In just a few hours, our long-awaited, long-standing tradition New Student Welcome Night will commence! The preparations began weeks ago, and finally the day is here. Though technically sponsored by the three college fellowships Koinonia, Acts2Fellowship, and Kairos, it's really an effort of the entire church in action. We have hundreds of Gracepoint volunteers from San Francisco, our Berkeley Praxis, and Element grilling meat, packing bentos, moving chairs, setting up fancy lights, sound and audio-visual setup, and so much more. It takes each person to make the music, hilarity ("The Skit"), the (free) food, the welcoming energy and atmosphere, and otherwise memory-making moments a reality!
I remember my freshman year NSWN. I had a pretty rough summer after high school, so I hadn't done much laughing, but that night, I almost hurt myself laughing so much! I remembered thinking that the skit was so funny and yet...not thaaaat exaggerated. I'm not kidding when I say that coming to NSWN was a turning point in my life. Whoa, really? Yes, really. Finding a church and taking my Christian identity seriously was not on my list of things to do. In fact, I was kind of ready to take a break from it all and just forget about God. I was pretty disillusioned with religion. But meeting (young) people who were taking God seriously really made me pause and think about what role God had been playing in my life during all the years of going to church. I'm not saying that after NSWN my life was transformed - that process is still happening! But I definitely wonder what my college years would have been like had I not crossed paths with Jeannie Lee on my first day on the Berkeley campus, come to New Sudent Welcome Night, and eventually come to our college group and our church!
Anyway, my stroll down Memory Lane is done, and I've returned to 2008! It's been great fun meeting new friends and getting back in touch with old ones. I'm excited for the coming year, and hope that many people can consider the message of tonight - that college is an exciting, precious, unique time in your life...one that can really set the direction for the rest of your life, so maybe this God and Christianity stuff is worth checking out!
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Posted By emmeline to Gracepoint Fellowship Church :: Koinonia Berkeley HG 7 [R.E.D.] at 8/27/2008 12:32:00 PM
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