International Graduate Student Ministry – Gracepoint Berkeley

Last Friday, we celebrated it with all of ISM together after our Friday Forum Bible study.  Right after Bible study and announcements, Chul noted that it was the last Friday for Frederick and Angelique, our encouraging couple from Germany.  They were only with us for a few months, but we felt a strong kinship with them–their heart for Germany and the campuses there, Frederick’s love for theology, and how they really immersed themselves into the community at ISM and Gracepoint Fellowship Church Berkeley.  Frederick shared some kind words with us.

After that, Shufei, Karen, and webmod went up to the stage because we had a “special song” prepared… for Chul!  We all sang Happy Birthday, and then gave him some gifts that we prepared.  Chul opened the wrapped package (without oven mitts though) that contained instant coffee and kimchee.  And yes, he was happy to receive these things!  Of course, today is Chul’s 40th birthday.  So if you see him around, make sure to wish him a happy 40th.

Abraham’s journey continues with a dramatic rescue of his nephew and former heir, Lot. But for some reason, Lot never seems to ask himself why tragedy happened to him. Likewise, we will never see what God wants us to see unless we understand why he allows various events to happen in our lives. Perhaps we can learn from Abraham that God is the person responsible for his success, and not Abraham’s own strength or bravery.

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After one Friday Forum, we drove to the city to eat ice cream at the world famous Ghirardelli Ice Creamery. Their signature dish is the “Earthquake”- 8 scoops of ice cream and toppings such as fudge, caramel, strawberry, almonds, whipped cream and more. We eagerly ate our ice cream before it melted. It was total devastation.

We all know that first authorship in research papers is a competitive process, and no one wants to give up his right to be the first author. However, the Bible has a lot to say about how Abraham allowed himself to take second best because of his relationship with God. And in the process, we can also learn that being silent is often the way that we can allow wickedness and competitiveness to reign in our hearts unchecked.

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Jonathan Hong turned one at the beginning of September. All of us in the International Student Ministry celebrated together. Consisting of graduate students and alumni from Berkeley, we are surrounded by children. The Hong family with Jonathan’s grandparents are shown on the right with the traditional Korean rice cake and fruit. I don’t know how Jisup and Sara were able to raise Jonathan as they  are such busy graduate students, trying to juggle writing dissertations, presenting at lab meetings, studying, and raising an energetic baby. They shared how they are so thankful for this community who helped raise him. As I see Jonathan, he is a reminder of God providing all the energy and resources. Sara had a really hard pregnancy. Then after Jonathan was born, Jisup had to take his qualifying exam. Less than a week before his qualifying, he got food poisoning and had to be rushed to the emergency room. Life always throws surprises, but it is so comforting to know that we are never alone in facing these challenges. God is ultimately with us and he surrounds us with people.

This entry is dedicated to the overseas alumni who cannot see the children here at Berkeley grow up . They have changed so much and have only gotten cuter. On the left, Kate is holding Elizabeth, Paul and Mary’s second child. She is less than one year old. Ken is holding Nikki, Ken and Jean’s daughter. Next David is looking at Ken. David is now four years old and as energetic as ever. To the left of Jonathan is Christopher, son of Paul and Julie, friends of Sara and Jisup. Please send us pictures of your family, kids, etc. I would love to hear updates about you.

Abraham demonstrates that faith is following God; and not the belief that God exists to serve our desires. However, Abraham also had a moment of fear when he realized the extent of the famine. Likewise, the minute we take our eyes off of God, we also will be caught up in fears and worries. Thankfully, we also discover that God is more than adequate to deliver us from our fears.

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In the start of Abraham’s journey, we realize that the call wasn’t just to Abraham alone—it was to Abraham’s father, Terah. Terah responded and left Ur, but then stopped midway to the promised land in a city that was similar to his home. Because he settled, it was Abraham who got to experience this journey with God. And likewise, if we want to experience God, we need to expose ourselves sometimes to unfamiliar and inconvenient situations.

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For those of you who missed our Graduate Student Welcome Night, I wanted to fill you in on what happened.  The night was a lot of fun, and we got to meet many new friends who were graduate students and visiting scholars.  In fact, there were 130+ people there that night!  Which makes this event our biggest GSWN ever.

Jisup introduced a brand new icebreaker game to ISM as well: table boxing.  Its not the same as table tennis.  But you do get to wear gloves…  oven mitts to be exact.  In this hilarious game, each table is trying to open a gift wrapped box.  But only 1 person at a time is allowed to do so, and that person has to wear oven mitts.  It was a lot of laughs!  And for the lucky winners (which happened to be my table), the prize was DVDs from Gracepoint Fellowship Church’s “Gracepoint Live” production.  We also played a game called “That’s Not Funny”…  but I won’t spoil it because we may be playing this one again some time soon!

We also had an interesting skit about 4 graduate students at an airport.  Josiah played the guy who was just going to graduate school, but didn’t know what he wanted to do.  We had Mr. Boogle show up again…  Changcheng reprised his role from last year.  Mr. Boogle is the guy who wants to network and build a global empire: but needs grad school training.  Frederik did an amazing job as the environmentalist, with a stern face that we normally don’t see on him.  And finally, Yiguang played the cool guy looking for romance, and the girl of his dreams in graduate school.  And the ending says it all for everyone in graduate school: “I’ll find it…  when I get there.”  Well, we at ISM hope that you can find what you’re looking for right here.

We then had a 30 minute Bible study from Chul about the call of Abraham in Genesis 12, where we got to learn that success in God’s eyes is to become a blessing to others.  The final piece of the program was a special song from our newly minted ISM band.  But for now, it’s only a 1 time performance…  we hope to see them back soon.  In case you can’t tell, that’s Howard on keyboard, Tony on guitar, Jon on bass, and Eliah on drums.

If you missed it this year, we have another Graduate Student Welcome Night coming up…  but not until next year.

Monterey is well known for its beatiful beaches and scenic hiking trails. In fact, it has even been called the “greatest meeting of land, sea and sky.” So it made sense that we went there for our Labor Day Holiday.

We went hiking along a scenic trail that overlooks the endlessly blue Pacific Ocean, and took some photos. Okay, LOTS of photos. We wrapped up our hike with some football and frisbee on the beach. (and got wet in the water a little too) We ended the day with delicious dinners at various places: Korean tofu houses and Sweet Tomatoes (healthy buffet).

Check out the photos, but be warned: you won’t want to miss our next trip to Monterey if you do!