Kairos W of Gracepoint Fellowship Church

Kairos Girls’ Sleepover at Amy’s House in Alameda:

ooh yum!

Sweet times:

Apply pie a la mode

shared among friends

around the kitchen table…

Written by Kairos W member, Jessie (sophomore)

After a good long dinner of meat loaf (seriously yummy stuff, Kairos should have cooking lessons for those of us who are unskilled in working a stove haha), salad (props to the person who made the sauce!), and rice (not your average white rice though but super yummy rice made with the love of our leaders), Kairos W began with intense Bible study led by one of our fierce and mighty leaders, Jenn the great. Haha just kidding, it wasn’t that intense, but it definitely was interesting studying John’s words narrating Jesus’ wrath when the villagers disrespected his father’s temple by making it a market.

Done with the serious work of exploring Christianity, Kairos W underwent our first exploration journey without a G.P.S. system in search of the bowling alley that all the other groups of Kairos found perfectly fine. I blame it on google maps. However, it was great bonding time as we drove back and forth on the San Rafael bridge and contributing to governmental funds by paying the toll twice in a row. No worries though, we were readily prepared with our Walgreen $0.05 coffee, expert map reader Yvonne, and pro-driver Jeanne so eventually we got to the bowling alley.

Kairos W showed our bowling potential with Jeanne leading the way and scoring more than 100 pts on our first game! Yvonne was not bad too, drastically improving from hitting one bowling pin to a 200% improvement of sometimes hitting TWO whole bowling pins! Our resident rally committee consisting of Jenn cheered everyone on and gave several well deserved high fives brought up team spirit. Tim, Debbie, and the two Richards were all graced by God with the ability to keep their bowling balls out of the gutter while Crissy, Samantha, Zach, and Christina were cursed by that one bowling pin that just refused to be knocked down.

After a day of fun and games while stuffing ourselves with the soda and chips provided at the bowling ally, we all said our goodbyes anticipating the next Kairos W trip (hopefully not as wasteful with gas as we were this time)!

KW @ the Y:

Happy boba customers:

Gearing up for fun @ Maxwell:

At Maxwell:

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I still can’t believe we built a lodge, financially and physically, as a church. And I’m so glad and grateful we did. We have had so many memories and relationship-building times there: relationship-building times with one another, and relationship-building times with God. What did this massive effort take? I wish I could recall all the details, but I can’t. I can only recall and recount the things that stuck out to me the most. First: our all-star pastoral team. One would think that most of the work was done by the church members while our pastoral team focused on preaching and their ministry work, but the truth is that all of our pastors, and full-time church staff, devoted themselves to building Sierra Lodge during the week in addition to their ministry duties. Kevin Han and another brother (both architects) laid out the plans for the house. In the early stages, Daniel would go up to Sierra Lodge alone, sleep in the camper that did not have any electricity, in the middle of the Sierras, in order to keep watch over our equipment. After different groups went up, Kevin Han and others would have to undo some of the mistakes our members made, and redo what they were supposed to do right the first time. In fact, our commemorative Sierra Lodge T-shirt says: “Who need skills when we can do it over.” =)

Pastor Ed and all of our other church staff, even staff brothers who took days “off” from work, would go up for a couple of days during the week, in order to maximize building time. I feel like Tim was almost always there (one of our Kairos leads)! I was especially taken aback when I went up to Sierra lodge for Bible Teachers’ Training, where Pastor Ed spent 2-3 days at a time with 6 different groups of people to train them to teach the bible more effectively. He concentrated as we each took turns giving bible study (3-4 hour sessions) and gave us gems of advice. And when we were done with training we went to work at Sierra lodge. He oversaw what needed to be done, and worked hard himself. When I was growing up, there were many times I watched my dad work hard on our house; my job was to bring him a cold drink once in a while. I remember feeling so loved when I saw my dad work in that way. I couldn’t help but feel the same way when I witnessed Pastor Ed and our staff work in the same way, for our larger church family, because they wanted this to be such a place of blessing for our church. They not only shelved out the cash necessary to build Sierra house, but applied their bodies to do the work, too. They worked the hardest, and set the example. During the weekends, different ministry groups would go up and work together. I remember putting the insulation in all the restrooms, nailing metal things to some really hard wood to secure the frame for the house, and shoveling dirt from one place to another. And now, once where there was nothing, stands our precious Sierra Lodge. Hope you can make it to our all-Kairos Sierra Lodge trip this weekend!

We took a trip out to the city after Bible study this Friday to enjoy live music from our singing waiters and eat some yummy appetizers & desserts (the 7-layer cookie sundae was my personal favorite)! Some of the things that made for a memorable evening: playing who’s “statue” is it?; going AROUND THE WORLD; sharing Popsicle jokes; playing Jell-o in the Clown Car =P.

This course gives an intellectual basis for answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about the Christian faith and addresses misconceptions about God, Jesus, and the Bible. Both those who have experience with Christianity and those just beginning to consider it will have the chance to explore how Christianity addresses questions about the meaning of life, our purpose, and the longings of our hearts.

Dates: Meets Wednesdays, Oct 1 - Nov 19
Time: 7-8:30pm (lecture + small group discussion)
Location: TBA (classroom on campus)
Assignments: 2 hours of reading per week

Sign up here: www.gracepointonline.org/course101

This past Friday the college department of Gracepoint Fellowship Church (Koinonia, Acts2Fellowship, Kairos) met together to listen to various testimonies of people who went on mission trips last summer. In total, 185 members of our church went to 6 different countries to share the gospel! They went to Taiwan, Honduras, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, and China.

In Cambodia, our team members taught various classes at Life University. There they played fun games with the students, fellowshipping and developing relationships, ranging from kindergarten students to nursing students! Cambodia is a nation in healing; it is haunted by the recent atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, haunted by its seedy sex-trafficking trade, where boys and girls as young as 4 or 5 years old are peddled. At the school and at various villages they visited, our team shared the gospel of hope, restoration and redemption through song, dance, skit, and messages. Though our team members had intended to encourage the Christians there, they found that they themselves were challenged and encouraged by the passionate and zealous young Christians they encountered at the university. Here is a snippet of what brother Chris Ko shared:

“I think I speak for all when I say that some of these students ended up encouraging us more than we did them. One student in particular named LH really encouraged me….He told me about his heart for God and he asked for spiritual guidance. This 16 year old put me to shame with his passion for the gospel. I’m so glad and thankful that I was able to build a relationship with him. I hope all that we did as a team, not just for LH, but for the rest of the Life University students were just as inspiring.”

We sent two teams to Honduras; both teams administered medical & dental care to local villagers, and one team administered medical care for the animals. They also participated in services that local pastors held. In one service, 500 people accepted Christ. While it was an amazing experience, and much good work was done, it was perhaps the lesson that sister Yanhui shared with all of us, a lesson that has become our own, that would characterize that trip. She shared about how she had had the wrong understanding of how to win people to Christ, and how she came to have a more biblical understanding: It requires a lot of work, heart, prayer, and effort, and it’s worth it because each person is so precious to God. Here is a snippet of her sharing:

“Luke 15, the DT text 2 weeks prior to that week, began to speak to me. I was amazed at the amount of effort has to be spent on each of the lost ones. The shepherd has to leave all that he has behind to look for that one lost sheep in the open country; the woman has to sweep the entire house to search for that one lost coin, and the Father, he waits, I’m sure he prays, and his heart must’ve been broken for his lost son. It is one sheep, one coin and one son that were lost, yet each one is so precious. Andy was right, we need to treat the people as individuals rather than masses. How devaluing to God’s mercy and grace it was for me to think that salvation shall come with all the work we had done, and how dehumanizing it was to think that the people would come to Christ just because what we had done for them, forgetting that they are humans just like me, having their own sins and pride. They too as lost ones need to be lifted up individually and cared for and prayed for. Each of them needs to be searched, needs someone to abandon or sacrifice something to be looked for and waited upon though prayers. Finding is awesome, but what’s behind finding? What needs to be poured out on the owner’s part?”

In China and Taiwan, we focused on building relationships and helping the students we met there to start thinking about life, and all the tough questions that surround life. We sent two teams to Taiwan: one team worked with our Gracepoint church plant in Danshui Taiwan, and one team worked with Danshui’s English camp. Mission trips can be dangerous in that they can open your mind and imaginations to new possibilities of living your life, ways that are not so “normal.” Sister Emily Kim shares the following:

“I was a bit surprised by how much I loved it in Taiwan, and how much I felt God’s aching heart for the precious students I was meeting. I was filled with sadness at the thought that I would have to say goodbye to them, right when I felt like we were really bonding. During one of my prayer walks through the campus on my way back to the dorms, I almost felt like I “heard” God asking me, “Why don’t you come and teach here? You’re always saying you don’t know what you want to do with your PhD…”

Another dangerous thing that can happen is that you can actually grow and become even more fervent in your faith. Sister Myra Dharma shares the following.

“…I saw the deep contrast of my own God to their idols. My God being a loving God, who not only created me, but also loves me, wants to know me, and bless me. There was that huge difference and I wanted to share how there was a True and Living God who knows and loves them deeply and even wants to bless them without their needing to ask and beg. God wants to bless out of love, not from people’s fears and pleading. He isn’t some kind of false god who demands our sacrifices and fear, and enjoys incense and offerings without looking at the heart. God is relational and alive. This made my eyes open and appreciate who God is and His heart for these people…I feel so privileged to be able to go on this Taiwan mission trip – what did I have to offer? …Overall, I felt like I didn’t have much. Yet God wanted me on the trip…I have this sense of privilege and purpose because I have my testimony, my story in which God prepared and saved me from my sinfulness and a life of self destruction. Like David, I can be confident and ready to fight different Goliaths in my life because of my testimony. Holding onto this identity and the fact that I was made alive when I was dead in my sin renewed a sense of 2 P’s in my life: Privilege and Purpose. I feel privileged to have this amazing gift of the gospel and the calling to share it with those around me whom I was just like… I am… on a mission…for life. This is the purpose given to me. Thinking of this… fired me up thinking how I could be used by God to love others.”

Our team also sent an exploratory team to Kyrgyzstan, a small country in central Asia. As a church we had been in Central Asia before, and wondered if God was calling us back there.

In Thailand our members taught at a school for missionary kids, and spent time at a leper colony and orphanage. Josh Linville, A2f senior, saved up every penny he earned for a year to save up for this trip. Was it worth it? Yes it was, even if he was being sent half-way around the world to answer the seeking question of a child. Here is a little bit of Josh’s sharing:

“I remember one activity in which Jenny had the kids and the teachers draw a picture of their families on a piece of paper and then share them with the group. I felt self conscious because my picture only had two people, myself and my mom. So I decided to draw God in my photo, because I was more a part of his family than anything else. My group shared our pictures with each other and the kids saw that I had drawn God. Then one of the students asked me, “Teacher, how can you come to know God?” My eyes began to water. There I was playing games and singing songs with kids from a different culture who I had only met three days ago. Yet despite my feelings of whether God was working or not amongst this camp, here was a child with a question, a question God had sent our team half way around the world to answer. That if we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and accept him as our Lord and savior, then we can be reconciled with God. Praise God for his faithfulness.”

Thailand Summer Mission Trip

At the end of all of the testimonies, we could not help but be in awe of the fact that our God is a great God, that he created all the nations and the peoples in it, that this was His world and that He was madly in love with it. People wonder why we do this. In airfare I think we spent over $300,000 dollars. Was it worth it?

Was it worth it to make a statement to the sex-traffickers that children in Cambodia were to be loved, taught, and nourished as children, and not peddled for pleasure? Yes. Was it worth it to show love to an orphan who lost his or her parents to the recent tsunamis? Yes. Was it worth it to encourage other Christians laboring to bring light and hope and healing and restoration to their nation? Yes. Was it worth it to enter into a Muslim nation that suffers just like the rest of the world, to build relational bridges with the western world in times when our relationship is characterized as (to put it mildly) “strained” ? Yes, it is. Was it worth it, to go and have our eyes opened to see God more clearly, our purpose more clearly, His power more clearly, and to see a possibly new and grander vision for our lives, individually, and as a church? Yes, IT IS. I look forward to hearing more testimonies in the future, and maybe having one of my own. And maybe next time you can join us too!

We started Kairos W Bible Study with Jenn’s testimonial Bible Study!

It is so interesting to me that Christians use the word “testimony.” The only other people who use it “religiously” are those in the justice system! According to Dictionary.com =), it means a few different things: “the statement or declaration of a witness under oath or affirmation, usually in court; evidence in support of a fact or statement, proof; open declaration or profession, as of faith.”

In a sense, a Christian’s genuine story of meeting Christ and being healed and transformed, is all of these things. Though we don’t “testify” in court, we share our stories in a world full of people who are like a jury. A jury that is constantly deliberating, with its different members coming to different verdicts about the enigmatic person of Jesus Christ. In a sense, a Christian’s story is, or at least purports to be, “evidence” or “proof” in support of the “fact” or “statement” that God created this world and the beings in it, and that He is still involved in the lives He created. Very involved. And, yes, it is a declaration of faith too. It is an account that is woven together by a pair of eyes that see and insist that the hand and reason behind the events is God.

We find the Bleeding Woman’s story in Mark 5:21-34. The parallels in this story are interesting, and I think they are there to make a point. While this woman is making her way to Jesus, Jesus is on his way to Jairus’ house to heal his sick daughter, his precious 12 year-old daughter. Jairus was a synagogue ruler: esteemed, prominent, important. And thus his daughter is important too. This Bleeding Woman has been suffering for 12 years, under the care of many doctors, and considered an outcast, old and unimportant. She has no loving father who is trying to get her healed. Or maybe she does.

Out of faith, she reaches out to touch Jesus’ cloak and is immediately healed. Everyone’s moving hurriedly towards Jairus’ daughter, but Jesus stops the whole procession and asks, “Who touched me?” I think she didn’t show herself right away, because the text also tells us that Jesus “kept looking around to see who had done it.” Maybe the Bleeding Woman saw and felt Jesus’ searching eyes, looking for her. So instead of running away healed, she responds to his eyes. The text tells us that eventually she “came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth” (vs. 33). Jesus, and the throng of people, proceeded to listen to her story of suffering. I wonder what the crowd was thinking while she recounted her story; her story of how she suffered under the care of many doctors, and the whole truth, in front of so many people. Maybe it was “hurry up, you’re healed…we have to go, we have to heal Jairus’s precious little daughter. Maybe it was “why are we stopping for her?” or, “Who do you think you are?” Or maybe it was “Wow, I can’t believe she’s telling this to all of us!” Who knows. But Jesus listened, wanted to listen, and dignified her with His listening.

Jenn shed some insight as to why Jesus stopped for her, the Bleeding woman; why He stopped the whole procession and delayed going to Jairus’s sick daughter, in order to hear this woman’s story. After all, she was already healed by touching his cloak! Jenn shared that yes, the Bleeding Woman was physically healed, but that there were probably so many wounds that went so much deeper than the flesh. Years of feeling hopeless, feeling isolated and casted away, feeling the shame and embarrassment of her condition. Perhaps feeling like a nobody. In a way, the Bleeding Woman’s story is our story, because in a way we’re all “bleeding” inside, in our own way. Inside there’s something that’s draining us of life, like an open wound that keeps on letting. Jenn shared her personal story of how she always felt somewhat inadequate, like she needed to be perfect in order to be fully loved. It was a draining enterprise. The “bleeding” is different for everyone, but so often it’s an identity thing.

Jesus listened to this woman’s story and said, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Daughter. In that sentence He said so much. He said you matter. He said you do have a father; a Heavenly Father. Everyone else was thinking about Jairus’ daughter. Everyone else was probably thinking, “C’mon, let’s get going.” Jesus said, this is my daughter. Jenn shared how all the internal pains and dilemmas were healed when she learned that God loved her, and that in Christ, she was a Child of God. The procession seemed to be for Jairus’ precious little daughter, but Jesus wanted this bleeding woman to know that it was for her too, and that He saw her as His daughter.

We don’t know what happened afterwards. But maybe it was as Jesus said. Maybe she left in peace. Maybe she was freed from her suffering, internally and externally. This is the testimony of many people who have come to know God through Christ. You stop bleeding inside, and start living a fuller life. I see that in Jenn’s story too. In her I see that it’s true: Christ heals, changes, and restores people so that they become strong and peaceful and free from their suffering, knowing that they are seen by God, known and loved, like daughters and sons.

Jeanne and I love to read. Here’s a quote from one of the many books you can find on Jeanne’s desk these days… From Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis, pg. 110:

What happened to me is that I realized I believed in Jesus and thought of myself as “saved” and “redeemed” and “reborn,” yet massive areas of my life were unaffected. I learned that salvation is for all of me. I learned that Jesus wants to heal my soul- now. And for Jesus to heal my soul, I had to stare my junk right in the face. There is so much I could say about this healing of the soul, and it has only just begun for me, but a few things have become quite clear. First, no amount of success can heal a person’s soul. In fact, success makes it worse… If you have issues surrounding your identity, those issues will not go away if you make it… There is a great saying… “Wherever you go, there you are.” … Success doesn’t fix anything. We have the same problems and compulsions and addictions, only now we have more stress and more problems and more pressure.

Jeanne mentioned this quote during this past Wednesday’s Bible Study, in talking about how so many people think that Christianity is a cultural thing, when it’s not. It’s a personal and relational and transformational thing between a person and God, and this quote describes that well.

I like the way Bell gave expression to his experience… “I had to stare my junk right in the face…” In the past, I found this to be such a difficult thing to do. But thankfully, I also found that in Christ’s uncondemning and unconditional love, there was safety to be able to confront myself in ways I never thought possible. Through it all, like Bell, I experienced Christ healing my soul. And Christ continues to heal me, as I engage in an ongoing process of confession and repentance toward him. I totally agree with Bell’s last assessment–no amount of success in my life (academic, professional, or social) ever brought healing for me in this way. You cannot cover over the “junk”; you need to stare it right in the face, and just ask for help to take it out.