Hey guys, remember how we went to the VIDA center to sort all those medical supplies? Apparently, the group really appreciated our community service, so we got featured on their Facebook page! Here's the group picture that they put in their mobile uploads album:

I don't think we realized it at the time, but we sorted through $50,000 worth of medical supplies. Good job, team!

Again, we just want to say how proud we are of you guys for taking the time out of your free Saturday morning in order to serve the community and display a small but powerful glimpse of God's love. Just as it says in the book of John:

“34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

— John 13:34-35 (NLT)

Don't feel sad if you couldn't join us last time for our community service project, we always try to find opportunities each month to give back to the community. Check our blog posts and come out to Element to be in the loop!

Something is coming this way! What is it? Hear that? (silence...)

Ok, I guess you can't literally hear it, but our annual Thanksgiving Celebration is coming up on Sunday, November 23. Our celebration is normally accompanied by ginormous amounts of food (turkey, cornbread, stuffing, jam, maybe some kimchee...), as well as live entertainment (aka you guys singing and dancing your hearts out). Practice for the song and dance will start this Friday (11/21), but it's ok if you don't want to be part of the dance, at least come and join us for food and fellowship :). Plus you get to see your friends sing and dance on Sunday, November 23rd!

Also, winter retreat is coming up in less than a month! It'll be from December 12-14, 2014 to be precise. As usual, we'll be hitting up our favorite retreat center the Redwood Alliance.

Here's a quick glimpse of what our previous retreat was like (watch it in 720p to see it in its pixel-perfect smooth glory):

Unless you've been living under a rock for most of your middle school career, you know that our retreats are one of the coolest, awesomest special highlights throughout the year. You definitely don't want to miss this one!

We'll be handing out the permission slips starting on Friday (11/21), so if you wanna go, make sure you come out to Element! See ya soon.

This past Halloween, we had a blast helping out the Joyland kids with their annual Fallfest! We're really grateful that you guys could serve and love the kids in this way, as you remember all the ways in which you have experienced so much love and care in all the previous Fallfests!

Here are some pictures from the night:

We kicked off the night with delicious, calorie-packed burrito bowls so that we would have enough energy to keep up with the kids!

And then we played some team games to get us pumped up for the night! The candy prizes we won were also necessary for...er...energy.

Then we got to work running the various Fallfest booths! Face-painting was a huge hit!

Some of the guys helped out with the more rugged, outdoorsy games, like fishing...

...and hunting...

And of course, we ended our awesome night by taking an awesome group picture!

Good job you guys! We're proud of you for helping out the youth and bringing a smile to their faces on Halloween! Our prayer for you is that you can continue to imitate God and love the people around you with the same love that you've personally received from Christ.

John 13:34-35

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Hey guys, last week of October coming up now, but let's continue digging deep into the word of God!

Download ELEMENT Devotion Journal for October 27 - October 31 »

Hi guys,

A huge thank you to those who came out last Saturday and volunteered at the VIDA medical supply sorting event! I'm sure that the community will be blessed by your guys' enthusiastic spirit of volunteerism. Anyways, here are a few photos from the sorting event:

The many boxes at the warehouses holding different types of medical supplies.

Carefully making sure that the supplies go in the right boxes!

Some of the boxes were pretty big compared to the other ones, but no problem! Our diligent workers quickly and accurately put those supplies right where they needed to be. 'Nuff said.

Of course, a nice rewarding trip to Ikea for their cheap but delicious ice cream doesn't hurt!

Again, we just wanna express how proud we are of you guys for using your free time on a Saturday morning to help out a community in need. Keep living out Jesus' command to love one another so that the world may know that we are Jesus' disciples (John 13:34-35).

Join us for our next community service opportunity!

We had a blast with you guys last Friday during our monthly Large Group!

Here are some pictures of the night:

Sam and Willis kicked off the night with a talk about whether or not evolution is compatible with Christianity. We learned that evolution is a theory and not a law, and that even the fossil evidence we have--like the 40% complete skeleton of Lucy--is not extensive enough to prove that evolution is valid. 

Afterwards, the guys and girls split into groups and switched off playing arena dodgeball and competing in a nerf gun challenge! In this picture, the girls wage an intense chopstick battle to collect nerf gun ammo for their teams. It was literally Kung Fu Panda status when they got to the last nerf disc.

Some of the girls got pretty serious about their marksmanship!

It was every man for himself during arena dodgeball. In terms of survivors...THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

But we can still be friends after.

Afterwards, we celebrated all the October birthdays with a GIGANTIC cake that was half the size of a middle schooler! BEST. CAKE. EVER.

We hope everyone had a blast and learned something new. Come join us next time! 

Hey everyone,

You've probably been wondering why we haven't updated our blog with beautiful pictures and videos, especially from the girls' lock-in and boys' camping trip about 2 weeks ago. And you know what? That's exactly what I was thinking too! That's why I'm going to put some of those pictures here right now!

So as you may have heard, the girls got to lock themselves inside HB! The night started with Vivian giving a message about how to resolve conflicts in a healthy and Christlike way. After that, the girls got serious about their cupcake-decorating skills.

The girls doing a little taste-testing to make sure the cupcakes and decorations are...er...fresh.

The masterpieces of art. Almost seems like a shame to eat them...but I'm sure the girls did anyway.

The girls also played a game in the dark called "Underground Church" and narrated scary stories each other before the night ended. Overall, a great night!

"But what about the boys??" you ask desperately. "Tell me more about the fun activities they did!" you demand! Alright alright, scroll below to see what the boys did!

We drove to a private campground next to Lake Chabot and started setting up a cozy fire and pitching our tents. Only problem was that it was pitch black so it was hard to see 2 feet in front of you, but that only made things more interesting.

After a good 30 minutes of struggling to put our tents together, we were rewarded by hot sausages, warm clam chowder, and buttery dinner rolls.

The boys also heard scary stories, but we spent most of our time munching on delicious food roasted over an open fire. Late at night, we played board games inside our tents with just a small lantern as our source of light. It felt like we were connecting with nature...sort of.

Hopefully you guys can join us for our next boys' night/girls' night outing. Mark your calendars, bring your camping gear, prepare your sleeping bags!

We had a blast this past Friday at our first HotSpot of the fall semester!

Here are some pictures from the night:

Janet and Ronke started us off with an apologetics presentation about the Existence of God. We learned through the Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Teleological Argument that it's reasonable to believe that God was the cause of the Big Bang and the designer of all the complicated things we see in the world today.

Some of the students were very excited to participate! Although I'm sure the promise of candy helped. 

Afterwards, we went to play an exciting round of laser tag in the awesome arena the staff set up! FOG MACHINESSS!

We also played dodgeball--WITH A TWIST! Teams got to build defensive forts out of chairs and sleeping bags, and every now and then the game masters would throw candy onto the field for people to grab at the risk of their lives!

Afterwards, we gathered together to celebrate all of the September birthdays with singing and cake.

And for the rest of the night we hung out with popsicles and board games!

See you guys next week!

Our Middle School Welcome Night this past Friday was CRAZY AWESOME!

Thanks everyone for your hard work setting up the lights/decorations/photo booth, playing in the praise band, performing the skit, making/starring in the trailer, and designing the MSWN flyer. We're really proud of you guys for making all of this happen!

Here are some pictures from the night:

We kicked off the night with a pizza dinner and photobooth time by grade. Although we were initially going to hold a competition for the most creative, most epic, and most silliest picture, all sense of greater purpose clearly dissolved the moment people saw the props.

Afterwards, Hartie led our praise time while our very own Element students supplied the instrumentals!

Our students then performed a skit about 4 very accomplished middle schoolers (a fashionista, a tai-chi champion, a student council activist, and a world-class gamer) who think they've made it to the top. But at the end of the day, our heroes all feel frustrated and dissatisfied with what they've done to try to fit in, and start to wonder if their friends know something that they don't.

Chris then gave a message about how during our middle school years, everyone tries to find belonging through different things. We think that looking a certain way or having certain accomplishments will earn us the acceptance and love that we crave, when the only true source of unconditional love comes from God.

We then broke into groups and had a crazy fun game time . The guys seemed to come alive the moment they realized they were in their element...

And of course, our game masters were genius enough to invent a game that involved cleaning up too! Students donned dinosaur masks and competed to see which team could pick up the most toilet paper with their wrists bound together by masking tape. It was surprisingly challenging, and makes me wonder how T-rexes could become predators when they couldn't even pick things up.

Also check out our recap video for Element MS and HS:

Had a blast with you guys! Make sure to invite your friends out for HotSpot next week too!

AMP is coming back! Join AMP, Mickey Cho, MC JIN, NAK, and GOWE for a night of praise & worship on 10/24/14 at our very own HB!!