Gracepoint Live: Freshman Memories

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.

The Snow Trip You Should Have Been At

We met Saturday morning and headed up to the Sierras. A brief stop at McDonald's for breakfast and before we knew it, we were in a winter wonderland of fresh snow. It was fantastic. We played 3-way capture the flag, pitting the Koinonia upperclassmen vs. All Berkeley freshmen vs. USF/SFSU. We poured red Kool-aid on the ground to mark boundaries, and then people started blowing through enemy lines trying to capture flags while avoiding would-be tacklers.

Then we went up the sled run, bringing up inner tubes and our swashbuckling adventure spirit, then plummeting down the slopes. The sled run was lined with friends and staff holding out snowballs and other cold wondrous gifts for the trip down. There's a lot more pictures online at our Flickr site as usual, and John from H.5 uploaded another set of pictures online too.

And because you want to see it again, here's the video that was made after our awesome day in the snow. Make sure you're there next time!


Snow Trip 2009 from kevan on Vimeo.

All college freshmen and Koinonia upperclassmen went up to Sierra Lodge to see some snow. While there, we ran into the students from SFSU and USF, and we quickly got to know each other pretty well, throwing each other into the snow and playing capture the flag. Between the snow fights, the sled runs, and the good food, we had a great time. We were a little sore, but it was awesome.

Freshmen Gathering at Steve & Suzanne's

After bible study on Friday, the girls and guys from H.1 found themselves being ferried to Steve and Suzanne’s place. After some interesting car rides, everyone arrived at the house excited and ready to have some fun. The focus of the night was to get the Freshman to know each other better.

Other than the awesome food, which included shaved ice with tons of toppings, there were fun games as well:

• When playing the speed naming game, the twins Brandon and Brian confused everyone with their jacket switching. The game ended up at 4-2, with certain teams going negative at times. (there was a guessing penalty)
  
  
• Electricity was the last game of the day. Despite some scoring and referee issues, team 1 emerged as the clear winner.

1 castle, 1 birthday, 6 guys in a compact...

That title probably got your attention! Anyways, how does all three of those fit together? Well, yesterday some of us (frosh & myself) went over to Bowles, the castle on the hill for Hugo's birthday, and for the frosh it was their very first time setting foot in Bowles, or anywhere near there for that matter. I picked up Justin, Simon, David, and John from their individual places, while Daniel Song decided to run there from the RSF. Ah, you see the trouble with the numbers already, but I get ahead of myself. We had one of David's friends at Bowles sign us in, because it was going to be a surprise! Hopefully.. I gave Hugo a call beforehand to make sure he was in his room...sneaky eh? Actually I'm not sure what I would've done if he said he was out..., luckily it didn't have to come to that as he was home.

So once we got in, we proceeded with our plan. Here we are putting the candles onto the cake, by twos so it'll burn brighter of course. Also note the light in the corner. You ask why only there? Well let me tell you that we decided to use our trusty flashlights, to be more ninja-like..., little did we know that the light switch was right in front of us. Of course the SM pointed this out to us after we finished...but we knew what we were doing...

While this transpired, Wynn from Koinonia 2 joined us, he lives 2 floors below Hugo. Together with our entire team we managed to get to Hugo's room, bust in, only to find he's not in the main room but in his bedroom. It was kind of unclimatic, but we still surprised him enough. We sang him Happy Birthday and proceeded to the main event...you thought the singing was the whole point? Nah, it's all about the eating fellowship!













Here is Hugo making the first cut, and us chilling in his bedroom with our pieces. It was only Hugo & his roommate Sean, so we had no trouble fitting in. And of course we have to do something to birthday boy!




And now that brings us to the last part of the title. Well you remember how we all got there right? Yea, Justin, Simon, David, John, and me...m...that's 5, and I believe that's how much my car can fit, being a compact and all. But now there is Daniel, which makes 6. So of course we just have to squeeze a little bit, not a problem. But then you have Daniel in the back with 3 other guys... That's just trouble being begged for. Daniel gets rocked as usual, its like the commonality of all stories it seems. Here are some pictures of that. Everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves...except Daniel. And Simon...he's underneath there somewhere...

That concludes our little trip to the castle, to celebrate a birthday, and somehow cram 6 guys in a compact on our way back... "And this little Daniel went wee wee wee all the way home..."

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?

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)

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.

The Ending is in Sight for the Frosh

The last frosh smallgroup of the semester is at Dana House (2440 Dana St., corner of Dwight & Dana). We're meeting at 6:30 PM, and the staff and seniors are grilling. We'll watch Manny's hammer-dance across the stage as part of our closing semester festivities. See you guys there!

Staying informed

I hear from different people, "I didn't know bible study was at..." or "I wasn't sure if we had smallgroup this week..." or "I didn't know Ben was staff, I thought he was a sophomore." Yes, for those who are poorly informed or find themselves murky about what goes on week to week, never fear: this homegroup blog is here.

It's actually been here the last three months, and you can find all our meeting times and places on these very plain, but informative pages.

That said:

• Frosh & Soph smallgroups are Wed. night in Dwinelle: 6:30 PM & 8 PM respectively in rooms 211 & 204.
• Friday's bible study is 7 PM in the Lipman Room. Afterwards, we're practicing for Thanksgiving Celebration. It'll be the last practice for the frosh/sophs, altho the seniors will be meeting again on Saturday.
• Those of you in SK1 & Church 101, it's happening Saturday morning, 10-12. SK1 is on Berkeley campus and Church 101 is at NorthLoop.
• Thanksgiving Celebration is on Sunday, right after Gracepoint's worship service. The time is either 2 PM or 4 PM. We're having some difficulties securing the venue so more info to come soon.
• We're cooking together for Thanksgiving Celebration so stay tuned. Help will be needed Sunday morning. If you think you know how to cook a turkey, or candied yams, or any of the other Thanksgiving fixings, then get prepared to show your stuff.

Thanksgiving Celebration mp3s online

Hey folks (freshmen, actually), if you need to practice "Awesome God" for Thanksgiving Celebration, Emily (your fearless conductor) has uploaded the mp3s for you to download and sing on your own.

Thanksgiving Celebration is this Sunday, 11/18. It'll be in Alameda, at the Kauffman Auditorium, and will follow Gracepoint's Sunday service. Make sure to get in touch with one of the seniors or your smallgroup leader for a ride.


View Larger Map

What's Happening this week

What's Happening used to be a 70s sitcom featuring the infamous Rerun and his buds. It's way before pretty much everyone's time, but I thought a little historical education couldn't hurt. But seriously, here's "what's happening" this week:

• Bible study this Friday also turns out to be the first message of our annual Thanksgiving Retreat. It's at First Pres right across from Unit 3, beginning at 7 PM. Acts2fellowship, Kairos, and Koinonia will all be there, as well as Praxis.
• Frosh smallgroup is meeting Wed., 211 Dwinelle at 6:30 PM w/ scrumptious dinner and discussion time.
• Soph smallgroup is meeting in the parking lot next to Sather Gate and Sproul Hall. We're going to famous Fentons to celebrate birthdays and hang out. Wed., at 9 PM. Note the time change.
• Thanksgiving Celebration is next Saturday, 11/17. If you want real home-cooked turkey before the actual turkey day, join us for laughs and great food.

See ya'll soon.

Thanksgiving Retreat coming up

The big news, as the headline goes, is the one-day Thanksgiving Retreat coming up on Saturday, Nov. 10, led by Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang (Gracepoint Berkeley). It's the date of the USC game, but we'll all watch it together on the big screen at the end of the retreat. It's our annual tradition to do this--the retreat, not the game--and I expect we'll be challenged and blessed by the messages. I also expect to hear department news of what's happening throughout our church, from the children's department Joyland to the post-grads in Praxis. If you have time (and even if you don't), I encourage you to go. Of course, this means you need to plan and study beforehand, but likely you'll be glad you did.

There's more Thanksgiving retreat info and signups online. Check it out.

Other news:

Bible study this week is at Lipman Room, 7 PM on Friday. Afterwards, the freshmen are heading to Dana House and the sophomores are going to Manny & Sunny's. The seniors... well... ya'll have a free night!

Also big in the news is the baptism on Sunday after service.

And we're also helping with NorthLoop cleaning on Saturday, @ 10 AM. Afterwards, we'll grab lunch @ In-n-Out, and then study for the rest of the day.

the News: upcoming and days gone by

First we'll tackle what's happening this week, and then we'll look at all the stuff that happened the previous couple weeks (there was a lot!):

• Friday bible study's at Lipman room, 7 PM. Our homegroup's in charge so if you can help, talk to Kevin D. Afterwards, there's RSF night. Time to see if the sophomores will hold onto their championship, and if the freshmen will continue to place in the top 3.
• Frosh and Soph smallgroups are same time, same place: 211 Dwinelle, 6:30 PM & 204 Dwinelle, 8 PM.
• Saturday Sierra Lodge trip: if you think you're manly (and even if you're not) and pretty good with power tools, love the smell of lumber, then I want to invite you to join us at Sierra Lodge this Saturday. It's a house we're building (that's right, us!) for all the good memories and trips we plan on taking. Plenty of people have pitched in to make the place wonderful, and all of us want to be able to point to a floorboard and say, "I painted that." Not only will it be good ol' hard work, it'll be fun being together with the rest of Koinonia, and have an opportunity to be a part of something our whole church is involved with. Plus, one of these days, we'll be staying there on one of our overnight trips! If you want to go, you got to let me know. Included a picture of the house to the right.
  
• Gracepoint's first anniversary is this Sunday. We're having all-combined service at 5 PM on campus @ Pauley Ballroom. Koinonia is in charge of the food so all of you guys, be prepared on Sunday to pitch in and help out for the celebration!

Now onto all the stuff that's been happening the last couple weeks.

Several Sundays ago, a ton of us from Gracepoint went to celebrate Waypoint Community Church's 10th anniversary on Sunday evening (9/30). God's faithfulness for 10 years, multiplying 5 original people into a group of more than 200! Amazing! As Gracepoint was the sending church 10 years ago, I was so thrilled to see and hear what God has done. Waypoint's our sister church out there in Davis, where the cows graze and the John Cai's of the world roam.

There was the Koinonia sports night at Alameda Gym after the More Than A Face talk. We had free play with three half-courts of basketball, and 1 full-court of volleyball. We ended the night by splitting up freshmen vs. all the upperclassmen in ultimate handball. Freshman team 1 rocked, and freshman team 2, unfortunately, got rocked. But hey, we had a good time and even took a bunch of pictures.

Allen C. from Taiwan says hello. He recently sprained an ankle and also badly sprained his finger. Recovery time is 6 weeks, during which time no sports and no heavy lifting. Please pray for him and the rest of the Taiwan team.

I became a dad. Ha ha! Abigail J. Ho was born Oct. 8, 2007, weighing in very respectably at 7 lbs, 5 oz. Jenny and I are absolutely delighted, and also very thankful for all your prayers, and for many of you who have expressed such love as you came to visit us, bringing food, laughter, taking camera phone pictures, and your happy smiles. Also, it was neat to see that for so many of you, it was your first time holding a newborn. I posted an indulgent amount of pictures online, so if you really want, you can look through them and maybe find yourself when you visited.

That's news for now. That's a lot of stuff, but it only goes to show that life in the community of faith is very, very full.

Serious studying over food

Some of the guys came over for dinner and study Thursday night. Last week, it was just Stephan and he ate a lot of food. Not to be outdone, some of the sophomores and a lone senior came by this week, determined to make their mark on my couch and dinner table. Brandon had finished four midterms this week, John has a CS project to start on, James has Greek to study, and Justin had some music to sing and math problems to crank out. Basically Brandon came over just to sleep. But James came over with dessert: lemon bars he had made from scratch. Amazing! But then I noticed it had already been eaten. There's an etiquette lesson to be had there, but I won't spell it out. Anyway, the lemon bars were so good Jenny kept some for herself before letting the guys take it home.

Dinner consisted of a pretty Korean menu (thanks to my wife): roast gui, kimchi chun, fried tubu, sam and kenyip, and potstickers. It was a lot of food. After cleaning up, feeding the fish, some vain attempt at studying (some more productive than others), we had cherry pie a la mode (courtesy Justin and good ol' Sara Lee), James' lemon bars, and moon cakes from Shanghai. Wenjie also came a little later and Steve also dropped by too at the end of the evening, just in time for dessert.

I'm always grateful when people invite themselves over. After all, home's not meant to be a private, secluded place where the rest of the world is kept at bay. Acts 2 tells me home's a place to eat together, have fun, read God's word, experience encouragement, and enjoy our friendships under the umbrella of Christian community.

Frosh Angel Island & "This is very fun"

The frosh from our homegroup joined up with all the frosh in Koinonia for our annual Freshman Angel Island trip. The weather was beautiful, and with 91 total people in attendance, it was a huge excursion packing into the cars at 8 in the morning, getting all the ferry tickets, and having enough food for everyone!

The ferry ride was great and by the time we were in the middle of the Bay, the fog had burned off, the water was shimmering blue, and the SF skyline in the distance was quite a sight to see. After getting our picnic tables and grills, and after doing a quick mixer to meet the many new faces, all of us took off for the hike to the peak. Some guys, like John K., started complaining about how "hard" the hike was before we cleared the first hill. Then there were others, like Manny, who decided they would prove their manhood by running to be at the lead of the pack. Between the many vistas and stopping points on the way up, what greeted us at the top was a beautiful panoramic view of the entire Bay. We hung out there for a while and then before everyone got too ravenous, headed down to basecamp for a barbecue lunch.

To end the day, we got into our majors, posed and took pictures, and then played "This is very fun," where all the people stand in a circle, hold hands, and say with a straight face, "This is very fun," without breaking a smile or laughing. The most serious, no smiling, no-fun person who says, "This is very fun" wins and takes all. Needless to say, there were plenty of laughs.

It was a great day, and I took tons of pictures. Wish you were there!

It's October! 411 on the week of 10/1

It's October already. Unbelievable how quickly the semester's going by. The sophomores went bowling last Friday, and the freshmen went to Angel Island this past Saturday (pictures coming soon!). In between school, midterms, studying, Koinonia bible study, Gracepoint on Sundays, outings, basketball, and Cal football games, we still find time for weekly smallgroup:

• frosh smallgroup @ 6:30pm in 211 Dwinelle, Wed., 10/3
• soph smallgroup @ 8pm in 204 Dwinelle, Wed., 10/3 (Ben's smallgroup is meeting at Ben's home over dinner; more info to come)
• Friday, 10/5, Koinonia's presenting "More Than A Face," a look at how media affects self-image in 155 Dwinelle

And last, if you're interested in community service, stay tuned and let Wenjie know (wenjiecATgmailDOTcom). He's organizing a way for our homegroup to give to our community.

Good ol' home-cookin'

If you want to get away from Berkeley and have a home-cooked meal, you can come over to my place tonight. It's a "catch-your-own-ride" kind of a situation, and I'd say grab the nearest senior or smallgroup leader if you want to capitalize on the offer. Of course, there'll be the mandatory study room for the studious, and then there'll be the "I'm glad I'm away from Berkeley" room, mostly hovering in and around the food.

Last night's smallgroup among the frosh was fun since Joe's H.2 group joined too. The room was packed, but it was a good time to meet others and welcome new faces. We asked some questions and put the answers up on the board:

• What do you find attractive about Christianity or religion?
• What do you find repulsive about Christianity or religion?
• What do you think is difficult about being a Christian?

The sophomore smallgroups, as usual, each did their own thing. From inductive bible study to discussion over a chunk of text, I'll just speak for my group.

First, we took a survey of people's relative stress level on a scale of 1-10. With a kid on the way (yes, that would be me), mine was a little higher than most (a 7 in case you were wondering), and some of the sophs decided they'd like to retract their original number and submitted an integer significantly lower. But after that, we each of us put a question on the table so that we could talk about them in the upcoming weeks:

• One question about God; something I've always wondered or thought or wish I could ask...
• One question about myself; "If only I knew this about myself," or could figure out this part of my life...

Angel Island this weekend for the frosh. Oregon vs. Cal also. Go Bears.

UPDATE: Got my phone back. It's a text-messaging machine

the news of the week, 09.24

It's another week, and the midterm snowball that hit last week is bound to keep rolling till the end of the semester. And since you guys need some relief at some point in the week, keep an eye on these:

• freshman smallgroup, 6:30pm @ 204 Dwinelle on Wed. (9/26)
• sophomore smallgroup, 8pm @ 211 Dwinelle on Wed. (9/26)
• Koinonia bible study, 7 PM @ 145 Dwinelle on Fri. (9/28)
• Freshman Angel Island trip on Sat. (9/29). Memory-making trip out into the middle of the big blue center of the San Francisco Bay. Sign up online, or if you want more info about Angel Island, or just want to be convinced about what a great time you'll have, talk to one of the seniors or staff.

That's the 411 on what's happening this week.

As for RSF night this past Friday, congratulations to the sophomores for being #1. And for the freshmen, 2nd and 3rd is more than respectable: it's almost unheard of for freshmen to place so high! Could it be the additions of the seniors, or were the freshmen themselves truly responsible for such a stunning RSF debut? We'll have to see.

Running for the hills

For freshman smallgroup we opted to take off from the urban campus setting of Berkeley and fled for the hills. It was freezing, but the ice cold wind made us feel generally pretty masculine and tough, reminding us that we had lives other than the academic bookworming that seems to define reality: chem 1a, math 1a, etc. Between cold pizza, a courageous last stand on the whale until undermined by a cowardly Ken back-attack, some pictures, and calling Aaron "the man" for braving the arctic winds in shorts and a thin shirt, we had a chance to see the Bay Area in its panoramic splendor.

John shared about watching the webcam version of our view from late night CS programming, and we talked about the strange characters of Berkeley. All in all, no substantive content, but good times and laughter nonetheless. Just the sort of thing we all need sometimes.

411 on this week, 9/17

The funny thing is that the seniors (together with the freshmen) are taking Chem 1a. Their midterm's tonight, and I'm sure John and Steve are looking forward to it. Anyway, here's info on what's happening this week:

• freshman smallgroup's meeting on Wed., at 6 PM @ the Anna Head West parking lot, on Channing across the street from Crossroads. We'll eat dinner up in the Berkeley hills and be back to the dorms by 8. Kind of a longer smallgroup evening than usual, but figured it was a nice change of pace
• the sophomore smallgroups are meeting in different places on Wed. night. Kevan & Eddie's group is meeting at 8:30 in 204 Dwinelle. And Ben and Tim's group is meeting a little earlier at 8 in 125 Dwinelle.
• H.1 has setup this week for bible study (which is Friday, 7 PM @ Lipman room), and we'll probably start at 5. Kevin D. is the point man, so if you'd like to help, give him a ring.
• for the frosh, Angel Island trip is coming up. More info on that later, but if you'd like to go, it's Saturday, 9/29, and you can sign up online at our Koinonia site.

Totally unrelated, all you skaters, please be careful. There's been a bunch of falls in the past couple weeks: Justin, Howard, Brandon, Mike, Stephan, and last night Steve took a bad spill on Bancroft. He passed out from the fall and the police called the paramedics. Thankfully, he's okay (no doctor's note to get out of that chem midterm), but please be careful. Don't try to be cool and fast on busy streets. You can be safe and cool.

Jenny wanted to get you guys helmets and kneepads but I told her to just calm down.