“Save, save, save”, that was a phrase that captures much of my upbringing. As a 1st generation immigrant kid growing up in Southern California I wanted to live a “safe” life of working hard, getting a good job to make a lot of money, live comfortably and not hurt anyone in the process.

Even though I went to church and grew up knowing that I was a sinner and Jesus saved me from my sins, none of that had much bearing on my life until college.

After getting connected with our ministry in Berkeley my Freshmen year, I was drawn in by the Acts 2 community and how people actually took God’s words seriously and lived by what it said. I experienced God’s people living counter culturally, prioritizing God’s words every morning, opening up their homes and giving students like me “refrigerator rights” to their place and treating one another like family. Their joyful giving of their time, energy and resources in obedience to God’s words really challenged my entire worldview.

During that same year, God’s word broke through the layers of path and rocks in my heart at the winter retreat where I was convicted of my sin and that I was a poor steward of my life, realized I was robbing God of his rightful claim over my life and made the decision to surrender it to God.

Since then it has been an awesome adventure of going wherever God leads. From foreign missions to domestic church plants. From Taiwan to SoCal to the East Coast. It has been a life of experiencing that truly it is more blessed to give than to receive.