Kairos Christian Fellowship (Gracepoint – Berkeley)

Howdy, folks. Hope everyone’s handling midterm season well. If my count is correct — and it usually is — after this week, we’re almost halfway through the semester! For some of you, that must bring you great joy; for others (like the seniors), it may bring dread, gloom, and yet another sense of “What is life?” And that’s ok, because we have Course 101 that deals directly with that question!

In a not-so-smooth-transition, here’s what’s going on this week:

FRIDAY 3/5

Special Talk: Are Science and Faith Compatible?
7pm @ 112 Wurster

Oftentimes, it seems like there’s a Grand Canyon between science and faith. Our very own John Lee will bridge the two together through this insightful talk. Invite your friends to this event — dinner will be provided at 7!

Afterwards, we’ll do something fun. What can it be? Stay tuned!

SUNDAY 3/7

Baptism Service / Mark Inductive Training
10:00AM @ Willard

Jordan Tsai, Grace Lam, and Ryan Theimer will be getting baptized this Sunday! Baptism starts at 11:30, so please come and show them your support!

We’ll also be continuing with the Mark Inductive training at 10am.

DT GROUPS

If you’d like to join a DT Group, it’s not too late! Just go ahead and put your name in the desired spot.

Hey Everyone!

Hope you’re all doing well.  I know it’s finals time and everyone is extremely busy studying, so hang in there!  Winter break is just around the corner.  Crank in a few more hours of hard studying and you’ll be there in no time.

So…. now for a recap of last week’s Kairos bible study and Christmas gift exchange!

Last Friday, we had Bible study in our very own North Loop building.  It was a cozy time as North Loop is very well decorated around this time of year.  Rick Yi gave a stirring message on the parable of the soils.  Through the Bible study, Rick pointed out that soil represents the condition of our heart.  The good news at the end was that, no matter which soil we relate to at the moment, we can become more and more like the good soil that grows and multiples.  I was persoanlly very impacted by reflecting on the various soils and I hope all of you were too.

After the Bible study we were all pretty hungry and enjoyed some good old…. Christmas style tacos!! Well, it wasn’t really Christmas style but it was dang good and there were tons of desserts to boot.   Here’s a couple pictures of the eating portion of the night.

After eating, we had the portion of the night everyone was looking forward to… The Gift Exchange! We split up into teams by birthday month and started off with a Pictionary game to see who would get some special abilities.

After Pictionary we had an intense Jenga match to see which team would go first!

With the formalities decided we finally began the epic 2009 Kairos Winter Christmas Party Gift Exchange!!!!
As you can see, some people got great gifts….

While others got not so great gifts….

We also had some surprise performances!

Overall it was an awesome night so I hope everyone had as great a time as I did! That’s all for now. Study hard and good luck on finals everyone!

Remember Steven Choi’s yodeling and the missing sheep? The Kung Fu fighting and Alex Lee as a Panda? Pastor Will as a break-dancing Moses? And we definitely can’t forget about Calvin and Danny dancing to “Under Pressure!”Well, Thanksgiving Celebration came back this year with a bang!

Pastor Ed first gave a message on the transforming power of gratitude, from the perspective of the receiver. Then, there was the powerful presentation of various people’s Thanksgiving Dare sharings of how they were thankful for their salvation, people in their lives, the church, material blessings, and nature.

And then the celebration began.

Kairos stepped up and started off the night’s program with our “year-in-review”-themed performance! Many brothers and sisters of Kairos came together to make our whole performance possible. Abe created an amazing word art animation to introduce G-Live while Nelson and some others acted in the hilarious Truth Project parody video. More than 80 dancers on stage danced their heart out. But they couldn’t have done it without all the behind-the-scene choreographers and costume/prop makers. For the finale, we all danced to a rocking song performed by our own Kairos live band! Also, I want to give a special shout-out to the return of the Goons (Rick, Steve, and Josh) and also Andy acting as the alien of Men in Black. The crowd definitely loved them!]

The other ministries of Gracepoint also gave performances with absolutely no shame. Remember Jonah and the giant brown and white fish? “Nice, nice baby?” “Praise God” in an Indian accent and Bollywood dancing? Ribbon dancing? And the unforgettable Praxis’ rah rah spirit!

After all the shocks and laughter, Kairos enjoyed our very own Thanksgiving banquet, replete with homemade turkey and ham and all the necessary Thanksgiving sides. We decorated notecards that described three things from the past year for which we were thankful as well. In addition to the delicious dinner and fellowship that we had, I personally was very grateful for my small group as we live life together in our apartments, God’s challenges and humbling, and the opportunity to serve in ImpACT and on mission trips!

Here’s highlights from the night! stay in tune for more fun pictures to come!

The Goons…present, past and..even more past..

Glive recap

the freshman class..the freshman class..

kairos guitarists rocking out

Come watch the USC-vs-Cal game with us at the Sierras!

Summary:

• leaving Friday night after Bible Study (9:30pm)
• heading back to Berkeley after the football game, Saturday
• $35 covers food, lodging, gas, and a ton of fun!
• (update) packing list is right below
• Sign up ASAP!

UPDATE (10/1): Since many sisters are stressed out about midterms, this is now a BROS ONLY trip! For those who are staying back in Berkeley, fear not — sisters will have a sleepover in Alameda and Dim Sum + Study on Saturday, while bros will watch the game together. The rest who are going to the Sierras: it will be awesome.

PACKING LIST:

• Sleeping bag
• Bible/Notebook for DT
• Shoes and socks for hike/sports
• Backpack (to carry lunch on the hike)
• Hat/visor/sunglasses
• Long pants
• Sweater and/or jacket (Warm Jacket for Nighttime)
• Pajamas (no wearing pajamas in public/general areas)
• Sunscreen
• Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, etc.)
• Water bottle
• Towel
• Flashlight

Come join us this Saturday as we get away from the concrete suburbia to the wonderful woods of the Sierras! The poster above doesn’t do the trip much justice; to be honest, the much anticipated Cal vs. USC football game is just icing on the cake.

We’ll be staying staying at the Lodge and Barn, constructed and built by many people of Gracepoint Berkeley (from Pastor Ed Kang to the staff to many of the students). Not only is it on par with (and similar-looking to) ski resorts, there’s a lot of things you can do on just our property alone:

Robert at the archery range

Play basketball on our own courts, complete with lights

We'll be the first group to play on our new football/soccer field

Hiking / Land Exploration

Much of this trip is to also go hiking and explore the surrounding land. As a EECS grad and now working with computers all day long, the bright blue skies and the vibrant green fields and trees are a welcome change in scenery.

The details

Come visit this post again to find out what to bring and such, but remember to sign up below! In the meantime, I leave you with this video from our last trip to the Sierras (we won’t be kayaking this time around b/c the water will be freezing):

Signups are now closed

PS: If you want to know more about our past Sierra trips, you can read Chanhee’s post and a more introspective post by Kevin Tan.

WEDNESDAY 9/2:

HOT Spot // Memorial Glade. 7pm. Frisbee & Pizza

What’s H.O.T. Spot? It stands for “Hang Out Time.” It’s our mid-weekly, low-key gathering for students who just happen to be free, and need a break from school and want to hang out with other Kairos’ers. This week we’re going to have our first HOT Spot at Memorial Glade, Wednesday, 7pm. We’re going to play frisbee and have some pizza. Have some free time? Wanna take a study break? Sick of cafeteria food? Come hang out with us at HOT Spot!

THRUSDAY 9/3:

Kairos Welcome Night & Sports // 112 Wurster. 6:30pm. Free dinner!

As a reminder, we also have our Kairos Welcome Night, where we welcome all the students interested in knowing what Kairos is about, have a free awesome dinner, and play some games at Maxwell Field afterwards. Join us!

SATURDAY 9/5:

Fall Retreat // Walnut Creek Pres. Church. 10am-7pm.

This Saturday, the church many of us go to, Gracepoint Berkeley, will be hosting a Fall Retreat at Walnut Creek. This will be a refreshing time for us to align ourselves with God, learn about His Words, and see how He has been active in all of our lives. Come join us! Click here for more info and to sign up.

Hope to see you guys around!

Coming hot off the heels of New Student Welcome Night, we’ll be having our own Kairos Welcome Night this Thursday! Although it’s smaller in scale compared to NSWN, we’ll still be having a fun skit, a praise band, and a talk titled, “Why am I…” Plus, get to meet new people and enjoy free food! See you there!

On a separate note, we’ll be starting LIFE Groups this week. However, if you’re still interested, it’s not too late to sign up!

Awesome shot of the music portion of our NSWN last night. There is another showing tonight at 7pm, Pauley Ballroom, so don’t miss out! Last night it was packed, and we had to kick out and turn away people. So make sure to come early!

It’s only Thursday and already it’s been an action-packed week! We started off the week with Sundaes on Monday.

Our very own David Park stepped up to the challenge and won a t-shirt! Four scoop ice cream banana split in under 8 minutes!

Next up that evening was Boba and Boardgames.

Apparently Stephen is pretty confused about Joyce’s Charoodle game-playing skills. She doesn’t look too confident, either.

Then we ended the evening with the ever-awesome game of King Kong Shower. What’s your move?

Tuesday evening at the Kairos Karnival, Lucky Angel wont a Cal football used by the Cal Football team, and signed by the one and only Jahvid Best! Too awesome! Your balloon hat is almost as awesome, too!

Once again, be sure to check out the last showing of New Student Welcome Night, tonight! We’re going to have an SF trip this Friday evening as well, so you don’t want to miss that either. Hope everyone is have a good first week of class so far!