Packing. Moving. These are dreadful words. Over the past 6 years, I've moved 7 times, and trust me, those are dreadful words. But this wasn't just a house or an apartment, but our very own church building, fondly known to us as Alcatraz, the street on which it resides. It's hard to imagine packing an 8000 square-foot building, filled with twenty-five plus years of history, in one day, but we did it.

It was an amazing gathering. The remnants, those whose family were too far away to visit on the short 4-day weekend or those who simply couldn't make the trek to wherever home may be, readily stepped foot, bright and early, 9am when most of the world was either out scavenging the sales for deals or sleeping off the turkey dinner, we were there ready to work. Ready to pack, box, tape, cook, clean out, empty out... First, we rooted ourselves in our daily Bible reading, and then eagerly looked at the spreadsheets with our assignments nicely posted, our stomachs filled with Noah's Bagels, orange juice, and coffee all prepared for us.

By lunch, we were all starving... the dozen boxes of Costco pizza magically appeared, we scarfed it all down and scurried back to work. Even the youth children, gladly posted signs for their innovative box factory, taping boxes for all the aunties and uncles. Those from Davis and SF came all the way to help pack. Neat labels with Box ___ of ___ and Contents; inventorying each item as we packed away...Kelly reminding us we don't want to come back tomorrow.

Chris, one of the older guys, was atop of the container of trash, and many more guys infiltrated the storage space beneath the building, pulling out Dewalt drills, saws, paint thinners, long pieces of wood, and who knows what. It would be pointless to put everything we just organized back under the building, Ben made a few calls and in a short-time we had a U-haul in front of our building. Sue and Judy quickly gathered our junk to sell, only to give it all away in the closing hours before dark. Jeannie with a new spreadsheet of the various member's open garages throughout Alameda for possible storage space before the move next weekend. Esther and crew making delicious soup that just hits the spot after a long day of packing.

By the end of the day, the center of each room was filled with boxes, stacked neatly atop of each other. Pastor Ed's office alone had 38 boxes and this is the smallest room in all of Alcatraz.

Now a year later almost, we're in our new building at North Loop, again, moved, unpacked and settled in by everyone doing what little we can, pushing through dust and fatigue to make our church what it is, more than just a building, but a place where we can all call home.

G-Live was a snapshot of our church in action for me. What moved me the most was to see every single person from our church coming together to make this event possible. It wasn’t just a one department endeavor. There was the background and invisible work of CSUEB, feeding us 3 meals a day plus non-stop snacks all throughout our practices. Then there were Praxis members ironing all the costumes, SF Campus keeping security watch over the premise and our belongings, the faithful brothers who stood on Telegraph and Stuart just directing foot traffic.

As costumes managers for the freshman skit, Jenn and I gathered from our church members close to 300lbs of clothing. After this experience we knew who had what size jacket blazers, who owns size 10 women's shoes, bright green polos, plaid shirts and overalls. Some people turned in half their own wardrobes. We gathered neckties in every single color, shoes of all sizes, and created spreadsheets upwards of 10 pages long for the costume needs of just one 30-minute skit. All the preparation required a lot of hard work, late nights, and stress but the end-product was two electrifying evenings that made everything well-worth it. When I saw the Willard Jr. Middle School auditorium transformed into a mini-theatre and witnessed the script actually being delivered and unfold, I was shocked that we were together attempting this immense production. As the seniors closed the night with their finale song, I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I was thankful beyond words. Yes, I was thankful for all the details coming together and working out, for the great performance, for all the fellowship and hilarious fun we had working together, for the memories that we made. But more than all this, I was thankful that I have a living God who has given me a riveting message of life and joy that we can all sing about, dance about, lose weeks of sleep over, make a great fuss and stand in the burning limelight to tell the world about. At the end, it struck me that if I did all this 100 times over, even still God would be deserving of so much more. G-Live was to me a miniature picture of how our life can be -- that when I give every single thing I have to God, God takes that little piece and somehow works it into his tapestry. God can receive what I offer and do something beautiful with it. The end result will stretch beyond my imagination and reflect His glory to others.

The staff of CSUEB Koinonia had the privilege of preparing food for the hundreds of college students involved in Gracepoint Live. We spent entire Saturdays leading up to G-Live, as well as the days of the performances, making sure the students were well fed (and boy can they EAT!). Each of us were constantly on the move - setting up tables and canopies, washing fruit, making coffee, replenishing drink coolers of water, OJ, lemonade and iced tea. We scattered across the Bay area in teams to pick up Vietnamese sandwiches from Oakland and Hayward, 100 boxes of pizza from the Richmond and San Leandro Costcos, numerous coolers full of hot meatballs from various church members’ homes in Alameda, boxes upon boxes of apples and pears from Oakland Chinatown, and much more.

Through this experience I learned a valuable lesson about the body of Christ as described in 1 Corinthians 12:12 - " The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body." We didn’t have a more front-end role in G-Live, but I realized I was playing a role in working with others to make it happen, even if my role went unnoticed in the eyes of most. For the students to have consistently delivered their lines with gusto throughout the long days of rehearsals, they needed our provision of three square meals, along with an endless supply of snacks and drinks. It was rewarding to see the smiling faces of the students at the sight of food prepared for them; when one student picked up an apple, she commented, "Wow. You even washed it for us? Awwww." I am truly grateful for the opportunity I had to give my all to serve the students and honor God’s name. Despite the immense fatigue I felt afterwards, serving on the food prep team was quite a memorable and rewarding experience.

Exodus 38:21-31 Every material used for the tabernacle was meticulously recorded and examined for accounting. What can I learn about how I ought to spend my life, time, money and energy as a Christian? Am I good steward of the resources provided by the church?

Seeing from this text how the people gave lavishly, freely and spontaneously all their resources to build the tabernacle, I am reminded of our church in action. As we're raising funds through Element Café for the youth and various other ways, I see how similar this picture is to the members of our congregation again. Week after week, our youth are there selling coffee, and sure enough, there are people who continue to purchase from Element Café regardless of the same old pastries we sell every week. They come, and they continue to support the youth generously and freely. though they are free to purchase better pastries and better coffee down the street each morning, they come and tell me, even almost apologetically, "Oh man, I almost forgot about Element Cafe this morning and almost went to Mudrakers today. I'm so glad i remembered to come here." Or others will say, "I'm so glad you have this cafe now. Now i can spend my money here and better yet, know that it's going to help support the youth." The deliberate effort people have made to support our youth every morning, the willingness of everyone to help out and purchase whatever we sell; this is something that our youth should not take for granted from the members of our congregation. They need to see the generous giving our members do to support each and one of them, not only from Element Café, but through the various fundraisers we've done the past 3 years. From all the Sunday lunches, to the yard sales, to the Italian sodas, to smoothies, to even helping the youth recycle, they have helped support the youth so much and as long as we continue to have mission trips for youth, these fundraisers are never ending! I don't think our youth realize how rare it is that they have so much support from such a young congregation as us.

January 28. This was going to be the first and the last chance I got to visit Joyland before we launch two worship services. Starting from February, Joyland time would coincide with the 1st service, in which my current ministry group would join. So I had to visit Joyland before that happens. My heart was eager to see how much it has changed.

I was once a teacher when Joyland was just starting to blossom into an exciting ministry at our old Alcatraz building. There was so much joy in serving our children, teaching them about God, and working with all the teachers. These fond memories really got me excited at the thought of visiting the "new and improved" Joyland at Willard school gym.

So with much anticipation, I literally counted my days until that Sunday. And as soon as I stepped into Joyland, I couldn't believe my eyes. Wow! So much room and so many kids! A brand new stage with lighting, much enhanced back drops and stage props! I just couldn't believe that this was a school gym. What about praise? It was rocking. I felt so old because I couldn't keep up with all the cool moves. And the whole crew of people in the back doing sound and other techy stuff, multiple tables set up for registration and ride coordination, and just the amount of food for the children! Friendly faces and so much joy… well ok, that hasn't changed…But remembering the old days of Joyland, I couldn't help but thank God for his goodness. It was truly an awesome experience witnessing the growth of Joyland and seeing our children being bathed with God's love through all the teachers and volunteers. I look forward to all that God will do through this precious ministry in the years to come.