Boen Wang

August, 1989. My dad is in an airport. He's flown from Beijing to Tokyo to San Francisco to Denver to Oklahoma City, almost missing his flight multiple times because he can't understand the announcements in English. He is here to get a PhD from the University of Oklahoma.

August, 1989. My dad is in an airport. He's flown from Beijing to Tokyo to San Francisco to Denver to Oklahoma City, almost missing his flight multiple times because he can't understand the announcements in English. He is here to get a PhD from the University of Oklahoma.

He's here for a new life, a life where he doesn't sit chain-smoking cigarettes at his boring job in a Jeep factory while living in a tiny room with no running water or heating or cooling. He wants a life where something changes. It's the middle of the night in the Oklahoma City airport. He had sent a letter to the university with the date and time of his arrival, so that someone could pick him up.

He's here for a new life, a life where he doesn't sit chain-smoking cigarettes at his boring job in a Jeep factory while living in a tiny room with no running water or heating or cooling. He wants a life where something changes. It's the middle of the night in the Oklahoma City airport. He had sent a letter to the university with the date and time of his arrival, so that someone could pick him up.

He scans the crowd, looking for someone holding a sign with his name on it, but finds no one. One by one, the crowd thins out, until my dad is stuck in the middle of this airport, in the middle of this foreign country. A stranger in a strange land.

He scans the crowd, looking for someone holding a sign with his name on it, but finds no one. One by one, the crowd thins out, until my dad is stuck in the middle of this airport, in the middle of this foreign country. A stranger in a strange land.

So you were alone?

So you were alone?

This nice gentleman, the first white American my dad ever talks to, introduces himself as Dave. Dave isn't his real name. I changed it to protect his privacy.

This nice gentleman, the first white American my dad ever talks to, introduces himself as Dave. Dave isn't his real name. I changed it to protect his privacy.

A warm smile.

A warm smile.

Dave takes my dad to his car and drives half an hour south to his home in Norman, the college town that surrounds the University of Oklahoma. My dad meets Dave's wife, and finally, having reached the end of his trans-Pacific ordeal...

Dave takes my dad to his car and drives half an hour south to his home in Norman, the college town that surrounds the University of Oklahoma. My dad meets Dave's wife, and finally, having reached the end of his trans-Pacific ordeal...

Dave is a Christian, the leader of a local church's Chinese ministry. Dave gives my dad a Bible. the first English-language book he studies from cover to cover, and invites him to a weekly Bible study and Sunday service. In time, my dad will accept Christ. So will my mom, after she arrives in America later that year. My parents will raise me and my older sister as Christians.

Dave is a Christian, the leader of a local church's Chinese ministry. Dave gives my dad a Bible. the first English-language book he studies from cover to cover, and invites him to a weekly Bible study and Sunday service. In time, my dad will accept Christ. So will my mom, after she arrives in America later that year. My parents will raise me and my older sister as Christians.

We will attend church every Sunday, in Oklahoma and then in Philly, where my dad finds a job and where I grow up. It's the perfect conversion story, the sort of testimony you'd share in front of an audience at church. My parents grew up during the Cultural Revolution, when the Communist Party suppressed any expression of religion. They were atheists by default.

We will attend church every Sunday, in Oklahoma and then in Philly, where my dad finds a job and where I grow up. It's the perfect conversion story, the sort of testimony you'd share in front of an audience at church. My parents grew up during the Cultural Revolution, when the Communist Party suppressed any expression of religion. They were atheists by default.

Their conversion here in America goes against everything they learned in China. The only problem with this story is me. After 22 years of Christianity, I left and never came back. Have you ever felt depressed? Perhaps a bit blue? Did you ever have an existential crisis and start to question the very foundation of your faith? I am raised in the church.

Their conversion here in America goes against everything they learned in China. The only problem with this story is me. After 22 years of Christianity, I left and never came back. Have you ever felt depressed? Perhaps a bit blue? Did you ever have an existential crisis and start to question the very foundation of your faith? I am raised in the church.