Me and a bunch of other buddies and students from Koinonia and Gracepoint Fellowship Church decided to run the Austin 10K! The 5th largest 10K in the nation! Largest in terms of the number of people who sign up and participate every year. Can you believe people voluntary sign-up for something like this? But yes, people do. I scanned the runners who were around me right before the race started and to my surprise, many of them actually looked excited and happy. It’s one of the mysteries of life. =) On a grim, cold Sunday morning, I along with others woke up at 6:30am asking myself “What is life? What am I doing waking up so early to run 6.2 miles?!” It was a motley crew of people all with different motivations – some were in it for personal glorification, some were in it to take a nice leisurely walk (her initials are LC), some were bullied into it, some were jocks who didn’t think much of 6.2 miles, some were in it for the experience, and then there were some who just weren’t quite sure why they were there. I think I fell in with the latter group of people. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to train for this, but luckily, I didn’t go into cardiac arrest. My hope was to just keep running and not stop to walk. While others wanted to beat an old record time of theirs, I just wanted to keep running and finish the race. It wasn’t much of a goal but I am glad I was able to accomplish it. =) I’m a terrible runner, but at the finish line, I thought to myself how it wasn’t all that bad. Even though my time was 1 hour and 15 minutes and I came in last out of our entire group, it felt good doing something that was challenging and intimidating for me. Hopefully, being part of 10K would have built in me just a little bit more willingness and courage to confront other kinds of challenges that I know I will face later on in life. Plus, the race did have its highlights like having strangers cheer for me and being able to drink a cup of water and then throw it violently down onto the ground (I always wanted to do that). But no, I don’t think I will ever be in a position to run a marathon. I will, however, run next year’s 10K and hopefully more gals will be willing to join in on the fun and pain!

When I was little, I was always once in a while posed questions like “If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be?” My response would usually be either a room full of Doritos or a Churro machine so I could make my own Churros whenever I felt like it. As I got older, the questions morphed into “If you could be anything you want, what would you be?” Of course, I would say that I wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or a professor – very practical, square professions. When people would ask “If you lived in an absolutely perfect world, what kind of job would you choose?”, it would always make me smile because I liked answering these questions the most. =) The two answers I would always give were 1.) be a truck driver and drive cross country thru America and 2.) be a tour guide in Hawaii. Mind you, this is only if the world were perfect without any problems and brokenness to worry about and respond to. When we had the last sisters sleepover at Koinonia before everyone went home for the Summer break, we were posed the question of “If you and 2 or 3 like-minded friends could do anything for God, what would it be?” Then, on paper plates, we wrote down what we would do. I was thankful to hear and read what many students wrote down such as serve faithfully in their church’s youth group or love others and help them return to God’s original plan for their lives. Especially in light of the bible study that Sunny gave to cherish and uphold our relationship with God as our greatest treasure and to have spiritual vision for our lives, I was reminded of how inherent in my relationship with God is the responsibility to love and care for the needs all around me. We all had a chance to read an excerpt from a book called Crisis on the Campus. We were reminded that there is brokenness right within arms-reach right here at UT Austin and we have the opportunity to be God’s agents of healing and transformation. Along with others, I prayed that all of us present in that room would become people who are bold and who hold firmly onto our identity as God’s children entrusted with the mission to testify to God’s saving love. I personally felt thankful once again that God calls me to meaningful and eternal work and that I could be together with all the students affirming this truth again.

Our first group of graduating seniors this year! Grad Sunday is a tradition we had back in Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Berkeley, and one that we are thankful to continue here. We weren’t sure if we’d even have any seniors since this is our first year here, but on May 10th we got to congratulate and encourage our three seniors: Andy, Gillian, and Sobeyda. Here are some pics of the special day, including one of Andy sharing his testimony (which was really moving to hear). Praise God for His faithfulness in each of these precious brother and sisters’ lives!

Devotional Sharing, Submitted by Pastor Manny Kim, Gracepoint Austin
What are the three kinds of people described in these verses?  There are those who deserted the missionary work of God and left A.Paul, those who remained faithful to the work, and those who opposed it.
Which category of people do I belong to?  I think about each [...]

Devotion Questions:
“Triumphantly and gratefully he cries, ‘But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength’ (enedynamosen me, “infused me with strength, empowered me, made me dynamic!”). The result was that the Gentiles in Caesar’s court heard the gospel, which thereby got wider publicity in Rome.”[1]

What enabled Apostle Paul to not hold a grudge [...]

Devotional Sharing, Submitted by Pastor William Kang, Gracepoint Berkeley
How might someone be blind to his/her own motives? Everyone wants to think that they are good or noble people.  If not, they want at least want to think that their actions are justified with good reasons.  Some people are greedy and they want things that do [...]