How We Celebrate (and Say Goodbye)
We’ve had many occasions to celebrate! These celebrations often take place at Denby, our church building in Allston.
Since the start of the new year, we’ve had many occasions to celebrate. In January, we celebrated Lunar New Year by making a classic Lunar New Year dish — dumplings! In February, we celebrated Valentine’s Day by hosting Valentine’s Day of Compassion at local nursing homes. This event is a Gracepoint tradition that we brought to Boston. Throughout the past few months, we also celebrated many birthdays, and two newborns were welcomed into our church. In addition, we had farewells for three families that were here for the beginnings of our Boston church — the Eugenios, the Hans, and the Hwangs. Here’s more on these occasions:
Kicking Off the Year of the Tiger
On January 31, we opened the doors of Denby, our church building, for a Lunar New Year celebration. People sat down in groups based on how they wanted their dumplings cooked and in each of those groups, they wrapped and cooked their own dumplings. After dinner, there was a time for people to share about the past year and the upcoming new year using pictures on the tables. People then grouped up to make cardboard lion costumes, inspired by traditional Chinese lion dances. A panel of three judges then chose the best cardboard lion costume.
We opened the doors of Denby for a Lunar New Year celebration, which involved delicious dumplings!
At Denby, students from various colleges in the Boston area gathered around the dinner table for the celebration.
The team that made the winning cardboard lion costume proudly shows off their creation!
Showing Compassion on Valentine’s Day
Every Valentine’s Day, on a day typically filled with love, romance, and chocolates, our church takes it as an opportunity to love our community. Every year our churches across campuses go out to different elderly homes to love those who may otherwise be forgotten and neglected on Valentine’s Day with warm conversations, gifts and music. This year our Boston church got to go to Cambridge Rehabilitation Center and Neville Center at Fresh Pond Rehabilitation Center with students from Tufts, Northeastern (the crossover we now dub Tuftseastern), and Brandeis.
Some of the mentors and students went to Neville Center at Fresh Pond Rehabilitation Center in Cambridge to give the residents a warm gift on a cold winter day.
Other mentors and students take a photo in front of Cambridge Rehabilitation Center, one of the two Boston Valentine’s Day of Compassion locations!
Celebrating Birthdays and Births
During post-service lunches, when the lights go out and the cake comes out, we know it’s time to celebrate another birthday! Or in this case birthdays. With many birthdays from January to March celebrating all kinds of transitions from freshmen entering adulthood to some of our oldies who don’t look a day over twenty, every year is a momentous occasion.
We are also celebrating two new first time birthdays for our newest and cutest Boston Babies! Welcome Baby Autumn Song and Baby Eleanor Park to our Boston Family!
After one Sunday service, we celebrated birthdays in January and early February. The people whose birthdays were celebrated introduced themselves.
Cakes are birthday essentials! The people whose birthdays were celebrated gather together for a photo.
Denby has been an awesome location for us to celebrate together! This birthday celebration is just one of many.
Saying Goodbye to Good Friends
The Eugenios (left) and the Hans (right) got to hear some parting words from friends they knew since before the start of our Boston church.
In the midst of these celebrations, there were farewells for three families from our Boston church. Farewells are bittersweet moments for our church. As we say goodbye to friends who move to different cities, the sadness of saying goodbye is often overshadowed by the ways we get to remember and cherish these relationships while also looking forward to times when we can see one another again. Farewells are a way for the relational fabric of our church to deepen and widen as we start to have history with so many people across different locations. On January 30, we had a farewell for the Eugenios — Kevin, Dana, and baby Maya — and the Hans — Kook, Andrea, and baby Katie (our church’s first Boston baby). Kevin and Dana Eugenio and Kook and Andrea Han were mentors for Northeastern students. The farewell began with a dinner — a treat from the Eugenios and the Hans. We all watched a slideshow that reminded us of the various experiences we had with these two families since the start of our church here in Boston. Some of the members of our church whose relationships with the Eugenios or the Hans began before the start of our Boston church shared memorable moments with these families. The Eugenios are now part of our church in Riverside, CA, and the Hans are now part of our church in Austin, TX.
A display at the farewell featured photos from moments with the Eugenios and the Hans since the start of our Boston church.
On February 13, we had a farewell for the Hwangs — Joe, Irene, Jamie, Robyn, and Taylor. They moved back to Irvine, CA, where they were serving before moving out to Boston, as a response to needs from our churches in the Southern California region. After Sunday service, there was a potluck featuring dishes made by the mentors at our church. There was also a slideshow that went through some of our memories from the previous seven months with them in Boston, and the CPIs (church plant interns) prepared a special dance performance for them! We watched some video messages for the Hwangs from both mentors and students at our church, and Joe and Irene had a chance to share too. We made a human tunnel to send the Hwangs off to Irvine and took pictures to remember the event.
Pastor Manny and Sunny share about their appreciation for Joe and Irene during the farewell.
Joe and Irene share their responses to the video messages from fellow members of our Boston church.
More Celebrations to Come!
It’s only been two months since 2022 started, but already we’ve had so many opportunities to celebrate God’s blessings in our lives. We look forward to what else is in store this year and especially for some awesome spring break trips we have planned! So until next time, rejoice always!
We got together to say farewell to the Eugenios and the Hans, and we hope to get together many more times! Ask us about the connections we have within the church. Many of them start before the beginnings of our Boston church!
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