BTT (Bible Teacher's Training) @ Gracepoint Berkeley

I can't believe its been 3 weeks since I went up to Sierra Lodge for BTT. Time sure flies. It seemed like only last week when we were huddled together late at night as we waited to take off from Northloop. That was a fun drive, getting to know a lot of Abe's class, people like Jon and Allen who just recently got back from Taiwan, and Mark from SF. They are a fun class to hang out with. Each of them are very interesting characters... you'll know what I mean if you spend some time with them. This BTT trip was mostly made up of the younger staff, around 26 of us, so from our home group that included Sheri and myself.

Man our days were so packed, we spent our days preparing bible studies, working on different projects around the house, and of course having a lot of fun! You read that right, we were learning how to prepare bible studies, not just listening to bible studies. That was definitely very different. I've always been the receipient of a message, so to be on the other side and trying to give a bible study was a new feeling. After preparing 3 messages, I'm just much more appreciative of Pastor Ed Kang and Pastor Manny when they give the message on Sundays or during Friday bible study. They spend a lot of time working on the message and a lot is taken into consideration, which we only began to scratch the surface. We gave bible studies to each other, and Pastor Ed will critique us, helping us with our message and showing areas where we need to improve or areas that we did well. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the bible studies were actually. None of us spoke anything heretical, which is good. Who knows, maybe sometime in the near future, one of us will be giving a bible study in our homegroups, applying what we've learned ^_^

We also spent some of the time working on different things that needed done at the house, from building a landing underneath the deck so we can use it to store bins and coolers, building a spiral staircase up to the loft, putting up blinds, etc. I worked on the staircase, along with my other Mech E friend Richard Leung, and some of the other engineers. How many people does it take to put together a spiral staircase? Apparently it takes at least 4-5 Berkeley engineers. Haha. Next time you go up you can see the beautiful work that we did, just don't look too closely. There's something about using machine tools, and working with your hands that makes you feel really awake and alive. We cut wood, used nail guns, etc. It felt good. Maybe its just me... Anyways, we got a lot of work done around the house, everything just keeps getting nicer. I can't wait until we get to build the barn in the coming months, that should be a lot of fun.

And of course, being the Sierras, how can we not go out and enjoy the nature?! We spent some time at Lake Spalding, which is literally 5 minutes away from the house. Its super close, and we brought with us a bunch of kayaks and a paddle boat. Kayaking in the beautiful lake, enjoying the nature...wait, thats not exactly what we did. We actually spent most of the time splashing each other with our paddles and trying to flip people who were too dry over as they got close to shore. Needless to say we all got pretty wet. I don't think anyone got away dry...except maybe Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang, but we'll let them go this time around. Everyone else, from Isaiah and Stephan to the rest of us, we were all pretty drenched afterwards. We also tried out archery back at the house. Shooting a bow accurately is much harder than I thought. For some reason I expected it to be like Legalos or something...but it was definitely not like that. Although some of us at least hit the target, which is pretty good. On our last day, how can we not spend some time playing basketball and volleyball on the new court? We got some bball action going with a bunch of the guys, and then played volleyball when everyone else joined us. We got some good rallies going, and just seeing people do weird things is always fun.

I'm really thankful for the time up at Sierra Lodge, not only did I get to know the rest of the staff more, but I feel like I got to know Pastor Ed and Kelly a lot more. Sometimes we only see them on Sundays, giving a message or leading prayer time, but to just eat with them and learn from them around a table, is quite different and very special. I learned a lot, not only about how to give a bible study, but all that is involved, just the things that are taken into consideration. And being together, working on the house, having fun together, it was just awesome. I can't wait for the next time we get to go up, BTT 2.0! ^_^