By God's grace alone, on December 21st, 2008, at the graduation ceremony, my degree of Doctor of Philosophy in chemical engineering was conferred by Purdue University. The graduation ceremony was truly glorious. I felt that I was seeing the preview of the glorious coming of Jesus. With all the Ph.D candidates sitting in the Elliot Hall of Music, where we had the Purdue Internation Conference, the dean of the graduate school reported to the president of the university, "They have successfully fulfilled the requirements of their degree programs and those of the graduate school. And with the approval of the faculty, I now present them to you for the awarding of the Doctor of Philosophy degree." In response, the president declared, "Exercising the authority of the trustees of Purdue University and upon the recommendation of the faculty of Purdue, I now confer upon you who have fulfilled the highest requirements of this univeristy, the doctor of philosophy degree, with all the rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities of that degree." As I received the diploma, I imagined how glorious it would be when we are presented to God by the angels and receive the crown of victory from Jesus and the eternal life is conferred upon us after we have fulfilled the highest 'requirements' of the Kingdom of God in our life of faith. I pray that I may continue my life of faith to the end so as to be able to say like apostle Paul, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." (2Tim 4:7-8)

There were several moments along the 6 year journey I wanted to quit and give up, but God gave me strength and wisdom to finally cross the finish line so I could attend the glorious graduation ceremony. This was possible thanks to the prayer support and the words of encouragement of numerous servants of God including my wife Sarah, my parents shepherds Abraham and Eun Joo Jeong, my in-laws Drs. James and Sarah Kim, Dr. Samuel A. Lee and Msn. Grace Lee and Msn. Mark and Anna Yang, Msn. Paul and Fan Ho and Msn. Stephen and Elizabeth Han just to name a few. Once Dr. Sam told me, "My life at Purdue was like a honeymoon." At that time, I could not understand what he was saying because I was suffering so much that I was even thinking about quitting. But now I think I can understand what he meant. The life at Purdue was the time we met Christ newly, grew a lot spiritually, experienced the mighty power of God's word and his great love and mercy. And by the time we left Purdue, only the sweet memories followed us and we could say to ourselves, "Our life at Purdue was like our second honeymoon," because God was with us.

And I would like to express my special thanks to Dr. Samuel Lee, the founder of UBF, and Mother Barry who helped me to begin my life of faith 12 years ago, when I was a freshman in college. They planted in me the vision to become a great man of God through the Genesis Bible study.

Now we moved to Boston for my postdoc training. My family belongs to Boston II which pioneers MIT and where Dr. William Jung serves as the director. The missionaries here-Msn. William and Pauline Jung, Msn. Peter Lee, Msn. David and Petra Lee and Msn. David and Rebekah Lee-are all humble and gospel-centered. Msn. David and Rebekah Lee recently went back to Korea because Msn. David joined the faculty of the Pohang Institute of Technology (POSTECH).

We will study Romans in the new year and we pray to begin a new chapter of 1:1 ministry at MIT with a new heart. I pray that my family can humbly cowork with the missionaries here and be used to serve one lost soul with Bible study. And I pray that I may keep my faith as I receive postdoc training and in God's time and in God's place be used as a professor shepherd.