ISF Newsletter

Newsletter I JANUARY 2002

A NEW YEAR'S WISH!

We wish all our International friends a very Happy and Joyous New Year. No doubt, in many cultures the celebration of the New Year is a time to be spent with family and friends. It is a time to look back in retrospect and to plan to make the New Year one of hope and the fulfilling of dreams. We cannot turn back the clock of time but we do have each new day to make a difference for good in the world we live in. It is not by chance that you and I are here to play a part in the history of this generation. It is because of God's planning and wisdom. What a responsibility we each have as individuals to live each day in a way to give honor to God and to be a help to our fellow human beings. We encourage you to start this New Year with the determination to ask God for His help each day. He has the answers to the perplexing and challenging decisions you must make each day. With those thoughts in mind, may we all join together to make this New Year one that will set an example of peace and goodwill for the generations to come

--Terry & Pam

LETTER FROM THE ISF ASSISTANT

Dear International Friend,

We extend New Year's greetings to you and your family. We know many of you are ready to begin a new semester at school. Some of you are new to Pittsburgh and will be starting on new work assignments or research projects. As each of us face a new year, it is wonderful to know we are not alone. We are part of an International family of friends and acquaintances made up of people from all over the world. I'm sure each of us felt that special blessing and uplift during the recent Christmas Banquet in December. What an amazing feeling to be among an International family that numbered up to 800 from 34 different countries on that night. It surely gives us hope and makes us feel that the love that radiated from that humble Bethlehem stable 2000 years ago is still able to touch our hearts today.

Therefore, we can face this New Year knowing we have a wonderful support structure of people who care for us. Do keep encouraged and please stay close to this International family throughout the New Year. Remember we are here to help you in any way we can. We may in ourselves seem small, but our hearts are filled with God's great love for each of you.

So a good way to start the year right is to come to our January ISF Gathering. We look forward to seeing you at this first ISF Gathering of 2002. This gathering will be on Friday, January 18th, 7:30 PM in the beautiful Ballroom of the William Pitt Union. The William Pitt Union is located in Oakland on the corner of Bigelow and Fifth Avenue. To get to the Ballroom, use the entrance on Fifth Avenue and then follow the signs.

As always there will be children's activities in the Kurtzman Room. Also, to help celebrate the New Year, we thought it would be a good idea to have an International Food Festival at this January gathering. If you would like to bring some food from your native country it would be fun to share it with other International friends. If you aren't able to bring something, that won't be a problem. We will also be having some American food so there will be plenty for everyone. Feel free to invite your friends and ask them to join in sharing something that is traditional food from their homeland. Maybe there is something that is especially enjoyed for the New Year in your country, which you might like to prepare for the evening. Again don't feel pressure; you are welcome to come even if you cannot bring any food!

--Terry Tiberio, ISF Assistant

THOUGHTS TO THINK ABOUT

"Time is God's, not ours"
--Dutch Proverb

"An inch of time cannot be bought by an inch of gold"
--Chinese proverb

"Time ripens all things."
--Spanish proverb

"No man ever repented of being a Christian on his death bed."
--Hanna Moore

DECEMBER ISF CHRISTMAS GATHERING

800 were present from the following 35 countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Macedonia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad, Uganda, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe, USA.

SPECIAL THANKS!

The ISF Annual Christmas Banquet of 2001 was truly amazing. This was the largest Annual Christmas Banquet in the 35 years that ISF has been having them. As you can see below we had about 800 present from 35 countries. The previous record had been 650. It is you, our dear International friends, who made this possible by inviting your International friends. So to all who invited, worked, and helped in any way we extend a "SPECIAL THANKS!"

"NEW BANK ACCOUNT DAILY"

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, that carried no balance from day to day, allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and finally every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day what would you do? Draw out every cent-of course! Well, you have such a bank and its name is "TIME." Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off-as lost-whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purposes. It carries no balances. It allows no overdrafts. Each day the bank named "TIME" opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits the loss is yours.

--Robert G. Lee

ANNOUNCEMENT: INTERNATIONAL FOOD FESTIVAL!

As a special way to celebrate the New Year, we plan to designate the January ISF Gathering as a kind of International Food Festival. Any who desire and are able are encouraged to bring food from their own country so we can put it all together to share. If you are not able to bring anything, don't worry. We will still have American food and there will be plenty for all.

Hope to see you at the January ISF Gathering on January 18th, in the Ballroom of the William Pitt Union!

December 2001 Newsletter
November 2001 Newsletter
October 2001 Nesletter
September 2001 Newsletter
August 2001 Newsletter
July 2001 Newsletter