Koinonia Christian Campus Fellowship – UC Berkeley Club

What is Thanksgiving Celebration, you may ask?  That is a good question!  Thanksgiving Celebration is a joyous occasion when the whole church gathers together to celebrate the Thanksgiving season by reflecting over and sharing about all that we have experienced this past year – through the festive medium of song and dance! Different ministry groups prepare short performances to share with the rest of the church.

Check out the exciting trailer:

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Today we held the first-ever Koinonia 10K Run for Hunger! All our registration fees went towards supporting World Vision’s 30-Hour Famine, a program to raise awareness and money to fight world hunger.

Waking up bright and early, two groups started at 6:20am and 7am to run along Alameda’s beautiful beach. Everyone ran their hearts out! It was a wonderful time of fellowshipping through small physical suffering for a good cause. Hopefully the 10K will encourage all of us to pursue greater physical and spiritual discipline!

Here are some great pics and videos documenting the pre- and post-race scene! Wow, it was such an EPIC race! See you at next year’s Run for Hunger!

Koinonia will be sponsoring our very own 10K – Run For Hunger to raise funds for the 30 Hr Famine!

Here's a shot from a 10K from 2009

**SIGN UP HERE! **

Some info about the race:

• You can choose between a 10K run, a 5K run or a 5K walk!
• All the staff will be running or walking, including our very own directors, Steve and Suzanne!
• The sign-up donation will be $15 (pay your small group leader by day of Famine, June 26)
• All proceeds will go to WORLD VISION: 30 Hour Famine
• You can use “Run for Hunger” to raise funds for 30 Hour Famine (you can ask for donation upfront even though the 10k is August 5)

Why 30 Hour Famine?

• Each day, over 25,000 children under the age of 5 die from preventable diseases. Malnutrition is associated with most of those diseases.
• More than 1 billion people in the world don’t get enough to eat.  That’s one of every seven people on the planet.
• Of the 6.6 billion people in today’s world, 2.1 billion live on less than $2 per day.

So what are you waiting for? **SIGN UP HERE! **

Race Day Info:

• Date: Thursday, August 5, 2010
• Registration: 6:15 am (this is required; BE ON TIME!)
• Time: 7 am race starts
• Start Location: Crown Beach Park in Alameda
• Cost: $15 Donation  (pay your small group leader by day of the Famine, Saturday, June 26, 2010)
• Map of route: Click here

Wow, April’s been a busy month! Seems like we had something special going on every weekend! Let’s remember all that’s happened…

After our Easter service, we visited a Convalescent Home in Alameda. We brought them flowers, sang songs, and Jane gave a short message. We had a wonderful time of fellowship with some of the residents. Here’s some pictures:

This past Friday we visited Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. We all went for the Earthquake challenge!

After downing the ice cream, we went to Battery Park and enjoyed a perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Very nice!

This past weekend, we attended the Christian Worldview Conference put on by Chuck Colson’s Centurion Program. We had the opportunity to hear many of our favorite speakers, including Father Sirico and Del Tackett!

Del Tackett also gave us a powerful message on Sunday at our Baptism service.

We’ll post pictures soon, but congratulations to Daniel and Becky who were baptized this past Sunday! Hopefully we’ll get to hear your testimonies soon!

Don’t forget about our very last Koinonia Bible Study this Friday at 7 at VLSB. And afterwards we’ll have our very last Maxwell Field Night of the year, featuring some good ol’ class competition! See you there!

What an amazing weekend! You know now why Good Friday/Easter weekend is one of the highlights of the year for Gracepoint and Christians around the world.If you missed out, here’s a recap:

On Friday, we hopped in cars and drove over to Alameda’s Koffman Auditorium. This Good Friday’s theme was giving our burdens to Jesus. This was visually displayed by the mound of luggage that was piled on the stage leading up to the foot of the cross.

We were able to reflect on the burdens in our life that are piling up on us. The key verse for Good Friday was Matthew 11:28 when Jesus says:  “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” What wonderful news! It was a powerful moment to see the luggage full of our burdens, guilt and sins set at the foot of the cross.

Our Easter Sunday service was filled with a stage full of flowers which painted a picture of the joy of Jesus’ resurrection. After a moving skit and message by Pastor Ed, we were able to reflect on the names we call ourselves, and then the name that Jesus calls us. I felt overwhelmed with gratitude that God no longer sees me as the sinner I am, but instead as His child. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We ended the service with a mega performance of the song “Hallelujah Chorus” performed by our very own (almost professional) orchestra and choir. Even if you have zero musical background (like myself) you could not help but have chills throughout the entire performance. I know everyone was thrilled when Pastor Ed said “That was just too good to only do once” and we were able to hear it again!

After the Easter service we celebrated by eating lunch together at the Central apartments where we feasted on yummy Vietnamese sandwiches. After lunch,  a group of us headed over to the Oakridge Care Center to visit the residents from our Valentine’s Day of Compassion.  They were so happy to see young smiling faces again. You could see that we had made their day just being there. Although we didn’t plan a program, we were able to sing a few songs with them: “The Milk Song”, and our all-time favorite “Your Love is Deep”. There is a line in this song that goes:

“Who can separate us? Who can separate us from your love? Nothing can separate us. Nothing can separate us from your love.”

Even though we’ve sung these words a million times, with the fresh perspective of the cross and Easter, I was amazed at the truth of these words. Nothing can separate me or the elderly residents from the love of God. The cross truly is an open invitation for everyone, no matter where you are in your  journey of life.

So the last few posts haven’t had that many pictures in it.  Sorry about that.  You really just can’t get a complete picture of the fun and fellowship we have without pictures.  So here they are!

Do you remember the crazy relay we had?

Leading by example

mmmmm chocolate

Hmmmmmm.. interesting.. right? Wait! There’s more!

Our Valentine’s Day of Compassion!

And last week’s Myers Briggs! Can you guess which Myers Briggs group these pictures represent?

Ok and finally our Guess who game! Last week, it seems like everyone almost got it! Great! Let’s see if all of you can get this one too.

I admit I was a little chubby as baby. My parents were constantly worried about me because I would put everything in sight in my mouth. Ex: when I was 2 I had to go to the hospital to get my stomach pumped because I drank furniture polish.