Written by Rosa L.

The year ended with a bang as we all gathered into the SAC ballroom last Friday for our annual end-of-year Bible study. It was a night of celebration as we marveled at how God has led us up to this point where the first crop of students that the staff reached out to will be graduating in a few weeks. The night began with a special video that recapped all of the events that happened this past year. From NSWN to the winter mission trips and most recently, G-Live, it has truly been a busy, yet memorable year. Pastor Manny then gave a message about remembering—remembering all that God has done and all that the people, like this church and our leaders, He has placed in our lives have done. It was a nice time to reminisce, but the highlight of the night had to be our post-TFN activity. As we were treated to reenactments of memorable G-Live moments, some of us were laughing to the point of tears. It was hilarious to see our peers act in ways we never thought they would. We ended with an intense game of King Kong Shower with the sophomores and juniors taking the victory. The weekend of celebration did not just end there. This past Sunday was Graduation Sunday, an annual Gracepoint tradition where the congregation celebrates all God has done in the lives of the graduating seniors. After Pastor Manny’s message on love and how important it is in our journey together as Christians, the seniors put on a presentation of how Christ changed our lives over the past four years. On one side of a poster was one word to describe our freshman year, and on the other side was one word to describe us now. Afterwards, we sang a special song as a commitment to give all of our lives to Christ. The culmination to this day represents all of the hard work and prayers of so many people; it was amazing that it had finally arrived. We truly praise God for His zeal in our class and we look forward to what more He will do in all of our lives in the future.

Written by Frederick L.

It is finally over! As the final night of Gracepoint Live concluded, feelings of relief and elation of a job well done were mixed with hints of nostalgia. It has been such a meaningful and joyous experience. After the extravagant outpouring of time and effort–the countless rehearsals, prop-making, planning, flyering, video-editing, food preparation, etc.,–we finally did it. Considering how far we–especially the seniors–were from being ready even on Thursday, it was truly an act of God that the performances were able to go so smoothly. We are so glad to have had more than 400 people attend the production, and even more were able to watch it from Berkeley, Davis, San Diego, Minnesota, and Riverside through live streaming. Hearing sharings about stories of some of the people who came and how they were impacted by the nights reminded us that even if just one person was impacted by Glive, it was all worth it. The pervasive testimony of all of us who participated is what a privilege it was to serve in this way. We are so glad that Pastor Ed and Kelly flew all the way down from Berkeley to join us Friday on a surprise visit. (And a special thanks to the 6 brothers and sisters from Berkeley who used their money and vacation hours to fly out to help us with A/V and babysitting!) What an illustration of the one body in Christ, of the church coming together despite barriers of time, energy, and distance. The past few months were such a joyous time of bonding, as we all set aside our individual concerns and participated in something so much larger than ourselves. Whether it was worrying about whether the we had all the props on stage, coating foundation on each others faces–guys and girls, staying up late into the night at Winsted to record songs under blankets (so the sound wouldn’t reverberate), or high-fiving each other after a job well done, we all have a greater sense of unity as a result. Like Pastor Ed talked about in his message on Sunday, let this be a window into what God and life within a community is all about.

Written by Nathalie L.

With just a couple of days before the first G-Live performance in Austin, there was an all day practice this past Saturday. We started bright and early in the Sanchez building, which could almost be considered our second home, as we spent 13 hours there. It was an intense day of practice as props, hair and makeup were now incorporated into the skits. (Yes, even our manliest of men wore makeup – even if we had to chase them down!) At the end of a long day of chaos preparations, we had our first run-through of the entire production. The long hours of backstage prep and on-stage preparations were now there for everyone to see. We had come a long way from where we were during spring break. In the midst of the run-through, I think it was evident that we all felt Pastor Manny’s message from TFN ring true to us that day. The message helped us persevere through the weekend as he spoke about the woman who broke her alabaster jar for Jesus, and compared it to our hard work being done for G-Live. Although it may not make sense to others, it does for us because we know we are doing it for God as extravagant worship. Hopefully, our perseverance will only increase and sustain us for this Thursday and Friday!

Join us tomorrow and Friday for a free showing of Gracepoint Live!