David & Cata Park
Cata
By the time I was a senior in high school, I was jaded by church life. Outwardly I was the goody-two-shoes kid, but inwardly I was tired of the self-restraint. Combined with witnessing the drama of church splits over politics and money, I decided that the Acts 2 church I had read about was a long bygone dream. So I looked forward to college, where I could put my Bible away for good, reinvent my image and be free.
But then my older sister shared with me the reason for the change within her – the reason she was no longer dark and gloomy, but able to persevere in hard situations and now so full of life. She cited having found a biblical church and becoming a part of a people of God. I remember rolling my eyes but secretly wishing such a community really did exist.
When I got into the same school as my sister at UC Berkeley, I saw for myself that there really could be a group of people living out God’s will together. I wondered what led them to live like this, and I was led back to the Bible I had abandoned. I learned about the gospel of Jesus for the first time, and every few days I remember feeling like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, saying, “Did not our hearts burn within us…while He opened to us the Scriptures?” A few months later in January 2008, I repented of my sin and to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Since then, my passion has been sharing the same amazing gospel with college students just like me. I worked in the Bay Area for six years, mostly in supply planning, until I entered full-time ministry. Along with my husband, I now serve in our college ministry at the University of Chicago. I love getting to know students over a cup of coffee, playing with our two kids and all their church aunties and uncles in my living room, and exploring the beautiful Midwest together.
David
I grew up attending church, but I approached it like everything else in life--something to excel in; something to do better at than others around me. Meanwhile, I wasn't sure if any of it was true (God creating the world in six days, a massive flood and a big boat, people coming back from the dead--really?)
But college changed everything. First, I discovered that there were good answers to all the "clever" questions about Christianity and the intellectual viability of faith. I devoured books by Lee Strobel and CS Lewis and watched countless debates by William Lane Craig in that first semester of college. Second, I met a group of people who were passionate about the Bible and strove to live out their lives according to what it said, a stark contrast to how I lived out my faith. And finally, I recognized that though I had called myself a Christian all my life, I had never submitted to Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and so in January of 2008, I decided to follow Jesus.
Since then life has been simple (though not necessarily easy). It's been about following Jesus and answering his call to make disciples of all nations. Particularly, my passion has been for college ministry. I served as a bi-vocational college minister at UC Berkeley from 2011-2019, while I worked for companies like Levi Strauss & Co. and Salesforce. In 2019 I entered into full-time ministry, and with my wife, Catarina, and my two kids, Emma and Lucas, moved out to Hyde Park in Chicago to reach the University of Chicago campus.