International Graduate Student Ministry will hold our annual Retreat from Friday, Mar 19 to Sunday, Mar 21. So save the date. We are excited to have a guest speaker, Dr. Zhengrong Zhu (bio). Don’t know what to expect at the retreat. Check out the video below:
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What: IGSM Sunday Large Group
Where: YWCA
When: Sun. March 14 at 2pm
We will be resuming our IGSM Sunday Large Group again this week at the usual place and time (YWCA at 2pm). Come join us as we talk about the Great Reversal that Christianity brings in our life. As usual, we will have a hearty meal after the bible study time.
What: IGSM Friday Bible Study
Where: 110 Barrows
Date/Time: Fri. Mar 12 at 6:30pm
We will be having an IGSM Friday Bible Study at 110 Barrows this week on Fri. 3/12 starting at 6:30pm. We will prepare for the upcoming IGSM Retreat this Friday. Come by and join us. As usual we will start with a scrumptious dinner.
Dr. Zhengrong Zhu serves as the General Advisor of the Beijing Haidian Church’s University Student Fellowship, the first official college Christian group in all of China, where he advises and trains student leaders in theology and ministry. Prior to that, Dr. Zhu started the Beijing Cedar Church with other university faculty members, serving as the Chairman and Elder, and helped to grow Cedar Church to 200 members. He was invited in 2005 to Washington D.C. by the U.S. Congress for the 53rd National Prayer Breakfast as an official guest from the Chinese house church movement.
Dr. Zhu was born in Jiangsu, China and received his B.S. in Chemistry from Nanjing University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in Food Science and Nutrition in 1993. It was during this time that he became a Christian and was baptized at Amherst Chinese Christian Church. He furthered his Christian training at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a well-regarded Bible Institute. After completing his studies, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Viva Life Science in Costa Mesa, CA, where he published a research paper in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.
Dr. Zhu is married and has 2 children. In 1999, he returned to Beijing because of the great need for trained Christian ministers in China, giving up his U.S. green card, which he had held for over 10 years.
We are excited to have Dr. Zhu share from the Bible and his experiences at our Annual Retreat! Sign up for the retreat here.
Hey guys, ISGM has it’s own viral videos!! Our videographer Josiah created these videos to promote the International Graduate Student Ministry Sunday Large Group Open House that we had this past Sunday. They were posted on the IGSM Facebook Fan Page. They are based upon the theme of Graduate Student Life. Check out the videos below and leave your comments.
In this IGSM Open House message, Chul Kim juxtaposes the biblical account of “Apostle Paul’s Vision and his Thorn” with the “Parable of the Rich Fool” to examine what happens when varying worldviews collide with reality. He also leads us in contemplating whether or not material possessions satisfy our heart and how we will face the ultimate reality in our life–death.
To listen to the podcast, click the link below:
To view the pictures, see below:
In this message, Jisup Hong examines Jesus’ mission statement and the portrayal of the human condition not as great, but rather as “poor”, “imprisoned”, “blind”, and “oppressed”. Despite the fact that we often times seek to add our lives to make something of ourselves, Jesus reminds us that he wants to satisfy our search for true love. Reflecting on Jesus’ mission statement leads us to reflect upon our life’s own mission statement, and consider how that plays out in light of the ultimate equalizer–death.
To listen to this podcast, click the link below:
We headed up the the Tahoe area to enjoy the fresh falling snow by going snow tubing- sliding down a hill in an inner tube. We went to Soda Springs and it almost reminded me of a bowling alley where there are parallel lanes except that there wasn’t pins and we were the objects going down the lanes. Some of us went headfirst on the inner tube while others sat on them. We enjoyed the falling snow, the conveyor that took us and our tubes up the hill, the hot clam chowder that we ate as a snack at the parking lot, and the beautiful scenery, not to mention the friends that we could enjoy the day with. Check out the pictures. Hope that you can join us next time.
On Valentine’s Day, our group visited the residents of the Rounseville Rehabilitation Center to share with them a kind of love that is not always recognized in this age of heart-breakingly sappy Korean dramas. To stress this point, Jisup delivered a message on our one true Love, God, whose greatest act of love was to send His one and only Son to the cross. While the world reserves romance for the beautiful, for the rest of us including you and me, God desires that we experience His unconditional love, which is made available to us no matter how undeserving we are. Following the message, we had a chance to interact with the residents and offered decorative flower pots for their rooms before several of the brothers closed with a rendition of the song “Amazed.” The first two stanzas of the song go like this:
You dance over me
While I am unaware
You sing all around
But I never hear the sound
Lord I’m amazed by You
Lord I’m amazed by You
Lord I’m amazed by You
How You love me
In sum, it was a joy to share this message of God’s love with the residents and to see their excited responses. No doubt, we look forward to doing this all over again next year! Check out the photos.
Come check out our new IGSM Sunday Gathering. We will have an Open House on Sunday, Feb 28 (note date change) at 2pm at the YWCA Building (2600 Bancroft). Check out what all the buzz about the IGSM Sunday Gathering is about. We will start out with a sing-a-long time, followed by a moving message. And no time is complete without some hanging out with friends eating home-made food. So check us out at our IGSM Sunday Gathering on Feb 28 at 2pm at the YWCA building on Bancroft. If you don’t believe how good this time can be check out the video below.
In this Sunday Gathering message, Kevin Han gives a testimonial Bible Study about, “The Calling of Matthew” and answers the following four questions: (1) Where was Matthew and what was he doing? (2) What happens to him? (3) Where do we find Matthew afterward? (4) What can we learn about Jesus through this encounter? This message also teaches us to reflect upon the “prisons” of our own making and leads us to reflect whether getting what we want actually leads us to happiness.
To listen to the podcast, click the link below:
In our first IGSM Large group Sunday Gathering, Chul Kim gave a message based on the the Healing of the Paralytic in Mark 2:1-12. Through this message, we learn to identify the core problem in our lives–sin–and the critical importance of dealing with this issue amidst the busyness of our daily lives.
To listen to the podcast, click the link below:
Many of us started the new year by going to a retreat (an extended time away from our normal surroundings to study the Bible) with Gracepoint Berkeley church at the Mount Hermon Retreat Site. Over one weekend we listened to thought provoking Bible messages from the examples of people in the Bible such as Saul, Samson, the Rich Young Man, and Pilate. Older ones from the church also shared about their personal journey with God and how the Bible verses guided them at each step as they studied and struggled to live based on them. Many of us were challenged and encouraged to grow in vision and believe the promises of God, just like the ones he gave to Abraham.
International Graduate Student Ministry (IGSM) is an official graduate student group at UC Berkeley. IGSM started in the fall of 2003 with the vision to help all UC Berkeley graduate students from various countries (including students from the United States) find out the true meaning and purpose of their lives through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of us also attend Gracepoint Berkeley, where Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang lead the ministry.
