On Saturday, August 22, we went to Monterey as our final summer outing before school began.  We started off our day with DT at North Loop before taking off to the beautiful Asilomar Beach, where we enjoyed a game of Red Rover and had some fun knocking down some people in the process!  Some of us got our feet wet in the water, built sand castles, and played some football.  Afterwards, we went to State Beach where we set up a bonfire and played some volleyball.  We had a wonderful dinner of grilled steak!  We ended our time together by the fire-- sang some songs, and had a mini talent show!  The Gummi Bear Boys did a rendition of their gummi bear rap, T. Jiseon sang Les Mis, and Will Bae and T. Paul had a dance-off.

What a way to end the summer!

Check out the new Devotion Time schedule.  We're reading and answering reflection questions on a chapter of the New Testament each day from Monday-Thursday and reading a chunk of the Old Testament from Friday-Sunday.  The schedule will take you through the entire bible in 14 months!

FRIDAY NIGHT:

• What: Element Bible Study & Gym Night
• Where: NL
• When: 7-11pm (dinner is provided)
• Bring: Tennis Shoes & Comfortable Clothes for Gym Time

SATURDAY WORK DAY:

• What: InterHigh Work Day
• Just one more month away! We need to do a final push to get the publicity out to all the churches and schools.
• Where: NL
• When: 1-7pm (dinner is provided)
• Bring: your laptops if you have one.

SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE:

• What: Element is going to UC Berkeley for Sunday Service
• This week only, all of us will join the Sunday Service at Pauley Ballroom @ UC Berkeley.
• Where: We will meet at NL at 10am to go Pauley for service.
• When: 10am-2:00pm (please note the time change!)

This past Friday, we continued our Truth Haters Bible study, where we learned about Pharaoh and his problem of pride.  We saw how destructive pride is as it causes us to not listen to God or to others, and eventually leads us to be unable to accept even the negative consequences of our pride. After Bible study, we had our final session of MYT, and we ended our time by showing each other what we've learned throughout the summer.  The singing class sang their beautiful rendition of "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" and we saw some hilarious videos from the YouthTube class!

On Sunday, we watched a session of The Truth Project together and learned about God's heart towards each and every person.  No matter how neglected a person may be in the world, Jesus is with the needy and the oppressed-- no one we met is just a mere mortal.

After service, we headed to the park for some lunch and we watched an exciting soccer game between the high school boys and teachers.  It was a close game!  At the very end, Taehoon (the only 8th grader) saved the high school boys and the game ended with a tie.

Looking forward to our Monterey trip next week!

8/18 Tue No Prayer Meeting, moved to Friday 8/21 Fri Last Truth Haters Bible Study/ Prayer Meeting It’s the last combined bible study for the summer! 6:15pm-Meet at NL, go to First Pres for Bible Study 7pm-Bible Study starts at First Pres 11pm- We’ll be back at NL to go home

8/22  Sat Churchwide UCB Prayer Walk Youth will be babysitting so that parents can go pray.

8/22  Sat All Day Monterey Trip! Meet at NL by 9:30am Alameda students will get dropped off at 11pm.  Non-Alameda students can sleep over at teachers' houses. Cost is $15. Contact your teachers if you want to go!

8/23 Sun, 10am-1:30pm - Element Home Worship Service

• 9:45am - Parents drop off students at Northloop
• 10-12pm Element Time
• 12pm Parents pick up students at Northloop

8/26-8/27 Wed & Thurs UCBerkeley’s NSWNs ** for 8th graders and up Our entire church will be helping with NSWNs! Youth are in charge of BBQing all the meat! Wed:  1pm-8pm Thurs: 1pm-8pm Rides will be given from NL Please contact your teachers if you want to go!

9/5 Sat 9am-7pm Church-wide Fall retreat **for 8^th graders and up Location: Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church Cost: $20 Let’s start off our new school semester by focusing on God together with the rest of the church.

9/26 Sat Rise: Take a Stand for Jesus This is the date for our regional youth kick off

Church-wide DT

• 8/17-8/23: Luke 13
• Download Questions and Commentary at GracepointDevotions.org

Tuesday, 8/11, 8-9:30pm - Prayer Meeting @ First Pres Friday, July 24 - Multiply Your Talents and Bible Study

• 7-8:30 Bible Study @ First Pres
• 9-10pm Last MYT @ NL
• 10-10:30 Present MYT Video & Song
• 10:30-11 Snacks & Hang Out
• 11pm Parents pick up students from NL

Sunday, August 16, 10am-1:30pm - Element Home Worship Service

• 9:45am - Parents drop off students at Northloop
• 10-1:30pm Element Time
• 1:30pm Parents pick up students at Northloop

UPCOMING EVENTS

Saturday, Sept 26: Regional Area Youth Kick Off

Church-wide DT

• 8/10-8/16: Luke 12
• Download Questions and Commentary at GracepointDevotions.org

This past Sunday - Monday was our long-awaited Magic Mountain trip!  Students who have been regular participants of Cross Training this summer finally got their reward. We took 5 vans down to LA, laughing and singing songs the entire way down... we entertained one another over the talkabouts and discovered some new talents in our midst (who knew that 6th graders Wendy and Joanne have a knack for being able to sing any song in opera style?).

After arriving in LA in the evening, we stopped at a Korean Plaza for some yummy Korean food.  We ended the night by cooling off from the LA heat and going swimming at T. Esther's and T. Kevin's homes.

After breakfast and DT in the morning, we headed off to Magic Mountain!  We went on rides like Goliath,Batman, Terminator, Viper, Ninja... those of us who were brave also rode rides like Deja Vu, Tatsu, and the highly-anticipated X2.

Wow!  What an action-packed two days.

What was your favorite ride?  Let us know!

This past Friday, we continued with our MYT classes in singing and YouthTube before the Truth Haters Bible study.  We learned about the tactics of Satan, the greatest truth hater, and reflected on how we buy into those lies and what we can do to fight them. Replays from Sunday, 8/9:

6th Grade Service From T. Danny: T. Kenny gave the message as we learned about the influence of media and pop culture through a short film.  In the film this guy changed his coffee, his suit, his lunch, his car, even his furniture all because he was taking in all the sounds of media around him.  The film is called "Numb" and it's all about how numb we can be when it comes to noticing the influence of culture and media around us.

7th - 8th Grade Service T. James gave a message from Philemon, and how Philemon's view of his runaway slave Onesimus needs to shift in order to do what Paul asks him to do, which is to receive him back as a brother and no longer a slave.  We learned about what it means to have a utilitarian view of people, and how as Christians, we are no longer to have a view of what others can do for us, but to view them in God's image with intrinsic value.

High School Service From T. Bessie: Pastor Will shared on Philemon and defined faith as not just a belief or a feeling, but faith is trust in action.  He asked us, "Why is sharing our faith beneficial to our understanding of the gospel?" We discussed in small groups and P. Will shared that it is when you share your faith that you get a better understanding of the gospel that you believe in because you realize what the faith you have have and what you know and what you don't know.  He also exhorted us to be refreshing and an encouragement to the saints in our lives (such as our leaders, our family, our fellow students) because they have the best in mind for us.

After service, we headed to North Loop for some yummy chilli dogs and a Ming Mang Mong tournament, where the 6th graders beat out all teachers and our high school veterans!

See you next week!

This past Friday, we had a special Element-wide Bible study where we watched some messages from RC Sproul on The Holiness of God.  Through studying Isaiah 6, we were able to get a glimpse of what Isaiah saw:

Isaiah 6:1-3 ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

We were reminded of what the most important characteristic of God is-- his holiness, and how we need to see ourselves properly in light of God's holy standards.  Instead of expecting God's forgiveness, we marveled again that God would continue to give us undeserved mercy.

On Sunday, we had a special talk on God and Dating. We learned that the true purpose of dating is for marriage, and about the importance of pursuing purity and growing in our faith and character in the meantime.

Here's an excerpt form a Q&A article we read from Boundless, a Christian webzine:

…I’m 24 years old, currently in my third year of medical school. I’ve been a Christian for most of my life, but really started to walk with God the last few years. I have a decent network of Christian friends, though I’m not currently attached to a church or bible study, due to the fact that I travel a lot for my clinical rotations. I try to go to church when I can, but I haven’t been able to plug into one church since I am on the road so much.

Anyway, during my first year of medical school I met and started dating a wonderful guy and we’re starting to think about serious commitment (i.e. engagement). He is very sweet, kind, smart, funny, all those great things … and he’s a medical student like me. In short, we’re basically perfect for each other. The problem is, …

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See you next week!