Not many moons ago the undergrad bros took on the mighty grad students for a game of indoor volleyball at the 605.  What is indoor volleyball?  It’s a game with a 4 beat rhythm (see King Kong shower post) and each person assigned a designated number per team.  The sequence of events must be uttered in the order of serve, bump, set, spike, and block, with each of those actions followed by a number.  In this video, the undergrad bros had just taken down the tough undergrad sisters and felt confident going into their championship match with the older, wiser veterans. Take a look at what transpired.

from Janie:

On Monday, Gracepoint Austin visited Fredericksburg in the historic Texas Hill Country! Who knew a tiny little German town could be filled with so much history… and peaches! We visited the National Museum of the Pacific War. In short, it was a World War II museum. Surprisingly, this seemingly small museum is HUGE on the inside and jam-packed full of amazing artifacts from the actual war such as actual airplane bombers, tanks, submarines, and even the very uniforms from generals! The museum was so extensive that we could only see about one-third of the museum! Nevertheless, the museum was a great memorial to veterans of WWII and to all veterans worldwide. We decided to take a lunch break at Auslander, a very German restaurant, and ate our fill of delicious sandwiches, wursts, and potato pancakes. Our last stop before going home was to a retro ice cream parlor famous for its homemade ice creams. Everyone loved the Peach Amaretto, but what else would you expect from a town where both sides of the highway are nothing but peach farms?

from Eugene:

So this past Monday, some of us went on a trip to Fredericksburg, Texas in light of the Fourth of July. It’s only about an hour north of Austin, so the trip was quick and we saw quite a few interesting things on the way, from herds of grazing longhorns (hook ‘em!), to those popular Fredericksburg peach stands, to even a flock of camels (no… seriously, we did). Once we arrived, we toured through the National Museum of the Pacific War, which was pretty neat. We saw through the history of the United States’ involvement in the Pacific theater of WWII, including video footage of fighting and veterans’ accounts, uniforms and weapons on display, interactive maps of battle routes, and fighter planes. It was also pretty fun seeing how excited Nico was to learn about everything, pressing every interactive button and marveling at every display. We also got to tour and see replicas of (and a few authentic) war vehicles, including tanks and carriers. Afterwards, we enjoyed walking down Main Street and seeing all the tiny shops selling trinkets (and jam!), though the sun was beating down on us pretty hard. We ducked into a nice, air-conditioned restaurant to have some authentic German food for dinner (mm, Reuben sandwiches). Then Margie treated us to homemade ice cream for dessert. You could definitely taste the difference between homemade and store bought. We also found out why those Fredericksburg peaches are so popular; the best flavors were Amaretto Peaches & Pecans and Strawberries Peaches & Pecans. Yum! All in all, it was a fun trip, short and sweet!

Trip to Fredericksburg from davidlee on Vimeo.

written by Lillian

Summer’s usually a time when waking up early means anytime before noon, and somehow life slows down to about 5 mph. But here in Austin, we’re challenging ourselves to really make the most of every opportunity by finding ways to be servants. We’re calling it Summer of Servanthood, and it has been a packed, fulfilling few weeks so far! Every Friday, we’ve been gathering together to eat some great home-cooked dinners, get our creative hats on to work on a variety of things including publications (flyers, brochures, splashes, etc), revamping the Koinonia website, storyboarding the New Student Welcome Night video skit, archiving all our videos, and brainstorming lessons for our JOYland ministry. We then end the night with some exciting volleyball IMs with clinics led by Kelly! In addition to these worknights, we’ve been serving the Austin community through Habitat for Humanity and visiting our local nursing home to share God’s love and the hope of the gospel. So much has happened already, and it’ll definitely be a summer of fond memories and no regrets!

The Summer On-the-road TFN kicks off next Friday beginning in Dallas (Houston in July) and inevitably, as it is with human nature, comparisons are bound to be made over which city is better. Here are some very compelling, unbiased arguments from some of our members. Feel free to comment with your own opinions.

Thank you for offering up your time and talents to helping out the ministry! We’ll be meeting from 4-6pm on Fridays to work on different tasks that come up. The requirement needed to sign up is that you must be a regular attendee of Bible Studies and Sunday Worship. Please contact Debbie (debbie.fitz@gpmail.org) if you have any questions. Thanks!

Koinonia embarked on its first ever Spring Break trip to the state of Louisiana.  Some of the highlights of our trip included eating Cajun food (which came in the form of crawfish, seafood gumbo, and even alligator), touring the LSU campus ( with some proudly flaunting their UT apparel), a museum tour where we learned about the rich history of Louisiana’s sugar cane plantations, and the swamp boat tour (even though we didn’t see any alligators).  All in all, we had a great time of fellowship just being together on the car rides and in the hotels where we stayed up to play various games.  As this trip really allowed us to bond at a deeper level, especially with those whom we didn’t previously know too well, we hope you’ll join us for our next adventure in 2011.

Click here to see more photos.

This past Saturday the Koinonia staff drove to Dallas and met up with 11 of our students from Dallas to usher in 2010 with many “twists and turns”.  We arrived at Six Flags as soon as it opened and chose to immediately face our fears by riding the scariest rollercoasters:  Shockwave, Superman, and Titan.  Some of the older people such as Pastor M (name not revealed to protect identity) were already feeling lightheaded and dizzy after just a couple of rides.

After some of the brothers burned $5 trying to win stuffed animals from the basketball challenge, it was time for lunch.  We gathered at the picnic spot right outside the park entrance for a scrumptious homemade lunch and shared with one another which rides were the favorites at that point.  The food and rest re-invigorated us for another round of thrills and screams (at least for most of us), but the highlight of the day had to be the final basketball challenge where ChinChin surprised everybody by making the lone shot of the day for the coveted stuffed animal.  Something neither Bryan, nor Pastor M (both self-proclaimed sharpshooters) could accomplish after numerous attempts.

We capped off our trip by driving to H-Mart where we enjoyed eating cheap, authentic Korean food to our hearts content.  Overall, it was a wonderful trip full of many laughs and memory making moments.  We’re especially thankful to have met up with our Dallas students in the middle of the winter break to bond and fellowship with one another.  Looking forward to the next one!

For those of us who were in Austin during Thanksgiving, we got together at Pastor Manny and Sunny’s house for a Thanksgiving Feast and a time of fellowship.  One of the games we played was Catch Phrase, with about 4 different teams competing.  The teams that lost were given punishments such as the memorable rendition of “One Day More” from Les Miserable performed by the Sophomore bros.  Though the staff bros (and Joseph) were dominating throughout most of the night, they too, fell and were given a punishment.  However, some say that the punishment was upon those who were the witnesses.  You be the judge.Flickr Video

Last Friday was our annual Christmas Gift Exchange and unlike last year, we were grouped into different teams. In order to pilfer the rival team’s gifts, we were given opportunities to duel each other through a variety of hilarious challenges. Some of the challenges included sending up representatives to do their best staff impersonation, while others were asked to do their best ballet routine, playdough sculpting, and marketing pitch. Overall, it was a fun-filled night with some coveted (and not so coveted) gifts being passed around til the very end.  Good Luck on Finals!