Koinonia Christian Campus Fellowship – UC Berkeley Club

The Friday Night this week (Sep 24) is happening. Here’s the plan:

• Freshmen & Seniors:
  • 6:30 PM Lifegroup (starting with dinner!)
  • 7:30 PM The Friday Night at 2060 VLSB
  • Post-TFN Activity: Bowling!

• Sophomores & Juniors
  • 6:30 PM Somegroup (by which we mean your homegroup or lifegroup or cluster!) is getting dinner. Probably doing one (but not all) of these things: tennis, barbecue, football & pizza, pictures of my life, and more). Check with your Lifegroup lead.
  • 9:30 PM The Friday Night at Buffet Town, 2nd floor.

Trying some new things this week. Exciting stuff. See you there!

Can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving time! In addition to the Thanksgiving Retreat this Saturday (which is probably one of the most meaningful and uplifting times at Gracepoint Berkeley), the Thanksgiving Celebration will be Sunday, 11/22. This is always such a time of creative hilarity and jaw-dropping performances, all for the sake of having a great time of laughing, fellowshipping together, and recalling the different ways we experienced God during the past year. And of course, the fun acts are followed by a free all-out-Thanksgiving-Dinner-with-all-the-fixings!!

Hope none of you will miss the Thanksgiving Celebration!!

Gracepoint Berkeley Thanksgiving Celebration Trailer 2009 from Gracepoint Berkeley on Vimeo.

Update: Hey frosh, just in case those wonderful memories are fading, check out these clips from the recent Sierra Lodge trip!

Taking off Friday afternoon from Berkeley, Koinonia’s freshman class headed to Sierra Lodge, leaving behind their books, tests, midterms, and worries. More than 80+ freshmen piled into cars and made the 2 hour drive up to the beautiful Sierra Mountains. Here’s the recap on all that we did, together with photo accompaniment! And if I missed anything, please chime in!

We got to the house and made our way to the lit courts. There was 4-on-4 basketball on one side, and on the other was this ad-hoc “Ultimate Basketball” game: half-court 7-on-7, coed, using a volleyball, running around and trying to score. Thanks to Steve S. for pointers!

Once everyone had arrived, we went into the house, welcomed everyone, and then had the mother-of-all King Kong Shower tournaments. The freshmen beat the staff (gasp!), and when it came down to it, the guys beat the girls. The celebration that ensued was maniacal. The winners were: Strong Man, Watermelon, In-N-Out (guess whose move that was), and Oh My.

After that, we all bundled up, grabbed flashlights and went on a night hike through the property. We scaled the hill and did some stargazing, marveling at the number of stars we could actually see, yelling as falling stars made their way through the night sky, and even enjoying a moment of eerie, quiet silence as we pondered what it would be like being outside all alone in the darkness. Steve’s 2-minute lesson was: Life’s a journey, and whether we experience fear or comfort while moving around in the darkness has a lot to do with the people and friendships in our lives.

The philosophy lesson ended quickly, however, when we got back to the courts, played one big game of Ultimate Ninja, and laughed at weird people like the guys below.

Again, somehow the freshmen eliminated all the staff (the likes of John K. and David W.), and in the end it was Jeremiah vs. Ann. We walked over to the campfire, and 115 voices strong sang the Milk song, ate Shin ramen (with Evergood sausages), and laughed and sang late into the night. Some folks knew motions to the Milk song and shooby-doo-bopped away. Wish you could have seen that.

After hitting the sack, we woke up in the morning, had healthy, continental breakfast (to offset the unhealthy ramen from the evening before), and watched the Incom-Parable Jesus Koinonia Bible Study. Gracepoint Berkeley’s Pastor Ed Kang had given the bible study on Friday to the Koinonia upperclassmen, and some of the guys who drove up Saturday morning brought the video up for us. Technology is great!

We did a brief icebreaker after that, hanging out by birth order and found out these couple highlights from various people. You’ll have to ask the freshmen if you want the full sibling horror story:

• An eldest sibling tying up his younger brother with a Nintendo controller after watching a Trix bunny commercial.
• An eldest sibling roundhouse kicking his younger brother, and that same younger brother coming after him with a knife.
• The youngest son of 7 kids, singing, dressed up, videotaped by parents, and that same video tape played every subsequent family get together.

We piled into the cars, went off-roading, ate lunch on the shore, skipped rocks and threw rocks, hiked a short (but beautiful) trail, arrived at Island Lake, and took a million pictures together, enjoying the scenery, enjoying one another, breathing in the fresh, crisp air of the mountains. We yelled “Go Bears” and heard crashing echoes from across the lake (so we could remember and cheer on Cal in their victory over UCLA), and then had a moment of silence as we thought about and prayed our personal prayer request for the semester.

After getting back to the house, we ate dinner, did fast (but effective) cleaning so the next group could enjoy the Lodge and Barn, played 15 minutes of basketball and Ninja, and then got into the cars to head home. Barely 24 hours, but it was packed, and the coolest part: Now we know everyone’s names, and the “Koinonia” that’s our namesake is a bit more of a felt reality for each of us. Until next time… Go Freshmen!!

There’s more pictures online.

Last Sunday, I, along with 38 other brothers and sisters at our church, were baptized altogether in a never-before-seen mega-baptism service at Willard. Behind the scenes, the baptism candidates watched staff members like Suzanne rally us together to instruct us how, not just how to properly get dunked in the water, but also the basics of learning how to count and read! Here’s what I mean:

While the baptism candidates were anxiously making sure that (1) our card was not upside-down (2) we were flipping at the right time (did you see Suzanne in the front, cueing us?) (3) we were looking happy (and not grave) (4) our card read the right word at the right time… and so much more! I only found out later how impacting and moving the entire performance was… Fortunately, while on stage, I was able to be touched and blessed to see some audience members (like Pastor Ed) wiping away tears. Looking now at the pictures, and seeing how Christ transformed the hearts of so many brothers and sisters in such specific ways, brings me so much JOY.

After the testimonies and skit, we had to prepare to get ourselves wet. Really really wet.

The experience was a blur — one second we’re praying, and the next I’m being pulled out of the water: free from the chains of sin and alive in Christ. What a thrill! Although I was nervous of messing up (like saying my name wrong — I mean, there were three Elaines: we can totally confuse ourselves too!), God was faithful and all of 39 us were baptized!

Looking back now, God is definitely so faithful and abundantly loving. Although many of the candidates, myself especially, still struggle so much with indwelling sin in our lives, God blessed us by telling us He wanted us as His people, regardless of how tarnished we were in His sight. As all of us were met outside by a swarming mass of people eager to shower us with love, I was reminded again of how grateful I am to Jesus to redeem me in this way. If I were God, I would never forgive myself for being the way I am, but because I’m not and God is good, I am not only forgiven, I am restored with each new day.

Thanks everyone, who illustrated to me what God’s love is like. This baptism was definitely no celebration of anything I’ve accomplished, but only what God was able to do with a broken soul! PTL!

This past Saturday was InterHigh Fellowship’s kickoff event called RISE: Take a Stand for Jesus. For those of you who don’t know, InterHigh is a new ministry whose mission is to come alongside local Bay Area churches to help equip youth students defend and live out their faith in an increasingly hostile environment. InterHigh was born from the burden and vision of Pastor Ed Kang (who became Christian as a troubled youth) and Kelly Kang to help the Christian youth of our generation.

RISE was awesome: rocking jumping praise, Sean McDowell talking about truth to a rapt audience, hilarious skit about deficient forms of Christianity, energy and excitement all around from 370 new kids, parents, youth leaders, pastors who came, as well as from all our college student mentors. Isaiah from Koinonia wrote a recap of RISE so I’ll let him explain in detail. Here are some pictures from RISE as well.

What was the most memorable part of the event, for those of you who were there? Or, tell the youth who came your hopes for what they’ll get out of being part of InterHigh!