Scholarship Recipients Host Chapel Service
Thrive, the congregational support agency of the Christian Reformed Church, hosted the weekly chapel service at Calvin Theological Seminary (CTS) on Apr. 17, 2024. Two of the participants in the service are current recipients of a Multiracial Scholarship from Thrive.
David Roh is a second-year Ph.D. student at CTS, and Kang Heo is in his second year of the M.Div. program. Both are from South Korea.
Roh, who aims to become a missionary after completing his studies, read the Scripture for the service: Luke 15:11-32. This is the second year Roh has received a scholarship from Thrive.
Kang Heo helped to plan the service with a student-led planning committee that he has been a part of since 2022, when he first entered the seminary. His role was to organize the liturgy, set the theme, and find the preachers, instrumentalists, and other volunteers to help with the service.
“Sometimes it is hard to find [the chapel participants],” Heo said, “but I alway find God’s provision for it, and after chapel, I have felt grace and gratitude always.”
Heo, 26, is from Wonju-si, South Korea. He also participated in the service by bringing the message, titled “Foreigners but Inheritors,” based on Jesus’ parable of the lost son. It centered on the question “Who Am I?” and the concept of self-identity.
In his message, Heo highlighted how the younger son in the parable lost his identity but found it again through repentance and returning to his merciful father. On the other hand, the older son, who stayed with his father and resented his brother’s celebrated return, held to his distorted identity as a long-suffering, judgmental “perfect son” and an entitled business partner of his father.
“We all have traits of both the first son and the second son in this world and in the church,” Heo said. But in the end, we are all the same when we focus on our true identity in Christ.
Heo expressed his gratitude for the Thrive scholarship. “I was struggling with finances at the beginning of last fall semester, but [then the scholarship funding] almost completely covered my rent,” he said. “The Thrive scholarship made me feel the provision of God.”
After finishing his studies at CTS, Heo also plans to serve as a missionary, saying he is open to serving anywhere “to experience a variety of cultural ministerial settings, either in urban or rural areas for the marginalized and the desperate for help.”
As host of the chapel, Thrive provided a resource table and representatives from the agency to talk with inquiring students after the service. Thrive staff fielded questions from the attendees and offered more information about the multicultural scholarships available.
Any ethnic-minority student attending a college affiliated with the CRC can apply for the scholarship. More information and resources are available through the Thrive Racial Justice website.
