International Graduate Student Ministry – Gracepoint Berkeley

We are excited to announce our new plans for the summer! On Friday nights, we will no longer have Friday Forum. Instead, we’ll join Gracepoint Fellowship Church Berkeley for a combined large group Bible study and MYT (“Multiply Your Talents”) training.

But what about having a cozier, ISM gathering? Glad you asked. We’re doing that on Sundays now. Instead of a large Sunday service, we will be meeting in homes so that we can have an unhurried time where people can get to know one another more deeply and have a chance to interact based upon what we covered in worship service that day. And then, we can eat together, laugh together, and play together as well. I promise that this will be a great time.

I am particularly excited about the curriculum we will be covering, called the Truth Project. The material is very good, and will give you the tools to think very closely about the Bible, God, yourself, culture, and the world around us. I really think you will find this material to be both timely and profound.

Our home churches meet at 11AM on Sunday (5/31). We have two locations, Alameda (HC1) at Chul and Sharon’s, and Berkeley (HC2) at Dana House (2440 Dana St., Berkeley, 94704). If you aren’t sure which to attend, please contact an ISM staff or member for more details. Look forward to seeing you!

Naaman the Syrian was a great man: a successful general, valiant soldier, well regarded by his king…  but he had leprosy.  And yet, in those last words, we see our own predicament: as successful as we are, we are sinful.  In looking at Naaman’s example of healing, we can ask ourselves: do we really want to get better from our sinfulness?  Just because we can list out our problems in detail does not mean that we actually plan to take action.  Even worse, we are terrible at taking advice to get better.  We can learn about humility from Naaman.

Listen:
 

Congratulations to our graduates: Sara, Diana, Ted, Hui, Betty, K.C., and Sam. We praise God for his faithfulness in their studies.

We all feel “stress”—our own body’s physical and psychological response to external and internal pressures—on a daily basis, especially as graduate students.  Because stress has huge effects on our health and well being, we need to take measures to relieve our stress.  But how?  Is self-care, exercise and a good diet all that we need to do?  The Bible gives us some clues through Abraham’s parting with Lot: that we can learn to talk it out as mature, relational persons, and that even when things don’t seem to go well, we can learn to trust God through the stresses of everyday life and graduate school.

Listen:
 

Baby Christopher Tianle (“heavenly joy”) was born tonight on Sunday at 8:30pm! He weighed 6lb 5oz, and both the baby and mother are doing well. Karen and Shufei are especially thankful as the baby had his umbilical cord around his neck but miraculously the baby was fine and Karen had a natural delivery. PTL!

If you can’t tell from the photo, this baby looks just like Karen. (Karen has some pictures of herself as a baby… it’s eerie) The Kong family genes are very strong!

Here is an email from the couple:

Karen and I want to thank you for the many resources, support, prayers, and care that we received during her entire pregnancy. We are most thankful to God for blessing us this gift of life. Through the pregnancy and the delivery, we realized, in a more personal way, that indeed every life is provided and sustained by God. Praise the Lord.

Attached are a couple of pictures of Christopher, who looks like Karen in every way. We are excited to bring Christopher into our community. We hope that as he experiences joy through this body of Christ, he can be a source of joy to those around him.

Karen will be at home for the next few weeks, and they’re both tired… and yet excited, new parents. Feel free to drop a comment to say “CONGRATULATIONS!”

Our annual Worldview Camp at Gracepoint Fellowship Church, Berkeley, will be from 6/17-20 this summer in Alameda. Our guest speaker will be Sean McDowell! Here’s a little about him:

EDUCATOR: Head of the Bible Department at Capistrano Valley Christian Schools, where he teaches the courses on Philosophy, Theology, and Apologetics. He graduated summa cum laude from Talbot Theological Seminary with a double Master’s degree in Theology and Philosophy. Sean received the “Educator of the Year” for San Juan Capistrano, 2008. His apologetics training was awarded Exemplary Status by the Association of Christian Schools International.

SPEAKER: Popular speaker at camps, churches, schools, and conferences nationwide. Sean has spoken for organizations including Focus on the Family, Campus Crusade for Christ, Youth Specialties, Wisdom Works and the Association of Christian Schools International. Sean is the national spokesman and a conference speaker for Wheatstone Academy (www.wheatstoneacademy.com), an organization committed to training young people with a biblical worldview. Sean has also appeared as a guest on radio shows such as The Hugh Hewitt Show, Focus on the Family, Point of View, the Frank Pastore Show, the Michael Reagan Show, Converse with Scholars, Stand to Reason, and more.

AUTHOR: Sean is the co-author of Understanding Intelligent Design along with William A. Dembski (Harvest House, 2008), Evidence for the Resurrection (Gospel Light, 2009) and More Than A Carpenter with Josh McDowell (Tyndale, 2009). Sean is the General Editor for Apologetics for a New Generation (HH, 2009). Sean has also written Ethix: Being Bold in a Whatever World (B&H, 2006). Sean is a contributor for Passionate Conviction, an apologetics book compiled by William Lane Craig and Paul Copan (B&H, 2007). He is currently the general editor for The Apologetics Study Bible for Students (B&H, 2010). Sean has also contributed to YouthWorker Journal, Decision Magazine, the Christian Research Journal, and blogs regularly at www.seanmcdowell.org.

Please sign-up online if you would like to attend. It will be $50 if you sign-up by 5/15 and $60 thereafter. That means the deadline is coming up soon!

Jesus assures his disciples that they don’t need to let their hearts be troubled, and yet in life, we feel so much anxiety and worry. We desire eternity, but our hearts are not good—they are greedy and competitive. Perhaps gratitude can be the antidote to a greedy heart. But more importantly, we need to see that there are many rooms in heaven for those who trust God personally (“believe God”). And that if there are a lot rooms for us, then it’s not a scarce afterlife… so we don’t have to fight and compete to fulfill the desire of our greedy hearts. No, we need to learn to trust Jesus, who is the way to the father’s house.

Listen:
 

To welcome baby Chow and baby Lei, we had a babyshower for the parents. We tried to predict the weight and length of the newborns, suggest names, and predict which features of the parents they will have. We also put the fathers to the test by having them change a diaper while blindfolded. There were lots of laughs, but overall a lot more gratitude for how God has blessed each of the couples.

We made our own Mother’s Day cards after Bible study so that we could send them to our moms in time. Guys and gals alike were creative and artistic in putting the cards together.

Praise the Lord, Chin-Long, Holly, and Howard were baptized at Gracepoint Fellowship Church to symbolize their new life in Christ. We celebrated God’s work in their lives and heard their salvation testimonies.

Recently (on April 20) we had a babyshower to welcome Frito Lei and Kitty Chow to ISM and express our anticipation. Soon to be parents, Shufei and Karen, and Wedmod and Meowmeow, were showered by warm wishes, food, advice, and gifts from close friends from college and the ISM group. We gave suggestions for what to name the babies since neither of the couples had chosen a name. Feel free to give your suggestions in the comments area.  We played a hilarious game of putting the facial features of both of the couple to guess what their child would look like. Then we put the fathers to the test as we blindfolded them, spun them around to disorient them, and timed how long it would take to change the child and feed the child. It was a simulation of them having to feed their child and then put him/her back to sleep when the child woke up hungry in the middle of the night. The more experienced parents then gave advice to the soon to be parents and then we took pictures. Wedmod even modeled how stylish he would be with the baby bag. Our group has indeed grew and changed. It’s still growing especially with the addition of these two precious babies. Both couples shared how thankful and blessed they felt to be able to raise their children with the advice of many and within a community that has strong relationships. Their children will not be raised in isolation, but the kids will have many aunts and uncles to teach them godly values. We will let you know when the babies arrive. Karen is due in 2 weeks, but it can come any day now, and Meowmeow is due in mid-June.

Jesus tells this strange parable of workers who do different amounts of labor and yet are paid the same salary.  Instead of questioning the standards of wages, Jesus instructs the disciples that those who think they have earned their place in God’s kingdom have forgotten something: they haven’t earned it by their merit, but by God’s generosity alone.  Our own appreciation of salvation can be tainted by the routines of life, and it’s our job to make sure that we don’t become deluded about ourselves—but instead, recognize that God is indeed good.  It is those who are humble and grateful—those who look like the last—who are really the first.

Listen: