hi everyone! my apologies for the late post; this will recap the past couple of weeks of hikoi.

announcements:
this friday, february 5, will be sg free night. please talk to your sg leader to find out where you will be going. make sure you turn in your permission slip! the week after, february 12, will be an off-night, so the next time we see you will be february 19. have a great night off! :)
if you didn't know already, there's a new hikoi prayer box! you can leave your prayer requests in there anytime, either with your name on it or anonymous, and the hikoi officers and counselors will be keeping you in their prayers!
also, there's a hikoi snapchat! add us: fcbchikoi to stay updated and for super spontaneous mid-week encouragements!

recap:
january 22:
charmaine started off the night with a brief talk about being justified by faith. then, allison and katie each shared their testimonies about an instance in which they chose to pursue God and to let Him work in their lives how He saw fit. the large group time concluded with a game led by Nikki. in the game, each sg sent a blindfolded representative into an area filled with balls. the blindfolded person then listened to instructions given by the sg to try to dodge balls and simultaneously throw them at the other representatives. the night closed with sg time.

january 29:
this past friday began with worship led by tracey. following that, we had stations that focused on reflection. in one of the stations, we were reminded of love and made commitments in how we can make our love for others more evident. in another station, we wrote letters of encouragement for people in our lives. the next station was a prayer station, where we prayed about our own relationship with God and asking for Him to help us have more faith in Him. the last station was a chance for us to reflect on the lyrics of two songs (you make me brave by bethel and choose to love by francesca battistelli) and write down the things in the song that stood out to us. to end the night, we split into our sg's.

Recap!

Hi again!

It's been a while! Let's recap:

ANNOUCEMENTS
1. Membership is due Friday, January 29th! Forms are on the Facebook page!
2. There is a prayer box that will be available for you to place prayer requests in at the beginning of large group! Place weekly blessings and/or prayer requests in them :)
3. Nathan's HiKoi challenge: from Sunday (1/17) to Saturday (1/22) share three blessings with others.
4. HiKoi challenge #2: Phone bin during LG! We encourage you to put aside your phone or any other distractions during large group time and have created a phone bin. It is a commitment, but we challenge you to take part in it :)
5. We have a new counselor: Emily! She will be in Gloria's small group. Introduce yourself when you get the chance!

RECAP
Curious about what's been happening in HiKoi? Check out what happened in November, December, and January. (Most recent is @ top)

1/16
Nathan began the night with a devotional recap of all that we had covered this past year. He quizzed the body about the theme (On Fire) and the different topics we had covered (the Gospel and Celebration). Maxton then led a time of prayer where we shared with others in our small groups about the spiritual goals we had set for the new year. Sam then led a game which involved each SG to come up with 10 second Snapstories on the topics we had covered during the year as well as a video describing each small group. Points were rewarded for the based on presentation, fluidity, and likability. Check it out on the snapchat! (@fcbchikoi). Cheyenne then celebrated January birthdays and we closed the night with small groups.

1/8
ReWiRe!! The night started off with Naomi leading community time where SGs were grouped together - Bryan&Bradley, Kristy&Sam, Gloria&Nikki - and competed against one another to see who could come up with the most songs containing a given word. Hannah then led a WiRe-esque worship time where we sang camp favorites such as "We are the family of God." An open mic for WiRe testimonies occurred where the body was encouraged to share the blessings and highs of camp. Praise God for all that He has shown us :) The night ended in cabin times where we split into our respective grades.

12/18
Various stations were set up to prepare ourselves for WiRe and to reflect on the past year. We were split into small groups in which we prayed, set goals for WiRe, and meditated on different passages. The night closed with small groups!

12/11
We began HiKoi with a membership interview of Matt and his journey on becoming a HiKoi member. Charmaine then spoke about celebrating our faith during the holiday season and how we can be On Fire by sharing about the gospel to unsaved relatives while on break. We then transitioned to a time of worship led by Charmaine, Hannah, and Maxton. Large group closed off with community time led by Naomi, which involved strapping eggs to people's heads and attempting to break them with a pool noodle.

12/4
Bradley started off the night by answering an interview style testimony on why he became a member of HiKoi and how the fellowship had shaped him. Nathan then led a game of Viking where we all got to scream and get an arm workout by rowing boats. December birthdays were celebrated, and before long, it was small group time.

11/20
The night began in small groups where we had mini-Thanksgivings and stuffed ourselves with delicious food. We then split into grades and played Jeopardy! led by Bradley's small group; however, the game had a twist - each answer was in the form of emojis. The junior class triumphed with their knowledge in decoding messages. We are definitely thankful for the community we have at HiKoi.

11/13
Nintendo characters swept HiKoi from Tetris blocks to the Super Mario Bros. crew. Points were awarded to everyone to participated. Small groups were able to experience what it was like to be a video game character through different games stations held by officers. Nathan led a devotion before we headed off into small groups.

11/6
We celebrated our faith by creating murals within our SG, displaying reasons why we believe in what we believe and how God has shaped our lives. HiKoi was challenged to give back to others during the holiday season by participating in Operation Gobbler - the canned food drive - and Operation Christmas Child.


SMALL GROUP CUP
Similar to the House Cup in Harry Potter, SGs are battling it out to earn the most amount of points for their SG while being On Fire with their faith. Points are awarded for being on time to HiKoi, winning large group games, and though various HiKoi challenges.

The SG that wins the most amount of points by the end of the year will receive KBBQ

Welcome to Belly Buster's

Hi, I'm Bryan and here are some ballerific facts about me:

1. Out of my whole family, I'm the only grandson in my family.

2. Though I'm only a decent cook, I help out my cousin's boyfriend during his catering services. I'm basically a professional chef. (He works for Wolfgang Puck)

3. I'm on my school Swim and Water Polo team. The Varsity Polo squad can get a bit weird....

4. My church squad that make my day.  We've been through it all since who knows when.

5. Finally, I'm also maybe future owner of Belly Buster's YAY!

With this year's Hikoi theme of On Fire, I'm reminded of being in love with Christ doesn't only have to be on Sundays, Friday Nights, or Camp retreats.  It's just like this year's Arizona trip during our final day on the reservation.  We worshiped all night and you could definitely feel the intensity in the chapel. At the end of the day we should strive to be passionate with God everyday.

Here's a word of encouragement to finish the week strong 

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.   

Philippians 4:13

It's Just Josh

Hi, I’m Josh and here are 10 fun facts about me:

1. Though I was never formally trained, I enjoy cooking.  I learned by watching my grandma, my mom and The Food Network (of course).

2. I frequent the top 2% of the NA Ladder in Hearthstone.  I don’t want to put the effort into getting legend though.

3. Coffee, soda and energy drinks have never been my cup of tea, because I enjoy drinking tea.  So much so that I need my own tea stash at work.

4. The instruments I play are the piano, violin, bass, cajon, guitar (only a little bit) and I can sing okay.  I began serving in worship in 8th grade, where my friends and I played in Super Worship (Children’s Worship).  That eventually lead to youth and english speaking worship and playing at weddings.

5. Let me preface this by saying I am not a runner.  I did not do track or cross country in high school, but despite only having 10 weeks to train, I successfully ran a marathon with my friends Matt and Stu.

6. I enjoy biking, but the ~70 miles I rode with Caleb (he did 100) in the San Diego Century Ride was quite traumatizing.  I don’t bike anymore.

7. In college, senior projects were optional for my major.  But I did one anyway by building a robot.

8. Generally speaking, I like all foods, but my favorite type of cuisine is Japanese.

9. Except for Chemistry, I resented all math and sciences throughout middle and high school.  Needless to say, I performed poorly in those subjects.  The irony is that in college, I ended up loving those subjects.  I minored in Math and consequently became a nerd.

10. I enjoy eating my cuties by sticking the whole thing in my mouth.

With the Hikoi theme being On Fire, I’m reminded of an analogy.  As Christians, we are called to be a light, to be Christ-like and to show God’s love to others.  There may be times where we may feel like our “light” or presence is inadequate or irrelevant.  The interesting thing about darkness is that even if you were in the pitch darkness, you can always see the faintest light, even if it’s 500 feet away from you.  Even if we are going through dark times or areas, our “light” will always be a point of interest if we allow it to shine.  Food for thought. Always be on fire.

“13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:13-16

HELLO BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF HI KOI!!

Gloria here! I hope you're all having a great week so far. Here are 10 random facts about me  from the top of my head that you probably don't know. 

1. I like to do artsy things. I can go on Pinterest looking for ideas for hours!

2. I took Chinese school from about 1st grade to 7th grade...then I took mandarin from freshmen to junior year. But if you ask me to read an article that's in Chinese, I'll probably only know like 10 words!

3. I am the first and only person in my family (including relatives) that's born in America

4. I have a sweet tooth. I just love to eat sweet things

5. I hate spiders! If I see one, especially in the shower, I stare at it so I know where it is and try to stay far away from it

6. I'm left handed but I eat with my right hand

7. I am part of HSMT (High School Missionary Team) at church and NCH (National Coalition for the Homeless), swim and water polo at school  

8. It's hard to make me angry because I just don't like being angry

9. I've been to 8 states (not including California) and I've been to Hong Kong and Korea

10. I loveee animals especially dogs and cats. I don't have any pets but I've always wanted a dog

So as you probably already know, the theme for Hi Koi this year is ON FIRE (Mark 12:30). Whenever I think about this theme, I think of my most recent HSMT trip to Arizona, which was this past summer. I remember on Thursday night we were all gathered together to worship God as one team. We were all exhausted from the first few days of VBS and all we could think about was showering and sleeping. That night was different from other nights. Darren Lo gave us a serious talk about spiritual warfare and it only motivated us to give it our all for the last day of VBS. When we worshiped, everybody was ON FIRE for God. We sang with all our hearts and I'm pretty sure people could hear us from miles away. I was so amazed by what God could do to us in just one night. I definitely felt him watching over us that night. When we are ON FIRE for God, we can see how God is working in people's lives and we can feel his presence more greatly.            

Thanks for reading my post!!!! Here are some pictures for you. Enjoy:)

Just walking around at camp















Me with my church squad:)

Me with my swim squad :P 

At Arizona with my kid!!














Baiii! See you at Hi Koi!!!

Better late than never, but never late would’ve been better

I wanted to understand our theme verse (Mark 12:30) this year, so I reread that chapter of Mark one day; here are some take-away and random observations:

-It’s the second part of Jesus’s response to a scribe (a really, really educated scholar dude who has something like a PhD in Old Testament law studies)

-Jesus’s answer to what is the greatest commandment comprises of a two part command of knowing and responding (28)

-First, we must know that God is one and that there is no other God or object that is worthy of a Christian’s worship. (29)

-Second, we must act on this knowledge and love the Lord with all our Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength; in a sense that’s all we have, those are the only facets of humanity that we can control (like there’s not much else we can do). We must give our all to God if we truly believe that there is no other God to worship, or is worthy. (30)

-We’re also given a warning, to beware of fakers who look the part and do certain things outwardly (with their all… some of their strength?) but are not genuine (with not all their) mind, heart, or soul are being actually there. Basically avoid this, because the punishment is deadly. (40)

-Then we’re presented with an actual illustration of these fakers contrasted with someone who’s genuine. There’re these people who glean from their comfortable surplus; whereas, there’s a widow who gives all she has, “two small copper coins”. (41-42)

‘Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”’ (43-44)

tl;dr: In the passage, Jesus teaches about the greatest commandment, gives some words of cautions, and points out a person who lives out what Jesus has just taught.

Also, some miscellaneous trivia:

1) My penmanship is pretty illegible; once, a TA had me read out my midterm answers so she could score it.

2) My favorite punctuation mark is a semicolon ( ; ) because it can be used to connect a string of thoughts, can sometimes take the place of because, and it's stronger than a comma, but not weaker than a period. Plus, it’s used for conjunctions and I really like conjunctions.

3) I really like the book East of Eden because it invokes a pastoral, peaceful vibe.

4) At restaurants, Starbucks, or places that ask for your name I usually use a single-syllabic name (e.g. Fred, John, Tim) because it’s easier to pronounce and spell than Enoch. But one time, the employee asked me for my name name because I looked familiar, so I told her “Um, my name’s actually not Fred” and she was like “Oh, yeah Fred, that's such a serious name.”

5) Two of my good friends became engaged last weekend, so really happy for them:

6) I messed around a lot in class during high school, so almost couldn’t graduate:

7) Eating lunch at Mark Keppel:

8) My brother from another mother (actually Josh's brother):

8) Random picture of Jacob:

Racing to Post this Blog (you'll understand the title later)

Racing to Post this Blog  (you’ll understand the title later)

Hi everyone, ni hao, hola :D That’s all the languages I know how to say hello in without using google translate….yeaaahhhhn I’m Maxton :)

I don’t know how to introduce myself so I’ll just talk about my week :)

BTW like my life isn’t really interesting so don’t expect much XD

SUNDAY

I played for worship on Sunday and I loovvveeee drumming even though I’m not that good at it *cries*. I think I have a problem because I would always use my fingers as drumsticks and hit them on anything that makes a sound. People find it annoying but it’s obviously because they don’t know how to appreciate music HAHAHAHA :p Yes I know I laughed at my own joke don’t judge :/

MONDAY

I didn’t have school on Monday (GO SOUTH PAS) which was awesome but I forgot what I did that day…I think I just slept until like 1 in the afternoon and went on Youtube or something. I didn’t do my homework until 10p.m. because almost all teenagers procrastinate heh.

TUESDAY- Green is my favorite color :))))))

I had a math quiz that day and I took a nap during it. I was really tired and I also had the whole period to work on the quiz so why not sleep. I don’t think I bombed it but uhhh yeh….Don’t ever sleep while taking a quiz because it's bad y’all.

WEDNESDAY

I forgot what I did on Wednesday uhhhh. It probably wasn’t important but here's a picture of my dog to fill in this space.

THURSDAY

Thursday was a horrible day for me because people kept on tickling me :/ I have no idea why though....I’m super ticklish so if you poke my sides I will like jump out of my chair...not even joking lol. Don’t know why I told y’all this because I don’t want anyone to come up to me and poke me.

FRIDAY

Today was color day for our school and basically we all dress up in black/ orange to show off our spirit :). My friends and I decided to make a costume centered around a NASCAR theme sooooooo now do you get the title? Like we were NASCAR racers and ya know “Racing to Post this Blog”....It’s good I know thank you, thank you. Also, I was supposed to post last week so the title kinda is ironic hehe. Man I’m just so funny.. right?

Alrighty, so the theme for Hikoi this year is ON FIRE and I can think of a couple times where I felt pumped or like really caught up with God’s presence. Worshiping through music is definitely a way for me to express my praise to God. There’s just something about singing praise to an  all-powerful AND loving God that just makes me hyped :) I have so many reasons to give God praise and for me, I enjoy expressing my praise through music.

Throughout my life, I’ve experienced multiple instances where I felt totally on fire for God. Being on fire, to me, means to be excited about your faith and to constantly want more of God. There was a moment in my life where my views as a Christian were challenged, and that event changed the way I thought as a Christian. This happened during WiRe (winter retreat) and I was presented with different questions regarding the basis of Christianity. The questions attacked the reliability of the Bible, the resurrection, and stuff like that. Those questions made me doubt my faith, like what if the resurrection never happened? If the resurrection was false, then that would mean that my entire life was centered around a lie or something that never actually happened. I had so many unanswered questions running through my mind and that prompted me to look for answers. In Revelations 3: 15-16, it says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth. This passage scares me because it is basically saying that God would rather want a person who straight up rejects him, than to have a “lukewarm Christian.” I re-examined my life to find out if I was a Christian who was living for Jesus or just an unfaithful servant. This passage became a wake-up call to me. I wanted to feel reassured that  Jesus is real and that

I was living a life pleasing to God. I devoted a huge chunk of my time to re-reading the gospel and also learning about apologetics. Never, and I mean NEVER in my life have I felt so passionate towards something. My search for a deeper understanding caused me to seek God more. I aim to be a Christian who is “hot” and constantly seeking God. James 4:8a… Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. :)

THANKS FOR READING THROUGH MY ENTIRE BLOG...y’all are awesome!!!!

Alright I’ll be quiet now and I’m gonna reward you with some pictures :D

The Asian squad… yeaahhhh

Tigers decked out in orange and black... rawr… Be scared

Yay for afternoon naps :D