NSWN Prep

Being unemployed, I spend a good deal of time sitting around NorthLoop looking for a job and applying to medical schools. As NSWN time draws closer and closer though, NL is becoming more and more packed with people getting everything and anything ready for this coming week. What's normally a fairly calm and quiet building is transformed into a factory-like machine pumping out flyers, coupons, skits, and so much more. Some students stay here staring at their screen with Photoshop open for hours even though they just learned how to use it to create the little flyers we'll all be seeing and passing out. Others, with the help of the kids folded napkins with forks and knives for the barbeque (numbering in the thousands!). There's so much to be done, but I'm amazed at all the people mobilized to help making this happen from those with full-time jobs to students who've recently joined our church. It's pretty awesome how much work actually goes into NSWN. In the eyes of the world, it's a waste of precious resources, but for us, its a chance to give our best as a token of our gratitude to God.

Welcome Week Activities

Hey everyone - We have some really fun Welcome Week activities planned for the coming week. If you're bored, join us as we play Ultimate Frisbee, basketball, take an exciting tour of the Berkeley eateries, and even take a trip to the city for some yummy Ghirardelli ice cream!

It's Almost Here!

We're only one week away from NSWN! There are several events that Koinonia will be hosting next week and you can see them on the Koinonia website or on the official welcome week calendar!

This Friday, we'll be having a Koinonia-wide barbeque and sports time at Leydecker Park in Alameda! It'll start at 5pm and we'll break up into our home groups for Bible study afterwards. Contact one of the staff to arrange a ride.

New name

Seeing how home group 7 is known as Home Group R.E.D., it's time for us to be known as more than just a number. Introducing our new name:
Home Group Grrrrrrrr-8!

8 R's in honor of our home group, growl sound effect for school spirit- put it together and you have a word that says it all.

More Than A Face Talk

This past Saturday, some of our college senior sisters, Kathy & Vivian, gave a talk to our Element girls (Gracepoint Fellowship Church's high school department) about the negative effects of our media on women. They prepared for this talk this entire summer & it was exciting to see it come together. As we looked at these precious 7th-9th graders, we really hoped that they would be protected from the lies of the media that a women's worth depends on her appearance. We are all really excited & are hoping to give this talk this semester in the college dorms to raise awareness about these issues. Looking forward to what's ahead !

New Student Welcome Night

Its that time of the year again! All of the fellowships associated with Gracepoint Fellowship Church, a2f, Koinonia, Kairos, will come together to put on two unforgettable nights of skits, music, heart-stirring messages & of course great food! I'm really excited to see all of the new faces who will soon become our friends. Our entire church is in hyper-mode right now, trying to prepare, organize all of the different aspects of the night. Its amazing to see how much we can do - kind of like the students in finals right now for the summer session. =) I'm looking forward to it with much anticipation!

(p.s. Just an FYI - our very own Irene Youm is directing the first skit, Jin Kim the second skit, John Chung is the assistant director & Grace is a main character! Let's cheer them on!)

FYI

Just wanted to let you all know that we added Yumi and Jin's normal versus video to our very first post, so don't be lazy...scroll all the way to the bottom and I guarantee laughs!

The first in Gracepoint Berkeley to run a marathon

Actually there might have been someone else who ran a marathon but that doesn't make this any less impressive. Ladies and gentlemen, Stephen Suh, who has been my leader for all of my undergrad, has done it. He ran the marathon. Not only did he run it, but he finished it with a very impressive time of 4 hours and 37 minutes, which is on average about 10 min/mile. Amazing. It all started from running half a mile a day starting from January this year. I must say, I am inspired...almost to run a marathon myself. But before I do that, I should probably start off with half a mile as well. Just half a mile every day consistently until I get in the habit of doing it and increase from there. If I start training now I might actually be able to run one myself by next year. We'll see.

Anyways, I actually had the privilege of being there right before and right after the marathon and here's a little clip of it.

I put up a survey for you guys to vote on this. Who do you think will be next?

P.S. Thank you. Sieun and Chris Gilling for making the video...a lot of the captions were Sieun's idea. I would like to make a special shoutout to Jason Tarn...I'm sure a lot of you guys are scratching your heads in confusion, but honestly if it weren't for Jason I don't think Steve would have made it out alive. At around 11:45pm the night before the race, Jason entered the Suhs residence listing off all the pre-marathon recommendations he read online.

"Did he do this, did he do that? Make sure he does this, and that...otherwise he might DIE."

Obviously, Steve didn't die but if it weren't for Jason, he might have...well anyways here's a picture of Steve and TEAM STEVE (Jason, John, Andrew, Jin) right before the great race.

Our Gracepoint Austin Team

I just received calls from Sunny Kim and Sarah Song, some of the founding members of GFC Austin, yesterday. We just sent them off about 3 weeks ago with our blessing to start a church in Austin, Texas, with much tears. I was really happy to hear their voices, and I found myself tearing up thinking about them there. Sarah called to ask about Welcome Team name badges, and Sunny in order to ask me to relay a message to Kelly Kang, our Pastor's wife at Gracepoint Berkeley. They were about to start their very first Sunday service at Austin, and there were a number of kinks and details to work out. I felt so grateful and stirred to think about them, out there in that hot city working tirelessly to spread the good news of the Gospel. I also teared up as I thought about my dear friend and peer, Margaret Chen, whom I knew since our freshmen year (back in 1999! I know, we're old!). They have each become so precious to me and as I see them risking and giving up so much in order to serve God, I want to be faithful here at Berkeley as well! Let's pray for them together!

Johnson's Beach & Bodega Bay! 7/26/08

Last Saturday, we had a fun time kayaking at Johnson's Beach and playing soccer at Bodega Bay. Although we never actually swam in the water, you would have never known because we were all soaked from the water fighting. I'd like to claim that I got John Chung pretty badly (p.s. this is Yumi writing), but I'm sure he'd dispute that.

And I must say, soccer was awesome. I think my favorite play was Joanna Kang, leader of HG 6 & my best friend, tackling her husband, Michael Kang. =) Afterwards, we went to a food stand to eat some yummy clam chowder & crab sandwiches!

(p.s. in case you're wondering about the picture, we're trying to act like crab)