道风山 "Life After College" Retreat

This past weekend, I went with Kowloon International Baptist Church (KIBC) on their university and 20-somethings first retreat. This has been a great church for me. I have really come to know a lot of solid Christians and am always meeting new people. Our weekly fellowship time after church is the best. We gather together for lunch and a bible study, which really starts my week off right.

The past two weeks I have been unable to attend church, which made me really look forward to this retreat. I really didn't know what to expect. I knew the plan for this retreat was to stay the night somewhere and just have guest speakers come and help us better understand the idea of life after college.

As all of the group of around 30 hopped on the bus, we headed to Sha Tin. This is my favorite place in all of Hong Kong. It's not super busy because it's in the New Territories north of Kowloon. At the same time, there is beautiful mountain views, tall buildings, and a river flowing through. Simply perfect environment. Even better, the retreat was going to be held in a Lutheran Seminary up on the mountainside. Gorgeous, with every building being traditional Chinese style roofs. All overlooking Sha Tin.


The theme verse was Matthew 14:24 where Jesus says to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Michael W. Smith's song "Oh God, you are my God" was our theme song.

"Oh God, You are my God,
And I will ever praise You,
Oh God, You are my God,
And I will ever praise You,
I will seek you in the morning,
And I will learn to walk in Your ways,
And step by step You'll lead me,
And I will follow You all of my days."

Our guest speakers consisted of three Christians who are working in secular fields in Hong Kong. The first, was the one whom I connected with the most. He was a father of two sons, who grew up poorer than most. He worked hard in school so that he could climb up the status ladder. He ended up making a lot of money as a real estate agent. He was very successful, until one day he lost 5 million dollars due to the economy. Everything gone, and on top of that, his mother died. His mother had good morals, and raised him well. Now that he was gone, he began to seek out God's will for his life. He realized that he needed to do something different with his life because he wasn't using God's gifts and living a passionate lifestyle.

This is what I really connected with him in relation to how I want to decide on my career. I, like him, clearly see how important it is to make sure you are using your gifts to serve God - no matter what your career is. To make sure you are where you are supposed to be, then you must have a passion. After starting over from losing everything, he chose to pursue his passion for teaching by starting a learning center. With his gift of teaching and administrating, he has changed the lives of many students and parents through this learning center. He has written a book that consists of all of the letters that he has written to parents over the past 5 years. He really seems to enjoy being a light to the student's parents as a school administrator. I really could see in his eyes how much he loved what he was doing now. He is an active member in the church and said his challenge now is trying to raise his two sons so that they can pursue their passions in life and not get off track.


As for me, I am constantly thinking about the future. Although I know I must, according to God's word, live for today and not worry about tomorrow. At the same time, I feel that God is presently equipping for that which he has planned for me in the future. Knowing this, I can't help but be curious to know what exactly he has planned for me. As far as my passions, I love stepping into the unknown and making a difference in the lives of those around me. I think this passion has been formed because of the number of times that I have moved in my life. Starting over is something I am accustomed to. When I was younger it was tough, but now I am glad for this because I know it has given me the strength to overcome the adversity of adapting to a new environment.

I see all of this as God's way of using me to bring Him glory to people in China. I really have a gift to connect with the Chinese, even though I can't yet speak their language. Many Chinese students know English, but not well enough to communicate as we do with each other in the States. Our social environment here is limited, due to this language barrier. This barrier seems to be something that I feel gifted in breaking. By my great desire to learn Chinese and their extraordinary history and culture, I am able to listen and comfortably have a conversation with them. Even better, some of them have offered to have conversations where I speak Chinese and they speak English so that we can both practice!

My ultimate desire is to be like Christ. If that means I live in China and being a light to them by just showing them kindness and God's love each day, then so be it. Is there life after college? Yes, without a doubt - and with the immense joy that comes in glorifying God, I look forward to what he has in store for me.