Raising the Walls — Sierra Barn Construction

Recently I have been going up to Gracepoint Fellowship Church’s property in the Sierras to help with the construction of our new retreat/camp site. I wanted to give everyone an update, as well as a feel for the work, so here’s an excerpt that I wrote up for “Life at Gracepoint,” a section of our church website that highlights the core values of our church. Feel free to check out the other entries there as well!!

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“In the book of Nehemiah (from the Bible that is), the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and its gates were destroyed by fire. Filled with anguish over the city, Nehemiah rallied the people to overcome their fears and doubts and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 52 short days. The process included all the people, men and women, rich and poor, nobles and peasants, working side by side, building by day and defending the city by night, in order to complete the project. And this picture of unity, shared vision, and personal sacrifice for the honor of God has been the paradigm for which the church has been called to imitate throughout history.

Day 1: We're carrying the walls into place on the first floor

And while I would never claim to know exactly how the people felt when they accomplished this tremendous task, I think God gives us hints of such things when we come together as a church to work toward a single goal that requires self denial. I have felt this way when involved with reaching out to the Berkeley campus, I have tasted this through our ImpACT program, and I have experienced this through compassion ministries. But recently, I felt this way in an unlikely place while engaged in an unlikely task: the building of our Sierra “Barn” walls!

All the tools were laid out on 7 tables and throughout the floor!!

While we completed the construction of our Sierra lodge last year, which has hosted numerous retreats, ministry outings, fellowship times, and bible teacher training sessions, the need to build another structure that could hold 150-200 people for a retreat was clear. After much prep work had been put in by Pastor Jonathan, of our Waypoint Church in Davis, Pastor Ed, and others, the call went out for some brothers to strap on utility work belts, wield hammers, load nail guns, and handle power tools.

After a few emails detailing the work, all the full-time staff at our church, some of the unemployed brothers, and guys who sacrificed vacation days at work, droved 3 hours to our beautiful land in the Sierras to build what we coined the “Barn”. Not to be outdone by the brothers, an army of sisters, headed by Kelly and the full-time sister staff, went to the house to prepare meals for us and develop small group materials for our entire church!! Everyone worked 10-12 hour days, starting with DT in the morning, breaking for a delicious home-cooked lunch, and ending after dark with dinner.

Day 2: Finishing up the first floor by lifting in place a 800lb wood beam with our Grad-all fork lift.

Day 3: Our final full-sized wall!! What a sense of accomplishment and joy!!

After each day, all the guys were a bit more tanned, a lot more sore, and a whole lot more joyful as we saw the walls going up and the floor being laid. At the end of 4 full days of work and some additional help from our praxis department, we had the entire frame of the large house erected and ready for the roofers to come in. But more than a sense of accomplishment, we experienced bonding between everyone who worked tirelessly and gave it there all with the vision that this house would one day be a place of joy, laughter, some crying, and important decisions for many people at our church.

As we hope to complete the barn by December, I’m thankful to have been part of the crew that could raise the walls on this barn. We will all have memories of how this house was built many times faster, and with a bit fewer mistakes, than our last house. It is so true that when the church comes together and people are willing to sacrifice for the sake of a shared vision, we can do great things!”

Day 4: How much gatorade is consumed after 1 day of work? Just look at the trashcan.

Mini-Golfin’ Photos Now Online

 Last week, Andy (or was that Michelle?) trash-talked in saying that he was — and I quote — “the Tiger Woods of this game.” On Friday, he proved he was… right! With an incredible score of 49, he would’ve made Mr. Woods proud of him. Runner-ups — and correct me if I’m wrong (by commenting!), I’m doing this completely off from hearsay — are Austin (50), Robert (52), and Peter Zhang (54). Unfortunately, I forgot that the object of the game was to get a lower score… had it been the other way around, I would’ve won big time!

 

Anyways, I’ve attached a few highlight photos from the night. Feel free to view the rest of them.

Amy going for the winning shot...

Had Austin been under one of those structures in a real game, Andy might not have won

...

Michelle's being a hater

Deep down, Ron really enjoyed doing this

This Week at Kairos 2

1. College Mission Night
(Friday 9/26, 7pm @ 1st Pres)

In lieu of our regular Kairos 2 Bible study, we will be combining with the other college campus fellowships at Gracepoint Fellowship Church for a college mission night where we will hear testimonies from this summer’s mission trips! We will also hear about some upcoming mission trip opportunities–be sure to join us! We will meet for dinner at 5:30pm, locations TBD.

*UPDATE: Dinner for Sisters- meet at 5:30pm in front of Asian ghetto/Durant Square

for Brothers- meet at 5:30pm in front of Kips

2. “Monday through Saturday” at Gracepoint (SWS) and Baptism
*Followed by: Gracepoint Open House and BBQ Lunch
(Sunday 9/28, 1:30pm @ Willard Middle School)
Join us for our Sunday Worship Service as we start a new message series titled “Monday through Saturday.” As always, we will provide walk groups and pick ups from the dorms. In addition, right after service we will have “Gracepoint Open House” (this will be the perfect opportunity to find out more about our church and all the different ministry groups!) and a special baptism service. Hope you can join us!

3. Sign up for your DT Journal now!
If you are interested in pre-ordering a Devotion Time Journal, please be sure to sign up ASAP! Deadline: Wed 9/24 11:59pm. Cost: $7 for journal with writing space, $3 for journal without writing space.

A midsummer night scavenger hunt

2040 hours, Friday, September 12, 2008– After our weekly Bible study, Kairos 1 and Kairos 2 gathered at headquarters: 213 Wheeler, to receive our mission for the night. Commander Sue, our beloved staff from Kairos 1, told us there were exquisite treasures hidden around the campus, treasures that have been guarded carefully through the century; but when the clock strikes 0930 hours, the dreadful tree monster from across the bay would come and steal them. So we dispatched 7 teams of our best agents to decode the locations and retrieve these treasures. The clock was ticking and each team was given the codes and one camera to record the process for history’s sake.

Team Michelle posing for added effect!

As soon as the teams received the instructions, some teams took off at supersonic speed to their locations. My team, however, “Team Michelle”, and a few other teams employed a different strategy by staying behind to decode the locations first and plan our route. As each agent scanned their memory bank for answers to clues like “stone felines”, “Jurassic creature”, my team realized we’re not very observant people because although we had seen the different locations daily we could not remember their names nor details.

Team Abe doing their best impression of T-Rex

However, when Team Michelle decided to take off after decoding most of the clues, we realized one of our strongest agents had sprained his ankle the past week in an NBA try-out. But that did not discourage our spirits, as we ran (or limped) as fast as we could to our first location–the Zellerbach Playhouse. 

Team Amy living out their childhood dreams; and Mike trying to save his arm!

We visited locations rich in history such as the freedom circle on Upper Sproul and reminisced Mario Savio, hero of the Free Speech Movement. When we were tired, we decided to visit Ramona’s Cafe where we grabbed delicious paninis for lunch. Then we rushed off in the other direction to Durant Hall where two large stone lions guarded the entrance. After petting the stone lions, we returned to Jurassic times and took pictures with our friend, T-Rex… well, what remains of him at least. After 25 minutes and 14 seconds of physical and mental challenge, Team Michelle still had one location to be decoded. Due to doubtful and perhaps lazy group members, we decided to take a classic picture of a “3-pointer”. You can’t get any clearer than that!

Team Jessica running out of time in front of the lawn clock near the Chancellor's house

As we confidently returned to headquarters, we realized we were one of the last teams to return (Only ahead of Team Grace who returned one minute before the deadline). However, as we debriefed and chortled over our silly pictures, Commander Sue reassured us that we had all successfully found the treasures: memories of a beautiful campus captured in silly pictures with our friends. These are treasures the Tree monster can never take away. And we ended an eventful night with smiles on our faces knowing another mission had been accomplished.

This team got the clue wrong and went to the sundial instead of the clock. It didn't get them any points, but it sure does make for a good picture for Kairos!

Wanna see more pictures from our scavenger hunt or get them in high res? Check out our Picture Gallery.

This Week at Kairos 2

1. Weekly Bible Study & Mini-Golf!
     (Friday 9/19, 6:30pm @ 213 Wheeler)
Join us for our weekly bible study as we go through the book of Genesis. As always, dinner will be provided!

UPDATE: Afterwards, we will be going Mini-golfing!! Did I mention that I’m the Tiger Woods of this game of 5% skill and 95% luck?

2. Gracepoint Fellowship Church Sunday Service, Berkeley
     (Sunday 9/21, 1:30pm @ Willard Middle School)
Check out our church website for information on walk groups and pick up locations from dorms!

SF Spectacular Trip (9/6/08)

   Wow, what a trip! And what a way to come be welcomed at Cal!  For me, SF was like squeezing that last little bit of fun juice before having to trudge back to school, homework, and professors with funny accents.  I’m pretty sure my favorite part of the whole trip was naming our car “The Poachers” after everyone had used animal names.  I don’t know about you guys, but by the time we got home our entire car was basically snoring.  With all the awesome fellowship and fun, I guess we needed to catch some ZZZ’s.  From going up to Battery Park and overseeing the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, eating some tasty Chowder bowls and wearing redonculous (ree-dohn-cue-less) hats, I had a great day and I hope ya’ll did too!  Ooh..and we can’t forget about the day’s finale…so growing up around the Bay Area, I thought I knew all about earthquakes…that is, until we travelled to the wonderful and somemaysay-magical land of Ghirardelli Square!  If you don’t know already, The Earthquake is that huge plate covered obscene amounts of ice cream that you might have disturbedly watched a bunch of guys swallow down…ok fine, I was one of them. What can I say? I love ice cream!!! But there’s more! Even though I had a great time sight seeing, I also had a great time hanging out with all my friends and getting to know the new ones even better!  If you havn’t been out to an event like this yet, go ahead! Sign up! I want to get to know you!!  

…did I mention I like ice cream?

Super Saturday SF Spectacular!

 Coming home from the exciting Kairos 2 Kick-off & Bible Study, we all went home and eagarly slept right away in preparation for the next day. And while that might not be true for the most of us, I’m sure it was for some.

Meeting at Crossroads at 10:30 AM we piled into 5 different cars. The names of the cars were Kumba, the Lion Slayers, the Poachers, Elephant Stampede and, of course, the best car, Mufasa.  (Disclaimer: Author may have slight bias in writing this article). There was some difficulty in getting out of Berkeley, as it is exteremely difficult for all 5 cars to make it through any given traffic signal, but, having all gotten out of Berkeley, we crossed the beautiful Richmond Bridge over to Battery Park. Now allow me to digress a little as I had the special priviledge of being in the car that took a special tour of Sausalito.

Mufasa’s navigator, a very awesome navigator who shall remain nameless, was once again reminded of his ability to make errors as he mistook Andy’s comment about the Outback steakhouse as a cue to exit. Going along what appeared to be the right way, Mufasa took a 5 minute tour of Sauaslito before starting to feel qualms about going deeper and deeper. Mufasa eventually made it back on track to the road and was met with a group that had pretty much took in all that they could of the magnificent view from Battery Park, but what a view it was! From Battery Park you could see the Boats, Alcatraz, a boat dock, SF, the Pacific Ocean, the Bay Bridge in the distance, and oh yeah, the Golden Gate Bridge! Along with the clear skies and the Golden Gate Bridge, there was also a nice and refreshing breeze which was a relief from the sweltering heat wave that had been affecting Berkeley the previous week.

Kairos 2 pride at Battery Park

The gals line jumpin'

The line jump remixed

Straight from Battery Park, we headed over to the famous Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf where we went to Chowder’s and ate Clam Chowder in a Sourdough Bread bowl. Surprisingly, many people finished, and we have a picture to commemorate those who did! After eating out fill, who should drop in on us but Kairos 1! We walked over together to Krazy Kaps, the store where we tried on various silly hats, some of which looked distrubingly good and natural on us.

After taking many pictures, we headed over to Lombard St’s most famous quarter-mile section known as the windiest road (most crooked) in the world.  We had the opprotunity to drive down the EIGHT haipin turns at corning speeds that would shock NASCAR drivers, but with people like Michelle and Andy behind the wheel, we were all safe even while going the 5 miles per hour.  We took a picture at the bottom of the hill, showing that we were indeed more than conquerers of this monstrous path.

After spending a good amount of time looking for parking, we ended in Ghiradelli square. The hot day was perfect to enjoy some of the finest ice cream around and other savory sweets. Although not everyone got an Earthquake, sweets were in abundance and I know I gained like 5 pounds just eating that Ice Cream. Well, there you have it. Our SF Spectacular in a not-so-nutshelly-nutshell. I think that the weather, fun, fellowship and experience that we had, was definetely worth the wait.

 

Tim and David intensely discuss strategy in how to best devour their ice cream

The girls don't need no strategies to eat their ice cream

Great way to end the trip

Oh, when talking about the way, I was not talking about the long lines we had all day, I’m talking about the postponement from Labor Day to Saturday.

Shaved “Ice Breakers” Game Night

Better late than never! With pictures this great, how could I not put them up! Ok, I know this happened nearly 2 weeks ago, but there are some valuable lessons to be learned from our All-Kairos Shaved “Ice Breakers” game night. 

First Lesson: When forming teams for Jenga, you never want to have just the freshmen on one team. The result of doing so?

Freshmen doing 10 pushups after losing the first game of Jenga

Second Lesson: The upperclassman and staff should never underestimate the shakiness of their hands in their old age!

JENGA!! All the trash-talking from the upperclassmen and staff couldn't save them!

Third Lesson: You should always respect your elders.

Mercy: Letting the losing team substitute jumping jacks for pushup!

Forth Lesson: Know when the time is right to switch sides.

At just the right time, I switched teams and joined the freshmen. It just so happened that they won that game too... coincidence?

Bonus Shot:

The freshmen team very confident of victory

Kairos 2 Kick-Off & SF Spectacular Trip

I hope y’all enjoyed Monday off — I know I sure did. With the avalanche of events last week — from the New Student Welcome Nights to our sports time at Clark Kerr to the All-Kairos Shaved Ice Breakers — I’m so glad we got yesterday off! But enough about yesterweek, here’s what’s coming this week:

Kairos 2 Kick-Off (Fri 9/5)

This is how excited the sophomores are of Bible Studies. No, really!

Join us this Friday as we kick-start this semester with our first Kairos 2 Bible Study!  We’ll start the night off with free Hawaiian BBQ (it’s on the house because we like you guys). Afterwards, we’ll get into our Bible Study (led by Andy), and following that we’ll have some major game time. Awesome free food, awesome Bible Study (think that’s an oxymoron? Come check us out — we’ll have you think again!), and awesome games — that’s three back-to-back-to-back levels of awesomeness, all in one night… and for free! You won’t be disappointed! We’ll begin dinner at 6:30pm at 213 Wheeler.

SF Spectacular Trip (Sat 9/6)

As I’ve stated to great detail in my previous post, we’ll be heading out to San Francisco this Saturday. If you haven’t done so already, please SIGN UP! Again, we’ll be meeting in front of Crossroads at 10:30am.

Sunday Worship Service (Sun 9/7)

No, this isn't yet another NSWN -- it's our band up on stage on Sundays

Gracepoint Fellowship Church is the place many of us call our spiritual home, and we meet every Sunday afternoon at 1:15pm at Willard Middle School. Whether you’re a Christian looking for a church or a seeker wondering what Christianity is all about (or if you just want to see what church is like), feel free to drop on by! Let one of us know if you’re coming, because our usual Sunday attendance is well over 800, and we know what it’s like to be lost in the crowd (translation: it’s no fun).

Alright guys, hope you’re not too stressed out by school (yet)! As always, if you have any questions, give any of the staff or upperclassmen a call, or drop a comment below. See you later this week!