First, let me give you some background. I was born in Seoul, Korea, then my family moved to Japan when I was 4. My parents were missionaries in Tokyo, Japan, for 14 years. Four years ago, we moved to Cypress in Orange County, California. The move from Japan to California was one of the most pivotal events in my life. So here's my story.
It was the summer after my junior year in high school. I was going to a K-12 Christian school called Christian Academy in Japan. I went to various cities in Japan on a short-term missions trip with Hi-b.a. (High school born againers). It was a two-week long, really intense missions trip. Everyday we would wake up before dawn, and go to various Japanese high schools and train stations to hand out flyers. The flyers were invitations to rallies that we held every night, where we presented the Gospel to Japanese high school students who came. It was my first time sharing the Gospel to strangers and the first time I experienced the Holy Spirit work through me to bring people to Christ. It was such an amazing experience, and I was really on fire for God and for the Japanese people. Even after the trip, I was excited to share the Gospel with strangers, and I planned to share the Gospel while riding trains and wherever I went.
Soon after the trip, my dad got a call from a pastor friend in Orange County. The pastor was moving to a different church, so his church needed a new senior pastor. He asked my dad if he could come to OC to speak at the church as a guest speaker, and to see how the congregation likes him. So my dad went to the States for a couple weeks, and came back. We heard back from the church soon after that, and they said they wanted my dad to be the new senior pastor. Then my parents told me that we were going to move to California. My first response was something like this:
“Well, I’m really on fire for God to serve in Japan, so I really think He wants me here… Besides, I have a girlfriend here, and I’m involved in so many things in high school, such as choir, chamber choir, band, jazz band, wrestling, drama, musical… and I’m going to star in the musical we’re going to do next year! I can’t miss that! And I want to graduate with all my friends! … But I guess I don’t mind if my parents had to go. I’ll just stay here by myself, or with my older brother.”
So basically, I was in denial to that fact that I may have to move to the States with my family. To stay in Japan, I needed to find a place to stay, and the money to pay for tuition. I went to a Christian private school, and like any private school, it wasn’t cheap to say the least. But I didn’t really look anywhere, but just ignored the fact that I may have no choice but to go.
Meanwhile, my family had to apply for visa. In order apply we had to get a letter of invitation from the church in California. The letter took a while to get through, so my parents were getting anxious. When the letter came, we applied for visa immediately. It was on Tuesday, August 21, 2001. School started on Thursday that same week. I thought visa would take a while to get through, and I would just end up staying in Japan after all. If you know anything about immigration, visa, or bureaucracy in general, you know that they take time, usually a long time, to get anything done. Then it was Monday, three days into school: the visa came through. I felt like, “WHAT THE @#$%” So we applied on a Tuesday, it was approved the same week, and got mailed back over the weekend. When does that ever happen!? I was shocked. That was enough to convince me that God wanted our family in California right away. But of course, being stubborn, I still didn’t want to go. It was just that I had no possible way of staying here or paying for school. The visa made me lose all hope for staying in Japan.
Then on the same day the visa came through, my girlfriend’s mom, who happens to be an English teacher at the school, came up to me and told me that she knows my situation, and that there are 10 faculty and teachers who want to help me pay for the tuition! I didn’t know what to say. It gave me hope, but there still was the question of where to live. Then I came home and told my mom what my girlfriend’s mom had told me. Then my mom said to me, “Do you remember the kindergarten boy you tutored this summer? Well, his family is going to move somewhere near CAJ so that their son can go there. They said if you could teach their kid, you could live with them.” Now, that really blew me away. Not only was tuition covered, I had a place to stay! I couldn’t be more thankful to God.
Then I really thought about my situation. I knew my parents really wanted me to go with them, so that the family could stay together. Deep inside, I knew God wanted the same. Selfishly, I wanted to stay in Japan. I had so many worries about going to the States. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy adjusting to a new school, especially in my senior year. I went to private school all my life, but in the States, we weren’t going to be able to afford that, and I would have to go to a public school. What am I going to do about college? What if things don’t work out, units don’t get transferred, and I end up staying another year in high school!? I would hate that! But then, when I found out that I could possibly stay in Japan, I realized that God was telling me that He can provide in whatever situation. He even provided a way for me to stay in Japan when there was no way! Then I thought, how much more will He provide if I obey and go somewhere I don’t even know what’s going to happen. And I realized that God calls us to honor our parents, and so if I obey my parents by going to the States with my family, God will bless me no matter what. Even if it were a mistake to go to the States, it would be my parents’, not mine. So I held on to the promise that God will provide and bless me, and decided to leave Japan. However, I hadn’t completely given up on living in Japan. My family bought roundtrip tickets, just because it was somehow cheaper to get roundtrip than one way. So I was hoping I would just stay in California for a week or so and decide I didn’t like it there, and go back to Japan. At least that’s what I hoped.
It took my family about a week to pack everything, ship furniture, and get ready to leave. First we went to Korea to see some of our relatives and say our goodbyes. When we lived in Japan, we would go to Korea almost every summer, and see our relatives then. But once we move to the States, it would be much more difficult to see them. So we stayed in Korea for 4 days and visited relatives there.
Let me take a moment to explain a little law in Korea (and when I say Korea, I mean South Korea. In case you didn’t know, people don’t go in and out of North Korea very often, if not ever.) In Korea, all the men above age 18 get drafted to serve in the military for two years. ALL men, unless they are handicapped, obese, or live in another country, must serve. Since we lived in Japan, my brother and I didn’t have to worry about getting drafted. Now, there’s a law that says even if you live outside of Korea, if you stay in Korea for more than 6 months, or if the date you first entered the country and the date you left the country is more than 6 months apart, even if you were gone for the most of the time in between, (for example, if you went to Korea in January, left in February, then came back to Korea in June, and stayed through July), you will be drafted. It’s a bit tricky, but as long as you’re not in Korea 6 months from the day you first entered the country, you’re ok. That means you can visit Korea every 6 months without a problem.
Now, back to where we were. So we were in Korea, spent some time with family and relatives, and then we were at the airport about to leave for California. What we realized when we were about to leave, was that my older brother SunDo had visited Korea in March that year for some reason I won’t mention. This was early September, and you can do the math and realize that March and September are 6 months apart… Then we found out that if we had left Korea two or three days later, my brother would have been drafted, and be stuck in Korea for 2 years! So much for going to America! But thank God, we all let out a sigh of relief, and safely boarded the plane.
My family arrived at LAX on Friday, September 7, 2001. Four days later… the whole world remembers what happened then. You might be thinking, “Wow, God really orchestrated this move, so that everything came through at the right timing.” But that was the last thing in my mind. I was devastated, discouraged, depressed, and all the other D words that mean something bad. So much for getting roundtrip tickets, because that day I realized that I wouldn’t be able to go back to Japan for a while because of security issues. Now I had no choice but to stay.
I was not a very happy camper, but far from it. I had to go to a new school, and just because English isn’t my first language, I had to take a stupid English speaking/listening/writing test, which I passed with flying colors, but caused a delay in my enrollment. When I finally started going to school, it was already three weeks into the semester. I walked through hallways with hundreds of people, many of them very strange looking, and there was no face that I could recognize. It was intimidating. I had never felt so lonely in such a crowd. At lunchtime, I didn’t even know what I was doing. I just followed the crowed through the isle of foods, grabbed a burrito and a few other items. When I got to the front of the line, I told the lunch lady, “I’m new here, and I don’t know what I’m doing.” And she just let me pass. So basically I got free food on the first day of school. That’s probably the only good thing that happened that day. After getting through the line, I didn’t know where to go. The courtyard was full of people, and I didn’t know a single one of them. I found a bench in the corner by a wall, sat there, and ate lunch all by myself. Nothing tastes worse when you are lonely, especially when it’s a cheap burrito. That was like the “worse day of my life.” I can really sympathize with Napoleon Dynamite, if you know what I’m talking about.
Fortunately, worst days of my life didn’t last forever. God is always faithful. I enrolled in AP Physics class, where I met a lot of more or less serious people, and I began to open up to more people, and made a lot of friends. I joined as many clubs I could, and got involved in a lot of things, just like I had before. I auditioned for the school play, “You Can’t Take It With You,” and I got the role of Tony, which was one of the major roles! Then later, I auditioned for the school musical, “West Side Story,” and once again, I was Tony! If you don’t know “West Side Story,” it’s basically a “Romeo & Juliet” story that happens in New York between two gangs, and Tony is the Romeo that falls in love with Maria, the Juliet. It was interesting being the only Asian guy in the play, but I had a great time. I thought I would be missing out on so much by leaving CAJ, but God still provided, even more than what I needed.
There are countless blessings God gave because I decided to obey and come to the States. In hindsight I realize God had a plan infinitely better than my own. I would have never even thought of coming to UCLA if I stayed in Tokyo. I would probably have ended up going to a private Christian college in Michigan where many of my classmates went. It’s not a bad school, but seriously, I know that what I have now is much better than what I would have, had I stayed in Japan.
Because of this incident, I always try not to make my own plans ahead of time, but rather constantly seek guidance from God. God is the one who knows me the best, not just who I am right now, but also everything about my future. I only have a very limited view of my life, and I can easily make wrong decisions. But God has the big picture, the picture of my entire life, and of the entire world. That’s why only He has the best plans. Sometimes I feel like I’m living my life blindfolded. Four years ago, I would have been very uncomfortable and insecure not knowing where I was going. But now, whenever I don’t know where I’m going or what’s going to happen, I can have peace knowing that God is in control.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
– Romans 8:28, NIV.
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