International Graduate Student Ministry – Gracepoint Berkeley

I just couldn’t resist doing posting at least one newer baby picture of Baby Emily. I know, its shameless… but I hope that you will pardon my excitement of being a father.

We wanted to thank everyone for your visits to keep baby and mom company, your prayers for our baby’s health, food (thank you for the brownies Sara!) and all of the gifts. We got so many clothes that I don’t think the baby will be able to wear every piece of clothing once before Baby Emily outgrows it! We’re really thankful to be part of a community like International Student Ministry and Gracepoint Berkeley, where we have received so much love. We look forward to raising Emily into a woman of God together. (In case you were wondering, Emily is named after Emily Blatchley)

The long awaited baby girl, Emily, was born to Thomas & Kate at around 630am this morning! Praise God that both Kate and Emily are doing very well after the delivery. Emily was born at 7lbs and 6oz, a very healthy baby girl.

When I visited the family at the hospital, Emily looks absolutely adorable with her big eyes and plumb cheeks. Usually baby girls take on dads’ features while baby boys moms’. But Emily looks a lot like Kate. Of course, little babies change almost everyday, so it’s too early to tell who she will look like.

Congratulations to the new father and mother!

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!”

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.

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.

As you may or may not know, baby Joshua was born to Joseph and Carolyn on December 20, 2008.  (the day of our ISM Christmas Party)  He was a hefty 8lbs and 1oz, and is officially the smallest and youngest member of ISM Berkeley!  He is the result of many prayers and we are thankful that God has protected the family so far.

Of course, the parents are at home resting…  but various people at ISM have been keeping them company.  They are quite happy…  and when we’re there, Joshua has been such a good baby.  (he’s really cute)

If you get a chance, you should drop by.  Or just wait until he is old enough and healthy enough to start making cameo appearances at Friday Forum or ISM outings.  Either way, please join us in welcoming this precious child to our family!

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.

Many of you know that right after our trip to China, I was in Austin this past weekend. My college friends and I spent 4 days there to encourage our GFC Austin team and help out with whatever needed to be done. Little did I realize that our short time there would end up being like a mini summer mission trip.

We landed last Wednesday… and went directly to the campus, where we got a quick tour, did a prayer walk around the campus, and began meeting students: in the cafeteria and on the basketball court. On Thursday, we did a prayer walk, met students in the cafeteria, and then hosted a 5-on-5 tournament at the UT Austin Rec Center. The finale: a Texas vs. California all-star game! On Friday, we spent time on campus and then helped with all of the setup and preparation for the Korean BBQ dinner and TFN Bible study. Somewhere in between all of this, we helped our Austin team shop at Walmart, Target, a Mexican meat market for the BBQ, and Home Depot. We built things, edited a video, made a website, did publications, helped people move, and even did some legal work. One of my friends remarked, “I felt like we did more here in a day than we did in a week in Berkeley!”

But at the same time, it wasn’t all work. We got to see God’s heart for this campus as we met many students who opened up to us, especially over basketball. We got to see the students who first came to our Bible study and Sunday service. Not just a few… but 12 people! And we also saw just how much the gospel is needed there… UT is the top party school in the nation, but the partying also leaves behind a trail of victims. We felt our hearts going out for the campus, and I left Austin tired… but also so excited and hopeful at what God can do there. Since Austin has a lot of international graduate students, perhaps we may have ISM there one day as well!

While we were in Hong Kong this past week, Meowmeow and I got to see Suyen, Chanyoung and Sunyoung. In fact, we stayed at Chanyoung and Sunyoung’s apartment during our brief, 3-day stay there. (We spent a half day in Macau) We had breakfast and dinner with them a few times, and it was so nice to catch up with them: what’s happening in their ministry, the opportunities that they foresaw in Hong Kong, how their lives were going.

And as we recapped the past year with them, we felt like we were just catching up with a fellow brother and sisters as we talked about things. It was so refreshing as much of our China trip was spent with relatives, government officials, and lawyers–which meant that we needed to maintain a certain image. They asked about what was happening in the International Student Ministry, how things were going with Gracepoint Berkeley, and asked about various people: Chul and Sharon, Pastor Ed and Kelly Kang, Peter and Jina, Jae, and a lot of ISM old-timers. And we saw that though they are geographically far from us, their hearts and our relationships still remained close because of our common commitment to the gospel.

They also were such a blessing to us–they not only let us stay in their home, but they were such wonderful hosts. We were taken to a nice dinner, cooked a delicious dinner, and we had breakfast each morning. They helped us get from campus to campus, gave us travel advice, and even saw us off at the Airport Express checkin at the metro station. (a wonderful idea that should be implemented in the U.S., by the way!) When we objected, they insisted–”let us serve you, and when we are in Berkeley, you can serve us!” Though our time with them was short, it was a great time and we look forward to our next trip to Hong Kong… hopefully next year!

I paid my rare visit to a movie theater lately to see Batman II.  As this movie came out, I was greatly impacted by the death of the actor who played Joker, Heath Ledger. He is from Australia, quite handsome, and in many ways quite admirable outwardly. In fact, he was kind of my idol or role model until not too long ago. I watched him in a teenager movie called “10 Things I Hate About You.” I was just drawn to his cool and confident character there. There was a line that says “don’t let anyone make you think you don’t deserve what you want,” as he was encouraging a friend in wooing a girl. That was so cool.

In his real life, he was a talented actor, became famous, made a good fortune, was handsome, and had dated very attractive women. He had it all. There should not have been anything that he lacked. So I was very surprised by his death and sad. He was the same age as me, and was similar in looks to me–good looking. I thought I lost a dear friend. But it made me realize one thing. All the things that the world is going after, beauty, fame, charisma, and money–all these cannot fill us humans at all.

When I was in Thailand last month, I got to visit a hospital and a facility for the lepers. I met an elderly gentleman who lived there for most of his life. His face was all mangled, had all his fingers deformed, and he was in no form to be attractive. Probably everyone in the old times had been scared to see him, rejected him. Looking at this person, there is no hope in worldly eyes. But as I saw this man, I saw a child of God, dearly and deeply loved. I understood that our main hope and joy and strength can be found in God right now–for this leper… and for everyone else.

I just wanted to update everyone on Meowmeow and my trip to China. It’s already been quite a trip here… It feels like a long time already even though its been less than a week. We landed at the new Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital Airport on Tuesday. It is really nice. And big. And just a tad far from the rest of the airport though. After trying to reach the other terminal to catch a cab, we were exhausted and cooled off at the Lei Cafe. (This one is for you Shufei!)

We got to visit with some old friends from Berkeley as well as do some business networking. We will provide updates for everyone when we get back, but we were grateful for the chance that we had to meet them back in Berkeley with ISM.  (We also come back with the sense that the church really is the hope of the world.)

We have also eaten really well. Meowmeow’s parents are also with us, so we have been eating a lot… 3 full meals a day. I think we will come back with more weight gained.

Alas, it wouldn’t be quite a trip without unexpected adventures. And I think wherever I go, hospitals love me. Yes, I had to make a visit to ER at a Chinese hospital. It was a nervous experience because I wasn’t sure what would happen. Here is a picture of my left hand. It is massively swolen and looks more like a paw than a hand because I couldn’t bend my fingers all the way. It’s hard to believe that it was just 1 mosquito bite that caused this. We went to 2 pharmacies looking for Benadryl and the pharmacist told us to head to the hospital ASAP. Thankfully nothing seems terribly wrong. The doctor looked at the hand and just gave me 3 types of anti-histamine/anti-allergy type medications. I think I’ll be okay, but please remember us in your thoughts.

Can’t wait to see everyone in 2 weeks!

For most of June, Eliah and I went to Thailand with around 20 other people from Gracepoint Fellowship Church. The team, led by Pastor William Kang, of the Acts2 Fellowship Group, visited Bangkok and Changmai in the northern part of Thailand. We participated in touristy activities like riding elephants, touring temples and ancient ruins, and eating authentic Thai food. Real Thai food was much more spicy than I expected. Sorry to write about this after talking about food, but while riding the elephants, they would stop as they were walking and go to the bathroom. I was really praying that the elephant would not slip and cause us to fall into the mud.

We also were able to talk with people from all walks of life: elementary school students, elderly people that lived with leprosy all of their lives, university school students, villagers, and church members. It was a moving experience to praise God with the Thai churches, singing in both Thai and English. It made me realize that God is present all over the world and that our different cultures could be bridged by our common faith in and love for God.