International Graduate Student Ministry – Gracepoint Berkeley

There’s never a dull moment in ISM. The long-awaited ISM Yosemite Trip finally came. We woke up Saturday morning to eat breakfast at a hotel in Groveland, a small town where we were staying, an hour away from Yosemite. We drove into the park where the scenery of the mountains, clouds, and waterfalls were waiting for us. We couldn’t help but to be in awe and take lots of pictures and then went to Glacier Point. Half of us hiked down the panoramic trail to see multiple waterfalls. We were surprised by deer, a vivid rainbow, and a hail storm. The other group drove around to take more pictures and then hike up Vernal Falls. After the hiking, we headed back to our lodge to eat dinner and play games including a contest of endurance, agility, and creativity. It just can’t be described in words. We happily slept and then had our worship service at the lodge. Then we headed to a nearby lake for some sports and lunch before we returned to Berkeley.

Imagine standing in a circle, holding hands with the people next to you. Now imagine that you are chanting the words “this is so fun… this is so fun… this is so fun…” over and over again. In a monotone voice. And you aren’t allowed to laugh or smile. If you can’t, don’t worry–most of us couldn’t either! We had one of the funniest moments when the final three brothers were staring each other down, swinging their arms, and chanting. Not one would break. So Shufei got the funny idea to start saying “this is so FUN”. But the word “FUN” was about 2 octaves higher than his normal voice. It was hilarious. (he did not win by the way)

Welcome to Saturday night’s ice breaker games. People were divided into teams at random. And then each team had to produce an artist to draw an ISM staff member. (Note, the author of this post does not believe that any of the characters on Wesley’s napkin look like him. I resemble… err… resent that.)

And a poet. And a strongman. And a marksman. Yes, it was random, but there’s a certain power in silly games to bring bonding and laughter like no other. Eliah, our resident governator-type, did 83 push-ups in a row. Yes, 83! I don’t think I can do 83 in an entire day if I tried… with breaks. (note, the blog author has bad wrists and cannot do pushups) But it was pretty amazing to see him do 83.. and then watch Joe and Josiah try to break 50 and find themselves unable to.

This is Ken, our resident Korean military marksman. He couldn’t get the Nerf dart to hit a soda bottle. Amazingly, our star marksman–like in the Olympics–was a Korean woman… Mia.  (Okay, so Korean women dominate in archery and not shooting–its close enough) Yes, do not mess with her! I think she was as surprised as we were that she was able to hit anything.

This is how we wrapped a long day of hiking in the rain… with dinner (ribs and corn…  and ramen) and these fun games. I can’t wait until next year! And if you missed this trip, hopefully you can join us next year.  Until then, you can just practice in the mirror: “this is so fun…”

I know many of you have probably heard about our Yosemite trip last weekend. Yes, it was supposed to be a camping trip. But due to some rather unfortunate weather, we decided to rent 4 very nice houses instead. Okay, so it was 3 very nice houses and 1 house that even the guys called “spooky house”. I actually stayed at the spooky, haunted-house looking place. It wasn’t too bad. But it was sort of eerie to have to park the minivan near the street, then walk down the dirt driveway with only a flashlight… only to see a house on the hill with a long, winding staircase leading to the front door. And the house was wooden, so it didn’t look very inviting either. Chul tried to scare some of us by turning around and saying, “Do you think I am really Chul?”

Well, we weren’t too scared… at least, not as scared as Sharon and Mia during the Bourne Identity. (We had a rock-paper-scissors contest to see which movie we would watch. Shufei, representing the movie Glory Road, handily won the 2 out of 3 contest. But being gracious, the men let the women watch Bourne Identity while some of us played Bang! and Settlers of Catan.) During the movie, I think some people almost regretted choosing to watch. (like Sharon and Mia) In the back, they started to hide their face behind pillows and screamed at every suspenseful moment. I heard one of the guys did as well, but he will remain nameless. (though I think he lurks around here like a panda…)

The drive to Yosemite in May was not what we expected. There was rain and snow. Yes, at the start of summer, it was snowing. (It kept the drivers awake!) And it rained on the entire hike up to Vernal Falls. But rain or shine, we were determined to enjoy Yosemite. The weather was cool, the rain was fairly light… so it was actually perfect hiking weather, aside from the fact that we were wearing rain jackets, wind breakers, and ponchos. (a bright red one!)

The scenery was beautiful, even though it was foggy. In fact, it was reminiscent of a Chinese mountain painting with the fog partially covering El Capitan and Half Dome. So it was great to see and be reminded that nature–which is so wondrous at times–was something that God called “good” when He created it.

In sum, we were thankful to enjoy nature, deeper relationships, and great food… even in the rain. (yes, we were in our nice houses a lot of the time too) I’ll have a separate post about the hilarious icebreaker games from Saturday night.

As announced during a number of our past Friday Forums, we are going on a camping trip to Yosemite after finals. (May 23-25 in case you were wondering) For those of you who don’t know, Yosemite National Park is a beautiful place with plenty of different types of scenery and hiking trails. Some of the most popular photographs that are displayed in people’s offices and homes are actually Ansel Adam’s depictions of Yosemite! (see here and here)

And instead of what have done in the past (rent a nice vacation home in Groveland), we are camping. As in, sleeping in tents outside, and doing all of our cooking around a campfire or propane gas fires. And the showers are limited. The English term for something like this is “roughing it”.

Because of space constraints, this event is invite only. (Sorry, we can only accomodate so many people in the tents that we were able to get from our church!) So if you did not receive an invitation, but feel that you should have, please talk to one of your friendly ISM staff.

Yosemite has so many trails, ranging from easy to intermediate to difficult. Now the question for everyone: what sort of hiking trails do you want to do? We want everyone’s input on this because we may split the group into 2 groups if enough people want to do something very rigorous. (Of course, this assumes that some people want to take a more leisurely stroll as well)

Please comment!