This seemed like a long time ago, but remember this? Kevin D. in the front row!!
Hey folks, here's the news:
hi - as announced last week, we are making dt journals (with and without lines for writing) for August/September as well. We will only order for those who sign up and prepay.
The deadline is Wednesday. You can sign up online!
It's finally been posted: Ken's wonderful stint as a horse at Joyland. I'm so happy it's there. You can watch the "horse" video online, or you can go to our official Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Berkeley, Joyland website and cruise around.
I can't tell you the joy this brings me. I can't wait until Hugo, Simon, or John is put up there on stage. What animals do you think they can be? Tiger? Giraffe? Squirrel? Jumping fish?
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.
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:
Oh my gosh, so I was looking through our Gracepoint Berkeley website and stumbled across the Joyland site. I had forgotten that a couple weeks ago, Jenny had given the big group message to the Joyland kids on "Peer Pressure."
As part of her talk, Jenny got some of the juniors (ahem, Justin, Mike, and Brandon) to dress up like poser Gangsters. It was pretty funny. If these pictures aren't enough and you want to see the actual video, you can watch the video online.
There's always chances to plug in at Gracepoint, whether you want to help out with the video or web teams, or act in skits (think Gracepoint Live, coming in 2009), and I know a bunch of people are helping out with Impact and Joyland. Kind of cool to see our homegroup stretching out into different parts of our world, Koinonia group, and church to serve others.
Caroline, as you know, is in Taiwan w/ our Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Hsinchu, until the end of July. She took some pictures and I just wanted to share them with you guys, and also a note that she sent:
June photos are finally up! It was one PACKED month. At the beginning of the month, we were still with the Gracepoint Berkeley Taiwan team and going to Tainan with them. The rest of the month I was saying farewell to my NCTU Chinese classmates, taking my Chinese finals and proficiency test, and cheering on the NTHU/NCTU students with care packages for their finals! June was also the month where we witnessed our first Taiwanese friend become Christian!! It was almost unbelievable that this was happening so soon, but PTL! I am sure many of your prayers had to do with her decision to accept Christ... We also experienced our first NCTU and NTHU graduations. The graduations here are so different from the ones in America. Definitely more quiet and solemn. Not so hyped up. Actually, we had many students whose parents didn't come to see their graduation. Those students were very happy that we were there to cheer them on and act as their "family". One more thing we did for the first time was going to the theaters! We finally got the chance to go watch Prince Caspian together after FNP. Everyone loved it, but I must say - the book is MUCH better. By the end of the month, our Taiwan team exploded to 19 people as we welcome our new team members + Joy from Davis. God is good!!
thank you once again for your continual prayers!! I have less than one month left (*sighs*)...I plan to use this time to "go all out" with my Chinese and with God's Kingdom work!! I will see you SOON!
Let's keep praying for Caroline and the whole team plus their friends in Taiwan!We have a whole bunch of folks away from Berkeley this summer... some people even across international waters! Some of them have blogs where you can read their stunning (mostly about food) adventures. Please pray for our brothers who are away... and give them a holler over Skype if you have a chance. Jenny and I (and Abigail) had a chance to talk w/ John C. a couple days ago. It was really wonderful seeing both him and Jasper as they sat in an internet cafe over in Shanghai.
Our homegroup raised $1787! That's really great! On Saturday, we got together in the morning to make activity bags for bed-bound children at Oakland Children's Hospital. Afterwards, we did our DT, hung out, went for a walk to the beach where we had a standing long jump contest. Irene and Mike Ho won... and then we went to the WorldVision Experience exhibit, where we walked in the shoes of an African child dealing with the consequences of AIDS and hunger.
Sunday morning, we got up early in the morning and had a bowl of UNICEF-recipe corn meal, which is served to children around the world. Then we had breakfast burritos, and the look of joy on some people's face (ahem, John K.), looked like they were going to pass out from the tingling sensations on their tongue and in their stomachs. As a church, Gracepoint Berkeley raised $72,063.65!
We're so thankful for the opportunity to participte in 30-hour famine. We got to experience just a little bit of the hunger which is so prevalent throughout our world, help raise money for a worthy cause, expand our own sense of vision, and be a little more grateful for the abundant blessings we have.
Sadly, it's been surprisingly easy to locate stories of starvation and malnutrition around the world. The suffering is overwhelming, but in Jesus there is hope. Verse 1 of Psalm 32 reads: "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven." Around the world, groups like World Vision and Compassion International are not only providing food, but they are also providing the gospel. That is true blessing.
Malnutrition getting worse in India
By Damian Grammaticas
BBC News, June 10, 2008
Madhya Pradesh - Lying on a bed is a tiny malnourished child. Her limbs wasted, her stomach bloated, her hair thinning and falling out. Her name is Roshni. She stares, wide-eyed, blankly at the ceiling. Roshni is six months old. She should weigh 4.5kg. But when she is placed on a set of scales they settle at just 2.9kg. Roshni is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, defined by the World Health Organisation as weighing less than 60% of the ideal median weight for her height. There are 40 beds in this centre. On every one is a similar child. All are acutely malnourished. Wailing, painful, plaintive cries fill the air. This is the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in the town of Shivpuri. You might think we are somewhere in Africa. But this is the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh - modern India, a land of booming growth. "The situation in our village is very bad," says Roshni's mother, Kapuri. "Sometimes we get work, sometimes we don't. Together with our children we are dying from hunger. What can we poor people do? Nothing." There are around 10 million children in the state. A decade ago 55% were malnourished. Two years ago the government's own National Family Health Survey put the figure for Madhya Pradesh at around 60%. So why is it going up? "It's basically inadequate access to food, poor feeding practices, poor childcare practices," says Dr Agarwal. In Madhya Pradesh the situation is compounded by two significant factors. For four years in a row the rains have failed, so food crops have failed too. And now global food prices have risen, stretching many families beyond breaking point.
It is shocking to find that in a country of about 13.9 million people, 4.6 million live under $1 a day. Because of this, many children in Cambodia will be trafficked or used for forced labor. 15-year-old student Roeun Ra, said his parents used to make him work by scavenging through garbage: "Many of my friends cannot go to school because their parents ask them to work for money," the boy said. Cambodian Children March Against Child Labour, ABC News, June 12, 2008.
Food inflation hits Cambodia's poor, threatens hunger, Feb 25, 2008
CHRANG CHAMRES, Cambodia (AFP) — On the long, gently sloping bank of Cambodia's Tonle river, Doem Lao chops half a dozen large fish heads in the early morning for the one meal that her family will eat that day. It is the 45-year-old farmer's fourth unseasonably cold dawn in this quiet neighbourhood on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, where her extended family has set up camp with others from their village in the southern province of Takeo. Like tens of thousands of rural Cambodians, they have joined the annual migration to the river to buy enough fish to make a year's worth of prahoc, a pungent fermented paste that is the only source of protein for many in the country's impoverished rural regions. But the rice they brought from home has nearly run out and the fish have yet to appear in the large nets strung across the river in front of their camp. The crude bamboo and metal mesh processing stalls on the riverbank are silent -- and February is the last month of the fishing season. A sudden drop-off in the numbers of prahoc fish has seen their price more than triple this year, up to as high as 50 US cents a kilogramme from around 12 cents, putting this most basic of Cambodian commodities out of reach for many.
For poor Cambodians, this means that in addition to losing their traditional staples like prahoc, they are not able to supplement their already meagre diets with other foods, particularly meat. "Everything now is so expensive," said a village woman, Bhum Sap, rattling off the current prices of chicken, pork and beef, which can cost as much as five dollars a kilogramme, a fortune for Cambodia's estimated 4.6 million people struggling to live on less than one dollar a day. For as many as 2.6 million people living in extreme poverty, the situation has been worsening over the last several years, which have been marked by poor harvests brought on by natural disasters such as flood or drought. "Too many Cambodians still suffer from hunger and malnutrition for some or most of the time," the World Food Programme (WFP) said on its website.
In light of 30-Hour Famine this week, I wanted to post a series of articles that capture the global food crisis. Over 100 million are being driven deeper into poverty by the "silent tsunami" of rising food prices. Haiti is one country experiencing such tragedy. As heart-wrenching as the story is, I am reminded that just a little bit of money can go a long way. Remember to keep seeking pledges!
“Haiti’s poorest reduced to eating dirt,” News.com.au, January 29, 2008.
Extreme poverty is forcing
A summer Welcome Back dinner for everyone in the homegroup this Wednesday, 6/25. How exciting! We get to see our whole coed homegroup together...! Let me know if you're coming so we can prep food and arrange rides.
Our first activity as a homegroup will be to join the rest of our church in the fight against world hunger. to observe the world food shortage, and the hunger crisis in so many countries, we're going to participate in World Vision's 30-Hour Famine. We fast for 30 hours, beginning Friday midnight to Sunday morning... and to raise money, we ask friends and coworkers to pledge money and donate to our cause. It's a great way to reach out to friends and coworkers, get them involved in some small way, or connect w/ them at a different level than we're used to.
And then on Saturday--the day we're actually fasting from food--we'll spend part of the day together in meaningful service to our community. We're going to be assembling activity bags for some of the bed-bound kids of Oakland Children's Hospital. We'll be doing this together w/ one of the Praxis groups, so it'll be a nice time not only hanging out w/ our own (new) group, but also w/ some of the Praxis peoples. Afterwards, we thought an educational component a/b our world situation would be a powerful experience, so we're going to WorldVision Experience: AIDS in Africa down in Fremont.
Even if you're away for the summer, you can participate with us!
Some of you might be thinking:
Worldview Camp 2008 is happening right now, and Dr. John Bloom is speaking to the attendees even as I write this. I'm heading down to Monterey this afternoon, and will be giving my talk tomorrow. Please pray for me! I'll be gone until Saturday, and will return w/ the rest of the Worldview folks.
As for this Friday, dinner will be served at NorthLoop at 6:30 pm, and then all college department bible study will happen after that.
John C. left for China this past week. Daniel S. finished his PESI program at Tsinghua, and is in Tianjin now, serving an orphanage w/ some of the other PESI program students. The Rowland Heights juniors finished their Taiwan trip, and I think people are starting to trickle back in time for Session C.
I went to Sierra Lodge last week for SLT (Servant Leadership Training) retreat w/ Pastor Ed and Kelly. It was a really special time, and I'll post some pictures in a little bit. We had Sunday Service together, and then went to the Truckee River on the last day, where we got on rafts and boats and had a water brawl.
All these acronyms! SET [Summer Evangelism Training] starts tonight. Here's an email from Jeannie:
I hope you’re excited about our Summer Evangelism Training, to start tonight!Additionally, if you want to sign up for GTS [Gracepoint Training School] summer classes, sign up online. I'd encourage you to take Survival Kit 1 or Church 101.
Just a heads up on the schedule and a reminder that you need to have read the first chapter of Keller’s book “The Reason for God”
· 6:30-6:55pm: Snacks (for NL only)
· 7-7:05pm: Welcome and orientation (for tonight only) – please pick up a syllabus as you enter
· 7:05-7:40pm: Drill groups (this is the “head” portion, to go over keller’s reasoning to make sure that we understand and can articulate his arguments)
· 7:40-8:20pm: Message portion (this is the “heart” portion of the night)
· 8:20-8:40pm: During the “hands” portion, we will be meeting by ministry groups to share and pray together
· 8:40pm: Prayer Meeting
College will be meeting at St. Augustine’s for this week only and thereafter at 1st Pres.
And post-College will be meeting at North Loop.
Please also be sure to bring the $10 registration fee and give it to your drill group leader. This fee goes towards facility rentals and snacks.
Summer and the changing of seasons sometimes brings w/ it other changes.
I sent a long email already, but did want to officially welcome Jenny, Caroline O., Mike Ho, and John Cai (who's no stranger) to our H.1 staff! Jenny's junior girls will be joining our homegroup too! How exciting!
BUT... we have to say goodbye to Ben who will join Helen to lead H.3. Some of the junior guys will go with him. And Wenjie and Steve Choi will join Daniel and Hannah's group, H.4. And the other new grads will join Praxis.
Don't be sad! Be glad!
Gracepoint Summer Institute w/ Dr. Jon Choi starts at 7 pm tonight, First Pres. in Berkeley. Tomorrow's session begins at 9:30 am at NorthLoop, and lunch is provided.
Take your brains off the summer shelf and brush off the dust and bring them tonight. See you guys soon!
Hey summer peoples, more administrative stuff for you:
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.
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.All-college bible study this Friday @ First Pres., 8 pm. Afterwards, we're going to watch Prince Caspian in the theaters for those who aren't too stressed and just want to decompress from all the finals studying.
Freshmen: one last dinner of the semester, if you're free, at my place. Jenny wanted to invite you guys over. More details coming.
Please keep the relief efforts in Myanmar and China in your prayers. As the suffering is great, and much relief and help are needed, please keep all the victims, the bereaved families and children, the effort of the relief workers, and the governments in your prayers.
If you'd like more information on the Myanmar cyclone or the Szechuan earthquake in China, CNN and other news agencies have plenty of information.
Please specifically pray that the Myanmar military junta government would open its country's doors to external relief agencies and nations who are waiting to get into the country and help at the ground level. The Myanmar military junta has been resistant to foreign aid.
As part of our last Koinonia 1 gathering of the semester, we played the "Guess Who?" game. Try to figure out which of the staff or seniors the following babies are. Just wanted to post... and I'll put up pictures and stuff a little later.
| View |From Suzanne--Do you want a part time summer job at $20/hr? Do you want some actual classroom teaching experience to see if you like it? Do you want Fridays off?
Berkeley Academics will be having our annual summer camp in Alameda and we are hiring teachers/tutors!
Qualifications:
2005 Central Ave., J. All that stuff you see in the truck is hidden away, so don't worry.
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..."
Looking for that crazy video! It's on my webpage:
http://www.eddiesaysaprilfoolstoyou.gotchaa.com/
wow, joke's on me. I thought I was so clever in setting this whole little prank up and I realized that today's May after i posted this. Ouch!
Hello homegroupers, here's what's going on for tomorrow (Friday 4/2):
A few of us left for Sierra Lodge on Friday night and came back Saturday night. I can not say much about the drive over there because I knocked out the first minute we drove off. After settling in, unpacking and introducing everyone, we saw some hilarious Manny videos. Some of these videos are better left unseen (football Korean drama one)! Afterwards, we played games with a bunch of snacks (kimchi chigae, chips, chili) starting with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. We split into teams of six and sad to say, my team was eliminated after getting the very first four questions wrong. We thought that a Blondie’s pizza slice was cheaper than a small
We then went on a short, leisurely hike in the nice sunny weather. Before we went on the hike, however, some of the freshman (Isaac and Nick) gave Manny a t-shirt that said “2 Young 2 Care.” Manny obviously was flattered by this gift because he ended up wearing it for the whole hike. We then went on the hike enjoying all the nature around us.
After talking trash about staying in the water the longest barefooted (like at
We then all spent some time together in the outdoors playing volleyball and throwing a frisbee and football. At this point, you would think that Manny took on enough embarrassment for one day. But, NO, he asks for more by challenging us to a football game. With Wenjie, Aaron, FX (new sophomore we met) and Roy on his team, Manny took on the position of quarterback which resulted in multiple interceptions. Our team consisting of John, Howard, Ben, Henry and Mike had no problem taking it down field with a no huddle and quick plays. Our team eventually won 21-7 and Manny again, was left speechless and in shame.
We went back to the house, cleaned up and headed back home. Before we got back to
Here's what's happening this week:
On Tuesday night, I found out a critical piece of information about our friend Kevin Ding: when you ask him a question, he'll often repeat it before answering. For instance,
Me: Hi Kevin, how was your day today?
Kevin: How was my day? Oh, it was good.
Aside from this being a bit quirky, it's quite normal and you won't notice this in normal conversation. Unless, of course, you actually don't want him to repeat what you asked. This past week we planned a quick celebration for Kevin Huang's birthday which involved Brian and myself buying a cake from Safeway, barging into the apartment with cake in hand, candles lit. Question was, were there candles and matches already there at the apartment? The phone conversation went a little something like this (bolstered with a few extra words for context and comic effect):
(ring ring)
Kevin: Hello, Brian?
Brian: Hi Kevin. Hey, do you know if we have candles and matches at home?
Kevin: Oh, do we have candles and matches at home? [pause] Oops.
Brian: Uh-Did you just say that with Kevin Huang standing next to you?
Kevin: Kevin Huang? Yeah. He's right here next to me. [pause] Anyway, yes, we do have them.
Brian: Ok, could you just put them out into the hallway?
Kevin: Put them in the hallway for you? Yeah, sure.
Haha, yes, this is just a bit exaggerated. But needless to say, Kevin Huang knew exactly what was going on outside in the hallway when he chose to open the door on us, and pretend not to see us scrambling to hide behind the hallway trash can. Happy Birthday, Kevin. :)
So do we still ask Kevin Ding questions? Of course! But if you don't want him to give it away, be sure to warn him before you begin.
There are days when I look at my computer in the movies folder and watch Pastor Manny dance on stage in his pink han-bok, MC-hammering across the stage at the '07 Thanksgiving Celebration. I watch it, and then I entertain the idea of putting it on our blog. Then I quickly dismiss that, thinking, "That's too much. I would feel too awful. That would be a disgrace."
Now, I needn't feel too awful anymore: I can have my cake and eat it too. Daniel's posted the long-awaited Manny hammer-dance video online so we can all re-live the moment. His blog, in general, is a tribute to humor at Gracepoint Berkeley. The disclaimer is a worthy, very funny prologue:
Ever come to a Sunday service and wonder to yourself, "That song sounded real good. I wonder what the title is or who sings it..." But by the time that pastor guy finishes talking, you've been so addressed by biblical truths and your mind is aflutter with how God's Word is going to apply to your life that some ol' song is nothing more than a buzzing nuisance or faint recollection. You've forgotten you ever had that thought.
Well, no longer. The Gracepoint Berkeley Praise Band has an iMix:
Koinonia 1 Sierra Lodge trip this weekend, Friday to Saturday (4/25-26). Sign up online so we know who can make it and can plan for the most important part... food.
For those of you sticking around Berkeley, don't worry. You won't be forgotten. We'll do something too... but more info later.
So if you guys don’t know already, before the Friday Bible Study on April 18th,
Before Bible Study on April 18th, Brandon and I were deciding on our mode of transportation. Having not skateboarded in over a week, I passionately desired to ride my longboard down to First Pres. Brandon, however, preferred the alternative labor-inducing mode of walking and was firmly against us skateboarding. After much fervor debate, I came out victorious and convinced
When you don’t skateboard for over a month, I guess you get really anxious to do it again because without any hesitation,
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we saw an accumulation of cars lined up at the stop signs. Being as anxious and crazy as he was,
In the end, we were late for Bible Study and
Hey, no homegroup Friday today. We're combining for bible study w/ all the groups from Koinonia, acts2fellowship, and Kairos at 7 pm, First Pres.
Heard last night's cookie-fest at the YWCA was full of barbaric young men jostling and grabbing and pushing to get the fresh cookies, forgetting all rules of civility, much less love (1 Corinthians 13!)... but, pretty much, it was fun.
This week's devotion is from 1 Corinthians 13. Here's devotional sharing from Kelly Kang, pastor's wife at Gracepoint Fellowship in Berkeley, whom many of you know. Thought it'd really help us all.
How is God speaking to me today?
Saoji and Harry want to play basketball one of these days. Any takers?
Hey guys, i know many of you are studying for midterms or finishing midterms this week...so I thought maybe you'd appreciate this upcoming study break. Drop by for a few minutes or as long as you want for some constantly fresh baking cookies (i'm bringing some toaster ovens and slowly churning them out) and milk and of course to catch up with the rest of our homegroup. And as always, feel free to bring your buddies along.
When: Thursday, 9:30pm-10:30pm
Where: Chapel Room at YWCA at 2600 Bancroft Way (bancroft and bowditch....give me a call at 415-271-3800 when you get to the front door and I'll let you in).
What: I just told you!
How: however you want
Who: Your homegroup buddies
