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!

Written by Rosa L.

Last week marked Passion Week, a time in which we mourned over Jesus’ path of suffering and finally His death on the cross. This year for the first time, we had the opportunity to go through the “Passion Experience.” Equipped with an MP3 player that guided us through different stations to walk through, we reflected on the people who took Jesus to the cross. With vivid representations that included items like the coins that Judas accepted when he handed Jesus to the Pharisees and the whip that the guards used to punish Him, we reflected upon how we identified with each of these characters, how we betrayed Him, and how our own sins ultimately nailed Him to the cross. These events culminated in the Good Friday service where Pastor Manny asked us to consider whether we have been putting God “in the dock” when we deserve to be on the dock and accused ourselves. We watched a video that our Berkeley church produced that depicted the far-reaching consequences of our sin. And as Jesus said on the cross, we do not know what we are doing. We prayed and received communion, and the night ended with celebration for the several commitments to God that were made.

Even though Friday was a solemn time, Easter Sunday was the complete opposite. We celebrated Jesus’ resurrection as we welcomed each other and proclaimed that He has risen. Service started with songs of worship and was followed by powerful testimonies from two of the baptism candidates. Afterwards, referring to the book of Revelations, Pastor Manny gave an uplifting message about the description of Heaven in the Bible and how our minds are unable to fathom how great it will be. He also spoke about how we need to prepare ourselves now to become heaven bound people. We need to invest in eternal things like relationships, instead of the things that will not last. After the message, we gathered around the pool at the Doubletree Hotel to witness 11 of our precious brothers and sisters get baptized. Praise God for all that He has done!

Written by Jenny C.

This has been a very “G-Lively” week, with nine junior guys and one staff member visiting from our Berkeley church to help out with our very first Gracepoint Live in Austin. The juniors arrived last Saturday, helping out with props and other background work by day and enjoying fellowship time with their Texan counterparts by night. Meanwhile, Hope Choi flew in to put on an intense 2-day acting workshop with the student actors. She gave us many useful pointers on how best to deliver our lines so that the message of the gospel gets clearly communicated. On behalf of all of us here in Austin, thank you all so much for taking the time to help us out! The G-Live practices themselves have been humming along nicely as we approach showtime. For the juniors, we’ve gotten most of the lines memorized and are continuing to fine-tune the details of our performance. Although rehearsals have been a lot of work, they have also been a lot of fun, as we get to spend quality time together as a class, laughing and encouraging one another as we figure out how to act. Only 17 days until G-Live, and we can’t wait!

Please visit the Gracepoint Live Website to watch trailers and to sign-up for a free showing!

Written by Frederick L.

During Spring Break, many students came back early to rehearse for Gracepoint Live, an amateur, theatrical production of musicals, skits, and dramas by us college students to present Christianity in a way that is relevant to our lives today. With this being our first ever G-Live here at UT, there was a marked feeling of excitement and anticipation in the air. Inside the Student Activity Center, which served as our hub for GLive prep, we all packed the hallways, rooms, and even balconies designated for dance rehearsal, skit preparation, creating props, and providing meals. Practices were intense yet fun, interrupted by time for refreshments and meals. What precious moments we shared, as all of us experienced the joy of spending ample time with one another, of working hard together, away from the pressing demands of academics. No doubt, everyone has an important role to play in order for this production to be realized, whether it is on center stage or backstage. After the Friday Night Bible Study, we all were gifted with an abridged performance of what each of the classes has worked on thus far. Considering how little time students have had to prepare, many of us were blown away by the caliber and potential of each performance. Let’s not forget all the work happening behind the scenes for this all to be possible. The time from now until April 19th, our first performance date, promises to be full of memory-making moments–from laughing at one another for messing up a line…yet again, to staying up late together into the evening crafting props and perfecting the choreography for a song. Be sure to join us next time!

Find out more about Gracepoint Live here (including some awesome trailers!)

We’ll be having Gracepoint Live: NOW on 4/19 and 4/20 at 7:30PM at the Texas State History Museum.  It is a theatrical presentation put on by Koinonia and it will feature skits from four different classes.

Sign Up to attend a FREE showing at GracepointLive.org

Check out the trailers below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Location: Double Tree Hotel (see map)
Time: Sundays at 2:30pm