Taiwan Mission Team

Hi guys, as you know, 47 of our brothers and sisters are in Taiwan now to share the meaning of Christmas with the Taiwanese students. Last Sunday, they helped to celebrate the first anniversary of Gracepoint Fellowship Church - Hsinchu! Here's an update about it from Steve and Eunice of a2f blue, who are leading the team:

Ni Hao Ma!
Yesterday we celebrated the 1st Anniversary of our GFC-Hsinchu church. Eugene gave a message on Jesus feeding the 5000, and through Kan's and Cynthia's testimonies we were able to marvel at 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. We all had a chance to remember how our church had come a long way from all the funny and not so funny attempts at reaching out to people, including having the first bible study at Mr. Donut and out of tune electric guitar solos during praise. Attached is a picture of our Hsinchu Church. We were thankful that many of the students came to the anniversary service. We had the very first 'invitation time' at our Hsinchu church and several of our brothers and sisters rededicated...Later that night our WMT got together with the Hsinchu team to have some time for team bonding and for people to get to know each other. We ended the time thinking about our various connections with one another, even though we're from different ministries within our church. Kevin Tan (Kairos jr) shared how meeting Eugene and Cynthia during Cal Day helped him decide to come to Cal, Greg Davis shared how he was thankful that Eugene, who was so Taiwanese, reached out to a Caucasian guy like him and led him to Christ. We were reminded of the close community we share at our church and what we want to invite the Taiwanese students to experience as well.

Reminder: Sign-ups

There's alot going on this winter so please remember to sign up for the following ASAP:

Winter Retreat 2009. Fri-Sun, 1/23-1/25 (first weekend after school starts). This is the spiritual highlight of our whole year so please do sign up now and get the early bird discount.

G-Live Tech & Arts Camp. Mon-Fri, 1/12-1/16. This is an incredible opportunity to get trained in video work, Photoshop, scriptwriting, and much more by the best at our church, in preparation for this spring's Gracepoint Live, our huge multimedia and theatrical production! Don't worry, helping out does not preclude you from acting on stage.

Sophomore Discipleship Retreat. Tues-Thurs, 1/13-1/15. For Christian sophs. Don't miss this rare chance to be trained by Pastor Ed & Kelly @ Sierra Lodge and get to know your peers better.

This Week: Christmas Events and More!

This Friday (12/12) will be an all-college Bible Study at 7pm at First Pres. Church (on Dana & Channing). I know you're stressed with finals, but please don't miss this as it's one of our last Bible studies of the year.

After Bible study, we'll head to Dana House with Mike & Joanna's homegroup for our annual Xmas Party & Gift Exchange! If you've never done a gift exchange with us, you're in for a treat. They're full of intrigue, hilarity, wacky switcheroos, and memorable performances. :)

So please bring a wrapped gift valued at $5-$10 on Friday. Please bring something that you'd want to receive yourself! (read: no single rolls of toilet paper--yes someone brought that one year!). If you don't have time or can't think of a gift, just get a gift card from Peet's or some local restaurant.

Please join us to end our semester memorably as we eat, remember all that happened, and see each other before everyone goes home.

Also, Joyland Christmas Celebration (aka JCC) is this Sunday (12/14), 4pm @ Willard Middle School.

Joyland is Gracepoint's children's group. JCC is an awesome performance put on by kids (pre-school to 6th grade)—their own Gracepoint Live with singing, dancing, and amazing feats of verse memorization as they celebrate the real meaning of Xmas.

JCC is an all-out community effort as it takes our whole church to write scripts, manage and coach the kids in acting, sew costumes, make and move props, do fancy lighting and sound, give rides, cook food, and much more. There's nothing like it. Come and share this ultra-memorable time for not just the kids, but for all of us as well!

Some other news to note:

• Please remember that this Sunday's worship service will start at 1pm to accomodate JCC.
• Sign up now for our annual annual Winter Retreat to get the early bird discount. It'll be the first weekend after school starts (1/23-1/25).
  
  The winter retreat is the spiritual highlight of our whole year so I don't want any of you to miss out! They are always refreshing times of bonding with each other and hearing powerful messages and testimonies from students and staff alike as we prepare ourselves spiritually for the new year.
• If you want to help paint Sierra Barn, there's a workday this Saturday (12/13). You can sign up online.
• The sophomore discipleship retreat is 1/13-1/15. Sign up online.

That's it for now. Good luck on all your finals! You may see us sometime this week for a little surprise to encourage you in your studies. :)

Thanksgiving Celebration at Gracepoint Fellowship Church: Read Your Bible!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Just in case you were tempted to forget about our performance last week, here it is so you can relive it once again. I'm so thankful that many of you got to participate in this memorable Thanksgiving Celebration and experience the rich community we have here at Gracepoint.

And here's some more videos from different performances:

Praxis: Scary Green Guys
Element: Planet Earth Teens, the Musical
a2f Gold: Under Pressure!