Hi folks!  There’s a new crew moving onto Arballo Dr!  But we can’t just call it Arballo House because there’s already an Arballo House!  So please comment and contribute new names for this house.  Some have thought of calling it Arballette or B-ballo… but surely there are better ideas than the ideas contributed by brother G.  So comment away and let the name game begin!  By the way, the person who thought of the new name that is picked will win a prize!

(Prizes may include a spot on the next video blog announcement, complimentary stay at the new Arballo [sorry, brothers only], or a commemorative very limited gift!)

*Polls will close Sunday night at 10:59pm PST and results will be placed on the blog.

Many of our brothers and sisters of Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Austin ran the 10K together!  Perhaps to burn off all of that amazing Austin BBQ and food fellowship they’ve been enjoying!

There’s nothing like bonding over side stitches, leg cramps, sweat, and making it across the finish line.  Whether they walked, jogged or ran… and whether it was done gracefully or not… they all crossed the finish line and that’s what counts!   Well, through their journey, their photographs were taken, and we were able to get a lucky peek into the photos during the actual 10 K!  So check it out! You can see their photos running the 10K here! By the looks of some of their faces, this 10K experience will have given them a new understanding of 2 Timothy 4:7 “I  have fought the fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Just look up our Gracepoint Austin friends by their last names: Chen, Chung, Song, Fong, Lee, Kim, Mutto .. and no, that’s not a new version of Ming Meng Mong!

But more than just enjoying these fun photos, let’s remember to keep Pastor Manny, Sunny and the rest of the Austin Team in our prayers. LONGHORNS!!

*click on any of these photos to be directed to Gracepoint Austin’s photo gallery!

It’s about time that the sisters of Gracepoint Fellowship Church SF Campus appear on “This is SF”.   Here’s a story being recounted by Sister E (there’s only two to choose from.. they share the same name.. you’ll figure it out).

Sister E | Thanks to all the brothers who really tried to help us that night.   Well, I was wrapping up my day at work when I got a text from Sister J wondering if anyone knew how to turn the power back on in our home.  Apparently, in certain parts of our home, the power was out.  I was told that after Sister V tried using the blow dryer, the power went out.  After a trip down to the fuse box and flipping the circuit breakers, we still didn’t have power restored.  30 minutes later, Sister J texts me saying that she’s tried all the circuit breakers, but there’s still no power.  So I told her to call Brother D, maybe this was a common problem in this old beloved home that so many have resided in…it’s pretty old after all.

An hour later, I received another text from sister J, this time all the power was out.  “Great…” I thought to myself, time to go home and see what the problem is.  While walking to my car, I called Sister J to find out that Sister V had called PG&E.  PG&E said that they’d “assess the problem.”   Even after receiving guidance from Brother D, nothing worked.  Even, Brother R and Brother M who were coming by for the trailer gave it a shot.  But after many attempts, they too could not restore our power.  Were the bills paid? Yes.   Stormy, windy day that might’ve caused this?  No. All the other homes around us have power? Yes.   Man, only PG&E can solve this one…

So, I came home to see flashlights on, candles lit and my faithful friend, Sister S cranking a manual flashlight/radio with all her might.  Ultra tragic Korean drama like violin music was playing but I was told that it was either that station or the Mexican radio. We chose the Korean drama violin music…it fit the mood.  While lighting some more candles and using my little Koinonia light, PG&E rolled up.  Hooray! We would finally figure out what is wrong with our power!  And sure enough, after the PG&E serviceman tinkered with our fuse box, the power came back on! We danced with joy and I was eager to find out what the problem was.  But as he came through the kitchen to meet us, the look on his face… well…. no words could describe it.

PG&E:  So…… who played with the breakers? Who tried to fix it?
Sister E:   A few people I think…a friend couldn’t figure out which one it was and so we called someone and..
PG&E:  Off.
Sister E:  uh…. wha?
PG&E:  It was off.
Sister E:  (silence)
PG&E:  Yeah, there wasn’t a trip. The main breaker was turned off and some of the other circuits too..
Sister E:  so….
PG&E:  You guys turned off your own power.
Sister E:  I’m so sorry…

Lesson of the day:  make sure you check the circuit breakers yourself!!

This past weekend, the SFSU Koinonia college group went out to beatiful Yosemite!!  The early crew went up on Friday, and enjoyed the perfect weather at Yosemite Valley.  Returning to the home we rented out (with deer heads decorating the place), they sang some good old songs like “Deep Deep” and “My Savior Loves Me” and enjoyed a BBQ dinner of hot links, hamburgers and all the fixings.  The late crew arrived after a few detours and joined in on the singing and we closed the night together with some scary stories and star gazing. 

The next day we were up early with a time of DT and went over to Hotel Charlotte for a great All American breakfast buffet.  In a place that seats about 60, we took up 43 spots and ate faster than they could cook up their killer scrambled eggs.  Having our fill, we went over to a snow play area and played capture the flag and there was plenty of snow fighting and wrestling going on.  It was so much fun and not even the rain/hail/snow could stop us.  Derek lost his shoe but from our previous trip to Sierra, we developed a team of professional shoe finders.  After tiring ourselves out, we went back into Yosemite Valley for a nice walk and took a lot of photos along the way.  Because of the weather, we couldn’t do all we wanted to but still had a great time at Yosemite!

We came back to San Francisco and ended the trip with a nice big hot bowl of pho!  We were all so happy and had many fun stories to share.  Check out the slideshow below and maybe from your desks, you can get a glimpse of the beautiful sights we saw! 

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Fresno? FresYes! Last Saturday, some of the guys from USF Koinonia went down to FresYES (the preferred name for people who grew up in Fresno and insist on being optimistic about it). The visit began when the sun was high in the sky, after lunch, and instead of taking the 5 south, these guys took the scenic route. They visited Angell who is out in the area for two months on rotation.  They picked blood oranges from Richard’s parents’ backyard, and ate a scrumptious home-cooked dinner with Richard’s family. A good time was had by all. The only complaints were that picking blood oranges can be quite a hazardous endeavor. Just ask Wilson, who looks like his forearm was attacked by a vicious cat! But lucky for him, he’s a nurse, and the fruit of his labor was worthy it (pun intended). USF Koinonia members were grateful for these brothers’ sacrifice, especially when we all gobbled up the yummy oranges last Sunday after service.  Thanks guys!!

Oh btw, did you know USF Koinonia has a Flickr site? Check it out! Some more photos are up from their scavenger hunt night!

This past week was SFSU Koinonia’s GONE special event and with 15 new friends joining us, we had a great time together!  Thank you all for your prayers and for Berkeley Koinonia and Element for providing us with so much material. 

We started off with some guys BBQing burgers and hot links and set up Rosa Parks A-C for GONE.  After a rush to get all the sound and video elements ready, we opened the program with some icre breaker questions  and trivia questions relating to SF State University.  Then we were ready to get right into a time of praise where we sang Hillsong’s “Salvation is Here” and Kutless’ “Sea of Faces”.   After that, we heard testimonies from Eileen, Steve, Jeffri and Paul about how they once wasted their lives away but how after meeting God, now live transformed lives.  Identifying the way they wasted their lives away with one word such as cool, basketball, money and drugs they went on to share how they came to know God through Koinonia and many other brothers and sisters at Gracepoint Fellowship Church.  It was really powerful to hear their stories and many were really in awe of how much by the grace of God their lives have been changed. 

With a few more media elements through the night Ahmi, brought it all home with a stirring message, challenging that the students really examine their lives and seriously check out our Bible studies and investigate Christianity.  Afterwards, we feasted on the juiciest burgers and hot links ever and had a time of discussion.  We closed the night back at Arballo with a hilarious freak show of seeing Mark rotate his foot (not his leg) 180 degrees, Derek bend his finger at the middle join 90 degrees (backwards!!), Catchphrase and other games along with some great dessert.  By the end of the night, we were all pretty beat but so thankful for the 15 new students who came along with just the chance to just hear the testimonies of the four bros and sis. 

As always, enjoy the photos taken from that night! You kinda have to turn your head on a few of these.. but .. it’s always good to stretch throughout the day 🙂 Thanks again for your prayers!

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** Btw, SFSU Koinonia has a Flickr account where you can view all their latest photos! Check it out if you’re interested in seeing what goes on!

If you were at USF around 9 PM on Friday, March 6th,  you would have seen some strange sights. You may have seen people posing as different statues, like a runner, or even as mother Mary and baby Jesus. You also may have seen people trying to squeeze into really small spaces, or take a picture with a police man. Or you may have seen people ready to take a picture of the next muni bus without getting run over in the process. All of these were required during our post bible study activity – the Scavenger Hunt. Thank goodness it didn’t rain because it allowed teams of about 8 people to run around in the dark and find out interesting details about the campus.  Sure, these are details that will probably never be useful to anyone in the future ever, such as what is the name of the company that makes the emergency phone system… but as in a lot of things in life, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s all about how to find a bald policeman will be willing to take a picture with a group of strangers… I mean, how you play the game!

Here’s just one of the many photos that were taken that night!

Hey Check it out!  This Friday is a special night at SFSU!  It’ll be a night full of food, stories, and fun so invite your friends!

When | Friday @ 6pm

Where | Rosa Parks A-C

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Thanks to some brothers and sisters at Gracepoint who checked out a new bowling alley last week, SFSU Koinonia went bowling at Classic Bowl for the first time this past Friday and had a great time!  The place is clean, nice and bright and has a ton of lanes.  The students and staff broke up into teams and bowled away for two hours until they could bowl no more.   During Bible study earlier that night, there was a lot of talk of competition and punishment followed by words of “you’re going down” and “bring it on” from a group of guys, egged on by Will.

After getting our shoes, selecting our favorite bowling balls, setting up our teams and flexing our forearms, we were ready to bowl. After Game 1, Eileen came up on top with 130! The guys who had spoken so loudly of a competition like no other were nowhere to be seen or heard.  Game 2, the record was soon beat out by Daniel, by 1 point with a score of 131.  Many danced around after spares and strikes were executed, some danced a little too much!  High fives and words of encouragement were given out.  Then soon after, Erickson came running over to announce his high score of 135!  Though one can say that overall, the night wasn’t filled with high scores, the night was filled with a lot of laughter and fun. 

Here are some photos from the night.  And if you want to see the videos from the night including Erickson’s perfect strike and some other fun clips, check it out at Koinonia’s Flickr Site!

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This past week, we welcomed back our dear brother Nhan, after 7 months of service in Iraq and surrounding areas as a Marine.   Our church has been praying for Nhan, sending care packages filled with snacks, cards and for him and his friends serving there.  Praise God for watching over Nhan, during his service!  We welcomed him back in the best way we knew with a great BBQ Potluck and time of fellowship.  We heard some really amazing stories from him of how God protected him through his service and I’m sure we’ll hear more as we spend more time with him.   We ended by praying for him, the men and women still serving over seas and for the families waiting for the safe return of their loved ones.

Let’s continue to lift up our brother Nhan, in prayer as he adjusts to civilian life and continue to pray for the men and women out there along with their families back home.  Let’s really pray on behalf of our country and for those who are putting their lives on the line for us all.  We are so thankful that brother Nhan, is back!  Welcome home, Nhan!

Sierra Sierra oh how we love you!! This past weekend was one of the most fun trips to Sierra Lodge ever!  Built with the hands and sweat of our Gracepoint Fellowship Church members, it’s great to go visit our very lodge up in the Sierras. We could not have asked for more perfect weather conditions while driving and up there.  Thank God for providing us with great weather and safe travel. After making it through the afternoon/evening traffic on the 80, we reach our destination and it was  amazing!  The beautiful  tall trees covered in snow, several feet of fresh powder from earlier that week, the fresh air, and tons of food.  After some bros helped shovel the snow and put on our chains, we all entered into Sierra Lodge and the newly built Sierra Barn.  We feasted on some aMAzing carnitas until we could eat no more and had a great time of praise and Bible study.  We played some ice breaker games to get to know some of the staff more, followed by a game of King Kong Shower.  We all hit the sack early (well, the guys had some more “bonding” time) and were up and ready the next morning for our Devotion Time and a full on home cooked breakfast by USF Koinonia.

We all threw on our layers and ran out into the snow going down an ultimate sled run, wrestling each other in the snow, getting pummeled, pummeling each other, playing capture the flag and just experiencing true fellowship as we dumped snow on each other!  As we played for about 3 hours, our bodies were cold, tired, hungry and ready to go in and eat until we noticed Gracepoint Berkeley’s college freshmen of Koinonia and staff within shouting distance playing in the snow.  And since they were within shouting distance, that’s what we did, or at least one of us did.  Taunting and egging them on to a war, our fearless (“I’m sick!”)  leader, Brother M, urged them to come fight us.  They all turned to look at us, we returned it with grunts straight out of Lord of the Rings, Orc style.  And before we knew it, they started coming towards us and battle ensued.  Bodies were flying, snow was everywhere and right when we thought, “oh yeah, we got this” another mass came from the side and we met our doom.  We fought and wrestled in the snow and concluded with body bruising game of the ultimate 3-way capture the flag. Needless to say, we were tired and worn at the end!

We always look forward to our trips to Sierra Lodge and are so thankful that we had this chance to enjoy God’s beautiful creation!  We hope you join us next time.. see you next time Sierra!!  Enjoy the photos, and don’t blink, they go by fast!

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Following a tradition started back in 2006, the brothers and sisters of USF Koinonia, SFSU Kairos and SFSU Koinonia visited various convalescent homes in the SF area.  Rather than listening to sappy love songs, indulging in feelings of self-pity, Gracepoint Fellowship Church started this tradition to share what true love is about, God’s unending love for us.  Here is a sharing from Eileen on her experience.

Eileen | I’m really thankful that our church decided to start this tradition some years ago. Just having turned another year older and being single, I can only imagine the kinds of thoughts that might be running through my mind on Valentine’s Day.  But instead of feelings of self-pity, my day was so full that I honestly didn’t have even a minute to think about my own self.  With my guitar in hand and camera in the other, I was really excited to see all the faces of our friends.  We sang “Amazing Love”, “Love is Deep” and after the gospel message was given by Nancy, we sang “The Love of God”.  As we were singing it was so great to see the residents, clapping, tapping their hands and one grandmother even trying to do the motions with us! 

After the large group time was over, we went around to meet each of the grandmothers and grandfathers also giving them a gift since it was a special visit.  We gave them these ultra-soft, warm socks with Romans 8:38-39 attached on a card.  Just being able to hold their hands, listen to their stories, and telling them about God’s love is a wonderful experience and I am thankful that I have the opportunity to do so.  What else could we possibly bring to our friends?  None of us are doctors in that we can bring physical healing.  And even more than our smiles, gifts and kindness, we bring them the ultimate gift which is the good news of God’s love for them. 

Afterwards, the 3 groups gathered together and shared about our experienced and prayed together.  For the rest of the day, I spent time with some friends and students and as I said before, there wasn’t even a minute that I could think about myself.  I cringe to think what the day would’ve been like had I been alone and left feeling sorry for myself that I didn’t get a dozen roses or the recognition of some guy.  I am blessed to know God’s love and it is all of our prayers that each of our friends will come to know God’s love for them and  surrender their lives to Christ.  Because indeed, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Here are some photos from SFSU Kairos and Koinonia’s visit.

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On Thursday 2/12, USF Koinonia held an event called GONE!  In 24 hours, tomorrow will be yesterday. At GONE, Will, Flo and Bruce shared their stories about how they came to know God personally, despite all the hub-bub in the popular culture that so-easily distracts young people from spiritual truths. We met new students, played games like steal the bacon and charades, and of course, had our fill of Hawaiian bbq. (No wonder most of the students USF Koinoina has been attracting are from Hawaii!).  But more than the fun we shared on Thursday we at Koinonia were able to experience the true meaning of our group’s name – “fellowship.”  As the students after the program stuck around, some of them thanked the people who shared their stories because they were personally touched by how God relates to different people so personally,  and for that, we were so thankful, we had to give all the glory to God.  It was a small turnout, not more than 30 total, but even the new students were attentive and engaged.  We at Koinonia hope to see them again soon, so that as our church’s key verse in 1 John 1:4 says, “our joy [may be] complete.”  So, even though GONE is now gone, in the past and part of USF Koinonia’s history, we look forward to what the future holds.

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This incident perhaps will go down in SF history as the most memorable story of all time.  There are times where we have big events and we run out of ice, or there’s some kind of typo in a mass produced flyer..   but this one is pretty painful..

Sharing from Gordon (not to be confused with “Brother G” of the trailer story) | “Thai iced tea”…to this day, the very mention of these 3 words still haunt me as I was asked to recount what happened on that fateful day when we were going to serve Thai iced tea boba drinks at our UCSF NSWN fair. All was going smoothly that morning, the tapioca pearls were cooked perfectly and ready to go, and as we loaded up the tea into large coolers, everything was right on schedule. I remember Richard
and I loaded up the coolers into the trunk of his relatively new Highlander and tried to secure the coolers with whatever we could find. Satisfied with our handiwork, we took off happily in Richard’s car for a short 5 minute
drive to UCSF.

I remember that exact moment when we rounded a corner and everything changed.  All of a sudden I heard the coolers start to move. Then CRASH…and we could hear all this liquid sloshing around. Richard stopped the car in the middle of the road and we hurried back to assess the damage, both of us secretly hoping that at least some of the Thai iced tea would be salvagable. But our hopes were dashed as
we saw bright organey brown liquid leaking out of the trunk onto his bumper and onto the street, and our jaws dropped when Richard finally opened the trunk and a gush of Thai tea came pouring out. I don’t remember
how long we stood there in silence, too shocked to say anything to each other before we uprighted the coolers and drove the remaining distance to UCSF.
As we pulled up to the curb, I had to be the unfortunate bearer of bad news to Ahmi since I was the “super calm” person compared to Richard. Not wanting to alarm Ahmi too much, I informed her of the news in a slow, monotone voice (I did this intentionally). The following is just a snippet of our conversation as I recall it:

Gordon (slow, monotone voice): “Ahmi, I have bad news…”
Ahmi (nervously): “What is it…what happened?”
Gordon (slow, monotone voice): “The Thai ice tea spilled”
Ahmi (even more nervous, slightly higher pitch): “What?? How much spilled?”
Gordon (even slower monotone voice): “Alllll offfff itttttt.”
Ahmi: “WHAATTTT???”

Thankfully, with some quick thinking, we were able to replace the Thai iced tea with Kern’s nectar in time. And thankfully, after replacing the carpet, the seats, the seat covers and $8700 worth of insurance coverage later.. Richard’s car was ok.

This past Sunday we celebrated the baptism of six candidates from Gracepoint Berkeley and SF with two of them being our very own Ben from USF ministry and Jeffri from SFSU ministry.  We were all so blessed as they shared their testimony of how God had worked in their lives.  A touching moment for all of us was when specific people were mentioned in Jeffri’s testimony and how they had an impact on his life when those mentioned thought they did not do all that much.  It just goes to show that God is faithful and can use whatever we offer up to Him.  This Sunday was definitely a wonderful day where we gave thanks to God for these precious brothers.

    

So let us congratulate these brothers and cheer them on as they continue to take steps forward in their relationship with God.

Did you see it?  Before the rain, there was one beautiful, sunny day, straight out of a postcard of San Francisco, and USF Koinonia was able to capitalize on it by having a BBQ picnic and sports at USF.  It was last Saturday (1/31) and it was gorgeous!  We played football, ultimate frisbee, soccer, and of course, ate some good hot dogs and hamburgers, courtesy of Chef James.  Even Tabby was getting into the sports, or at least, holding a football.  We met some new friends, and it was a great way to jumpstart the new semester.  The weather was so perfect, it must have been God’s will for us to have that picnic that day!  Ok, that’s a stretch, but you know what we’re saying… such good weather isn’t too common this time of year in SF.  Who would have thought that a picnic in the spring semester would feel like, well spring!

Enjoy these pics from the event!

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Just a quick post to advertise the newest addition to our blog world.  So we are proud to present the new SFSU website here:

SFSU Koinonia

Also, if you didn’t already know we have a blog for USF as well:

USF Koinonia

So go ahead and check out these sites, comment, and send me feedback.  Enjoy!

Every Sunday, we send two teams of brothers to tow some trailers.  Basically, the trailers hold everything that we use for church – from the curtains, the sound equip, the tables, the book store, etc.  As you can imagine, they weigh a ton. Every week, our faithful brothers go out extra early to where the trailers are kept, hitch and secure the trailers,  and it’s time to Vamos a la Gracepoint…oh ooOOOOoooOOOh!

Don’t be fooled, it’s not as easy as it seems.  The trailer at Noriega House may seem easy to access, but it’s a lot more difficult than it appears.  It’s a tight squeeze between the cars parked on the street, the driveway and the garage entrance itself.   So, each driver and team is shown the ropes, given a few test runs, given a pat on the back and is ready to tow the trailer.   Now, you would think because the trailers are so important, heavy and loaded with expensive equipment, that the teams would be specialized in this…or at least be experts at what to do before diving in.  Apparently, communication was lost somewhere, not everyone became “specialized” and there were a few mishaps…

Incident #1 – Brother G is watching the end of the trailer while the driver carefully backs in.
Brother G – “ok..back…back…back…back……”
*BOOOM*
Brother G – “…stop….”

Incident #2 – The trailer is hitched and ready to go.  Brother R, in all his 7:30am excitement says..
Brother R – “Alright!  Let’s go!” – He puts his car into drive and takes off
Brother W – “STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!!!!!”
Brother R –  slams on the brakes with the fender of the trailer within a centimeter of the garage wall
Brother W – “….Nevermind…you already cleared it…”

Incident #3 – backing the trailer into Noriega garage
Brother B – “Back…back…back…keep going…back..back…”
*CRUNCH CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK”
Brother B – “…..ok…stop…”
The trailer fender caught the license plate of a neighbor’s car and bent it severely.  It was gently straightened out by Brother D, and every once in a while that car still parks in front of Noriega… but not so much anymore.

These are just a few stories.  If you have any more, please, feel free to comment.

 We all just came back from our annual winter retreat and everyone had a wonderful time.  There were over 700 people from all of Gracepoint, including Praxis (our young adult ministry) and college ministry.  A lot of decisions and rededications happened and we thank God for all that happened over the weekend.  This was definitely a proper way to kick off 2009 as we all get geared back up for school and work places.  We hope everyone was blessed during this time and we look forward to all that God will do here at Gracepoint!

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*Update: please check out some important info on the Winter Retreat regarding driving directions and what to bring – click here*

We hope that you are all very excited for the upcoming Winter Retreat at Mt. Hermon this weekend!  It seems like we’ve been anticipating the arrival of this retreat for some time now, but it is finally here.  In preparation for the retreat, many of us have been gathering to pray for the people attending, the speakers (Pastor Ed Kang and special guest, Joe Horness of Bay Pointe Community Church!), and our own hearts.  We hope that this retreat will really be a time of refreshing and commitment to surrender our lives to Him and to sharing the gospel to the city of San Francisco. 

If you have not done so already, we really encourage you to listen to Pastor Ed’s message on Exodus 3 in Berkeley from this past Sunday.  You can download the podcast here.

Last year we took this picture on our last day and this year I imagine we will do the same…only.. we can expect a lot more people since the College students will be joining us!

It may rain this weekend, so be sure to check the forecast and bring an umbrella!  We’ll see you there!

In a few short hours our Cambodia team will be landing back in the US.  So let’s all join in and welcome Nancy and Paul back!  I’m sure they’re exhausted from the hard work they did over on the other side of the world.  But we all look forward to hearing all about their trip and the incredible ways in which God worked out there.  So join us in welcoming them back!

This Christmas, many of our church members went to Taiwan to share the message of Christmas to them.  Here is a sharing from Sean:

Ni Hao Ma!

I had the privilege of joining 45 others, including Wilson, Vicky, Judy, Harry, and Edwin, in Taiwan for our Winter Mission Trip! We landed on a Friday and had a special “Gone” bible study. We also attended the Hsinchu Church’s 1^st Anniversary Service where we heard testimonies on how God had multiplied the “5 loaves and 2 fish” that our Hsinchu team had offered to God along with the rest of our church.

The highlight of our trip was Christmas Celebration, where we sang songs (with Judy singing), had a nativity skit (with Vicky as Mary and Edwin as a funny, boring professor and Wilson directing), heard a testimony and a message. To promote the Christmas Celebration, we did cheers at the dining commons set to the tune of the “Remember the Titans” cheer and “We will Rock You.” Over 350 people attended the Christmas Celebration and it was standing room only!

For me personally, one aspect of the trip that really moved me was seeing our team work together in order to put on the Christmas Celebration skit (All in Chinese!). Anyone who could confidently speak Chinese was used for the skit and we suffered through one of our main actors losing her voice and having to replace her. Nonetheless, we practiced hard, especially the last two nights before the Christmas Celebration, and the skit actually went well. It was wonderful experiencing being part of something greater than me, the opportunity to share the Christmas story with the Taiwanese.

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OK, we promise that this is the last installment of SF Campus’ TC performance!  We finally have a copy of our entire performance.  For some of you out there, this is something you’ve been wanting to see.  And for others, this is something you had hoped you’d never have to see.  Either way, here it is!

A little poll has been created to see which of the parts below were your favorite! You can vote more than once and there’s an “other” option like let’s say your favorite part was practice or another part. Let us know!

Happy new year!  I’m sure we are all thinking the same thing, that we can’t believe it’s already 2009!  We hope that you were all really blessed by last night’s New Year’s Eve Watchnight service at St. Augustine’s.   God has been so faithful in 2008 and we look forward to all the ways that God will lead us in 2009!

Hopefully you have all been having a wonderful time with family and friends through this Christmas and New Year’s time.  With the weather so cold this winter, please keep warm and stay healthy! The blog is back up again full speed, so I hope you will check back soon as we continually update.  In the meantime, check out SF Campus’ debut on Disgracepoint! Actually, the word “debut” is usually used with some sort of grand unveiling of an awe-inspiring performance ..  well all I can say is, Jesus Rocks!  Thank God for a brand new year where the past is the past!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Please travel safely and have a wonderful time with friends and family during this Christmas Season.  Let’s remember to take a moment to pause despite the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, traveling, cooking, etc., and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, the humble birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!

If you are still in the SF area, this is just a friendly reminder that Sunday service this week will be held in Berkeley at Willard Auditorium at 1:30pm.  And our annual New Year’s Eve Watchnight service will be held at St. Augustine’s in Oakland at 8pm.

Once again, Merry Christmas!  Here’s a photo of our Sierra Lodge, look at all that beautiful snow!