The Gathering Place

Have you heard THE BUZZ? If you have kids you may knwo that the official name for TGP kids is now THE BUZZ. We even have a bumble bee for a mascot! It is a fun name that kids can use to invite other friends to church.

We have a great group of teachers working with us this year and we are so thankful for each of them:

Maria Songyanan, Carrigan Whiteley, Verawati, Matias Indrajana, Charlie Hanawalt, Cecilia Bae, Claudia Bae, Brianna Shaw, and Katie Krause, thank you all for all of your hard work teaching our children.

Communication is an important aspect in any relationship, and communicationi amongst TGP members and visitors is no exception.

This year the TGP leadership has made an ongoing effort to improve the ways we communicate at TGP so that it is easier for all of us to keep updated on what's going on as well as spread the word around the community. Here are some of the Communications Team's initiatives:

• Update the TGP website with the latest information
• Created a TGP Facebook page

We are excited to announce that the planning for our next TGP Social Event is underway. The event is called "Who's Coming to Dinner?" and will take place at the end of April.

Right now we are looking for individuals or couples that would like to be a host for this event. Each host would organize a dinner party for 8-12 people and their responsibilities would include:

• Select a date and time for the dinners - The date could be a Friday, Saturday or Sunday during one of the last two weekends in April.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7

At The Gathering Place, we are committed to prayer and believe it is an integral part of our ministry. For this reason, we have recently determined to form a prayer team to better coordinate the communication of prayer requests throughout our TGP community. Diane Riggenbach has volunteered to head up this effort. Thank you Diane!!

JICF is forming a choir and is looking for those who may be intersted to join. They especially need male voices. Practicies are on Saturdays from 11am-1pm in the Rock Room at Graha Niaga.

Last fall a social team was formed by members of The Gathering Place to organize and plan TGP's first social gathering. The goal was to have a fun, casual event to provide a time of fellowship as well as strengthen and build our church community.

TGP Game Night was a huge success thanks to those who played a part on this team. A million thanks to...

Dana McCarrel: for co-leading the event ~ being a part of the planning from beginning to end

Anne and Matt Stanley: for hosting Game Night at their home

Becky Bertrand: for coming up with some great games for us to play together!

Kristen and Sigi have been blessing us by teaching in THE BUZZ kids’ ministry each month. If you have kids you probably already know that! My kids absolutely love when they teach! Kristen and Sigi will be leaving us soon to return to Canada for medical treatment. We will all miss them greatly!

We are now looking for 2 people who can take over for them one time per month through June. The first scheduled date would be February 20th.

We have great curriculum that is easy to teach. Please let me know if you can help!

-Karen Starnes

Calling all scrapbookers, stampers, card makers, paper crafters or anyone who loves to craft! Come along for a get together on Wednesday, February 10 from 9-11:30am. If you have your own craft project to work on, feel free to bring it and come for the fellowship. If you are a newbie or interested to find out more, just come along. We will make either a Valentine’s project or a Chinese New Year money envelope or both or whatever. It will be fun! Questions and RSVP to Liza Yon.

There is a new small group forming in the Pondok Indah area. If you are looking for a great way to get to know other Christians, study the Bible and receive encouragement and prayer, then a small group is a great place for you. Here are the details:

Leaders : Robert and Karolina Ho
When: every other Sunday at 4pm

In an effort to help our church body connect outside of church to offer support and encouragement to one another, the JICF/TGP leadership has divided our church members into ZONES according to where they live. Each ZONE has a ZONE LEADER which helps to facilitate relationship building between the people in their ZONE by overseeing small groups in the area as well as offering ZONE GATHERINGS for people to meet and get to know each other better.

Each week there is a big map by the name tag table where you can find out what ZONE you are in, who your leader is and their contact information.