Koinonia Christian Campus Fellowship – UC Berkeley Club

My body is sore and exhausted. Why is such a youthful man like yourself in bodily discomfort, you ask? Well, let me tell you: it’s because this past weekend, the freshmen and juniors and staff drove over to our wonderful Sierra Lodge to enjoy good old-fashioned nature and de-stress from pulling off all-nighters for those devastating midterms. I think most people (maybe all) will agree that our short but sweet time at Sierra Lodge was a much needed break from the stresses of school! Look at our pictures and see for yourself! (Pun intended).

Steve, affectionately known as our “Pastor of Leisure and Recreation,” made sure that we had fun icebreakers!

Ah, the Human Knot! A deviously difficult game, but one that makes you bond with your fellow teammates like no other. The sisters ended up barely beating the brothers, but I usually like to say we lost because we’re being chivalrous. After playing some other rigorous team building activities, we decided to hit the sack early so that we could head to Lake Tahoe with full energy the next day!

I don’t know about you, but you don’t see pretty lakes like this in Berkeley. This beats People’s Park any day!

While we had a diverse range of sports to play, ranging from volleyball to ultimate frisbee to tackle football, the kayaks were definitely one of the most popular events at the lake!

Real men aren’t afraid to wear life vests!

Sisters giving their thumb of approval of how fun the trip is!

Enjoying the amazing pulled pork sandwiches that our sisters prepared!

And of course, how could we leave beautiful and pristine Lake Tahoe without playing some vicious, physical British Bulldog? By far, the most satisfying tackle game for both genders because you have the liberty of picking out your target and tackling them ruthlessly in the sand!

Sometimes, the best games are the most chaotic ones!

Of course, we also had to take a group picture in front of the vividly colored foliage! For SURE you don’t see trees like that in Berkeley!

Though we were tired from playing so well at Lake Tahoe, that didn’t deter us from playing more fun sports back at the Sierra Lodge grounds!

The power of youth knows no bounds!

Us? Tired? Get out of here!

One of the team building games we had at the end of the night involved linking arms and falling backwards. While the sisters seemed to have accomplished the task well, the brothers had a particularly hard time…some guys claimed that it was because our large muscles prevented us from properly supporting each other…

And of course, we had a rowdy time singing praise songs around a roaring fire. It was also a precious time when we reflected on how fast the semester was passing by, but how we already developed so many close relationships with one another.

Anyways, for those who weren’t able to join us this time around, fear not! We’ll probably have another trip to our Sierra Lodge during the winter, when the heavy snow gracefully drapes the grounds and makes Sierra Lodge look like a Winter Wonderland! Make sure to come to that trip, no matter the cost!!! Ok, not necessarily at all costs, but you get the idea. Looking forward to more memory-making moments in the future!

For those of you who joined us last Friday, you were able to experience the entertaining, somewhat wacky, and downright hilarious atmosphere of TFN gamenight. Whether it was speed-Scrabble among competing teams (who says we aren’t trendy, avid Words with Friends players?) or Richard T. drawing plenty of attention and some exasperation during the talent sharing by singing a medley of the names of all 200+ nations, laughter and joy prevailed throughout the night. Enough explanation, let the games begin!

The general assembly:

Now some of the games:

The epic put-Skittles-into-a-cup-with-a-straw game!

Group speed Scrabble:

Sharing unique experiences:

Lastly, happy birthday to all of you celebrating in the month of October!
Join us next time!

Last Friday we hosted our first large TFN, aka THE Friday Night! As if the evening couldn’t get any better, we had free boba and then headed over to Maxwell Field to engage in some slightly unorthodox, but very fun, sports. Some people might have mistakenly believed that the long and intense walk uphill all the way to Maxwell was the exercise itself, but boy oh boy, did we surprise everyone with the sports we played!

Two’s a crowd, three’s a mob, and 300 excited students pumped up to play handball, frisbee, and Braveheart gives you Koinonia!

Braveheart, an elegantly simple game where you try to throw a giant rubber ball at your opponent and get them out. Some say it is exactly like Dodgeball, except without any boundaries, making it that much better.

Our last event was a race of the fastest people of each class. Chariots of Fire, anyone?

Just the sophomore class. Hope this gives you an idea of how many people came out to Maxwell Field!

I hope everyone had fun de-stressing by playing the innovative and extremely entertaining sports at our Maxwell Field Night. For those who just couldn’t get enough, we have yet another Maxwell Field Night after our TFN 2 this coming Friday! Hope to see you there!

As we ended the first full week of school, we were all looking forward to two exciting events – Koinonia Welcome Night on Thursday and Game Night on Friday!

On Thursday, we gathered outside of 2050 VLSB on the lawn to eat a scrumptious dinner and broke up into smaller groups to get to know each other.

Afterward, we went inside and got to hear from Jenny, Lloyd, and Suzanne as they shared their different journeys with God.

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Believe it or not, Welcome Week events have already passed by in a dizzying blur, and we are about to start our first full week of fall semester 2011! Whether it was our daily and rowdy game times during Koinonia Kream, delicious pizza and adrenaline-pumping ultimate frisbee on VLSB lawn, or the massively awesome showings of NSWN, everyone experienced the joy of forming relationships with new people. Here’s a brief recap of some of our events!

One of our most popular events hosted during Welcome Week was the Ultimate Frisbee and Pizza, where about 60 or so students gathered on the VLSB lawn to play ultimate frisbee, then satisfy their tiredness and hunger by feasting on delicious BBQ chicken pizza provided by Pepe’s Pizza.

Don’t be fooled, most of the time, the frisbees are flying ABOVE the ground! But even if they are rolling chaotically on the ground, it makes the game that much more exciting!
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Starting this week, we’re beginning our series, introducing each group of the KoinOps Team.

KoinOps is a group of student volunteers within Koinonia that manages many behind-the-scenes tasks that make our fellowships possible.

First, we are featuring the Games/Announcements Team!

Here, King Justin sits on the throne (aka Bryan) while his royal subjects (Amanda, Becky, Josh, Victoria) praise his stern image.

The Games/Announcement Team meets together every Friday and brainstorm for Icebreaker games. They bounce ideas off each other, and what ideas they agree on, they store in an archive to use in the future.

Using that archive, they plan out what Icebreaker game to play before TFN and after TFN, and also decide what questions to use.

One example of an Icebreaker question was “If you live on a desert island…”  This was one of the questions used at the Spring Welcome Night earlier this year.  Other than a bible, notebook, and a means of sustenance, what three items would you bring? Some thought of practical things such as GPS and a boat. Others thought of fun activities such as a volleyball net, a volleyball, and a court. One brother, who particularly loves food, mentioned bringing a taco truck.

The Games/Announcements Team also posts the announcements for the upcoming week and gives it to the ProPresenter Team.  This means that they have to be coordinated with the other teams and be up to date with upcoming events.

Come back next week to meet another KoinOps team!