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.

Austin Farewell Dance!

Thought that this would bring back some good memories! Props to A2F-Gold junior brother Jeff Chiu for filming it!

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!

Austin Team's really gone...

It's for real. They've left Berkeley and arrived in Austin, and they're there to stay. We had a tearful, joyful farewell last night, and then a sendoff from the airport early this morning. Please keep them in your prayers and thoughts. Leaving Gracepoint Berkeley to start up Gracepoint Austin, while exciting, is full of sorrow because of the parting. But it's all for the sake of the gospel, which we all agree, must go to the ends of the earth.

Here's a picture they took when they arrived at Austin airport.

Farewell for our Gracepoint Berkeley-Austin Team!

The day is finally here... our Austin team is leaving Berkeley, about to start a new Gracepoint Fellowship Church over in hot Texas, near the UT Austin campus. They'll have their own pastor--not our Pastor Ed Kang or Kelly Kang--but the team will be led by our very own Pastor Manny and Sunny. They're leaving early Thursday morning. But, of course, there's a farewell for them this Wednesday with videos, songs, and words of farewell that'll make you laugh and make you cry. Here's the heads up on all the stuff:

• SET & Prayer Meeting, same time, same place: 7 PM @ First Pres., tonight.
  
• Farewell song practice after prayer meeting... outside in front of Haas Pavilion, on the Berkeley campus!
  
• Last Koinonia picture w/ the Austin team, Wed., 7/9, 5:45 pm on the Sproul steps.
• Austin Farewell, Wed. night beginning at 6:15 pm at First Pres. If you come at 6 pm, you can get some boba.
• and last for this week, Intramurals @ 6:30 pm, Fri., 7/11, @ Wood Middle School. Mike H. in charge of rides so give him a holler.