Some Memories I Had of My Father（A）

Preparing for Moving as Soon as He Came back from Co-Worker Meeting

Father is a co-worker that serves the Lord full time. Due to the changes in the work, ever since I was little, my impression of him is this: Every time Father came back from Co-worker’s meeting in Taipei, we have to get ready to move. We had a pile of big leather briefcases at our home just to make it easier to move. As a result, I’ve went to four elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school. It was probably because my parents believed that I can be independent, and agreed that I don’t have to continue to move with them once I reached high school. It’s probably due to growing up in this environment, I have no issues with adjusting to moving or changing jobs. Aside from moving often while living in Taiwan, I’ve moved nine times in my thirty some years of living in the USA. Lived in Texas, Illinois, and Southern California, even living in Jerusalem now. But regardless of where, I have no problems with adjusting.

More Than Happy to Do This,
and Always Helped Wholeheartedly

When I was in elementary school, we lived in Gangshan district of Kaohsiung. The training base for the air force is located in Gangshan, so there are many enlisted brothers that came for help or hospitality. When the demands are high, mother would feel overwhelmed, so father is always stuck between “comforting mother” and “meeting the needs of our guests”. But he is more than happy to do this, and always helped wholeheartedly. I remember one night, a soldier asked for hospitality, though there’s no money at home, mother keep on waving no to father, but father still took out a sum and given it to that brother, that he can stay at a hotel.

Got Warned, but Not Unbearable

When I was in middle school, I take the train daily from Zhanghua to Taichong for school, and mother always gives me a little cash for dinner. At that time, budget was very tight for the family, so my allowance is mostly squeezed out from dinner money. Father probably realized this as well, one evening he asked me, “Where did you eat dinner tonight? How much did you spend?” It’s only later that I know that he had been following me ever since I got off the train that day, watched what I did. This really reminds me, and see that father handled this with much wisdom, picked a day that I actually ate dinner to ask me this, to warn me, but it wasn’t unbearable.

Incentive Proposition for Moving Up

When there’s less than half a year until the high school graduation exams, father and mother were very worried for my future academic career, and thus proposed an incentive for moving up. They told me that if I can test into my top choice in colligate program, I can get a prize from them. And I asked for a camera. Though the price of a camera is astronomical for our family, but mother thought of my current grades, and decided to try. Half a year later I did test into my top choice in colligate program, and my parents made good on their promise. They prodded me in order to unlock my hidden potential. I am still grateful of them even now.

Father’s Shaky Handwriting Softened My Heart

When I was in college, after living for half a semester in student center of Hall Three of the Church in Taipei, I already wanted to move out and expressed these thought to my parents via letter and ask for their acceptance. Father already suffered stroke at the time, but still personally wrote the reply letter, the synopsis being that if I insisted on moving out, they’re willing to support me financially, but they felt that living in the student center is the best choice. When I read father’s shaky handwriting, my heart was softened, and never mentioned moving out again. My wife Sophia and I, met each other later in the student center of Hall Three.