Balance Beam by Francis Chan

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.

Fun Fever Friday, and other news

The march to finals is on. Study hard! Here's the news for the week:

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.

Baptism Sunday
Originally uploaded by david y park

So that's just the news for the upcoming week. I haven't even started on the stuff that happened the last week or two... I guess I won't get into it. But let me at least celebrate the 22 people who were baptized this past Sunday at Gracepoint Berkeley (that's Gracepoint Fellowship Church, where many of us go on Sundays!). A lot of Koinonia people got baptized, among them was Kathy S. from Homegroup 8! Hooray! To relive the moment, there's a lot more pictures on David P.'s Flickr from a2f.

GLive Is Over...

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:

• Tues, 4/7, 7:00 pm at First Pres: Prayer Meeting. This is Passion Week, a time when Christians traditionally observe the last week of Jesus' life, reflecting on his Passion (from dictionary.com: a) the sufferings of Christ on the cross or His sufferings subsequent to the Last Supper. b) the narrative of Christ's sufferings as recorded in the Gospels) leading up to the cross and resurrection. Basically, it's an important week in the Christian calendar. If you have time, see you at the prayer meeting. It'll be a good time to think and prepare our hearts for the week


• Good Friday begins at 7:30 pm (4/10), Kofman Auditorium at Alameda High Auditorium. If you need a map or directions or a ride, let one of the H.1 staff know.


• Easter Sunday Service begins at 11:30 am (4/12), also at Kofman Auditorium! It'll be a festive day for us to celebrate the risen Christ!

If you need a Passion Week reader, a collection of excerpts and articles from fine Christian writers (John Stott, A.W. Tozer, Chuck Colson, Soren Kierkegaard, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, C.S. Lewis, Karl Barth, Leo Tolstoy and more!), you can let one of the H.1 staff know if you still need one. These articles together with the Gospel Passion account narrative can help prepare your heart and mind to reflect on this very pivotal (central!) event. Recommended reading.

To wrap up this post, we can start reliving GLive (before the DVD comes out) because Conrad (a2f Gold) and Abe (Kairos 2) put up the GLive Intro video for our viewing enjoyment (and so you can show all your friends who didn't make it a little bit of what they missed):


Gracepoint Live 2009 Intro Video from Conrad Chu on Vimeo.

Shown April 4, 2009 at Willard Auditorium at Gracepoint Live (http://www.gracepointlive.org), to a packed crowd. This year's theme was "UNDO".

Gracepoint Fellowship Church (http://www.gracepointonline.org) is a church located 6 blocks from the UC Berkeley Campus. We have various ministries & small groups for working professionals, singles, couples, college students, youth and children. We have a diverse congregation and various opportunities to get involved both in church and in the Berkeley & Oakland community. Whether you are new to this whole Christianity business or looking to grow in your faith with a tight knit community come on by.

NEWS for this week--

GTS as usual is at 7 pm tonight at First Pres.

But beforehand, come join us! We're heading to Nations, home of famous southern burgers (and salads, if that's your thing) and wondrous banana creme pie! We're meeting at Anna Head West at 5:15 pm to grab some food at Nations, and will be back to First Pres so we don't miss our GTS classes.

As usual, GLive practices afterwards. Be prepared!

In other news this past week:

• Super Santa Cruz Saturday was action-packed: ropes course 60 feet above the ground, zip line, rock wall climbing, ultimate frisbee juniors vs. sophomores, football on the beach, a bonfire, talk about guy bonding! Pictures (and video) coming soon!


• Saturday's Redwood Hike: the girls went on a nice stroll (AKA Hike!) through the redwoods last Saturday, lunching out in nature w/ the squirrels, trees, and fresh air.


• Sophomore LIFE group extravaganza. Pictures also forthcoming


• Thursday night Fentons. Some of the guys went--one of them ate the Fentons Challenge in 3 minutes. Yes, we have it on video, and you'll see it soon!


• www.gracepointlive.org -check it out and get excited

See you guys tonight!

Midterm Week news

Wondering what's happening in these parts other than midterms? Let me tell you:

Some people are still recovering from the past weekend's snow trip. We got plenty of pictures from the trip and even a snazzy video too. You can check out our extended coverage of the snow trip and get filled in.

There's GTS this Friday, as usual: Gospels, Course 101 and 101x, Survival Kit 1, and more. We'll meet all together at First Pres., 7pm, in the Gym, and then split into our classes from there. For those of you in Church 101 and SK1, make sure you do your homework!

After GTS, there's GLive practice! Not that much longer before we're on stage. We're scheduled for 3 performances on Saturday, 4/4. Anyway, time to get serious. Ongoing GLive signups are online.. It'll help the different skit directors plan for roles and make sure you have a speaking part, get on stage, and don't get missed.

These days, everyone's stressed. To combat all that stress, we're going studying this Saturday, 2/28. We're heading to another college campus, utilizing their marvelous library, and grab a delicious dinner (to reward ourselves) at the end of the day before coming back to Berkeley. If you want to get some studying done, then this Saturday's the time to do it. Join us. Let your smallgroup leader know.

In the News....

It's the third week already! Here's a couple highlights of things that are happening!

* Dr. Craig Hazen, Professor of Comparative Religions and Apologetics from Biola, is joining us this Friday, 2/6 @ 7pm, 155 Dwinelle to discuss Christianity in a World of Religions.

* There's also an all day training session on Saturday w/ Dr. Hazen. If you're interested, you can sign up online. Cost is $10, and it'll go 10am to 4pm @ Willard Middle School Auditorium.

* This semester, there'll be Friday night Courses in lieu of big group bible study, including Course 101, Survival Kit 1, Church 101, the Gospels, and more. Sign up online by 2/8. There's also plenty of information about what classes are offered, a description of each, and a list of prerequisites and requirements. Take a look.

* GLive practices are going to start soon! Watch out.

* Gracepoint's Sunday Service schedule has changed! We start Prayer Meeting at 10:00am, and Worship Service starts at 11:15am. Dorm pickups are only available for Foothill, Stern, and Bowles from 9:20-9:40am. There'll be lunch after service each week.

* Allen's posted some good info about our Valentine's Day of Compassion activity, which is coming up soon. Check it out and sign up!

* Pictures from Winter Retreat are also online...

This weekend's plans

Hey guys,

For this Friday, we're going to be having a Bible study combined with H2 (Joe and Annie's homegroup). We'll provide rides at 6pm from Anna Head West and start with a scrumptious dinner too. Contact Eddie for rides and more info.

Also, there's been a change of plans for this Saturday: because the weather has been very warm, snow has been melting and conditions are not good for sledding. So for this Saturday, we're going to have a college wide BBQ and sports with everyone from Koinonia, Kairos, and A2F! Again, we'll provide rides from Berkeley -- meet at Anna Head West at 10:15am. See you there!

Let Allen know if you have any questions!

The News for December's first week

Jenny and I spent some time on Tuesday night just reading through the scrapbook, all the words you guys wrote, and we just thank God for how He's worked in each of you this past year. We look forward to how He'll continue to lead not only our homegroup, but all of Koinonia and our church in 2009. We're grateful to God for each one of you guys.

On to the news, starting with Friday (12/5):

• 6:00pm dinners by smallgroups. Listen for more info from your smallgroup leaders.


• "This Is Your Life" Bible study at 7:45pm, First Pres. It'll be our last Koinonia Bible study of the semester.


• The last RSF Night of the semester is after bible study. Come with a change of clothes and get ready to rumble and shake out all that Finals stress!

The other big news of the week is this Sunday's baptism. Several weeks ago, Tabby was baptized along with 6 other people. We gave God thanks for how He had worked in each of their lives and celebrated together afterwards by taking a ton of pictures. And this Sunday, after the 1:30pm Worship Service (at Willard Auditorium), we'll sit down to listen to the stories of 7 more people who are getting baptized, including our very own Hugo! Be sure to be there so we can celebrate together!

In other news:

• Heads up on our annual Winter Retreat! It's the spiritual highlight of our whole year. It'll be the first weekend after school starts (1/23-1/25) and you need to sign up online! There's early bird and late bird registration...
• Joyland Christmas Celebration is an awesome annual performance put on by the kids (and all the helping adults) at Gracepoint Fellowship Church.
The children from Joyland and Impact get on stage and tell the real story of Christmas! It's one of the highlights of our calendar. To put it into perspective: think of it as a kids' GLive! It'll be on Sunday, 12/14. But if you want to help as a stagehand, prop mover, acting coach, or anything else (AND you're prepared for finals), Joyland could always use more volunteers.
• If you want to help paint Sierra Barn, there's a workday next Saturday (12/13). You can sign up online and participate in the fun!
• Sophomore discipleship retreat is 1/13-1/15. Don't miss it. Sign up online.

That's all folks. Study hard... see you Friday!

Bible Study this Thanksgiving week

Since this week is Thanksgiving and everyone's heading home, we're having a combined bible study on Tuesday (11/25) at 8:00pm @ First Pres!

If you want to join us for prayer meeting, it'll start at 7:00pm, also at First Pres.

In other news, Thanksgiving Celebration was this past Sunday. Pictures and videos will be posted soon, so watch out.

News and Thanksgiving Celebration!

This week's news is super-punctuated by Thanksgiving Celebration, which is coming up really quick. But before we get there, let's have at it with this week's news:

• We were originally going to have a Koinonia in-house Thanksgiving Celebration this Friday, but no more! Instead of sending only one Koinonia act to Sunday's Thanksgiving Celebration, we're just going to send all four! That's the biggest change. What does that mean? Read on and find out.


• Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" Bible study on Friday (11/21) begins at 7:00pm @ Lipman Room on the 8th floor of Barrows Hall. Joanna (H.6 Lead) and Dan (H.4 Lead) will tell their personal stories of how they became Christian and committed to follow Jesus. Dinners will be by smallgroups beforehand so ask your smallgroup leader. Afterwards, we'll practice our Thanksgiving Celebration act and get it ready for Sunday's final performance.


• Sunday's (11/23) Gracepoint Worship Service is at 1:30pm @ Kauffman Auditorium in Alameda. Afterwards, we'll have our annual Thanksgiving Celebration right on the gargantuan stage. Each ministry group, from Element to ISM to all the different college groups (including us!), will have stage time to present their act in front of a Thanksgiving crowd of 1000+ people. How exciting!


• After the stage time where laughter and legends are born, H.1 and H.5 will dine together for our own traditional Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, fixings, and everything else. Ya'll will be helping cook too so stay tuned. We're going to cook different dishes by classes.


• This part's really important: We need you to sign up online if you're coming so we can account for rides and food. After all, it'd be really sad if we ran out of food for dinner! Do it right now, just click on the link!

That's it for the news to come, but wanted to briefly talk about the news that's been happening in the last several days. Last Friday, Pastor Manny and Sunny joined us from Koinonia Austin. Pastor Manny gave us a message from the book of Jonah about God's calling for each of our lives. It was so good to see them again, and it's hard to believe that it's only been four months since the first Austin team departed Berkeley!
Saturday's Thanksgiving Retreat was really incredible, as we heard more than 30 personal stories from different brothers and sisters throughout our ministry. Moreover, we Pastor Manny gave an extended report from Austin, and we got a glimpse into what life is like over there.

Also, Prison Fellowship's yearly Christmas program, Angel Tree, is approaching. Our homegroup's been doing it together each of the past couple years. We "adopt" a family with 1-2 kids, children of a parent who's in prison. We buy them the Christmas present they wouldn't otherwise receive, meet the family, and invite them to a Christmas party at NorthLoop. It's been a wonderful experience thus far to touch people's lives, get out of ourselves just a little bit, and serve a community of people who often get lost during the bustle of the Christmas season. If you'd like more information or want to get involved, the H.1 lead on this is Allen, so send him an email.

In other news:

• DT Journals for December-January are available for order. Pre-order online, as usual, for $3. Very helpful if you like being lightweight and mobile! Highly recommended!

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.

News This Week: Plus TC Preview

Thanksgiving Celebration in-house for Koinonia is just a week and a couple days away! We practiced last Friday (video below!) and are planning on practicing again this Friday. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's give the whole news, starting with the Friday plan:

• Dinner for the guys, 6pm @ Kevin D.'s on the corner of Hillegass and Parker. We'll do dinner, have "meaningful" conversation (maybe), and then head over to "This Is Your Life."


• Dinner for the girls is a surprise. More info forthcoming so check back soon.


• 7:45pm @ St. Augustine's, Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" study of the Bible with our very own Pastor Ed. The reason we're meeting at St. Augustine's is because afterwards, there's...


• ... Thanksgiving Celebration Practice! Koinonia's in-house Thanksgiving Celebration is next Friday (11/21) and our act has to be stage-ready by then! That means we need to practice! Got a small clip from this past week's practice below (which is a sneak preview for some of you peeping non-H.1 folks)! Even if you missed last week, there's still plenty to join in on. We have a special middle section which we didn't have a chance to practice at all last week... if you want details ask one of your friends who was able to make it. This isn't information I can post on the world wide web. :)

This Saturday (11/15) is our annual Thanksgiving Retreat, which you can sign up for online. I've written about it plenty already, and even posted the video. If you signed up to go, one of our Rides Czars (Mike or Hannah) will let you know who's giving you a ride. Just make sure you're ready to be out the door by 8:45am. Update: You can give your Thanksgiving Retreat fee to Caroline or Sieun before Bible study begins. They're the official collectors.

In other news:

• This Sunday at Gracepoint Fellowship Church (that's where most of us go to church on Sundays) there'll be a baptism. Among the 7 people getting baptized, one of them is our own homegroup's Tabby! I encourage you to come and hear her story and the stories of the other candidates getting baptized.


• Thanksgiving Celebration Sunday is 11/23. We'll have worship service at 4pm @ Kauffman Auditorium in Alameda. After that, we'll have the real deal Thanksgiving Celebration, and then a home-cooked Turkeyfest dinner!


• Our Annual Winter Retreat is Jan. 23-25.


• Koinonia Snow Trip, Jan. 15th. This is for all your early planners out there.

That's it for now. See you guys Friday. Below: Check out how awesome Cass is.


Thanksgiving Celebration Practice 1 from kevan on Vimeo.

Election Week News

It's election week and believe me, there's plenty of news. First, we have a new president! And more,

• Gone. Watch out. If you're not paying attention you could miss it... and it'll be Gone. Check the Gone video trailer and pass it along to your friends. 7:00pm @ First Pres, This Thursday, 11/6. Our very own Howard will be part of the Gone video, so if you want to see him on the big screen, you'll have to be there...


• In the realm of really, really great news... actually, I'll just let Joe's email speak for itself:
  

  I just wanted to share with you all the good news that we received today. Annie's CT/PET scan came out clear and there was no trace of any tumors in her lungs or anywhere else. Thank you so much for all your love and support the past several months. Through the surgery and then the six cycles of chemotherapy, we have received so much love and encouragement. So many people brought us dinners, Annie always had a ride to the hospital to receive her shots, we had so many visitors bringing flowers, cards, and snacks. We really experienced being carried and supported by everyone during this time, and so were able to go through it with so much more strength than Annie or I have within ourselves. Thank you so much!! I'm grateful that I can share this joyful news with so many of you who suffered through it alongside us.

  
  Tell me that isn't the most awesome news so far this month. Praise God.


• Koinonia hoodie. Pre-order online because the deadline's this Friday, 11/7.


• Thanksgiving Celebration practice starts this Friday. What's Thanksgiving Celebration? I embedded the trailer video below:
  
  
  
  Basically, we're going to practice for our homegroup's act (Practice is Friday, 5:30-7:30pm, Wheeler), which we'll present (together with H.5) two Fridays from now, 11/21, at Lipman Room. Best of the best go to the Real Thanksgiving Celebration on Sunday, 11/23, at Kauffman Auditorium, 1:30pm.


• After Thanksgiving Celebration practice, the seniors and juniors are hosting the sophomores and freshmen. Guys and girls separate... Guys are going to do something crazy at 8pm, Dana House, and the girls? Well, it'll be a surprise. But it'll be some upperclassman love as they host the underclassmen!


• Our annual Thanksgiving Retreat is on Saturday, 11/15, at GGBTS. We'll hear people's stories from how God worked in their lives this year, and also have a time of Communion together. Don't miss out, by signing up online now! There's even a trailer:
  
  


• Sophomores: you got one-day discipleship retreat on Tuesday, 11/11, with Pastor Ed and Kelly, so make sure you study so you're not stressed that day and miss out!

That's it for now. See you guys soon!

Gone

The trailer is on Youtube but you can see it here, now. It's two days away: Watch out.



First Pres., Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008. Invite your friends. See you there.

The News in These Parts

The news in these parts:

This Friday, H.1 and H.3 are in charge of setting up. That means:

• 5:15pm setup at Dana House. We'll load the audio equipment and then head over to 155 Dwinelle. Here's the house!
  View Larger Map


• We'll finish setup at 155 Dwinelle as soon as we can and then eat dinner together. The best part comes after dinner! With the upcoming Thanksgiving Celebration (if you don't know what this is, don't worry, you'll find out real soon), we'll watch some of the Thanksgiving Celebration acts from previous years and have some good laughs beginning at 7:15pm.

As usual, we'll start Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" bible study at 7:45pm. And afterwards, all of Koinonia is heading to Alameda High gymnasium for Sports Nite Halloween Extravaganza! That's not really the name, however. I don't think we even have a name. But that's what I'm calling it in the absence of anything better! Make sure you come dressed (or with a change of clothes).

Let's see, what else is going on... I'm going to give you the whole 9 yards so hang on:

• Next week's prayer meeting (Tuesday, 11/4) will be different: we'll still be at First Pres, but sisters 6:00-7:50pm, brothers 8:00-9:50pm. So take note of that.


• All college event, Gone, Thurs., 11/6, First Pres. It's sort of like New Student Welcome Night-light, so it'll be great fun. Not only that, but we're changing things up from normal and will share stories, music, have talk interspersed in between more stories and music.


• Our annual Thanksgiving Retreat is on Sat., 11/15. If you want to join us, you'll need to sign up online by 11/12.


• Thanksgiving Celebration. Stay tuned. More info coming.


• Our annual Winter Retreat is coming up, Jan. 24-26. Plan accordingly. It's not something you want to miss!


• The sophomores are cooking dinner (b/c they lost) so stay tuned for that too.

Girls up at LBL for H.1 Friday

This happened a couple weeks ago, but because I just got the picture, wanted to post it. While the guys were at Cordonices Park, the H.1 girls were hanging out with Homegroup 5 girls. They took off to the Berkeley Hills, and while the guys were going down concrete slides on cardboard pieces, the girls were sharing a "special moment" gazing across the panoramic view of the Bay Area together... eating burritos (the remnants of which, were found in the trunk of our car 3 days later. Sick).

Thought it was worth sharing. Looked awesome.

the weekly scoop

I don't know about you, but it's amazing to me how much stuff goes on each week. Justin over there is pointing at the announcements you should be reading just below.

We'll start first with Friday night, which is always a weekly favorite:

• 6:00 pm, H.1 Guys over at Kevin D.'s place on the corner of Hillegass and Parker. We'll start with home-cooked dinner. No concrete slides this week... however, Chefs Kevin and David will be contributing to our collective culinary experience.


• 6:00 pm, H.1 Girls over at Virginia's place, also starting with dinner.

Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" bible study is at 7:45 pm @ 2050 VLSB. Afterwards, by popular demand, we're going bowling! It's going to be tons of fun. See you there.

UPDATE (10/24, 10:00am) All Koinonia freshmen going to Steve and Suzanne's afterwards! It'll be a chance to meet all the other freshmen and spend time with Steve and Suzanne.

Sign up online for our annual one-day Thanksgiving Retreat, which happens on Saturday, November 15. Sign up deadline is 11/12, so do it soon!

What's Up

Here's the news for this weekend, starting with Friday dinners (Oct. 17):

• H.1 Guys are meeting at 5:45pm @ Anna Head West parking lot on Channing. We'll be heading up to the Rose Garden and Cordonices Park to hang out, eat dinner (we'll bring the food!), and get away from Berkeley. Yes, it's only 10 minutes away from Berkeley, but it'll be fun.


• H.1 Girls are meeting at 6:00pm @ Anna Head West parking lot. The girls will head up to LBL for a nice dinner and hot chocolate. There's a Berkeley LBL webcam, but personally I don't think it does the view any real justice. You'll just have to go there yourself to experience it in person!

Afterwards, we're headed to Koinonia's "This Is Your Life" bible study. Pastor Ed'll be talking about the reliability of the bible, how we can know it's trustworthy as a document that tells us about the life of Jesus and about God. "This Is Your Life" will be at 7:45pm @ 2050 VLSB.

After VLSB, some of the juniors will be taking off for the Junior Discipleship Retreat with Pastor Ed and Kelly. Come to 2050 w/ your bags already packed because we're leaving directly from the parking lot! Pack appropriately: it'll be mostly low to mid-70s during the days, and low to mid-40s at nights.

The rest of H.1 will be going over to Steve and Suzanne's to hang out with them, and also with H.5. We'll watch GLive, laugh at the juniors and seniors, and look ahead to the Spring semester when we'll be putting together GLive for 2009! Wow. Crazy.

Extra: This past weekend the Koinonia staff went to Sierra Lodge to work on the Barn. It's awesome right now. There's a ton more pictures, but here's a small taste. For those of you going, you'll see this very soon.

The Real Long Version of Announcements

I don't know why each week there are so many announcements. I guess it just goes to show you there's a ton of stuff going on... which is a good thing! It also means: you got to pay attention! (update: video at the bottom of Kevin losing in pushups contest)

Here we go:

Jam-Packed Friday
For the guys: 6.30 PM dinner at Unit 3. Jrs & Soph guys will do setup beginning at 5.30 @ dHouse, and then we'll meet for dinner and decompress from the week @ U3. We'll grab a lounge or maybe the multi-purpose room. Just make sure you have your friend's cell number handy so you can find where we are!
For the girls: 6.30 PM dinner in the First Pres. Courtyard. Registration setup is at 6!
For both guys and girls, dinner will be provided!

This Is Your Life Koinonia bible study is at 7:45 PM, First Pres.

Afterwards, there's study hall or Ghirardelli's in SF. You make the call and bring your gear: books or spoons.

The rest of the announcements:

• 9 AM at the YWCA: Sophomore guys' discipleship group. Remember your homework!
  
• 11 AM, it's our turn (plus homegroups 2, 5 & 6) to clean NorthLoop. Afterwards, we'll eat lunch together, and for those who want to watch the Cal game (Homecoming!), we'll watch it together. Otherwise, you can study at NL or head back to Berkeley.
  
• Sierra Lodge construction (10/11). Yes, if you want to go and help build the Barn, make sure to let me know. It'll be all day Saturday. Not for wimps. If you were ashamed of your performance at the Sierra Lodge booth at the Gracepoint Open House, then come and get trained.
  
• Convalescent Home Visit (10/12). Our homegroup is going to the Crown Bay Elderly Home Sunday morning from 8:45 -10 AM. We'll spend time with the elderly there and have a small program for them. Please contact Caroline if you'd like to get involved.
  
• It's never too early to plug the College Winter Retreats! You don't want to miss this just because of bad planning around airline tickets! The dates are Jan. 23 - 25 (Friday to Sunday). Signups will be up soon so stay tuned!

Last but not least, there's the H.1 committee "To Keep Things Running". There's plenty that goes into helping our homegroup run and we need help! Thought some of you would like to get involved or maybe get trained? Check these out and email me what you'd like to do:

• Transit Chief: need one guy, one girl to take care of rides for the various events we do. Whether that means coming over to Alameda in the middle of the week, rides home after a Friday night, or when we head out to bowling or SF, you the man (er, woman). Pluses are that you get to meet everyone. Recommendations: cell phone, email, and text messaging is your friend.
• News Reporter: Be a journalist. Write about messages from Friday or Sunday, maybe a brief summary, a funny line. Write about life on campus, or the people in our homegroup. Offer your perspective and help broadcast some news. You can even video yourself and be an anchorman/woman. Short description: blog.
• Media Guy (or Gal): like photography or videography? Want to share them with people? This one's for you.
• Chef: food makes people happy. Food makes you happy and you like seeing people happy because of food. You got menu ideas for refreshments or meals? Want some guinea pigs to try it out on? What better place than for your homegroup!
• Entertainers: when we hang out as a group, it's not always fun just talking in little clusters here and there. Lots of times we need activities, games, icebreakers, and ways to jazz up the time together. Help plan out activities, make phone calls to bowling alleys, game times, and think of ways to help people bond and have fun!
  

The names are just for fun, of course, but each one represents an important role in keeping things running! Thanks for reading so much! (It's good for the engineers! Yes, Kevin, Howard, and Irene, I'm talking to you guys)

Here's a video of the push-up contest from two Fridays ago, when people came over and we played games. Not sure why we had a push-up contest, nor why it was 4 guys and a girl. But it sure is fun, especially Justin's quip at the 1:45 mark.

Gracepoint Fellowship Cool News... and Bad Apples

Hey people, can you believe school is already in its second week?! It feels like people are still arriving on campus... Anyway, the two New Student Welcome Nights are over. We had more than 1100 new people check out our event (and eat our food), and had a chance to meet tons of people. We're hoping they stick around and join smallgroups, swing by a Koinonia bible study, or just hang out.

Anyway, lots of stuff is going on and wanted to post the info for what's happening.

• 7 - 8:15 PM, Wed., 9/3: Freshman smallgroup, guys. 254 Dwinelle, includes scrumptious dinner.
• 7 - 8:15 PM, Wed., 9/3: wouldn't you know it, the girls also have freshman smallgroup! 251 Dwinelle
• 7:00-8:30 PM, Thurs., 9/4: low-key, get-me-away-from-the-DC barbecue at Dana House. Allen's in charge so you can send him an email if you need more info.
• 7:30 PM, Thurs., 9/4: Welcome back dinner for all the sophomores at Kevan & Jenny's place. Sign up online if you can come and need a ride (or want to help grill)
• 7:30 PM, Fri., 9/5: First Koinonia Bible Study of the semester! We'll be at 2050 VLSB and if you can help, we'd really appreciate your help doing setup. Afterwards, we're going out by classes to hang out. The freshmen and seniors are going to the Rec Room on the first floor of the YWCA. The sophomores are going to Steve & Suzanne's, and the Juniors are going mini-golfing (for shakes). Pastor Ed'll be leading our bible studies this semester, so that's extra incentive to come, invite our friends, and pay close attention!

That's a lot of announcements, and I'm breathless just writing them all down. Have a great week! And for all you Berkeley Cal Football fans, Go Bears! Let's rock Washington State this weekend!!



Oh wait... I almost forgot the whole point of this post. Our buddy, soph. John K. performed and showcased his thespian talents at last week's Gracepoint Fellowship Church Joyland production. He was the bad apple.

For the entire clip, you can watch online at the Gracepoint Berkeley Joyland website.