Our First Semester!
Embarking on a New Journey
You may not know, but 4Corners Boston started in the fall of this year. We’re only 3 months old at the writing of this blog. But what a semester it’s been, huh? When we embarked on this year, our team chose a key verse that would characterize how we’d like to live in the coming several months. We chose 1 Corinthians 9:22, which reads:
I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
For us, with none of having experience doing international ministry (i.e. making friends and sharing the gospel with international students) we felt a bit overwhelmed. But one thing we could do was serve and love people, and learn in the process. And you know, I think we did.
So. Many. New. Friends.
September was a crazy month. We put on a Science & Faith talk at Brandeis University. We put on a Belonging talk at Babson University. We were on campus almost every day and every evening. And then we had a Mid-Autumn Festival Bible study with the help of our friends from California. Truly, we were all things to all campuses and all students!
Our Mid-Autumn Festival Bible Study had 25 students come from 5 different colleges: Boston University, Boston College, Brandeis University, Emerson College, and Tufts University. I shared the parable of the rich fool, talking about how how each person is more than just their body and they have deep spiritual longings. And then we made dumplings—lots and lots of dumplings.
Mid-Autumn Festival Bible Study
Science & Faith at Babson
After all these events, we launched our weekly Bible study, where we went through different encounters that people had with Jesus. Jesus, as the Son of God, had a profoundly meaningful interaction with everyone he met—and we’re able to learn a lot from those! We had these almost every week during the semester, starting off with a yummy dinner (that was mostly Korean food).
First 4Corners Boston weekly Bible Study
After Bible Study activities, Harvard Tour!
We Love Holidays
At Four Corners, one of the highlights of the year was celebrating holidays with everyone. For many of the international students, it was their first time celebrating American holidays. We carved pumpkins for Halloween, had a Thanksgiving feast, and sang carols for Christmas. One of the great things about Fall is that there’s a holiday every month until the end of the year!
Christmas Party (can you see our gifts?)
Thanksgiving Church Service
Thanksgiving Dinner
Who and what are you thankful for?
Scary faces for Halloween
Holidays are often times that people spend with their families, but since of all of us are far from home, it’s an opportunity to be family to one another, to be a home away from home. Looking forward to Chinese New Year and Easter in the Spring!
In Closing
As I look back at this semester, Isaiah 54:2 comes to mind.
“Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
God is encouraging the Israelites to continue to expand their territory, to increase the size of God’s influence on the world and bring his reign to new lands. If we contextualize it our day and age, it’s to expand our area of influence by sharing God’s love and word to an ever-widening group of people. It’s to expand our hearts to include more and more people that the world says we should have nothing to do with. It’s to say “God values and treasures you, and so will I”. God has brought enriched our lives this semester with new friends and people to love. He has enlarged our tent, lengthened our cords, and strengthened our stakes. See you in 2023!
Picture from our last Bible Study of 2022