We're migrating to a new site! We'll be combining with the rest of the Homegroups underneath the Koinonia (domain name) banner! Come catch us over here:
New Homegroup 1 Blog
See you over on the other side!
Here's a 3-minute excerpt from a message by Francis Chan. Watching this, I was challenged again and committed to confront and push through my fears as I live out Christian life.
As you study for finals, here's a couple of videos from the Seniors, who took a sentimental walk around the Berkeley campus remembering Gracepoint Live... even redoing the Intro video!
Here's their take on what Gracepoint Live would have looked like with and without different elements:
And here's their REDO of the Gracepoint Live intro video. I can't believe they did this!
Go Seniors! Finish strong, and we'll see you at your graduations!
It's time to Multiply Your Talents this summer! Every year we have a series of classes to develop people's talents and skills, from Photoshop to Photography to Music and Script Writing. They're also offering a couple GTS-type courses: Apologetics in Depth and Advanced Course 101. Class descriptions, prerequisites and more can be found on the MYT 2009 signup page.
Here's the video trailer. Watch it.
Gracepoint MYT Promo 2009 Video from john ko on Vimeo.
8 weeks, 11 classes, great training, and tons of fun! Fridays at 7pm starting on June 5, Gracepoint Fellowship Church will be offering these MYT classes in what has become an annual tradition.
Gracepoint Live, a biennial production of Gracepoint Fellowship Church Berkeley, was completed exactly a month today. It feels like it happened a long time ago, like in another lifetime or something!
Anyway, the freshman class put together this thank you video for their frosh GLive staff. It's a little shocking at parts, but if you like that kind of stuff, this might be your cup of tea. At least it's a great way to start off the week.
Here's a couple quick updates about the news today:
Daniel S. even made yukaejang, courtesy Mangchee, who blogs about how to cook Korean food. It was a touching (successful) attempt!
After all that food, it made having LIFEgroup together really difficult. That's why for the first 20 minutes of LIFEgroup that week, all we did was sing really fast songs. Anyway, just wanted to thank and give a shout out to the sophomore brothers!
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.
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.
This is so good I have to share it with you. It's the start of the new message series in Joyland: The Gospel Time. Joyland is the children's ministry of Berkeley's Gracepoint Fellowship Church. What're you're seeing below is the intro video. Each week, the intro video is followed by one of the vignettes from the sophomore GLive skit, performed LIVE and onstage for the kids. Needless to say, the kids were thrilled at the first week and can't wait for more.
And if you're interested in volunteering for Joyland, you can start by checking out the beautiful Joyland website. Note that signups are online now for assistant teachers. There's other Joyland volunteer opportunities as well. Go take a look, and enjoy the video:
Joyland - The Gospel Time Intro from Nelson Wong on Vimeo.
This is the intro video for our new message series: Gospel Time.
LIFEgroups on Wednesday night (4/22). Homegroups 1 & 8 sisters are meeting at 8:15 pm at 2515 Channing, next to Thai House. Homegroups 1 & 8 brothers are meeting at 8:30 pm at K.Ding's apartment. Let's hope it's not too hot. We'll be praying... for one another. And eating ice cream.
Thursday night is Home Time again at Kevan & Jenny's at Central. You're welcome to come over to eat dinner, hang out, and (if you're diligent enough to move to the next apartment for study hall) get some studying done.
Friday (4/24) is GTS, beginning at 7:00 pm at First Pres. Afterwards, Homegroup Wait (on the Lord... as in Homegroup ONE and EIGHT = WAIT) is hanging out at Westminster House. We're calling it Fun Fever since I had a fever earlier in the week... and also because it's so hot these days and it's going to be FUN. (Guys have setup... be at Dana House at 5:30 pm)
Homegroups 1, 2, 6, and 8 have NorthLoop cleaning this Saturday (4/25). We're meeting at 11 am at NL, and then grabbing lunch together afterwards and studying.
And don't forget to sign up for SummerFest and Worldview Camp. If you have no idea what these are, check out the previous blog post, which has good descriptions and info, plus links to the online signups.
Last Friday the Jr. Brothers hosted the homegroup freshmen and sophomores for a night of fellowship. Starting off with some heart-warming cheezy-sticks, the atmosphere quickly warmed up as Cranium became the chosen game. Early on the freshmen team was dusting the junior and sophomore teams. As any junior would attest, it was largely because of miserable rolling (Rolling a 1 four times in a row isn't easy-) and because of the sophomores' stanfordium luck. (Red data cards simply aren't suited to Berkeley students)
As it turns out, the Sophomores "won" the game. For punishment, they had to do a model walkoff. Due to sanitary reasons (we don't want any acid-refluxes) the video recording is not posted (Many would argue that the punishment was thrown back on the audience). Instead, here's a kosher video of our night: Enjoy!
This summer, we're putting on SummerFest for ImpACT (Impaction Asian Communities for Tomorrow), a non-profit organization aimed at academically and personally enriching underprivileged kids from Oakland elementary schools. SummerFest is going to be awesome, but we're going to need plenty of help from volunteers, everything from drivers to lunch prep to team leads to teachers, and much more. If you're interested, check out SummerFest Info and Signups page online. 
Some quick announcements:
LIFEgroups this Wednesday, 4/15. Check with your smallgroup leader for more info.
Home Time (that means dinner) at Kevan & Jenny's on Thursday night, 4/16. You're welcome to come over, eat, and hang out. If you need to study, bring your books. We'll lock you up in the apartment next door! If you need a ride, let me know (at kevanhoATgmailDOTcom).
GTS this Friday, 4/17, back at First Pres, beginning at 7:00 PM. If you have homework, make sure to do it!
Baptism Service this Sunday, 4/19, we have 23 people getting baptized at Gracepoint Berkeley's worship service. You're invited to come and hear their stories. We won't be able to hear all their stories, but we can celebrate all together. Worship Service starts at 11:30 am, following the 10:00 am prayer meeting. (Note: Koinonia is in the overflow for the month of April)
If you want a Summer DT Journal (spans all 3 months!), order them online. Order form will be closed May 6.
Gracepoint Live is really over... As we all decompress, breathe a collective sigh of relief, and wistfully recount all the fun, laughs, and hard work with our friends, it's time to start sharing pictures and stories.
But got a couple announcements:
For all performers, we're meeting at Willard tonight (Friday) by 6 pm, and Saturday morning by 8 am. Please get plenty of rest and stay hydrated. After Saturday's final performance, we'll head out together and celebrate! And then Sunday after service, we'll celebrate some more with the rest of Gracepoint Fellowship Church: Praxis, ISM, everyone who chipped in and helped!
There's plenty of information about when guests of the performance should come, whether or not you have a ticket over at our Gracepoint Live website!
With all the people who're coming this Saturday, here's some quick information. You can pass it on to your friends who are coming to the performance:
There's a runthrough on Wednesday night, and then our first showing is on Friday. That'll be in-house so we can iron out the transitions, audio, and video and all that tech stuff. And then it's one, two, three performances on Saturday! Yikes! The day is here.
If you haven't signed up already, make sure to reserve your spot at Gracepoint Live, showtime's this Saturday, April 4th. Three showtimes: 11 am, 3 pm, 7 pm... don't miss out!
There's tons more pictures online if you want to see what's been going on and share in the memories!
A couple weeks ago, some of the juniors and frosh went to Fenton's Creamery and yes, they all tried The Fenton's Challenge: 3 pounds of ice cream in 15 minutes, plus toppings and bananas. Some people would find this gross. On the other hand, there are others who would admire the audacity and fortitude of going up against such odds.
All 7 who attempted the Fenton's Challenge that night finished. Among them was one brother who has completed (some would say, "dominated) the Fenton's Challenge previously at 11 minutes, and the second time, 6 minutes. So we no longer face the question, "Can he finish it?!" No. Now we can ask, "How long did it take him this time?"
That would be the correct question. The answer, however, might be disturbing for some. Watch at your own risk.
H.1 Fenton's Challenge from kevan on Vimeo.
Some of the guys went to Fenton's and did the challenge. All 7 of them, in fact. One guy, Mike, had completed the Challenge previously... twice. He's going for his third time. This is all just part of having fun, I guess. At least for the guys.
GLive is just a couple weeks away. Spring Break is the big push as all the different classes get ready. Everyday practice! Get professional, look good, deliver the lines, stand in the right place, never-ending, but terribly exciting to be working together.
Saturday, 3/21, was a workday at NorthLoop. Praxis and College, working on props, working on scripts, eating and talking, cardboard, foam core, spray paint, Photoshop, audio splicing. Nice.
Here's a snipped from field report, Eddie C.:
GLive Workday - Props from kevan on Vimeo.
Saturday, 3/21, was massive workday for GLive at NorthLoop. All sorts of people from Praxis to College converged on the warehouse and started to put different things together so they would be stage worthy and beautiful. Fun.
