work together amidst the busy midterm schedule this coming week. I found it amazing that all of us were able to sacrifice our times and energy for this event so that we may share God's love with children in our community. Overall, I enjoyed the whole time being there with everyone in fellowship and working as a team to put together an awesome event! Springfest is going to be AMAZING!

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.

ImpACT-Springfest Workday 1

The night started with a feast at North Loop (mandarin orange salad, rice, and very delicious chicken...sorry I had to mention food =D). After dinner, all 140 of us (more or less) from all the college ministries to Praxis to SF State attended an introductory meeting in the multipurpose room, where we learned about the origins of ImpACT(started in 1996!!) and some of the goals of ImpACT (to IMPACT children from diverse and less fortunate backgrounds and in the case of this year's second graders, to help them transition into Joyland after Springfest). We also played an icebreaker game where we had to fill out a bingo sheet by asking fellow volunteers some childhood experiences (i.e. what was your favorite book as a kid?). Whoever filled out their sheet the fastest was to be declared the winner and I remember John K. (frosh) being the first to raise his hand in acknowledgment of this title, but for some reason he was disqualified!

After going through most of the logistics, we split up into our respective teams and focused on our particular assignments. As an assistant team lead and with the responsibility of leading around 7-10 very hyper kids, I was told to read this really neat book called "Dare to Discipline", which was a very informative (and hilarious) expository on how to discipline children in a fair but just manner. Though at first I thought this book might be more useful to Mr. Ho, I was actually, really blessed by how the book expounded upon how God's loving yet stern relationship with us really matches with the kind of healthy relationships that develop between children and their parents through respect and love for one another. Needless to say, I didn't do much else the rest of the night, but many others were busy preparing for Springfest such as planning for the 9 different classes that the kids will participate in (from physics to arts and crafts), designing banners/decorations, games, songs, and even a short message (conducted by Josh Wang). All in all, the night was brimming with excitement and fellowship amongst all the volunteers to the very end, and I can't wait till Springfest begins...because its gonna be awesome!!! =D

Welcome Back & 411 this week

Hey hey hey, here's what's happening this week:

• GTS Sunday Course 101x makeup Wednesday night at the YWCA, 7-8:30 pm in classroom 2.
• Course 101 Dwinelle, same place and same time on Wednesday night.
• This Friday's Gracepoint Monthly, all together at 7:30 pm @ First Pres. Afterwards, we have RSF sports night for the guys. Dress appropriately and be ready.
• Calendar date to circle: Fri-Sat (Apr 25-26). K1 (and Kairos) is headed to an overnight trip at Sierra Lodge. If you missed Yosemite, it's alright. You don't have to be sad. You can come with us to our very own Sierra Lodge. More details forthcoming... but study hard so you can make it.
  

I think that's all... look out for more posts on this past weekend's Impact-Springfest meeting, as well as some videos from our Spring Break Yosemite trip.

Spring Break Friday @ North Loop

Since everyone was mostly gone for Spring Break, instead of our usual homegroup bible studies, we opted to meet all together across Koinonia, acts2fellowship, and Kairos at NorthLoop. Big delicious potluck (all the college staff cooked), great dessert (although someone brought a bag of Verona cookies), some silly boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-boom-boom icebreaker, bible study from Pastor Manny through Luke 24, more silly games including scavenger hunt, people singing ridiculously high onstage, one-arm push-ups, and animal impersonations, everyone was pretty relaxed and delirious with vacation joy.

School's back in session, however, but still, the glow from spring break here in Berkeley continues to live on.

Spring Break Yosemite Trip

When it comes to entertainment that fills, there are few things more rewarding than heading out to the great outdoors. We took off Sunday to Wednesday of Spring Break and went to the grand, sheer granite faces of Yosemite National Park.

25 guys across Koinonia 1 and Kairos went together and stayed in the ol' Bear House, which was full of all kinds of strange trinkets, paintings, and stuffed animals of bears. Frankly, with so many vacation-frenzied young men we were scared we were going to break the place to smithereens. our K1 sisters and K2 groups also went to Yosemite, stayed in the same Pine Mountain Lake area, and spent a lot of time with us throughout the trip.

The first night, all of K1 gathered at our house for ramen and steak. Kind of a strange combination, except you have to remember ramen is cheap and fast and easy to prepare. And steak... well, we had plenty of it that same day Easter Sunday at Gracepoint Fellowship Church at our first annual Easter picnic.

Monday, we all went into Yosemite Valley together. We tried the Nevada Falls hike, only to be blocked about a mile and a half into the hike by dangerous snow and icy patches that wouldn't allow our group to keep going. Some people up there kept going, not really acknowledging the warning signs, and eventually one old woman was having a difficult time getting down. It was a good thing we turned around. We ate lunch together, and then headed up to Vernal Falls, which was full of glacier melt and really wet, but extremely beautiful in the afternoon sun. That pretty much took the whole day, so we went home and prepared dinner. All of K1 and K2 (and Kairos!) got together at our Bear House for dinner, and after some laughter, we sat down and watched Glory.

The next day we went to Tunnel View, Bridal Veil Falls, and then had a wonderful time singing,"How Great Is Our God" (w/ Ben on the guitar), and praying in the middle of the Valley. The brothers finished the day in the Valley playing ultimate frisbee, soccer, and football beneath the shadow of El Capitan, headed home for a barbecue rib dinner, and then played games into the wee hours of the night.

After cleaning the house the next day, eating all the leftovers, doing one last hike at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, we ran back down to the cars and made good time to end at a buffet. Stuffing ourselves silly seemed to be one of the themes of the trip. Wish you were there. Here are some other highlights:

• When to use roger, copy, and over.
• John K.'s quotable: "One thing I learned on this trip: Eddie's a pretty funny guy."
• John T. was a striker on an 18-0 soccer team.
• Apples to Apples is fun.
• 3 tubs of cookies gone.
• Daniel S. is the most beat-up-able freshman, according to Kenton.
• We're thankful for all the Easter Service leftover meat
• Singing in Yosemite Valley is awesome
• John K., Daniel S., Kevin T., and Jasper beat us (Eddie, Kevan, Mike) in football, 13-12 by ones, although the last touchdown was worth 12 points.
• Yosemite glacier melt is pretty dang cold.
• Everything tastes good when it's barbecued.
• John C.'s horse was eating his one flower.
• Food is key to having fun.

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.

Joyland Applications and Information Packet

If you missed the Joyland informational meeting this past Sunday, that's all right. Teacher Michelle has made the info packet available if you need it. You can let me know and I can send you a soft copy. Signups for Joyland close at the end of April.

You can sign up to be a Teacher (or Assistant Teacher), or you can sign up to be an Administrator and part of the Operations team. I believe more details are available if you follow the links.

There's an assortment of other things to be on the look out for:

• Impact SpringFest signup deadline is tomorrow, Thurs., 3/20.
  
• Summer mission trip signups online end this Friday, 3/21.
• If you have PESI questions, let Kate know. She's our rep.

A Hymn to Dwell On

We sang a hymn tonight, Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted, at prayer meeting. The words were so dense and packed with meaning, I thought it'd do us good to have them here so we can think and reflect on them a little bit more.

        1. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
       See Him dying on the tree!
       'Tis the Christ by man rejected;
       Yes, my soul, 'tis He! 'tis He!
       'Tis the long-expected Prophet,
       David's Son, yet David's Lord;
       Proofs I see sufficient of it:
       'Tis the true and faithful Word.

       2. Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
       Was there ever grief like His?
       Friends through fear His cause disowning,
       Foes insulting His distress;
       Many hands were raised to wound Him,
       None would interpose to save;
       But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
       Was the stroke that Justice gave.

       3. Ye who think of sin but lightly
       Nor suppose the evil great
       Here may view its nature rightly,
       Here its guilt may estimate.
       Mark the Sacrifice appointed,
       See who bears the awful load;
       'Tis the WORD, the LORD'S ANOINTED,
       Son of Man and Son of God.

       4. Here we have a firm foundation;
       Here the refuge of the lost;
       Christ's the Rock of our salvation,
       His the name of which we boast.
       Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
       Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
       None shall ever be confounded
       Who on Him their hope have built.

Passion Week news

Every year, Christians around the world observe Passion Week, the last week of Christ. For those unfamiliar with its Latin roots, "Passion" in this sense doesn't refer to love or emotional romantic fervor. It refers to suffering, as in the suffering of Christ. Wanted to let you know some of the things happening this week:

• Prayer meeting tonight (3/18) will include Praxis as well, and starts at 7 PM, First Pres.
• Ben's having reading and reflection time at the YWCA everyday this week from 9-10 PM. From 10-11 PM, there are prayer rooms available for people to use as well. You're welcome (and encouraged) to join him if you have time.
• Mid-week Course 101: same place, same time on Wed. night.
  
• There's a viewing of Passion of the Christ on Thurs., 3/20, 8-9:30 PM @ 145 Dwinelle.
• Good Friday Service is at 7:30 PM, Willard Middle School.
• Saturday, 3/22, some of us are going to Golden Gate for a one-day prayer and reflection retreat. If you'd like to join us, let me know.
• Following our Easter Sunday Service, we'll have a barbecue picnic together as an entire church.
• Spring Break Yosemite details coming up soon. Stay tuned.
• If you need to pick up Passion Readers, you can pick them up tonight at First Pres. Just look for the book table in the lobby.

Lots of announcements, huh? Very full week.

Also, it's a tradition for many Christians to fast on Friday in observance of Christ's death on the cross. It's not merely an exercise in denial or self-inflicted starvation, it's to set aside time to reflect and pray throughout the day. Just wanted to let you know as many of the staff will be doing this.

SF Outing, Frosh & Seniors

This past weekend, the freshmen and seniors went out to San Francisco. Kind of a 1/2 day sort of thing. For some, it was a nice time to get away from studying. For others, they rolled out of bed and joined us for our departure at 3:30pm.

We went to Palace of Fine Arts first, took some pictures, and looked at the swans in the lake. We were going to play hide-n-seek, but the place was closed for renovation. It didn't prevent us from taking some pictures, nor from trying to come up with a compelling CD cover.

Afterwards, we went to Chrissy Fields where we watched the sun set behind the Golden Gate. Pretty awesome sight. While there, the guys couldn't help attempting a race across the sands to determine the fastest man award (notice Nick eating it at the very end..):




Then we went to eat at a Chinese restaurant, and headed back to Berkeley. Fun. More pictures online.

Springfest 2008

Springfest is a 4-week program hosted by ImpACT (a non-profit organization that our church started), for 2nd graders from underprivileged backgrounds in Oakland. There's a lot more of the ImpACT story to tell, but here I'll just say that Springfest 2008 will happen this April! This has been a wonderful way to reach out to the community, sharing God's love in tangible ways such as fun outings, inspiring workshops, and homework help. There are many volunteer opportunities of varying levels of commitment, and you are all invited to help out. There's more information (including a brief history of ImpACT) on the signup page. Signups are due this Thursday, so check it out soon...

SF Eats, Maxwell Field, GP Monthly setup

Hola.  Here's a picture of bald people for your enjoyment.  It has nothing to do with the nature of this post other than the fact that it happened this week.  These other things are happening this week.  Some of it might be of interest to you:

• Night Trip to San Francisco this Saturday evening, 3/8, for the seniors and freshmen.  We'll meet at Anna Head West at 4:30 pm, catch the sunset at the Battery, and then head into the city from there.  Bring $$ since we'll be swinging by Beard Papa's, In-n-Out, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, Palace of Fine Arts and some other good eats.  Let your smallgroup leader know you're coming so you make sure you have a ride.
  
• Koinonia 1 in charge of setup for Gracepoint Monthly this Friday, 5:30 pm @ Willard.  We'll have food together in the courtyard after we're done.  But we need your help, so come on by.  If you can't make it, that's alright.  Just come by the start time, 7:30 pm.  Afterwards, we have Maxwell Field Night, so dress appropriately.
• Spring Break Yosemite Trip is 3/23-3/26.  Deadline to sign up is this Friday, 3/7.  You can sign up online.  There's tons of info for this, but at the risk of overburdening an already verbose post, I'll leave that info for later.  We'll dedicate a whole post to it.  If you can't wait, you can ask one of the staff.

That's it.  Props to Howard's computer for taking the awesome picture.  To all the other bald bros in our group: too bad you weren't here.

Summer Internships @ Bayer

If you're interested, there's summer internships at Bayer, which is located about 15 minutes away on Shattuck. Follow the link and find a wide variety of internships, ranging from accounting to IT to biochemistry and product development. Figured this would be helpful. Thanks to Carol for calling it out.

Some Things For This Week 3/3-3/9

hey guys, back from my BAR-hibernation! Thanks for praying for me if you got a chance to, not sure how I did, but I'm glad it's over and excited to be seeing you guys more again. But enough about that, on to some announcements for this week:

*Mid-week Course 101 not happening this week because this seems like big midterm week for a bunch of guys but...

*Study break at Norton in Unit 3.
Wednesday, 10:00-11:00 pm in first floor lounge. I'll make something fresh-baked and comforting (e.g. brownies or smores or cookies or something). Drop by anytime in that window just to satisfy the late night appetite or hang out for a while if you want to give the brain a breather. And of course feel free to bring any of your buddies along, i promise there will be more than enough food. Give me a call 415-271-3800 and I'll see to it you get signed in.

*Friday is Gracepoint monthly and sports at Maxwell field afterwards. More info upcoming.

*Saturday: Someone may have already contacted you about this, but we're tossing around the idea of combining with some of the other brothers and sisters in koinonia for an outing to SF on Saturday late afternoon-evening. Of course all this hinges on people's interest, so email me if you would be interested.

Okay that's it, hopefully I didn't forget anything and if I did I'll just chalk it up to post-BARmatic-stress syndrome.

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.

Change in plans: Sierra Lodge

H.1 (and H.2) are headed to Sierra Lodge today through tomorrow night. Contact Ben if you want to go but haven't gotten in touch with him. The cars are leaving at 7 pm latest.

The rest of us stuck in Berkeley for one reason or another--studying, sick, lazy--are joining Koinonia 2 brothers at Dana House, beginning at 6:30 pm for dinner and bible study. Pastor Manny will join us there. Afterwards, we're headed to Alameda gym to play basketball and volleyball. Unlike our last gym night, this time it'll be guys-only. Depending on what you value, this could be a good thing or this could be a bad thing. You make the call.

The previous plan of going to Point Reyes tomorrow, 3/1, is obviously at risk now since so many of the brothers are going to Sierra Lodge. If you still want to go, let me know, and we'll figure out our plan sometime tonight. Best case scenario: we go and have fun, even if it's just a few of us. Worst case scenario: we stay in Berkeley, study, and eat good food.

Friday lowdown & Pt. Reyes

This Friday, things are different:

• All the frosh from Koinonia 1 are heading to Pastor Manny and Sunny's place for dinner and bible study. Wenjie's in charge of rides, as usual.
• Sophomores at my place. Kevin H. in charge of rides.
• Seniors at Joe's place on Avondale, combining w/ the H.2 guys so you guys can be together.

Saturday, we're heading out to Point Reyes for a day trip. It's a beautiful piece of shoreline just north of San Francisco, w/ some hiking trails and an oyster farm where the brave ones among you can sample raw oysters (w/ a touch of horseradish), and the squeamish can look on with horror and fascination. After a brief hike, we'll throw around a football, kick around a soccer ball, and do barbecue. It'd be a nice chance to get away from the city and the Berkeley environs, and just hang out.

If you want to go, need to know (right away) so we can plan out rides and food. Even if you're NOT going, just take 20 seconds and fill out our online form.

For those of you who are just dying to know, Saturday's schedule will look something like this:

• 9am | breakfast and DT at the YWCA
• 10am | depart Berkeley from Anna Head West parking lot
• Get to Point Reyes, hike, do fun stuff, BBQ, play, eat, take bazillion pictures
• Oyster farm
• 4:30pm | Decide whether or not to go to the Lighthouse or head back home to Berkeley

If you need more details, you can always ask me or email Annie.

Exploding Eggs

This past Friday, we met at Wenjie's palatial home. After ribs (and some salad), we had bible study in Matthew 13 over the different aspects of the kingdom of heaven. The parables revealed several main points:

• Whether or not the kingdom of heaven grows depends on our response, on our receptiveness.
  
• There is such thing as a spiritual battle.
  
• The gospel is treasure, worth everything.
  
• There is final judgment.
  
• The kingdom of heaven seems tiny, insignificant, even undetectable, but then it multiplies into something far greater than we can imagine.
  

Afterwards, we went to NorthLoop and met up with the other homegroups. We got into teams and did this exercise where we tried to take normal everyday items and combine them to build a machine that can protect an egg from a 25-foot drop. The great egg drop, I guess you could call it.

Then we actually got together and dropped them. That was pretty traumatizing. But it turns out pretty much everyone successfully built their machines and protected their eggs. Some machines were absolutely horrific to look at. While others got style points for practicality, simplicity, and beauty. Here's a video clip of one of the drops:

I think for some people the real fun began when some of the guys walked next door and found the basketball in the gym. I think my favorite picture of the night is this one to the right. Is the guy playing basketball or dancing? Is this a new offensive stylistic approach to basketball on the court, or is he doing early tryouts for the Nutcracker? Feedback would be very welcome here.

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.

Dr. William Lane Craig and Tough Questions

For those of you who don't know him, Dr. William Lane Craig is one of the voices at the leading edge of defending and articulating the Christian faith in our culture's public square. He speaks at college campuses, debates professors and other thinkers, and trains students, future academics, and Christians around the country.

There's a lot of good information on his website, and a section that answers a lot of neat questions (at a much more scholarly level than yours truly):

• Why does God in the Old Testament seem different than the God of the New Testament?
• Time, Relativity theory, and how it affects our understanding of divine time, and God's relationship (knowledge) of time and future events.
• Do we really have objective moral values, and can we appeal to this when we argue for the existence of God?

Frankly, some of the stuff might be just plain nerdy. He's a scholar, academic, and heavily involved in philosophy of time, historicity of Christ's resurrection, and cosmology. But if this is your thing, or you think it'll help and you're interested, wanted to let you know about him and his website. Another site that has a lot of good info is Stand to Reason--and our church has a good relationship w/ Greg Koukl, its founder and president.

I bring up Dr. Craig because he's someone our church has a relationship with. He trains us (came a couple years ago and gave two lectures on UC Berkeley, hosted by us, "The Existence of God" and "Evidence for the Resurrection"), and we not only support him in prayer (b/c, boy it's tough doing some of those debates on the different circuits of which he's a part) but we also support him financially every month. As such, he sends up updates from time to time about how he's doing and what he's been up to, as well as prayer requests. If you're interested at all in these updates and newsletters, let me know and I can forward them on to you.

Week of 2.18-2.24

For those of you who think, "I want more information," and "I'm the calendar type of person who schedules things," here's our post for the record of what's going on this week:

• Wednesday night (2/20) Frosh smallgroup outing. It's a good time to take a break and get out of the city, so we're headed into the mountains to build a fire and roast some links. H.1 & H.2 guys will meet at Anna Head West parking lot at 8:30 pm. That means no mid-week Course 101 for this week. Oh, depending on the weather, you may need to bring some rain gear.
  
• H.1 Friday this week will be at Kiel Bay Mansion (Wenjie's). The staff will prep dinner (expect meat...), and afterwards we'll head over to a rock climbing gym w/ some of the girls from H.4, H.5, and H.6. Dress appropriately if you want to climb--of course, you're welcome to just hang out and make fun of people too--and bring $7 (which is a steal). And though the seniors have been w/ P.Manny the last several weeks, they'll join us for our post-bible study activity.
  
• If you missed GTS Course 101x, you need to give me a call so I can fill you in one what happened and we have a make-up session.
  

That's it for now. In other news:

• Ben and Helen are having a kid (Ack!)
• Working on uploading recent pictures, so stay tuned.
• Maurice's hair is starting to get out of control.
• Eddie's taking his BAR exam Feb. 26-28, so pray for him!
• Stephan's studying for the MCAT, so make sure to give him a big hug.
• Big props to the Seniors for organizing the Valentine's Day of Compassion visit to Berkeley Food & Housing Project!
  

Like Books? Wish you did?

Michelle T. is in charge of the book table on Sundays at Gracepoint. She recently sent a plea for help... if this sounds interesting to you and you want to help, let me know, or send her an email.

I am in need of help before and after service to man the book table for about 30 minutes as well as to help with set up and take down. Ideally, I would like to recruit enough volunteers to make a monthly rotation so that each member only has to serve once a month.

Whas' Happening: 2/13-2/17

Here's info for all you people who need to write stuff into your calendars:

• Course 101 midweek is tonight (Wednesday), 6:15 pm @ 233 Dwinelle.
• Thursday, Feb. 14, is our Valentine's Day of Compassion. H.1 and H.2 are heading over to Berkeley Food & Housing Project, where we're visiting the men's shelter. We got a program all lined up: some games, the Mo' show, a brief talk, and even some music. We're meeting at the YWCA, 6:45 pm in the Chapel Room to practice our songs before heading over to the shelter. Come having already eaten. If you need more info, contact Steve or John.
• H.1 Friday is at Ben's place again. If you need a ride, contact Wenjie. Sophomores are in charge of dinner, and will have it on the table at 7 pm. Afterwards, we have sports night w/ all of Koinonia at Alameda High gymnasium, so bring your sports gear and shoes. Fun videos below of our last H.1 Friday.
  
• Sunday GTS starts sharp at 10 am, Willard Middle School. Come at 9:45 am so we can get started right on time. For those of you in Course 101X or Seekers, the homework is to finish off the rest of Intro Week and Week 1.

Next week, we're probably going to do a Freshman smallgroup activity on Wed. night (2/20). Stay tuned.

Video: H.1 Friday

H.1 Friday looked something like this:



So after our hearty dinner, and after having a brief bible study on Matthew 5, primarily focusing on the Beatitudes (which we memorized!), we had our post-activity. It started with reciting the verses we memorized. Then it degenerated into mayhem, chaos, and yet, felt very much like the college student's version of the "blessed life":



If you missed out last week, don't worry. There's more surprises in store moving forward in 2008.

A week of many Firsts

This week certainly has a lot of Firsts to it.  We had our First College Prayer meeting tonight at First Pres, 6:30 pm - 8 pm... I thought there'd be a lot of room to spread out, but it was still pretty packed.  

Here's all the neat news about what's going on this week:

• Wednesday, 6:15 PM Frosh smallgroup Course 101.  We're meeting in 233 Dwinelle, and will have some snacks during Course 101, and will have dinner afterwards.  For Course 101, prepare Intro week.  It's only about 5 pages so it shouldn't take too long.
  
• Friday Homegroup dinner & bible study!  In lieu of normal Koinonia bible studies that we had last semester, we're all breaking up into much smaller groups.  Our entire homegroup--seniors, sophomores, and freshmen--will gather together at Ben's new house.  Seniors are in charge of dinner (yum), so if you want to help get in touch w/ them.  Wenjie-man is going to take care of rides, so if you think you're going to get left behind, send Wenjie an email.  We'll do dinner together, have bible study by classes (bring your DTs!), and then we'll have a surprise...
  
• If you want to be a part of Gracepoint Training School (GTS), it starts this Sunday, 2/10, 10 am - 11:30 am.  You can get class descriptions and signup online for: Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey, Church History, Apologetics, Tough Questions, and more.
  
• You've all heard of Ko-Ops, which is shorthand for Koinonia Operations.  Suzanne sent an email asking people if they want to help.  If so, you just need to show up at the YWCA, Fridays, 2-4 pm.  For more info, sign up online at our website.  Ko-Ops folks are the ones who do the background images for Prologue, take care of our Koinonia website, and help w/ other publication needs.
  
• Next week, Valentine's Day, 2/14 (Thursday), we're going to join our church's annual tradition of participating in The Valentine's Day of Compassion.  John Cai and Steve Choi are in charge and more info should be coming on the blog and over email.  Basically, we'll join other smallgroups to go out to different shelters and convalescent homes throughout the Bay Area to show Christ's love on a day which has had its meaning utterly twisted.  Love isn't the cheap stuff out there propagated by Hallmark.  Love is something God has created and demonstrated, and it's something He calls us to live out for others.
  

Guess that's all for now.  That's an awful lot, but I figure ya'll are smart people and can figure it out.

Welcome Back to 2008!!

Welcome back to Berkeley, hope this first week's going alright. i've already heard about some of you trying to rework your schedules, dropping classes, and trying to pick up new ones.

check this:

• Koinonia bible study is tomorrow, Friday, at 145 Dwinelle. we're starting at 7:30 PM (had to push back the time from 7), and then afterwards we're going out... hopefully, somewhere dry.
• Manny is getting ordained this Sunday! yes, that means he's going to be part of the CLERGY! well, he's just going to become a pastor. if you want to celebrate with the rest of us and congratulate him, then come to Pauley Ballroom, 4 pm, on Sunday. we'll have our usual worship service, and also a Celebration afterwards, which includes a big dinner all together. i've been helping out w/ the Celebration program, and it's knock your socks off funny, and not something you're going to want to miss.
• Frosh welcome back smallgroup dinner next Wednesday (1/30).
• Sophs also have a welcome back smallgroup dinner next week. More info coming.
• Seniors... well, seniors have been around, so hey seniors. Welcome back.

talk to you guys soon... welcome back to Berkeley!!!

Extra Time over winter break

Relaxing at home and find yourself with a little extra time? Listen to the Gracepoint podcast to keep up to speed with what's going on up in Berkeley. Of recent note, there's this past Sunday's message on the parable of the sower, an explanation of "saturation reflection" and our New Year's key verse (Philippians 3:8), and more.