International Graduate Student Ministry – Gracepoint Berkeley

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.

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.

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:

Haven’t seen snow?  Longing to get out of the lab?  Come join us as we head into the mountains to play in the snow.

Date: Saturday, Jan. 30
Where: Tahoe Vista at the North Tahoe Regional Park

Meeting time:  8am (wow so early)

We expect about a four hour drive to Lake Tahoe. We will eat lunch in the cars on the way up. When we get there we will sled and play in the snow.  After we are all tired out and changed, we  will take some pictures around the lake, then return back and grab dinner on the way back.

Please bring about $40 in cash ($30 will be collected to pay for gas, parking, and sled rentals; the remaining is for meals), snow clothing (jacket, pants, shoes, mittens, hat), and an extra change of clothes.

Let us know that you want to come by signing up. We’ll arrange the rides and let you know where to meet for pickups.

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.

Christmas- that is, the birth of Jesus Christ. While many  were busy buying gifts for family and friends, Mia and I, along with forty people from  Gracepoint Berkeley, went to Hsinchu, Taiwan to tell the people about Jesus’ birth and purpose of his life. He became human to be “God with us” and to tell the good news about God’s salvation. We were trying to do the same thing- go to other people and tell the good news of God’s salvation. We ate at the dining halls, did cheers to spread the news about the Christmas Celebration, and ate yummy food at the night market to spend time with the people we met. What broke my heart was the numbing way in which people at the dining halls would constantly be watching tv and also an encounter with a student who was raised in a Christian family, but started to be swayed because there are so few Christians around her.

We were also able to witness the baptism of five of the Christians at the Tsing Hua swimming pool, and one moment that I would never forget is praying for them to be bold Christian witnesses on that campus. We also saw Hubert and toured Taipei.

This week, we continue on the topic of prayer through the passage of Luke 18:1-14 on the parable of the persistent widow.  Through this bible study we learned that the problem for many of us is that we give up too quickly, which comes from our lack of conviction that our prayers should be heard by God.  There needs to be a conviction that what we pray is pleasing to God.  Furthermore, the root of prayer should be our intense desire for something good from God that only God can provide.  It is this kind of prayer that God answers and helps us to increase in our faith in God.  Hear this week’s message on prayer below.

Taking advantage of the fact that school hasn’t started yet, we headed out to the City after Friday Forum at the YWCA. What would winter be without some winter activities like ice-skating? We went to Yerba Buena Gardens’ ice skating rink and hit the ice, literally. Some of us ended up with some bruises while others seemed pretty comfortable on the ice and even tried to skate backwards. After some time on the ice, we went to get some ice cold milkshakes and deep fried yumminess at Mel’s Diner. Mmmm.

As we look forward to the new year, how can we experience God more and know that He is real?  How can we experience the power of God in our life?  It is through long and frequent prayer.  That is the message that Chul shared at the first Friday Forum of 2010.  There is a difference in our spiritual life and it depends on our personal relationship with God.  Our faith increases when we pray more.  Prayer is not just about quality, but about quantity also.  So listen to this message calling us to more prayer for the upcoming year.