In the book of Nehemiah, 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.

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!

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. 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!

I had the privilege this past year of serving with a group of faithful brothers and sisters in the Sunday church bulletin team. For this past year, the bulletin team consisted of members from various ministries from our church: Hubert and Jae from the International Student Ministry, Frances from the Praxis ministry, and me and occasionally my wife Carmen from the College ministry. Even though we are from different departments of this church and each had our own load of ministry and other responsibilities, we experienced a special "joy" and bond working as a team this past year, as we have been learning to be stretched by God in various ways on a weekly basis.

It is kind of a misnomer to call us the "bulletin team," because we are not responsible for the design of the Sunday bulletins. Rather, the bulletin team merely receives the design from the Publication Czar (aka Carmen Hsu) who produces the images (with her team of talented graphic designers: Mary and Ernie). The bulletin team just prints the bulletins. Sounds easy, right?

Here are our simple tasks: After the bulletin team receives the approved images, we format the images on an Adobe Illustrator template and then update the Sunday service information for that week. When all the information and images are updated and ready to go, we press the "Print" button on the keyboard, and then -- begin praying that for the next two hours or so, the printing will go smoothly and the printers will not jam.

Because of the frequent jamming of the printers, as well as other assorted issues related with printing, such as ink smears, breakdown of the computer network, etc., the printing takes about two to three plus hours or more per one side of the bulletin. Often we need to experiment with different printers and different paper feeds on the printer in order to avoid jamming and other printer issues.

Due to the various complications described above, I often find myself printing the church bulletins late on Friday night at North Loop. These times actually turn into a sweet time of meeting other people at North Loop who are still hard at work at the wee hours of the night. I bumped into Pastor Ed more than a couple of times on a Friday night in the wee hours, seeing him preparing for a retreat or wedding message for the next day. Once I was able to fellowship with my good friend Andy, who was still up preparing for the Impact Spring Fest he was in charge of the next morning. On that particular night, Andy actually took out a screwdriver and helped me fix the Canon printer, even though he was incredibly busy (Thanks Andy!). There were other times in which I was able to witness members of the video team staying up producing videos, and brother peer groups staying up to prepare wedding reception acts for one of their peers, trying to figure out silly dance moves with their eyes barely open. When I saw that there are many people around me giving it their all to serve God, and love people, it dawned upon me that I am really blessed to have many around me who set good examples for me in giving their all to God, and that I, too, should learn to give it my all in this seemingly mundane task of printing bulletin programs.

Again, I am so thankful to be a part of Gracepoint that has faithful members giving it their all....even on a Friday night. Thank you! Bulletin Team--we had a great year!!

My college friends and I spent 4 days last week in Austin so that we could encourage our GFC Austin team and help out with whatever needed to be done. Little did I realize that our short time there would end up being like a mini summer mission trip.

The night before, we packed supplies for the Austin team including Welcome Table items, aluminum trays, books, and a brand new 20 cup rice cooker that they would use for TFN dinners. We landed on Wednesday... and went directly to the campus, where we got a quick tour, did a prayer walk around the campus, and began meeting students: in the cafeteria and on the basketball court. On Thursday, we did a prayer walk, met students in the cafeteria, and then hosted a 5-on-5 tournament at the UT Austin Rec Center. The finale: a Texas vs. California all-star game! On Friday, we spent time on campus and then helped with all of the setup and preparation for the Korean BBQ dinner and TFN Bible study.

Somewhere in between all of this, we helped our Austin team shop at Walmart, Target, a Mexican meat market for the BBQ, and Home Depot. Andy, Tony, and Ming built an A-frame that is not only functional and easy to use, but also aesthetically quite pleasing. Conrad redesigned the GFC Austin website, flyers, and created an A-frame painting/color scheme. Brian edited the Koinonia slideshow. Tony and Jacob became temporary members of the praise band. We helped with food prep, labeled sound equipment, and more. I even got a chance to look over the legal paperwork for Austin. One of my friends remarked, "I felt like we did more here in a day than we did in a week in Berkeley!" We all felt that way.

But at the same time, it wasn't all work. We got to see God's heart for this campus as we met many students who opened up to us, especially over basketball. We got to see the students who first came to our Bible study and Sunday service. Not just a few... but 12 people! And we also saw just how much the gospel is needed there... UT is one of the top party schools in the nation, but the partying also leaves behind a trail of victims. Pastor Manny's research revealed that drug and alcohol related issues were rampant there. We felt our hearts going out for the campus, and the friendly people that we met--seemingly at random, but with a hope that they would discover the love of God for themselves one day. I left Austin tired... but also so excited and hopeful at what God can do through our church there.

Since I've joined our CSUEB Koinonia college ministry, I've experienced the privilege of giving all my effort and energy for God. I remember we would start working on our publications stuff after prayer meeting and work all night to crank out our fliers and brochures. On Fridays I would go into work early so that afterwards I could make it on campus to setup our sound equipment for our Bible study's praise time. Before joining CSUEB Koinonia, I honestly didn't know much about Photoshop, or about the mechanics of sound equipment and setup; but now I see how my efforts are being used by God for ministry, and I'm so thankful that God can use me in these ways. I am always inspired by my leaders and the other staff in our ministry group because their hard work compels me to give the same. Ultimately, I realize that God is always at work and I can't slow down. I am thankful that I can spend my time and energy for God, and encouraged by all the faithful people I see around me giving their all as well.

When I stop to think about it, so much of the world says that I shouldn't give it all in anything that I do. The key to happiness is supposed to be in living a "balanced" life—a life dedicated to pleasing ourselves and not giving ourselves fully to anything, lest we actually end up becoming passionate and care deeply about anything that we do. Thus, in the eyes of the world, it doesn't make much sense that working professionals—at a time when we could be climbing that corporate ladder or settling down with their nuclear families—would choose to pack up their bags, leave their lives of familiarity and comfort, and plant a new church hundreds of miles away from beloved family and friends. But, that's exactly what a group of our church members have decided to do—to plant a new church in Austin, TX.

For the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the farewell, so many people stayed up late nights working on videos, creating picture frames and scrapbooks, buying and wrapping gifts, and practicing songs and dances. Why would people do such a thing? Why would we stay up late with our friends or about a hundred people wake up before the crack of dawn to send off the missionaries at the local airport? It is so we could honor the mission team members that had given it all for God and had touched so many lives through our church. Not many of them owned a home or drove eye-catching cars or became hotshots at their workplace, but their passion, their sacrifice, their generosity has left an indelible mark in the cultural fabric of our church. We give it all because of God's faithfulness in our lives and to encourage our Austin team as we send them off to be a part of a watershed moment in the history of our church—our first domestic church plant as part of Gracepoint.

Watch Video

Manny and Sunny Farewell Video

 

When we arrived, we took a picture at the airport, christening the arrival of our presence in the city of Austin, and then we hit the ground running. A few friends came along to help out with the move, and over the next three days, we took time off from our normal schedules and unloaded, assembled, and moved in furniture from two gigantic shipping containers, went shopping at over five different locations, cleaned and settled into four different houses, had memorable times of fellowship around good Texas food, and visited the sites for our Friday night Bible studies and Sunday Worship Service, and had our very first team prayer for the UT-Austin campus. In the eyes of the world, not much of what happened over those days made much sense, for people could have easily went through a life of just work or school and come home to plop down in their favorite spot and enjoy their favorite activity after a long day and repeat the same cycle over again. But, from the eyes of God, it was a beautiful sight of the church in action, of stepping out of our comfort zone and for the team, to take these steps of faith and obedience to God so that more people could come to know the saving grace of Jesus. For the team, perhaps the setting may have changed, and the weather definitely changed, but the one thing that did not change was their passion for God and their desire to serve God, wherever He may lead.