Dan & Hannah Chiang
Hannah
By my senior year in high school, I made up my mind to leave God once I got to college. But two months before graduation, my mom had a sudden brain hemorrhage and the doctors told me that she wouldn’t live through the night. The entire church mobilized to take care of us. People came to the ICU room with food and sleeping bags, prayed with us, and sang hymns for us. I was puzzled by all the people who were there even though it was late at night. Some of them had families, they did not even know my mom personally, and I could not understand why they would show this kind of unconditional love for me and my brother. Then I understood that it must be God’s unconditional love, shown through the church. That night, I stayed up to think hard about my life and saw who I was. I knew I had no answer if I were to face God but realized that is why Jesus died on the cross to forgive me! So I said sorry to God for rejecting Him and gave my life to Him in April of 1998. My mom survived the night and the doctors were able to perform surgery the next day. This year marks the 24th year since my mom survived and I was given a second chance to live, as a Christian! My life changed dramatically since. My high school self would have laughed at the thought of being a Christian, let alone leading a church plant. Dan and I have served in the Berkeley college ministry for many years, served the Element middle school kids, moved to LA to serve at UCLA, and now serving the UMN campus in Minnesota. Although the temperature difference from sunny Southern California to frigid Minnesota was a little shocking at first, we love sledding down the hill or ice skating at the park nearby in the winter.
Myers-Briggs: I’m an ESFJ and almost never want to do things alone and love being around people. My ideal Saturday is hanging out with my close friends and getting things done together.
Dan
Although I grew up in a loving Christian home, I took a dark turn as a teenager when I couldn’t find any meaning or purpose to life. Desperate for real relationships but increasingly cynical that they were possible, I became angry at God and the world, earning me the ignominious title of “Most Rebellious” when the time came for my high school senior class to vote on such things.
Yearning for a fresh start at UC Berkeley, I got way more than I expected my freshman year when I met genuine Christians that loved me and shared the Gospel with me. When I realized my rebelliousness was foremost against the God who loved and died for me, I surrendered my life to Him. From there, I committed myself to help other students discover the Gospel that totally transformed my life.
I served as a bi-vocational minister until 2016, when my wife and I moved to serve full-time at our Los Angeles church plant. Now we’re in beautiful Minneapolis, where I love taking students to eat hearty Midwestern breakfast, and going out to one of the 10,000 lakes for some good bass fishing.
Myers-Briggs: As a Myers-Briggs INFJ, I thought I was unique for most of my life, but now I know I’m pretty average. Which is great news because just as D.L. Moody said, “If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced that it must be done by men and women of average talent.”