Goodbye to the Winter Reading Challenge!

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Over at Gracepoint Berkeley church, the first ever Winter Reading Challenge ended last Friday. Thanks to everyone who participated! I was personally blessed and encouraged by people’s comments. Many went well above & beyond the 2-3 sentence comments, and I feel like I got to know some of the people who were posting. 🙂

It was the most challenging challenge we’ve had thus far — reading 5 books in 5 weeks — and we had 37 people complete it. We even had several people complete the challenge two or three times!

They’ve won their very official looking gift certificates to the GP Bookstore:

bu_giftcertSince we don’t have those nifty polaroid looking pictures like we have for past challenges, I will list them here on the official winner board.

  • Amanda Gee
  • Angel Lam
  • Anna Liu
  • Brandon Fong
  • Carol Yang (Homegroup RED-HD, woot!)
  • Chris Le
  • Chris Liu
  • David Lee
  • Elaine Escalona
  • Emily Huang (making us Emilys proud!)
  • Emily Rah (another Emily!)
  • Grace Choi
  • Hallie Honma
  • Hannah Ling
  • Hernan Kim
  • Jana Guan
  • Jenn Chen
  • Jenny Young (most senior winner – TOTC Sisters represent!)
  • Jessica Gao
  • Josephine Gao
  • Joshua de la Paz
  • Kaylin Le
  • Kevin Lin
  • Krystal Han
  • Laura Kim
  • Lillian Ji
  • Louis Chen
  • Marty Krakora
  • Michael Kramer (most # of books logged)
  • Mike Park
  • Percival Chen
  • Roanna Lin
  • Sally Cho (twin winners!)
  • Sarah Cho (twin winners!)
  • Stephen Cheng
  • Victoria Chan
  • William Shen

For those of you who are into stats, here is a breakdown:

  • Total winners: 37
  • By gender:
    • Sisters: 24
    • Brothers: 13
  • By class:
    • Freshmen: 2
    • Sophomores: 4
    • Juniors: 8
    • Seniors: 12
    • Beyond!: 11
  • By ministry group (includes ministry staff):

There were a total of 298 books officially logged for this challenge! There were also 35 books people submitted on the form but did not post comments for, and countless other people told me they had been reading but hadn’t logged. I actually didn’t log any of my reading either! 🙂 All of this to say that we read a whole lot as a church this winter break, and I’m looking forward to reading even more this spring.

Can you guess what our Spring Reading Challenge will be? Post your guesses and/or suggestions in the comments below. 🙂 

Winter Reading Challenge Update & 2017 Reading Goals

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Happy New Year, everyone! I bring you a mid-winter break update on the Winter Reading Challenge. So far we have 10 people who have completed 5 books, and many more who are almost there. You have until Friday, January 13 to complete the challenge!

Congrats to the following winners:

As a reminder, you do need to fill out the google form, as well as a comment on the blog FOR EACH BOOK. There are many people who have done one or the other. Unfortunately, those do not count. You need BOTH in order to officially log your books for the challenge.

With a new year, that means it’s time to set new reading goals. Some of you might know that I just celebrated my 40th birthday. So, during my 40th year, one of my reading goals is to read the remaining 40 of the 44 Christian Heroes: Then & Now books!

What reading goals have you set for 2017?

Recommended Reads: The Good Book is the Best!

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While there are so many good books out there, you and I know that the best book is the Good Book. Today I want to highlight a couple of books that get young and old alike into the Bible.

61u4wwgzkcl-_sx428_bo1204203200_I’ve already featured a post on The Jesus Storybook Bible. It may look like just another picture book, but it is much more than that, and I’ve heard more than a few times that the adult reader was moved to tears while reading it aloud to a youngster. We currently carry it in the bookstore, and also have a Spanish-English bilingual version as well.

 

612l14kntsl-_sx327_bo1204203200_The Action Bible is a graphic novel that captures the overall narrative of the Bible in chronological order. And lest you think it is just a “guy book,” the girls of Bibliopolis are often crowded around the book reading it together, and fighting to get in line to check it out.

Just yesterday I had a pretty involved discussion with the 1st-2nd grade girls about why Pilate would have given Jesus over to be crucified if he knew Jesus was innocent. They had logical and insightful questions, and we were able to make connections to how we choose to do wrong when we are so afraid of getting into trouble.

There were some funny moments too. A couple of memorable lines from our discussion:

  • “Why was Pilate afraid of losing his job and getting into trouble? He could just lose his job and be a regular person.”
  • “Pilate should have listened to Jesus. And to his wife!”

I always have these two books out on the ottoman in the middle of our reading area, and without fail, whether 1st graders or 8th graders, someone will pick one up and read from it during part of our time together.

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Here’s an unstaged photo of 1st-2nd boys reading the books. 🙂

They’re great ways to get the kids and adults in your life interested in the Bible, and hooked into God’s story.

Do you have any interesting stories or experiences with reading or sharing The Jesus Storybook Bible or The Action Bible with someone?Â