Life Philosophy: Living as a Foreigner in a Foreign Land

As children we were told time and time again the stories of Daniel and Joseph, Jewish slaves who rose to be number 3 and number 2 positions, respectively. Daniel had the privilege of serving under 5 kings. Even when the Babylonian dynasty was overrun by the Persians, Daniel remained in his position. These men must have been doing something right.

In Sunday School, we were taught that these stories showed that if you always to trusted God and obeyed God's commands-- despite adversity -- then God would honor you.

The thing I noticed about these two men was that they never aspired to be #1 in the kingdom. Rather they faithfully served God, the people and the king. Thus from a young age, I determined to seek to work with/under others to achieve our goals.

As a high school student, I was encouraged to read a book by Dale Carnegie who also espoused this principle. He told a story of John Rockefeller (a leading US industrialist). One of the companies that Rockefeller owned built train cars. It was facing strong competition from a much smaller company owned by Mr. Pullman. As a result of this competition, neither company was making much money. Rockefeller called Mr. Pullman and made an offer, " Lets merge the two companies." Mr Pullman was not convinced until Mr. Rockefeller suggested that the new company be called the " Pullman Train Car Company. "

I also started to learn about a man that was to become one of my heroes: Chou Enlai (周恩來), Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 until his death in January 1976. I admired his noble character, but the thing that impressed me most about this man was the characteristic he shared with Daniel and Joseph. Chou Enlai was number 2 man in the PRC from its foundation until his death. All other leaders, Mao had their ups and downs -- being purged and then recovering. Thou Enlai was stable. From people who worked under him I learned that during the cultural revolution, Thou Enlai personally protected those him. He did not abandon them or set them up as scape goats as other Chinese leaders did.

Additional components of my research philosophy came from the advise of foreigners working in Japan and Asian friends. To be respected by Asians, you must do something better than they can do. In anything you do, you must work with a local.

Finally there is the example of Jesus, " Who being in nature God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but took upon himself the role of a servant being obedient even unto death." The result in Jesus' life as as the Sunday School teachers taught. " Therefore God raised him up. "

In summary then my philosophy for both research and ministry: