News in the New Year!

happy new year! tomorrow (Friday, 1/2/2009), we're not having our regular bible study. instead, all of koinonia (those who are around) are getting together at Emily's house in Alameda, and we'll have dinner all together. after dinner, we'll talk about and share based on this past week's DT in Revelations 22. and then we'll play!

we'll start dinner at 6:30pm. if you need a ride, let your smallgroup leaders know (or me).

and for the rest of you still at home, hope your new year's was very safe, happy, and fun. those of us in town all got together and made dumplings, and then cooked them every which way that we could: frying, deep frying, boiling, steaming, you name it, we did it. and then when we were all dumpling'ed out, we played a traditional Korean game (yoot-nori), which involved a lot of stick throwing and yelling until we got hoarse.

in other news, the Cambodia Winter Mission Team is leaving in just a couple days, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers: Kevin D, Michael K, Hannah P, Irene K, and Tabitha A. we can't wait to hear their stories and testimonies upon their return!

Bible Study tonight & Prayer Requests

All college bible study @ NorthLoop tonight, 7 pm. If you get to NorthLoop by 6, Koinonia 1 guys and girls will be eating dinner together. Let me know if you need a ride and can't find one on your own. Afterwards, we'll do something fun.

Here's a couple prayer requests to keep in mind:

• Daniel S. and Will Wu (a2f) are in China with the PESI program. Pray for their safety, and that they'll reach out to the Chinese students they meet.
• upcoming exams: Stephan's DET and Justin T.'s MCAT.
• Taiwan Team: Kevin, Kevin, and Brian are on the 2-week trip, going to different universities. They'll be heading down to Tainan for a week and putting on a Gospelfest presentation. New grad Steve C. is also there (for the whole summer!) and going to take a Chinese class.

Things to sign up for if you haven't already:

• Summer Evangelism Training happening every Tues. night for 8 weeks. Brilliant book by Tim Keller, Reason for God, and one way to equip ourselves in a culture and society where talking about God credibly is denigrated and intimidating. Sign up for SET online.
• 30-Hour Famine is something our church is participating to raise money for the recent world food shortage. Sign up for 30-hour famine online.
• Interested in multiplying your talents and getting Photoshop, Audio, Video trained? There's more, of course, but take a look at the descriptions and sign up if you're interested.
  

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.

Back from Taiwan

Hi, this Ben here. Thanks to all those who prayed for our Taiwan mission trip! Man, where do I start? (Frankly, I hate to write, much less blog, but here goes!) Well, our 10 Taiwan missionaries there (hereafter called "the Taiwan team"), including our very own Allen Chen, were really really glad to see us. They're doing alright there, but imagine going from having hundreds of people in your church to having just ten, it's just, well, different. Like Kevan wrote about, we spent a lot of time trying to meet students: in the DCs there (some of them have really good meals for $1.75, to boot!), at English Clubs, playing sports... A quick note about the sports culture there: each department has a team for each sport--basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, etc--and they have interdepartmental competitions. (I think it's worth noting that the CS dept puts out the best basketball team on campus... find that ironic? ha.) And it seems that everyone is out at night playing till the lights go off at 11pm. It's at one of these sports times that Justin and I met the Physics tennis team and a senior named Lenny, the subject of Justin's Life at Gracepoint entry...

Christmas Celebration (our mini-GLive) was awesome--I'll post the pictures once I get them--it's a good thing we brought over the 100 extra chairs, because each of them was filled with Taiwanese students for whom this was the first time they got full explanations of Christianity and the true origins of Christmas. Almost all of us had some kind of "really good" conversation with the students, and overall they expressed such openness to relationship and surprising amount of spiritual hunger.

The most meaningful part of this trip for me, however, was when we were back at our living quarters spending time with the Taiwan team there. We ate fresh yo-tyao with warm soy milk together, we shared stories about how Dan Hoang almost ate two whole banana splits at Fenton's, they told stories about how they get penalized if they use Gracepoint-specific lingo ("hurting," "devastating," "butter," "solid"), we played king-kong shower w/ street fighter moves, we had devotion sharing times with them, and finally, we had extended times of prayer for them. I came away with such a burden to pray for our team, given the spiritually hungry climate on the Taiwanese campuses, and the kind of impact that they will make in that country if they are truly "the church" displaying God's love. It's tough for them out there but w/ a clear sense of mission and our prayers they can be really effective in reaching the emerging leaders of that country...

Taiwan Mission Team is Gone!

Today, we sent off the last of the Taiwan mission team members. Our team is comprised of some 70 people, led by Pastor Ed & Kelly Kang (Gracepoint Berkeley), William and Esther (directors of acts2fellowship), our own Manny & Sunny, and a whole host of other people, including Kairos folks, Praxis, and our very own Ben, Helen, Jenny (not my wife), Cece, and Justin T. (who's only 1 of 2 college students on the team).

While there, our team will reach out to Taiwanese college students by playing basketball and various other sports, eating at the dining commons, and going to club activities (e.g. English Corner and English Clubs). They'll be inviting the people they meet to the weekly Friday Night Plus! (think: weekly Koinonia Bible Study), and also to the Christmas Celebration, which is a performance (like a mini-GLive) our team is putting on to present the true meaning of Christmas. Over in Taiwan, Christmas is simply a western commercial holiday and there's no sense of the Christmas story, baby Jesus, or the Nativity.

Also, they'll celebrate this Sunday the Taiwan Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Hsinchu inaugural! That's going to be so exciting! In between, you can rest assured there'll be plenty of eating, hanging out, boba drinks, night markets, and learning the heart of God for that nation.

Please pray for our team:

• Inaugural Service and the Christmas Celebration
• that our Taiwan church plant team will be greatly encouraged and strengthened by the presence of so many from Gracepoint Berkeley, San Francisco, Waypoint Davis, and Bridgeway San Jose brothers and sisters.
• for many Taiwanese college students to come and experience our community, and learn about the true meaning of Christmas.

'Tais' to Taiwan

It's only been about a month since we sent off our Taiwan church planting team, but there are a lot of things going on over there! Especially for those who know Allen Chen and Jon Chou, you may be interested in keeping up with news from Hsinchu, Taiwan... newsletters and links to their website can be found on the gracepoint missions page. Let's be faithful in praying for these guys, many of whom gave up a job or school so they could bring the gospel to college students in Taiwan...