Jesus’ disciples go through a storm after he tells them to cross the lake. And yet Jesus often sends us through storms: some so that we can be turned away from sin, and others so that we can mature and grow through it. Becoming Christian doesn’t mean that we won’t experience storms in life. It does mean that we can learn to depend on God in prayer instead of listening to our fear and pride.
Listen:
ISM welcomed new friends and friends that we have not seen in a long time to join us for a night of games, skits, praise, and a message given by Chul.
In the Race of a Lifetime, we see the disappointments of life being played out. And yet, this real sense of disappointment is something we see in Jesus’ disciples after the crucifixion. Their problem is their wrong expectations of Jesus. They teach us then to think about what our own expectations of Jesus are, and if they are indeed proper or not.
Listen:
When Jesus faces the cross, two of his closest disciples betray him. Their end—suicide and repentance—are dramatically different however. What made the difference? Self centeredness. And yet, these two men give us a glimpse of ourselves—we fail to appreciate love and relationships if we are as self-centered as Judas was.
Listen:
And so, that’s exactly what we did at our Sierra Lodge Snow Trip during Spring Break! Instead of our normal Friday Bible study, we had a smaller, cozier group of people who came… and we resolved to have fun. Now you might be wondering how we did that.
First, we arrived Friday night after dinner at In-n-Out burger to play a game of King Kong Shower. And after that, we snacked on some tasty quesadillas made by Karen and Meowmeow. And then, at midnight, we started our Nerf Gun war… where we shot foam darts at each other to our heart’s content. We also played Capture the Flag–Nerf Gun style! It was fun. See the picture if you don’t believe me! And right when you think its time to sleep at 2AM, we watched a Live Free and Die Hard.
After sleeping at 4:30AM, we woke up to a hot breakfast of breakfast burritos and eggs and sausage. After some DT time, we headed out to the snow, where we made snow men… and had a snow battle. (It snowed beautifully for 2 hours, what else are we supposed to do with nice snow other than throw it at each other?) Yes, I buried Jesse in the snow 4 times. Yes, Chul buried Travis 3 times. The older guys had a field day with these younger brothers who are supposed to be stronger and faster.
And after that.. after you thought we were tired, we sledded for another 2 hours. Some brave souls, like Amy, actually took the boogie board face first instead of the softer inner tube ride down our new sled run. And somehow, we made it back to the Lodge for Marinara meatball sandwiches for a really really late lunch… and then we headed down.
So if you’re kicking yourself for not coming, we hope you can join us next year.
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.
