Koinonia Christian Campus Fellowship – UC Berkeley Club

Last Saturday, while the junior class when to an awesome looking Pacifica Beach, the sophomore class hit the mountains at Sierra Lodge. And let me tell you, it was AWESOME! So if you missed out, I’m sorry to tell you that you probably missed the best Sierra Lodge trip yet and possibly…ever to come. So please, if you are unable to handle extreme fun don’t finish reading this post because you will be too jealous to look us in the eyes

So moving onto the good stuff! First thing after we got to SL, we went straight for the warmth and comfort of the gazebo. What better way to start the weekend than with toasted soft marshmallows, flamed evergoods, fun singing, and Eric & Martin’s LOTR reenactment.

Mmmmm Evergoods...

Look at those awed faces :O

For those of you who were expecting an Eric and Martin production, you won’t find it here. It’s actually highly confidential, but they are open for private showings. Please see manager Josh A for details.

After our fun time at the gazebo we went back to the lodge for even more food (aka. evergoods again <yay!> in ramen mmmmm…) and the name game.

Sorry but these aren't for sale.

Can you guess Alan's name while Jenny's face is like that? I don't think so!

After staying up late playing, we happily crashed with full tummys and smiley faces knowing what would come in just a few hours. Next morning, we started the day off with breakfast and even better food called DTs. After that came a glorious IRON CHEF competition between the bros and the sisters. Let me show you the food and you decide which one won.

Pan-fried noodles (missing is tofu stew and other goodness)

Yummy Appetizers with Two Different Dips

Compliment to the Appetizers, a Nice Side

Braised Pork, Chicken Delight, and Kick'n Asian Noodles

Did you pick your winner? If you guessed that last one, you were absolutely right! This wonderful and professional looking meal was prepared by yours truly, the BROTHERS team! And you thought we couldn’t cook. HAH! The sisters, took a glorious second, but if their cookies were in the race, they would’ve won for sure. Those cookies were better than Chips Ahoy, CREAM, and Mrs. Fields COMBINED!! Best cookies ever. yum.

Anyhow, this is a snow trip but where’s all the snow? Well it’s now the time you’ve all been waiting for…SNOW MADNESS!

Wanted: ultimate jacker who preys on the weak

These guys are the hounds we sent out to catch the criminal named Dan

Of course, we had to pile on the staff guys

The previous photo was a precursor to this bigger pile

Some people were eventually left for dead

Turns out the sisters were a bit too vicious and their photos could not be uploaded because it would no longer be rated G or even PG…maybe not even PG-13.

WEEEEE! See how much fun we had? For those of you who missed out, we really missed you guys so come next time okay?

Come next time...so we can cream you too!!

Last Thursday, Koinonia frosh and seniors gathered together at BT to have a Christmas gift exchange party. We first started off with some amazingly awesome food. Most of the frosh just came back from Winter fest but that didn’t matter. How can you say no to that?

Winter fest?? What winter fest??

Then we began the gift unwrapping ceremony. Needless to say some were very satisfied with their gifts and some were expected something a little different.

Anybody want this?

How about this?

There were some very nice gifts like a Jenga set, maglite set, a very soft pillow and throw set, etc. It’s amazing what you can get under $10. The gift exchanging was done by teams in which there was some very hilarious team duals that took place.

Challenge #1 Jenga: She's steadily pulling out the second block

Sad! He accidentally hit the table as he was so eager to remove a block

Challenge #2 TC dance: Can anybody (non Koinonia Fr/Sr) tell what dance it is they are doing?

Challenge #3 Line Charades: I saw the first pair act it out...and I still couldn't tell what they were doing

After all the massive exchanging, Steve ended the time with a very heart warming time of spurring on the students to remember the true meaning of Christmas. It’s so easy to get lost in all the lights, decorations or gifts of Christmas. But let’s make this Christmas a personal one, remembering that the greatest gift there is is the fact that God gave his one and only son Jesus to every one of us. Merry Christmas!

“Egg brain!” “Egg skull!” “Egg cranium!”…the word was actually “egghead.” As I fruitlessly tried to describe this word to the group around me during a hilarious game of Catchphrase, I couldn’t help but be thankful for being able to play this game with Berkeley students because only with Berkeley students could “egg cranium” come up and we could all laugh so hysterically. However, this was only one of a long list of things I was thankful for on Thanksgiving. During Thanksgiving break, most of us went home and a few of us stayed behind in Berkeley for various reasons. Despite not being at home with our families, we ended up having a great time!

Thanksgiving festivities spanned two days (sort of) that weekend. On Wednesday night, many of us went to Steve and Suzanne’s home to have a send-off/goodbye dinner for Isaiah and Will who were returning to Taiwan that night. After a delicious dinner of Korean rice cake soup, we prayed for Isaiah and Will that they may safely return to Taiwan and waste no time in getting back into the groove of things, revitalized and ready to continue their mission after their trip to Berkeley. Some of their peers went to send them off at the airport and the rest of us stayed to watch old G-Live videos, which is always a good way to end the night!

On Thanksgiving day, freshmen and seniors went to John and Ellen’s for lunch and sophomores and juniors went to Steve and Suzanne’s, where Jenny cooked Thai Curry for us! After that we all met up at a park to sweat off everything we ate and prepare ourselves for dinner by playing fun games of ultimate frisbee and soccer. Although I am not one particularly fond of sports, it’s a great way to get to know people you might not otherwise meet. Especially if the same tall person keeps grabbing the frisbee from over your head just as you are about to catch it. Those kinds of encounters are hard to forget.

After we were done playing and our stomachs were ready to eat Thanksgiving dinner, we all congregated at Steve and Suzanne’s. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and staff alike all pitched in to finish cooking dinner and right before we ate, we all wrote on a paper leaf something that we were thankful for and taped it onto our Thanksgiving tree that Summer made. It was really exciting to see the empty branches be filled by all the things that people were thankful for and see it become a full-blown, literal Thanksgiving tree! We then sat down together to feast on turkey, beef, cornbread, stuffing, etc.

Everything tasted so good that we all ate until we could eat no more. Literally. Really. It was a little hard to get people motivated to play games after that, but everybody soon got into the competitive spirit when Josh (from Element Youth!) and Kevan split us all up into teams in order to get to know each other and play ridiculous, made-up-on-the-spot games like paper airplane making contests. But it didn’t matter, because it was all too hilarious. After being demolished by Ellen in the semi-finals of arm-wrestling (reaffirming my belief that moms are ridiculously strong), I was exhausted and everyone else was, too, after such fun. So, of course we ended the night again by watching more G-Live videos!

Although we should always realize how blessed we are, it tends to be easier to realize our blessings on holidays like Thanksgiving. Being in a smaller group than normal, we all got to meet a lot of new people and got to know the ones that we already knew even more. Thanks be to God who brings us all into community so that we can share such great times together! I hope all of you who went home for Thanksgiving had a great time and felt God’s blessings. Those of us who stayed in Berkeley sure did!

This past weekend, the sophomores and juniors headed up to the Sierras for an awesome time of fun and fellowship at our very own Sierra Lodge! Check out the video recap! Awesome!

Friday night, we headed up to Sierra Lodge and had a great time of board games, basketball and King Kong Shower.

King Kong Shower Ridiculousness

But the highlight of the night was gathering at the gazebo to sing around the campfire! We roasted marshmallows, sang songs, and even had some people sing solos for the rest of us! Gathering around the campfire and singing songs just never gets old.

Gathering around the campfire

Saturday, we went on a quick hike to get out and see the beautiful nature around us.

The sophomores on the hike...

...and the juniors!

After hiking we went kayaking at Lake Spaulding! We rowed all the way across to the other side of the lake.

Well, most of us.

We told them not to take the rowboat...

...because we had to "rescue" them after!

The rest of us went over in our spiffy new pontoon boat.

It looks like a Disneyland ride!

We had lunch on the other side of the lake and climbed some cliffs to take this awesome picture.

A little bit too awesome..

Awesome picture!

After the tiring time of kayaking, there was no time for rest as we headed back to Sierra Lodge to play frisbee and basketball! We also had a rematch of the staff versus students basketball game from last time. Needless to say, the students won.

Frisbee

The Epic Staff vs. Students Game

After all of that physical activity, we dug in for dinner at the lodge. After dinner, it was time for everyone favorite game not named King Kong Shower….Ming Mang Mong! We had an epic final round of Ming Mang Mong, but when all was said and done, the sophomore guys prevailed! Good job!
(Sadly, everyone was too busy watching Ming Mang Mong to take any pictures. Use your imagination!)

The night wasn’t over yet. We broke up into groups afterwords to brainstorm ideas for Thanksgiving Celebration, and then we had to go up and present our ideas. Here were some of the better ones…

They want to see YOU at TC!

The level of shamelessness in the performances was inspiring. The sophomores and juniors will definitely be ready for TC when it comes around.

Join us next time!

Last Friday the Sophomores and Juniors went to enjoy some In-N-Out and Ghirardelli chocolate and ice cream! Here’s some pictures:

Trying to look tough:

Becky and John in awe of the size of the Earthquake:

Looks like fun! Make sure you come and catch all the action this Friday – we’ll be having the Ultimate Scavenger Hunt starting at 7:30 at Memorial Glade, followed by Bible Study on John 4 at Buffet Town (upstairs). Don’t miss out!