Acts2 Network – Gracepoint Ministries’ new name!

Today’s big news from the headline is:  Acts2 Network!  That’s the new name that replaces the familiar Gracepoint Ministries.  It’s certainly not going to make the big news like Twitter changing its name to the standard variable (x).  And you can read the reasons for the change on our brand new website acts2.network so I won’t reiterate it here.  But since this is my personal blog, I’ll share some of my personal thoughts and feelings about it.  

First of all, the former Editor-in-Chief in me (of a sub-par high school newspaper) doesn’t like the fact that there isn’t a space between the “s” and “2”.  But I think I’ll get used to it in due time, especially since I really like the logo that our design team came up with. I like to think I have an eye for publications, since I was part of the OG-Pubs team that designed fliers which drew in Conrad as a freshman! 

Brand new logo for Acts2 Network–I like it!

The logo obviously has the A and the 2, but it’s rounded to connote softer edges of relationships, and it makes up for that missing space because it looks like the Star Trek symbol!  Now that’s a future-oriented logo, to boldly go beyond where no man has gone before!  🙂  

My Myers-Briggs is INFP and the NF part of me feels a bit sentimental on this occasion.  As I think back to the past 15 years as Gracepoint, God has led us to experience far more than what any of us could have imagined, way beyond our original vision of “an Acts 2 church in every college town.”  To be sure, I love college ministry and we’ve had the privilege of church planting at more college towns across the land.  

But along the way, God also led us to reach those that a typical church would not reach and more importantly, mobilizing an army of ordinary covocational ministers.  One of my favorite samples is our Elderly Care Ministry, reaching nursing home residents, some at the 11th hour of their lives.  We’re able to be listening ears for them, praying for them, and sharing the gospel of good news that’s far beyond this life on earth. In other words, to be Jesus’ hands and feet, His mouth, His ears, to be the manifest body of Christ on earth.  And the people who are engaged in this precious ministry are those with regular daytime jobs, each being kingdom workers called from their respective college towns.  

Launching Lifelong Kingdom Workers From Every College Town

In that way, our new vision statement bridges our current reality with the future.  I forget who came up with this final rendition after hundreds of iterations (including asking chatGPT!), but I really like it:  “Launching Lifelong Kingdom Workers From Every College Town.”  Being a STEM nerd, I like “Launching” and the metaphor of rockets with different booster stages to venture into all the spaces out there! (Sorry, that’s an allusion to the missing space between the “s” and the “2”.)

But what struck me today is the word, “Lifelong.”  Maybe it’s because I’m writing this as I am recovering from yet another health issue (that’s for a future post).  And don’t worry, it’s just a cochlear implant surgery so it’s not life-threatening, and I’m not even 60 like Pastor Ed or Kelly, but as I get older, there are times when I am reminded that my days on earth are numbered, and my life may not necessarily be too long.  As I rewatched the covocational documentary video recently, I was reminded of the words of C. T. Studd, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” That’s the lasting legacy I want to leave behind and I’m thankful that we can have our collective lives be about launching lifelong kingdom workers so that the vision of the Acts 2 church can continue to boldly go beyond where we haven’t gone before!

Snapshots: Week in the Life of a Gracepoint Pastor

As I look back at this past week, not a whole lot to blog about, but I figured these 5 snapshots might give you a picture of the varieties of experiences I get to have as a Gracepoint Ministries pastor.

Monday

We had a wonderful dinner with Dhati & Angie of Blueprint Church in Atlanta. He was president of SEND Network when Pastor Ed served on the Advisory Board; thankful for his partnership in the gospel and all the work he’s doing with equipping and training church planters out there. Texas Trivia: Dhati graduated from Univeristy of North Texas and even played football there!

Tuesday

Pastor Ed & Kelly love Korean food. I love Mexican food. So this little restaurant was a perfect fusion! It’s not as good as Austin tacos but it’s not bad for Atlanta. While I’m boasting about Austin, let me add that ATL airport is perhaps one of the worst airports; we had to take two trains/trams and totaled two extra hours for this trip–contrast with the Best Airport in the Universe.

Wednesday

I didn’t take this picture on Wednesday but it’s still a sampling of my midweek midday snack that’s often found on my desk. I have my favorite tumbler with cute pictures of my kids when they were cute (IMHO!) and our favorite gummy pack: Haribo Starmix! Susanna discovered it last year during one of our Midwest drives and I’d guesstimate we consumed quite a few pounds of it. After I eat the few clear bears in the bag (pineapple flavor), I go for the coke bottles; my least favorite are the sour snakes–I usually leave those for Susanna.

Thursday

I got a neck surgery 5 months ago and whenever I’m back in town, I squeeze in some physical therapy. My physical therapist gets me on this “Iron Neck” contraption that football/rugby players use to strengthen their neck muscles for all the hard tackles they make. He knows I always wanted to be rugby player (yeah, right!) and so he gets me on this torture device until I smile. My neck isn’t strong and muscular as those rugby players, but I think my double chin is bulging out little by little so I guess this is working, right?

Friday

Fridays are our “Peer Days” and Susanna got to zoom with her peers this morning and I’m gonna reach out to Tony today as well. This picture was taken in California last year as the beautiful sunset heads down into the Pacific for the night. A fitting picture as another week sets and I look forward to the upcoming weekend; this Sunday, I get to preach on my favorite passage, John 4–Well, well, well!

---

Other Side of the Storm

Last week, Susanna and I were On the Road Again (sing it like Willie!) as Gracepoint Ministries Network Director of Midwest Region (that’s a mouthful but that’s our full title!). In a way, it was a typical week, but in another way, it was unique in many ways.

After preaching on John 2:1-11 about the faithful obedient servants who does whatever Jesus tells them to do, we packed our bags and flew up to Chicagoland, arriving into MDW a little before midnight. The next morning, we drove through 2 hours of calming cornfields to West Lafayette, IN. That journey brought back fond memories of the long drives back and forth between Davis and Berkeley and it was so peaceful that I pulled over on the side of the road and took this picture:

Calming cornfields in Indiana! If you look closely, you’ll see tranquil windmills and a gentle breeze.

A look back at Susanna’s chemotherapy–her 11th infusion back in 2017.

In between meetings with our Purdue team, we got to visit Sara and Jisup. Since Susanna went through her storm of breast cancer several years ago, we especially wanted to be there to encourage Sara as she is going though chemotherapy now. As we’re on the other side of that storm, we assured them that in due time, their storm will pass, and through God’s grace, she would be back to full-strength, to testify to God’s faithful protection and provisions, and to be a servant Jesus can work miracles through.

That day, we got updated that one of the Ann Arbor International Team members, James, was going to go into surgery for his thyroid cancer early next morning. Between Susanna and myself, we’ve been through 7 surgeries and so we know how it feels to be rolled into surgery while the spouse waits in the waiting room. I really wanted to be there for James and Frances, especially since we had ministered to her during her undergrad days in Davis. And so, we packed our bags and got on the road again at 8pm, with an ETA of 12:30 AM into Ann Arbor. No calming cornfields that late at night–they’ve all gone “night-night“.

Mighty Michigan Men at 5:50 AM, before James’ surgery.

As soon as we crossed over into Ohio, we were greeted with flashes of lightning, pouring rain, and gusts of wind, a storm that reminded me of Mark 4:35-41 where Jesus was fast sleep in the boat while the disciples weren’t fast enough in scooping out the water! In our Kia Sorento, Susanna was fast asleep and it was just me gripping the steering wheel for my dear life/wife! But why were we in that storm? Because there were precious souls at the other side of the storm: James and Frances. Thankfully, we made it to Michigan safely and after a few hours of sleep, we went to be with them with prayers and words of calm assurance.

The other day, I recalled our journeys through peaceful cornfields and tumultuous storms of life, and as one of the oldest ones in our church, we’ve gone through more than others. But each time, God has been gracious to us in leading us tenderly. It was like Mark 4:39 “And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” Now, on the other side of the storm, we share that assurance to those who are in the midst of it themselves. I’m a preacher and know what comes after Mark 4 and that’s Mark 5–a man who was harming himself, relegated to the tombs, discarded by the townspeople. And it was for that person that Jesus took the boat and the disciples through that storm to heal and to save. Going through that storm was surely worth it. It sure makes me wonder who might be on the other side of each storm, but one thing’s for certain–there will be a great calm and that precious soul will be worth it all.

---

Fort Lee, Brooklyn, and One More

Gracepoint Network Directors from the East & Midwest had some work meetings with Pastor Ed and Kelly this past week. This time around, our meetings were in New Jersey and on Thursday, we made a visit to the Big Apple, NYC! The twelve of us were in one of those big Ford Transit vans and Pastor Ed took on the role of chauffeur & tour guide, driving 7+ hours! It would’ve been less than half that time if it weren’t for all the notorious traffic in New York City.

For lunch, we ate some good Korean food at Fort Lee, NJ (which, in my humble opinion, is a great name). There seems to be a LOT of Koreans there in Fort Lee and we ate at Yeajip Korean Restaurant. As some of you know, I know very little Korean, but even I know that “jip” means “house” and my Oxford Dictionary tells me that “yea” means “yes”. So this is “YesHouse”–good to know when you’re asking for extra side dishes!

We then drove into Manhattan and after a short stop at Columbia University, we went to Brooklyn. That’s a special place for me from this Lee Clan Trivia: When our family immigrated to the United States in the 70’s, we tried Brooklyn for a few months! I could have been a Brooklynite but my dad couldn’t handle the crazy pace of life in NYC, and so upon the invitation of one of his closest friends, we packed everything and moved to Honolulu Hawaii where it’s s-l-o-o-w! Yea, I could have been a Hawaiian but there weren’t enough jobs out there for my parents and so our family finally settled in LA.

Brooklyn is a HUGE city! It’s a part of #1 populous New York City but this borough by itself would be the 3rd most populous city in America, behind Los Angeles and Chicago. Sorry, Texans, it’s even larger than Houston, so respect for Brooklyn for sure.

Gracepoint Midwest & East overseers with Pastor Ed & Kelly at Dumbo! (yea, that’s for real.)

We ate some ice cream and took this nice photo with special filters courtesy of Apple (Will & Esther had to return back home earlier). Rick took this picture and he cared enough to trim a few pounds off of me even without Photoshop! I look pretty slim, right? Now I can use this trick when I take selfies where I look wider than actual, no thanks to Apple.

After a filling dinner at Brooklyn Chinatown (I forgot the name but yea, they had General Tso chicken), we drove back into Manhattan to stop by New Life Now, one of the ministries our Vision mission teams have helped this Summer and even this past week. As soon as we entered, Pastor Kenny immediately recognized Pastor Ed and so warmly greeted him that for a moment, I thought he was a Texan! It was sweet meeting Pastor Kenny in person, as he expressed much gratitude for the help he received through our teams’ visits, which encouraged his youth ministry especially after the pandemic dwindled.

Visiting Pastor Kenny at NYC with one of our Vision team that helped him reach NY youth.

On the drive back, we were talking about how this past Sunday, Pastor Rick Warren retired from Saddleback Community Church after 43 years of faithful service. One of the songs they sang at that service was one of his favorites, “Reach One More” for Jesus. We listened to that song in that Ford Transit, as another day turned into night. That was a fitting way to end that short journey—as we drive, as we fly, as we take the subway in NYC, we should go to reach one more for Jesus!

Travelogue: Best Airport in the Universe!

I recently recorded a video for our Gracepoint Stories featuring short testimonials from our members (you can search for “#emptynester” or view directly here). I figured if I am going to encourage people to share, I should submit one as well, so I recorded one at the LAX airport that I happen to be traveling through. Since I was one of the OG video editors at our church, I added a few fun additions on it—check it out when you have 58 seconds and give it a thumbs up if you’d like!

In the video, I mention how Susanna and I, being empty nesters, travel quite a bit to visit our Gracepoint Ministries locations all around. Taking the metaphor of birds with nests now empty, we can spread out our wings and fly away anywhere, anytime, any day!

In fact, we do a LOT of flying. Before the pandemic, we were flying back and forth between MSP and AUS nearly every week—that’s nearly 50 flights a year! I earned the coveted elite status at Southwest Airlines: A-List Preferred. I get free internet onboard and (more valuable to me) automatic check in at typically A16-18 boarding positions (don’t need to set my alarm for 24 hour before departure). Thou shall not covet—that’s God’s top 10, remember. Pro tip: If you can help it, become empty nester sooner than later—totally worth it!

Some of you might be wondering, “Hey Pastor Jonathan, what’s your favorite airport?” Glad you asked because I’m gonna tell you. [*Drumroll please*] Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (aka AUS as in AUSome)! I’ll tell you why:

My favorite Airport of All Time: AUSome Austin Airport!

First, it’s got great food with a wide selection. Rather than McD/BK, AUS airport hosts some of the best local eats like TacoDeli (if you’ve never had breakfast tacos, you gotta book a cheap flight to AUS right now), Salvation Pizza (that’s spiritual, maybe), Peached Tortilla (TexAsian Fusion), and of course, you’re in Texas so you can’t be too far from a BBQ—Salt Lick BBQ!

Second, there are a lot of friendly people: TSA agents will smile (yup, you can see it even through their masks), curbside parking patrol officers will politely call you “Ma’am/Sir”, even fellow passengers (at least half of them since they would be Austinites) will help you pull your heavy bags off that “merry go round” thing. My guess is that with the great food, people are friendlier.

Third (Susanna’s contribution to this list), it has the Best Cell Phone Parking Lot in the whole wide world! There’s a very clean Texaco gas station so you can fill up while you wait (btw, Californians, it’s ~$2 per gallon cheaper than what you’re paying), a Whataburger so you can full up while you wait (and buy some for your friend/pastor you’ll pick up), a nice convenience store (it’s not Buc-ee’s, but not bad), an outdoor kids playground, and much more!

This post sure reads like a paid advertisement campaign for ATX (that’s shorthand for “Austin, TX” so you can sound cool like me!) but I’ll end with: Don’t delay, book your flight today and our Gracepoint Austin brothers & sisters will show you some good Southern hospitality!

Mom’s Love Never Forgets

Sorry I haven’t posted on my blog even after I promised I would (a couple of times before). I haven’t forgotten but just been busy, as Susanna and I are Regional Directors, visiting Gracepoint church plants across the greater Midwest (and of course, the Great State of Texas!). I just remembered y’all must be curious to know where I am and what I’ve been up to. Well, here’s one installment in “A day and the life of a Gracepoint pastor!”

Today, I spent the day at Torrance Memorial Hospital because my mom had to get a brain surgery–yes, brain surgery! That might seem terrifying, but thanks to medical advancements and skilled healthcare providers, she now has a shunt in her brain to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid which might have been causing her memory loss and other issues. For you pre-meds out there, my mom was diagnosed with NPH (Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus) and that’s a much better diagnosis than Alzheimer’s disease since it’s treatable with this surgery.

My mom was the first surgery of the day so we had to check in at 5:30 AM. My dad hates being late and so he got up at 4 AM, while I slept in until 4:40 AM, just in time for a quick shower before rushing to the hospital. No leisurely breakfast for sure and only after surgery started did my dad and I grab something to eat at the cafeteria.

Mom’s styling with a beanie while Dad and I don masks.

Guess what my mom said when she first saw me in her ICU room: (in Korean) “Did you get to eat breakfast yet?”

That’s the heart of a mom even after a brain surgery! The brain is a muscle and that’s muscle memory that never forgets.

I am blessed to have a mom whose love for me has never changed in all these 54 years of my life and that’s her language of love. Growing up, there were many times when her same questions about if I ate really annoyed me. After all, if you look at my pudgy face (especially in this selfie), would anyone think I am missing/skipping meals? (For the record, my face is distorted wider since my arms are short and God didn’t have taking selfies as part of His will for my life.)

Even as I helped her eat dinner in that ICU room, between every other bite, she would mutter, “You should eat. What are you going to eat? You should eat some of this…” Even though she repeated those same lines over and over again, it’s not memory loss. It’s proof that mom’s love never forgets.

Wait, it’s a Heavy Rain Day

It’s raining here in Austin today and I got one of those TXT alerts of flash flooding in these parts. Indeed, “When it rains, it pours.” First, it’s coronavirus, then “Shelter in Place”, and now, it’s a rainy day with possibility of flash floods. No wonder I’m feeling a little sad today… 😦

This is what 😦 looks like if it had my face.

I shouldn’t complain because my Korean name “Joong Woo” in Chinese characters is literally “heavy rain”. I don’t know why my parents named me that, especially since I was born in November…I thought all the heavy rain came in April. Maybe it was just one of those special days in November when I was born, a very special day indeed.

According to Korean family naming convention for my Lee clan, my generation is supposed to have the same middle name of “Woo” (and so my brother’s middle name is also “Woo”). So, in a way, my parents were limited in their choices for the first name that might go along with “rain.” I suppose I could have been “light rain” or even “moderate rain”, and if so, my forecast in life could have been quite different.

Whenever I explain the meaning of my name, I am quick to add that the meaning of “Joong” could also be “weighty” or “important”. As I inform people of that additional meaning, I feel better about myself, like I gained an inch to my height or my character stock value increased by 22%. It somehow feels better to be known as “weighty” than “heavy” and on a good day, I’m “important”! Important rain, that is, but important nonetheless.

And on a more lighthearted day, I might add, “Wait, I’ve been living up to my name by increasing in weight! Haha.” (Sorry, am I permitted to add “haha” here? I’m a little self-conscious about it after one of my children told me that I shouldn’t overuse “haha”.)

I’m not called “Joong” much anymore ever since Susanna persuaded me to change my important name to “Jonathan”. But you can still call me “Joong”, or better yet, call me “Important”–because I like that feeling, especially on a heavy rain day.

Resurrect It?

It’s been a looong time…since my last post on this ancient personal blog.  How long?  Last was “Dying for Jesus” where I posted on the occasion of my first hair dye.  That was April 12, 2015, and last count, I’ve gone through 23 tubes of hair dye.  If I post today, it would be exactly 1,680 days.  Now that’s a long time.  (No, I don’t have a googledoc keeping track of that; it’s simple math–23 tubes because I use 1/2 tube per haircut and I get a haircut every ~35.3 days.)

A few age marks but hair looks perfectly black!

As you know, I enjoy playing with words and try to be clever with titles, so I figured “Resurrect It” would be fitting especially since the last post was “Dying for Jesus”.  You like?  “Resurrect It” is actually an auditory pun for “Resurrected”–did you get it the first time?  You like more?

So why am I resurrecting this blog?  Sure, it’s not Instagram or Twitter, but it’s my OG way to connect with people near and far.  Especially with “Social Distancing” blues, I want to resurrect some old connections and perhaps start up some new.  I’m here in Austin and I miss y’all students back in Dallas, Houston, and even Minneapolis!

I will be posting some thoughts here and there, sprinkled with some feelings/wisdom, and occasionally, something that will bring a smile.  🙂  And don’t worry, you can’t catch COVID-19 from reading my posts (unless if you’re using a device that has Coronavirus and you touch your nose/eyes/mouth–sorry, I’m getting the word out again!).

Oh yes, as you can see, I will need to do some spring cleaning on this blog site.  Soap and [warm] water for at least 20 seconds, singing “Happy Birthday” twice…

 

Dying for Jesus (as a church pastor)

I have a feeling this will get a lot of hits from all my friends throughout Gracepoint Ministries…and a lot of comments from those who know me in our Davis and Berkeley churches (and my Mom in SoCal!). 

Well, I’ve done it.  I dyed for Jesus.  Many people have been telling me to dye my hair for a while now but I’ve resisted all of their taunts.  My philosophy is to not mess with God’s doing–short height, extra 20 pounds, handsome face, and gray hair.

Some people have the blessings of avoiding gray hair even as they age and it’s not fair when I see my wife Susanna and Pastor Ed who has avoided this inevitable.  But it was with pride that I held onto verses like: (I hope those of you who took Wisdom Literature during our Gracepoint All College Training School remember these two key verses!)

Proverbs 16:31 Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.

Proverbs 20:29 The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.

Far be it that I remove the crown of glory gained in a righteous life!  (BTW, I gained it when my children entered into teenage years but I won’t disclose which of my two children gave me more gray glory…)

So why did I finally do it?  It happened when I had a 1-on-1 conversation with my son on a drive back from getting a haircut a couple of months ago.  He asked me if I’d do it for the sake of the Gospel.  Being a good pastor, I cited Apostle Paul’s example in 1 Cor. 9:23 “I do it all for the sake of the gospel”! That’s when he persuaded me:  “If you are ministering to college students, then you shouldn’t look like you’re ministering to the elderly.”  Okay, you got me.  I guess one of these days I’ll get to take back my crown of glory, but for now, I’ll do the righteous thing and dye…

Last night, Taylor had the honor of dying my hair and he took these “before” and “after” pictures to commemorate the occasion.  He emailed them to our family saying, “Dad is a new man! Congrats to my 35 year (looking) old pops! He’s so good looking that he almost looks like he could be my dad!”  Son, you are too righteous; may you gain a crown of glory when you have teenage kids just like you.  🙂   

[Before] With crown of glory…

[After] …a righteous life!

Koinonia Live (K-Live) Y’all!

March 7, 2015.  3pm and 8pm.  405 W. 22nd St., Austin TX 78705.  Be there or be square (or a truncated icosahedron)!  It’s way more exciting than Buckyball chemistry or even Buc-ee’s!  For those of you non-Texans out there, Buc-ee’s is a ginormous rest stop where all the members of Gracepoint Berkeley Church can take a restroom break, get cheap refills on sodas, try samples of goodies, and fill up 50 minivans all in less than 5 minutes!  You won’t find that in California–and no smog taxes here either!

If you have any friends within 1 hour of Austin, TX, invite them to come and see!  Tickets are free and can be reserved at:  KoinoniaLive.org

And if they live more than an hour away, have them drive out here, stopping at Buc-ee’s and joining us!

Here are some fun video trailers that some of our folks made:

Gracepoint Church’s Bald Fellowship

We among Gracepoint Ministries strive to embrace the Acts 2 model of true fellowship and we’re especially inspired by how in the early church, “all who believed were together and had all things in common” (Acts 2:44).  But I think we baldly went where no man has gone before–and I’m not talking about the moon here, although he’s in this picture too!  We all did this for one of our dear brothers as a demonstration of camaraderie and brotherly fellowship on the occasion of his birthday (he had a lot more hair back then when we were college students at Berkeley).

Some of the bros look pretty nice (like Pastor William Kang who is heading up our Gracepoint Davis Church).  But some look more like Klingons than anointed ministers of the gospel (like me, Patrick, and Pastor Ed Kang!).  I’m not complaining because I (and Pastor Timothy of Gracepoint Minneapolis) grew a few inches taller here!  🙂

There were many captions that we could have put on this including Daemin’s favorite memory verse from Leviticus 13:40 “If a man’s hair falls out from his head, he is bald; he is clean.”  Wait a minute: One brother missing is Mr. Disgracepoint himself, Pastor Daniel Kim.  Daniel, where are you?

Gracepoint Church’s Bald Fellowship

Longhorns at Gracepoint Irvine Church?

A month ago, I got an email from Ray Choi who is now heading up Gracepoint Irvine Church, one of our new church plants starting up this Fall.  I couldn’t help but to reply to Ray and Sieun, correcting them on the strange hand sign for longhorns; their longhorn sign looked like the animal had a very long nose, very sadly mutated.  If they’re going to pastor that new church well, they need to teach their members how to do the sacred longhorn sign properly.  Susanna and I had the chance to serve with them when we were back in our Berkeley church a couple of years ago, but alas, I didn’t teach him how to do that sign.  😦

Mutant Longhorns at Gracepoint Irvine Church

Some of you might have seen the recap video earlier this year from the most incredible Bladium night at All College Training School (ACTS) where the oldies won and how in the moment of sheer delight, I was caught on film doing the longhorn sign.  The caption read, “Shameless plug for Longhorns!” but truth be told, that was a proud plug for Longhorns!  In fact, that just came out very naturally; what’s in the heart comes out naturally…didn’t Jesus say that somewhere?  Anyway, you can see that magical meeting of Sophomores vs. Gracepoint pastors & deacons  (btw, notice in that picture on the Gracepoint Ministries leadership team that I happened to wear burnt orange…and that was before we moved out to Austin!):

http://www.gracepointvideo.org/2014/05/acts-bladium-sports-night-re-cap/

Supersized in Austin, TX

As I said in a recent Sunday sermon I preached in Gracepoint Berkeley Church, everything here in Texas is super-sized!  That’s the way I like it at McDonalds; as you can see from this picture, there’s a menacing statue of a longhorn (UT Austin’s ubiquitous idol that makes the Israelites’ golden calf look like a toy from a Happy Meal).

Taylor (our personal trainer) has been telling me that I should not go for super-sized fries anymore even if it is a better deal.  He sternly tells me, “Dad, your belly is getting big.”  But I want to remind him that everything in Texas is super-sized and who am I to tell God that I should be medium-sized?  After all, when I feel full, I feel God’s pleasure…or is it more theologically correct, God’s lament?

Truth be told, Susanna and I have been exercising on the treadmill fairly regularly.  Since July 5, I’ve totaled 32.8 miles!  (Yes, 3-significant figures…because every figure is significant!)  This is a treadmill that the deacons of Gracepoint Ministry gave us as a gift when we left Berkeley; thank you, I will post a picture of us running on it soon!

This Wednesday, I will be speaking at Koinonia Austin’s New Student Welcome Night!  Of all places, it will be in the Hogg Auditorium.  (Ok, no jokes about that!) 🙂  Here’s a flier to get the word out and for y’all in California to pray for us!

Gracepoint Berkeley 2 Davis 2 AUSTIN!

Gracepoint Davis and Berkeley church members, I’m so sorry!  I know some of you have been eagerly waiting for an update to my blog and you’ve had to wait a whole year!  But what a year it’s been–We are now in the great state of Texas!!  I’m sorry, but I LOVE Texas and it’ll take me several posts to convince you that TEXAS is the greatest!  Where else can you enjoy a warm 96 degree weather at 9pm?  🙂

Leading up Gracepoint Austin Church for the past 3 months has been a real blessing.  Susanna and I came out to scout out Austin 5.5 years ago after which I emailed our powerpoint report to Pastor Ed & Kelly and told them that we would love to volunteer to come out for that church plant.  At that time, we knew that Pastor Manny & Sunny would be the best but we wanted to be on deck!  And now we’re here and Pastor Manny & Sunny are back in California starting up Gracepoint LA!  (Actually, I took my first college course at UCLA Extension–a microbiology class when I was a High School student; yes, I was a macro-nerd even back then!)

I just wanted to post some pictures since y’all want to see how we are doing and how we are suffering for the Gospel.  Please pray for us!  I’ve had to suffer through Lasertag.  I’ve had to suffer through Whirlyball.  Man, it’s hard being a college minister but I love it! 😉

A New Chapter in Berkeley

This morning was a new chapter in our lives as we helped Kristen move into her college dorm.  But before we left home, as we usually do when a family member heads out for a long trip, we sent her off with a time of prayer.  It just seems like yesterday when Kristen was a toddler and when I had to go off to business trips (collecting x-ray diffraction data at synchrotron sources–sorry for nerding!), she would pray, “God, please let Daddy come back safely and the airplane won’t crash.”  Susanna and I would giggle and our little daughter would be offended that we laughed during a sincere moment of prayer.  Now, our daughter is off to college and I’m praying, “God, please let Kristen come back safely!”  I’m sure she would have giggled if I had prayed such a prayer this morning!

Yes, Taylor is really sad that his dear sister is moving out of the house…

As we were loading up the minivan with her belongings, it brought back memories of 1985 when I left home to head to UC Berkeley.  Before I drove off, my dad read Isaiah 41:10:  “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.   I will strengthen you and help you;  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  I could not help but to turn to that passage this morning to read it for her.  So there we were this morning for this send-off prayer and as soon as I started, “Kristen, I want to share with you Isaiah 41:10,” Susanna starts to tear up.  And then Kristen starts to tear up.  And yes, truth be told, I start to tear up…

I started to tear up because at that moment, I recalled how true this passage has been for me from the moment my dad read it when I started that new chapter in my life.  The past 27 years have been filled with many fears and times when I was dismayed.  But God has strengthened, helped, and upheld me with His righteous right hand.

This morning, perhaps a part of me was also fearing this new chapter.  Will she be safe from all the potential harm, physically and spiritually?  Maybe I should have enrolled her in Taekwondo or something…  Maybe I should have had more Father-Daughter talks where I would preach on about the wickedness of boys and men…  Well, she had a rascally younger brother so I guess she knows a little bit of that already.

And now, as I think about how Isaiah 41:10 would help Kristen’s fears, I am being ministered to by this passage yet again for my fears at this new chapter of my life.  I need to surrender our daughter into the righteous right hand of our Heavenly Father who will surely strengthen us and help us through it all…

Since some new ministries are getting to know us (Koinonia, Klesis, [make]new fellowship, CrossTalk), I’m putting up some links below from our old chapters just for fun:

• https://joongwlee.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/blushing-at-the-beach
• https://joongwlee.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/her-court-appearance
• https://joongwlee.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/award-winning-dress
• https://joongwlee.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/wk-3-sight-2-see
• https://joongwlee.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/dare-to-drive-in-davis