Off to Taichung
In less than 2 months, I'll be uprooting my family and leaving my adopted country US of A for Taichung, Taiwan. I will be teaching at Morrison Academy in Taichung. Morrison is an international Christian school which started more than 60 years ago to children of missionaries in Taiwan and continue to do so today.
Why?
I guess this has been the most commonly ask question. Did something happen? Was this an impulsive decision? Why now?
To answer these questions, I think it all began my senior year in high school. During a Sunday service, I felt a strong calling to serve God with all my life, I submitted to the calling. Nothing really happen after that, I went off to college for four years. Two months prior to graduating, I met Adele, the wife. I guess the quality that really attracted us to each other was that we both wanted to serve God full time. We decided to continue to date even though God shipped her off to St. Louis for graduate school while He led me to Biola to pursue teaching.
While at Biola, during one of my classes, my professor brought people from Wycliffe, a bible translation organization, and they shared the need for qualified teachers all over the world to educate the children of these missionaries. It struck me that maybe this is how I can serve God later in my life.
After Biola, I quickly got my current job teaching at Southlands, I proposed to Adele (a very uneventful event that I regret for the rest of my life and the wife would never let go as well) and got married. Janelle, Asher, and Levi quickly followed. To both of us, the hope to become full time missionaries has become so far-fetched that at this point the only way we thought could happen will be when all our kids move on to college 18 years later!!!
God creaked open a door late February this year. I would go on Morrison's employment opening page every now and then (like once a year) to revive my feint hope of doing mission work. Surprisingly there was an opening for my subject area. At that moment, I decided to go ahead and complete the preliminary application as there was nothing to lose, thinking that maybe I can just get my name out to the school and maybe years down the road that can be an option.
That night I went home and shared my impulsive move with my wife, minutes later, I got an email from Morrision stating that I may be a candidate and ask me to go ahead and complete the full application. Things fall into place quickly, after a series of interviews the next few weeks I was offered the position and have to decide within a week during my Easter break.
Adele and both prayed during this entire process and never got this "glowing neon sign" of what to do from God. On the night of 4/8, on my hotel bed, in the midst of our crazy Nor Cal road trip (that's for another blog entry), I prayed. The only thing I got was that this opportunity was what Adele and I always wanted. At this point of our lives, with 3 little ones, this is as close as we can get to the mission field (based on our limited ability, biblical knowledge, and spiritual life). Adele agreed and said there was nothing pointing towards NO (interestingly this has been God's method of communicating to us thus far). Then, we decided to embark on this adventure for the next few years of our lives.
Prayer requests
The wife as a more comprehensive list of prayer request but here's mine
Why?
I guess this has been the most commonly ask question. Did something happen? Was this an impulsive decision? Why now?
To answer these questions, I think it all began my senior year in high school. During a Sunday service, I felt a strong calling to serve God with all my life, I submitted to the calling. Nothing really happen after that, I went off to college for four years. Two months prior to graduating, I met Adele, the wife. I guess the quality that really attracted us to each other was that we both wanted to serve God full time. We decided to continue to date even though God shipped her off to St. Louis for graduate school while He led me to Biola to pursue teaching.
While at Biola, during one of my classes, my professor brought people from Wycliffe, a bible translation organization, and they shared the need for qualified teachers all over the world to educate the children of these missionaries. It struck me that maybe this is how I can serve God later in my life.
After Biola, I quickly got my current job teaching at Southlands, I proposed to Adele (a very uneventful event that I regret for the rest of my life and the wife would never let go as well) and got married. Janelle, Asher, and Levi quickly followed. To both of us, the hope to become full time missionaries has become so far-fetched that at this point the only way we thought could happen will be when all our kids move on to college 18 years later!!!
God creaked open a door late February this year. I would go on Morrison's employment opening page every now and then (like once a year) to revive my feint hope of doing mission work. Surprisingly there was an opening for my subject area. At that moment, I decided to go ahead and complete the preliminary application as there was nothing to lose, thinking that maybe I can just get my name out to the school and maybe years down the road that can be an option.
That night I went home and shared my impulsive move with my wife, minutes later, I got an email from Morrision stating that I may be a candidate and ask me to go ahead and complete the full application. Things fall into place quickly, after a series of interviews the next few weeks I was offered the position and have to decide within a week during my Easter break.
Adele and both prayed during this entire process and never got this "glowing neon sign" of what to do from God. On the night of 4/8, on my hotel bed, in the midst of our crazy Nor Cal road trip (that's for another blog entry), I prayed. The only thing I got was that this opportunity was what Adele and I always wanted. At this point of our lives, with 3 little ones, this is as close as we can get to the mission field (based on our limited ability, biblical knowledge, and spiritual life). Adele agreed and said there was nothing pointing towards NO (interestingly this has been God's method of communicating to us thus far). Then, we decided to embark on this adventure for the next few years of our lives.
Prayer requests
The wife as a more comprehensive list of prayer request but here's mine
- packing and moving - It is mind boggling how much STUFF we have accumulated through our 5 short years of marriage, we need wisdom to know how to pack, what to throw, how to sell, get a property management agent to take care of our house while we are gone
- settling in Taichung - For all 5 of us to adjust quickly to life in Taichung, for me to get acclimated to the new work environment. For Adele to have the strength, wisdom, and patience to take care of 3 babies. For our 3 little ones to adjust and settle, to be healthy and happy
- spiritual life - I have been in a spiritual desert for years, I hope that with a change of environment, it can force me to desire and rely God ever more strongly
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