This past Friday, Pastor Manny dealt with the topic of envy and covered the story of Cain in Genesis 4. One of the topics we talked about was from verse 7, that sin is a malevolent force, crouching, trying to master us (and often succeeding). One of the illustrations Pastor Manny used was from Pastor Joshua Harris, about the beanbag, and small steps we take towards evil… and before long, it’s got us. Here’s the actual video of the illustration–it really gets you to think about evil in a fresh way…

After you watch it, let us know what you thought, or what from the bible study or the video stuck out to you!

We are kicking off our first ever Koinonia Austin Demotivator Contest with the following picture. Submit your captions in the comments section below… If you would like to see an example of a demotivator to inspire you, check this out.

It’s the 6th week of school, and you’ve taken four tests already and have three lab reports and a paper due in a week! When will the madness end!? Not until December, unfortunately! =D But never fear, this friday, Koinonia Halftime is here! Come take a break from hittin’ the books and mailing out resumes, and enjoy some friendly (like, uh, no tackling) football, FREE bbq, and a special TFN message from a guest speaker – Pastor Ed Kang from our Gracepoint Berkeley church! It will definitely be a do-not-miss event =)

Location: South Mall Lawn (for sports+BBQ) & Mezes Auditorium (for TFN)
Date: Friday, October 9, 2009
Time: 6:00pm

And check out our viral video!
Flickr Video

Don’t miss our always-exciting, always-memorable fall overnight getaways! We’ll enjoy the outdoors, play some intense games, and of course consume delicious food. We’ll be leaving on Friday night (Oct 30) and returning on Sunday morning (Nov 1).

Click here to sign up!

Need a little motivation to go? Check out this trailer…

When: Sunday, November 22nd – 2:00PM
Where: Second Floor, UT Rec Center

A few weeks ago some of us including 12 UT-Austin students packed our bags and flew all the way to the Bay Area in California to join our Gracepoint Berkeley, Davis and Hsinchu churches and participate in the 2009 Thanksgiving Retreat.  It was exciting to see all of our friends and mentors whom we missed so much, but it was even more exciting to have some of our students go with us and see first-hand the kind of community that sent some of us out one and a half years ago to start this church plant in Texas.

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!

Over 80 people attended the Koinonia Winter Retreat! The weekend was packed with challenging messages from God’s Word, illustrations from Lord of the Rings movie clips, moving times of praise, and wonderful times of fellowship, especially through playing sports and singing around the campfire together. God worked in a mighty way at the retreat, leading 10 people to make salvation/lordship decisions, and many others to rededicate their lives to God. We look forward to all that God has in store for the coming year, and living it out together!

Here are some photos of what we did: