Newsletter   I   OCTOBER 2004

LIFE'S PURPOSE Imagine you are on vacation, and you have an apartment overlooking the sand and surf. Sitting on the table in your room is a fishbowl, and inside the bowel is a small goldfish. Each day you enjoy sitting on the beach and soaking up the delights of vacationing. Before long, however, you begin to feel sorry for little Goldie who is all alone in his bowl while you go out having fun in the sun. To make up for this injustice, you promise Goldie a little of the action. "Tomorrow," you tell the goldfish, "you will begin to enjoy life, too." The next day you take a washcloth, wrap it up, and put the living bundle into your pocket before leaving for the beach. As you reach the spot where you are accustomed to spending your day, you can feel the sun's heat beating down upon your back. Excitedly you take your gilled companion from your pocket, lay out the washcloth on the sand, place the fish on the cloth, stand back, and say, "Now this the life, Goldie; live it up!" Could anything be more ridiculous or more foolish? Being in the sun on the hot beach is no environment for a goldfish-or any fish! It will die there, not live. It was never intended to be in that environment. For people, a relationship with God as Father is the only correct environment for life.                                                                                               --adapted from Peter Law in A Portrait of My Father Some time ago, psychologist William Moulton Marston asked three thousand persons, "What do you have to live for?" He was shocked to find that 94 percent were simply enduring the present while waiting for the future. They would describe this as waiting for "something" to happen-waiting for children to grow up and leave home, waiting for next year, waiting for another time to take a long-dreamed-about trip, waiting for tomorrow They were all waiting without realizing that all anyone ever has is today because yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come. Someone has aptly said, "Living without God's plan for our life is like sewing with a needle without thread, or writing one's biography with a pen empty of ink."

LETTER FROM THE ISF ASSISTANTS Dear International Friend, Greetings to you from International Student Fellowship! It is a wonderful experience to meet people from different countries. We all realize that there are many things about us that are very different. Some of us prefer cool weather while others enjoy it hot. There are those who like spicy food and others who like it mild and sweet. In the United States you may hear someone say that they are not a "morning person". My wife is a lot like that. I am up and ready to go early in the morning. She is a slow starter in the morning and just when I am ready to turn off the lights for a good night's sleep she is still full of energy. Maybe that's what makes this world such an interesting place to live in. Variety is the spice of life. We enjoyed seeing a lot of you at the September ISF gathering. Even though it was on a Thursday evening, many were able to come. In October we will be back on schedule and will have our gathering on a Friday. This is the very first day of the month of October. What a good way to start the month by coming to meet someone new from your country or another country. We will look forward to seeing you at the October gathering. This gathering will be on Friday, October 1st at 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. At this gathering we plan on special music, wonderful fellowship, a full course meal for you to enjoy, an interesting lecture and of course there will be children's activities in the Kurtzman room. And remember it's all free! We look forward to seeing you on Friday, October 1st!                                                                                                   --Terry & Pam Tiberio, ISF Assistants All have been given a bag of tools, A formless rock and a book of rules, And each must make before life has flown, A stumbling block or a stepping stone.

What the Bible Says ... Mark 8:34-38 "Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth." I John 2:15-17 "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." I John 2:25 "And this is the promise that He has promised us -- eternal life."

ISF SEPTEMBER GATHERING (September 9, 2004)