| The Presbyterian Church of Taiwan (PCT) has roots that reach back to 1865, when two medical missionaries from the British Presbyterian Church arrived. When Japan took over the island in 1895, the PCT continued to use Taiwanese instead of Japanese, even in the face of growing oppression. All foreign missionaries were expelled by Japan in the late 1930s, which gave the PCT an early experience of complete independence. Taiwan College and Theological Seminary is one of the major seminaries of the PCT, and trains both men and women as pastoral leaders.
Emily describes how she felt called for this mission:“We got to know [PC(USA) mission worker] John McCall when we spent time in Taiwan, and he was very inspiring.” While in Taiwan, she was moved by the Christians there: “It was inspiring to see the courage of Christians who, in many cases, had to go against the beliefs of their families and risk being rejected. This helped me to put my own faith into perspective. For example, for many Taiwanese, becoming Christian meant, in the eyes of their parents, that upon their parents’ death the parents would be compelled to wander as ‘hungry’ ghosts in the afterlife, with no children to ‘feed’ them or attend to their other needs.”
“One of the biggest influences on my prayer life,” says Jonathan, “was being part of the seminary community at Taiwan Theological Seminary. At meals and before classes, during Bible studies and in worship, Taiwanese students and teachers prayed. Taiwanese sometimes pray kaikou, or ‘open mouthed,’ a format where the whole group or congregation will sort of mumble their prayers together. At first, this seemed quite alien to me, and only gradually did it become familiar and even meaningful. The time we spent as part of this community re-converted me.”
Before accepting this call to Taiwan, Emily was a children’s librarian at the South Brunswick Public Library in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. She helped organize a book club and creative writing programs for fourth- and fifth-graders. Prior to that, Emily worked as a youth services librarian at the Princeton Public Library in Princeton, New Jersey, as the associate reference librarian at the Mercer County Library in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and as a reference intern at the South Brunswick Library in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. She also worked as a secretary at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study and served for a year as an immigration and multicultural services assistant at Catholic Social Services in Atlanta, Georgia, where she translated documents from Spanish to English and helped clients find employment.
Though he grew up in the United States, Jonathan always knew that he had been born in Congo of missionary parents and baptized by an African pastor, so returning to the mission field is something that he has been thinking about for a long time. Since finishing his Ph.D., Jonathan served at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, as a preceptor (a teacher’s assistant) and helped lead discussions in world Christianity and Presbyterian history. He led a four-week study trip to China for the International Education of Students, Beijing program. He also taught classes at Princeton, including one called “From Missions History to World Christianity” in which he invited PC(USA) missionaries Karla Koll and Ted Wright as guest speakers. During a one-year stay in Taiwan in 2005-2006, Jonathan served as a lecturer at the Taiwan Theological College, Taipei, Taiwan. He also worked for a year as an editorial assistant for the Journal of Presbyterian History in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent two years as the youth director for the Grace Taiwanese-American Church in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and also served as youth director in Glenside, Pennsylvania; Newtown, Pennsylvania; and Colts Neck, New Jersey.
Emily holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, along with a master’s degree in library and information science from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She has held a New Jersey professional librarian’s certificate since 2004. She is currently a doctoral student in library and information management at Rutgers, and hopes to finish and defend her dissertation in 2011.
Jonathan earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. He spent his junior year in Beijing and a Fulbright year in Singapore. He then earned an M. Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. His master’s work included field education in Ghana at the Tamale Institute for Cross Cultural Studies. In May, 2007, Jonathan defended his dissertation in the History Department (with a concentration in mission, ecumenics, and the history of religion) and earned his Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Emily was ordained as an elder in November 2007, and is a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Trenton, New Jersey. Jonathan was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in July 2005, and is a minister member of New Brunswick Presbytery. Jonathan and Emily have one child, Samuel.
Birthdays:
Emily: June 6
Jonathan: June 29
Samuel: March 21, 2008 |
