This page is still in the works.. we'll clean up and update what James wrote in 2000 (below). Some interesting historical archives of this web site (by no means comprehensive):
MITACF Orientation 2002 site
MITACF 2001-02 site
MITKCF 2000-01 various pages
MITKCF Orientation 2000 / AY 1999-2000 site
MITKCF 1999 various pages
MITKCF 1998 site

mitacf-www

A brief history of MITACF (formerly MITKCF until Spring 2001), as compiled by James Choung SB '95.

Spring 1990

MIT students Sam Kwon '93 and John Yoon '93, feeling a lack of established English-speaking services for Korean-Americans in the Boston area, envision a campus fellowship for Korean-Americans at MIT

Fall 1990

Meanwhile, other students organize a meeting to talk about the lack of established English-speaking services for Korean-Americans. Sam and John join these other Christians- about 10 students altogether, including Cindy Kim, Gene Sohn, Franklin Ko, J.P. Kang, Young Park, Jane Song, Marie Lee and Esther Cho - and decide to pray for a semeseter about the possibility of starting somethign in the spring. Sam remembers it like this (written in April 1993):

"Why don't we just start one?" John once optimistically asked. I think I mumbled something about it being too difficult to get peopel together. That was at the beginning of our sophomore year at MIT, Fall 1990. A Fellowship of Korean Christians at MIT seemed like a great idea, but a somewhat distant reality.

"Then one day, a few brave souls from Newton church decided to call a meeting to discuss the feasibility of a Korean Christian Fellowship. I forgot how I found out about the meeting, perhaps email or word of mouth, but one evening 10 eager Christians gathered in one of the study rooms of McCormick to talk and pray.

"We decided that a Korean Christian Fellowship was good for the following reasons:

• One often didn't know who one's brothers and sisters were, unless they happened to attend one's church.
• Koreans were not being reached by the existing campus groups, like UCF and CCC.
"A fragmented community was less effective than a united one, so we decided to spend a semester in prayer, and then, Lord willing, begin a Korean Christian Fellowship."

December 1990

At Urbana '90, John feels more strongly that getting help from outside organization is important for long term health of the group. He just happened to sit down for lunch at Urbana with John Ratichek, the Boston Area Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF). The possibility of having a staffworker join the fellowship is discussed.

Meanwhile, Soong-Chan Rah, a former InterVarsity chapter president at Columbia, had already contacted IVCF, intending to study at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS) in the fall of 1991, and inquired of IVCF ministry opportunities in Boston.

The fellowship is run by committee, which caused unclear roles and expectations for the leadership. Thus, a more traditional structure is set up and Esther Cho is named the first President.

Fall 1991

The fellowship is moved away from room 1-150 to the more intimate music room located in McCormick Hall's penthouse. Soong-Chan begins to meet with students.

Spring 1992

Soong-Chan begins work part-time for IVCF as KCF's first staffworker, and recruits two other GCTS seminarians to help out initially. James Choung '95 forms the Welcome Team and a seeker Bible Study at his fraternity, Phi Kappa Theta. At the end of the term, an Exec Team of four attend Chapter Camp for the first time. At Chapter Camp, KCF takes more steps forward with IVCF partnership, planning and organization.

1992-93

The fellowship meets in the McCormick gym. A large freshman class of around 12 pushes the fellowship numbers up to 35. A worship team is formed, and the Exec Team expands to include eight members. The first annual Boston-Wide Praise Night is held in 6-120.

1993-94

The Exec Team finds a more relational focus, and four Small Groups are piloted: two men's and two women's. The annual homeless children's toy drive begins.

1994-95

KCF grows to 50, and the small group leaders begin to meet twice a week for training and accountability. MIT student Hee Jun Rho '96 forms the first Prayer Team.

1995-96

James begins part-time staff work with IVCF at KCF. The small group leaders meet once a week to build on community, training and accountability. At the end of the year, Soong-Chan leaves staff to focus on church planting in the Cambridge area.

1996-97

The fellowship grows to 70, including students involved in small groups. Gary Crichlow '96, Jean Kang '96 and Chinsan Han '96 join KCF as volunteer staff, marking the beginning of the KCF staff team. Jean and CHinsan divide the Small Groups into Men's and Women's Small Group Ministries, where the leaders now meet in gender-specific settings. However, the Welcome Team is dissolved.

1997-98

Patrick Kwon '97 joins KCF as a volunteer staffworker. Gary, along with Joe Kim '98, pilots the first Outreach team. KCF students plants more Seeker Studies in various MIT dormities and in the Greek system. At the end of the year, Jean leaves staff to attend medical school, and Chinsan leaves to attend graduate school in electrical engineering

1998-99

Bonnie Cheung '98, our second non-Korean staffworker, joins as a volunteer staffworker and pilots the Freshman mob ministry. Gary leaves staff at the end of the fall term for work as a flight attendant. At the end of the year, James goes on sabbatical, serving at a church in South Korea.

1999-00

Lily Hong '99, Ellen Choi '99, and Louis Yu '99 join as volunteer staffworkers. Lily and Louis refocus the small group ministries into Women's amd Men's Discipleship Groups. Louis leaves staff a month into the term for personal reasons, and the Men's Discipleship groups are dissolved for the year. A small group of men continue to meet separately from the KCF ministries.

James returns from sabbatical during the spring term, and is employed with IVCF fulltime to serve KCF. James and MIT graduate student Roy Kim '99 start Christianity.001, a weekly meeting designed to meet the questions and needs of students seeking to know more about Jesus. Lily and Ellen head off to medical school, and Bonnie finishes her staff commitment and devotes more time to medical research.

2000-01

This school year is marked by great change. Grace Bae '00 joins staff as a volunteer. A couple of freshmen begin to hold all-campus prayer meetings. The fellowship as a whole begins to grow in prayer and evangelism. In prayer, the fellowship learns to hear from God in direct, powerful ways and grows into a greater intimacy with God through prayer. In evangelism, six God Investigative Groups (GIGs) are launched, with 21 non-Christians studying the Bible every week. Also, during IAP, large groups are moved from Wednesdays to Fridays to help increase our ability to outreach and build a better sense of community.

After much deliberation, the fellowship changes its name to MIT Asian Christian Fellowship. There has always been a good percentage of non-Koreans in our fellowship (around 10-15% each year) and most of our outreach was to non-Koreans as well. To give our fellowship a better chance to follow up on our GIGs, we have decided to pursue a more pan-Asian strategy at reaching the campus. Grace finishes her year on staff and heads back home to California to pursue her passions.

2001-02

Peter Kim '00, Peter Yang '00 and Grace Lee '00 join ACF's volunteer staff team. Adding our seasoned full-time staff worker, James Choung, to the list makes this year's staff more male than usual, but Grace does a good job holding up on her own.

Speaking of gender, the women and men's ministries were active this year. Several events were held which brought brothers together and sisters together for fellowship and at times to discuss relevant issues. A great surprise occurred on Valentine's Day when the sisters sent encouragements to the brothers. The brothers also had a surprise of their own -- they slaved away in the kitchen to cook a five-star dinner and put on a very entertaining night for the sisters.

The God Investigative Groups (GIGS) were geared up this year as well with about four groups meeting and twelve seekers studying the Bible with ACFers.

The ACF webpage was re-vamped at a slow but steady rate with the hope that it would be of greater use to ACFers and that it would provide more information about who we are to others in the MIT community.

Many great things happened this year, but unfortunately, we also had our sad moments. We had to say good-bye to our two volunteer staff workers, Grace and Peter Yang, as well as James and his wife, Jinhee. All went to California to pursue new opportunities and experiences. They will be greatly missed.

2002-03

Susan Yan '01 and Danny Park '01 join volunteer staff. Peter Kim '00 decides to stick around for at least one more year and becomes ACF's volunteer staff leader.

Notable points of this year:

• the return of the prayer team, led by MIT student Nancy Choi '02
• the last MIT-hosted Boston-Wide Praise Night, to be replaced with a New England-wide Asian American conference next year

2003-04

Susan Yan '01, Danny Park '01, and Peter Kim '00 continue as volunteer staff, led by Peter. Christina Park '02 joins the team as ACF's newest volunteer staff member.

The Outreach team makes a comeback, led by Susan and MIT student Kathryn Der '05. The small group ministries are doubled and divided into two separate groups: the freshmen small group leaders led by Christina and the upperclass small group leaders led by Danny.

ACF partners with GCF in the alpha course to expand our outreach.

2000 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Please do not reproduce without permission.