kairos 1 @ berkeley - gracepoint fellowship church

Hello everyone,

Here is what's happening tomorrow at Kairos 1.

We will have Intermurals at Wood Middle School as usual, 6:30 - 8pm. Then dinner and Bible study at my place. Afterwards, we will have Eugene & Cynthia join us for a time of some fellowship at Planet Crepes (a frozen yogurt place nearby)!!

For Bible Study, we will cover Isaiah 40. Many of you have been doing Daily Devotions through this chapter, so please be ready to share your insights and realizations :) Also, we will be having a memory verse contest every week from now on. We will cover last weeks and I am going to give you this weeks. Please start now if you can :)

Memory Verses

I can't believe I haven't got the chance to post about this yet. We are approaching the third week of Summer Intramural, possibly one of the most exciting events this summer. Want to know how exciting it is? Just look at this highlight reel...

Hi!

I hope everyone's enjoying the great summer sun so far! For us Bay Area folks, it looks like we're back to the normal 68-70 degree day-weather. Hope you so-cal folks are survivin'!

I just came back this Tuesday from the Sierras after a one night stay at the Sierra Lodge for something called Bible Teacher's Training (BTT). There at our Sierra Lodge, Pastor Ed Kang and Kelly Kang helped shape some of the younger staff into the beginnings of Bible teachers. I had a blast as we arrived Sunday night and rose early the next day to start our very first session of Bible training. We were given a prompt and about 30 minutes to prepare a 5-minute talk. After that, we would embed the text from the Bible to substantiate our message. As we received constructive feedback from Pastor Ed, some of us were also blessed by each other's messages. Man! Who knew Yang's talk on monkeys could be so meaningful! When you see him around, ask him about that one. We also got to go to Spaulding Lake where we canoe-ed for about two hours. Rockin' fun!

My first message was on Luke 10 - the story of the Good Samaritan.

Waking up on the wrong side of bed, not having time to do DT, leaving the door late without that cup of coffee. Suddenly, time is all the more precious. You hold onto it tightly like Smeagol and his ring. It is my precious. Thereby, anyone or anything that causes that hiccup in your schedule becomes an obstacle or something you just want to jettison out of your way. How does each one of the characters in this story react when they see this badly beaten man, robbed and deserted on the side of the road? The priest and the Levite both pass by on the other side without a second look or a second thought. Perhaps they were thinking inside - today's a bad day for me, on any other day, maybe I would try to... or I have a whole load of stuff to do today, how could I possibly right now, right here? Or perhaps they were genuinely kind-hearted, but couldn't quite let go of some sort of agenda. I want to help but...

The Samaritan, however, stops... takes a glance at the man, sees someone hurting. So he gives up his time, and what more his oil and wine (considered precious in that day), his donkey, his money for an inn for that man to rest. He doesn't just help this man up, he steps out of any kind of comfort zone, does all this without having been asked. This is exactly how God picks us up - He gives us His time, His heart, and ultimately His Son. God asks us to exemplify that character in our daily lives whether it be to that classmate or co-worker who looked down, or that roommate who needed someone to talk to. But what about that final exam I have tomorrow? Should I?

How are we like the priest or the Levite? Steering clear of any precarious situation. Or has any one of us been like that beaten and broken man who was left to die or fend for himself when someone took that initiative to pick you up from the side of the road? What are some things that are hindering us from going all out and loving the people in our lives? Or recognizing that brokenness in us and personalizing the examples we've seen in our lives so that we may be like that Samaritan? What are some ways we're holding back and passing up on the opportunities to share in God's vision? I think if we can pick up something from the story of the Good Samaritan, we can really focus on others, and our hearts would grow for the hurting and the lost around us.


-Ernie

Sunday Worship Mixlist

As some of you may know, there has been incidents of over 800 fires throughout northern california. It has even threatened our Sierra Lodge. But thankfully, SL was not damaged. Here is some sharing from Kelly Kang (Pastor Ed's wife, for someone of you who do not know) regarding the fire.

http://acts2fellowship.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/sharing-from-kelly-kang/

The following is what I (James) have experienced from participating in the 30 Hour Famine:

Fasting has never been my thing. In fact, I have never fasted before, and the last thing I would plan to do is to give up food for any purpose. Food is simply too important to me. I understood the tragedy of the 15,000 children dying because of hunger everyday. I prayed for God to help them. But I agreed to do the 30 Hour Famine with Kairos brothers and sisters with the attitude that fasting would not help the starving children in any way. On Friday night before our fasting was to begin, I stuffed myself at dinner to the point that I couldn't possibly eat anymore, thinking to myself that this should at least last me a while. The next morning I woke up with my stomach growling. "Oh no," were the first two words that came out of my mouth that morning. We got to North Loop at around 10 am, and we spent some time doing saturation reflection on Psalm 32 before we started working on various projects at North Loop. Tai was helping out with the Compassion Wall, which contains photos of the Compassion children that our church sponsors. I got to help Jammy Yang build a door for the storage in the back. Tony, Robert Kim from Kairos 2, and some other brothers were building a step for the stage. I was able to help them out with that too towards the end when they were near finishing with the project. We ended our hard work at about 4:30 pm. Time flew by fast, and if it hadn't been for those work, I probably wouldn't be able to continue with the fast.

After we left North Loop, as Kairos, we went together to see the exhibit called Step Into Africa, where we were able to personally experience what a child's life is like living in Africa. We learned that HIV-AIDS has taken so many precious lives in that continent. Many kids grow up in children-headed households as a result of their parents killed by AIDS. Many of them live without shelter and without food. Reflecting back on the environment that we live in, we are very privileged compared to them. Same as people created in God's image, we don't deserve anything that we own as much as they do. I complain about the sudden change in weather, when it gets too cold I'm not happy, when it gets too hot I get lazy, failing to realize that some of these children in Africa sleep through storms with nothing but a thin sheet of straw mat and a few layers of banana leaves. The Step Into Africa experience definitely gave me a new perspective on life.

We spent the rest of the night at Andy's place. Some of us played Bang, some played Settlers, some tried to study, and some people, including our very own Yang, helped with preparing food that we will be eating to break our fast on Sunday morning. They really sacrificed because while they were cooking the food they couldn't taste any of it, they were that committed to carrying on with the fast. Brother slept over at Ken Chu's apt and the sisters spent the night at Andy and Amy's place.

We woke up at around 6:15 Sunday morning. As I was brushing my teeth, I kept thinking about the delicious breakfast that Yang and the sisters have prepared for us. I thought to myself that I had never been up this early and still very happy about it. Just then a voice spoke to me and told me that while my fasting hours can be counted, many children wake up from who-knows-how-long without food, and there is still uncertainty in whether or not they will be eating anything before the sun goes down that day. It hit me hard. The joy of anticipation for a delicious breakfast quickly vanished. A short glimpse of famine had only been 30 hours for me, but for others it can mean days, weeks, it's part of their life, and it dictates whether or not they will live to see another day. I was right. Fasting for 30 hours didn't do much to help the starving children in Africa, but instead it helped me understand how fortunate I am, and how I should be grateful for everything that I have, and that everything is given to me by my Father in Heaven, who is always providing for me.

On a lighter note, in the morning when the sisters were about to heat up the breakfast that they prepared the night before, Grace instructed: "Let's set the stove on fire." Good thing we didn't follow her advice. We were able to enjoy some gourmet chicken noodle soup and Chinese porridge with shredded pork (or fish) and thousand-year-old eggs. Also if you haven't had a chance to watch WALL-E yet, it's a really great movie. It touches on the lies and vice of consumerism, which is kind of related to the whole 30 Hour Famine thing.

Yes, yes... it's finally here.

Our one month fast for June 2008! As mentioned earlier, a few of us each shared our 1 month commitment last Friday that would help us be both mentally and physically disciplined. This includes a wide range of commitments from videogaming to sweets to.... PUNS! By doing this together and keeping each other accountable, we can make the most of this one month and acknowledge that we are indeed not governed by these things. (I don't know about the puns one though, I'd have to say it's usually pretty edifying ;) )

Also, as I post this, I want to ask that you guys keep me in your prayers as I will be heading off to Cambodia in less than one week and serving at Life University for 2 weeks with a wonderful team of about 30 members led by Tony Sun. This is a view of Angkor Wat from 2007, one of the main tourist attractions in Cambodia. It was once a very powerful temple, but is now in ruins and open to the public for touring.

As I have been to this country once before, please pray for a continued life-changing experience that will jolt and challenge me as I return 2 weeks later. Let's also remember to keep Hung in our prayers as he heads off to Honduras in about a month. Kairos 1, continue ROCKing! ooh yeah!


Here's our team! Cambodia 1 Mission Team 2008!