Life at Gracepoint

During our Taiwan Winter Mission Trip I learned what giving God my "five loaves and two fish" meant.

My prayer request was to be shown how I could contribute as a member of the body of Christ. I went in thinking I couldn’t do much. Being a fairly new Christian, I thought I still had much to learn and so wasn't ready to offer anything meaningful, but God showed me otherwise. During a time for basketball outreach, I decided to play tennis instead. Ben joined me, and we met a few students from the physics department playing tennis. Even though our conversations went well, we later learned that they'd probably be too busy to come out for Christmas Celebration. When the conversation started to die, and people began to leave, I began playing against one of their players. Meanwhile, Ben struck up a conversation with another player, named Larry (name changed to protect identity of the student). Apparently Larry was waiting and watching us play, and Ben seemed to be building a connection with him. Only when I finished playing did I actually meet Larry, but soon after meeting and chatting with him our group had to leave. When I walked away from the tennis courts, I was dejected. It seemed like everyone was too busy to come out.

During the Christmas Celebration I was apprehensive about who would show up. I couldn't help but search the crowds for a familiar face from outreach, but no one seemed to be there. Furthermore, after halfway through the show I became saddened by the people who turned to leave. When the show was over, we all headed out for snacks and discussion. Thinking I would just join some random group, I walked towards the snacks table when Larry saw and greeted me. I didn't really think he'd show up, let alone remember my name. But he was excited, stayed for the entire show, and willingly joined a discussion group afterwards. During the discussion group, I asked about how they felt about the skits. Larry opened up about how he connected because his parents went through a tough divorce, and he found sanctuary in computer gaming. When I heard this story, I was shocked because the story he just revealed to me seemed to echo my own personal background. I didn't think anyone would understand my background, but instead now was the opportunity for me to share a little of my testimony. We were both taken aback, and it really rung within me just how as humans, we have similar problems.

God took what I didn't even know I could use and used it. He took my background, my testimony, tennis fanaticism, and my moderate level of Chinese and used it to connect with others. He showed me what it really meant to present my “five loaves and two fishes”.

Joyland Christmas Celebration (JCC) was such a busy time and not just for Joyland teachers. Out of the woodworks came members from all different ministries to lend their hands for prop-making, kid control, actor coaching and all sorts of technical behind-the-scenes activity that was essential to the celebration. People turned out for our all day Saturday dress rehearsal and the following day’s rehearsals, last minute run-throughs, costume touch-ups, beautification, not to mention all of the food that sustained the kids and crews! And the crews seemed to keep growing as the days progressed. Wherever I took kids, there were all of these aunties and uncles that just appeared out of nowhere to keep the kids in line, quiet and entertained; all done lovingly, cheerfully and with fresh smiles! Life at Gracepoint is never dull and JCC is one event that takes the whole church to pull it off.

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.