I know how to stop conversations at market places. This is not a great personal trait in normal circumstances. Yet every time I stopped a conversation at market places, I thought about my colleagues who had honored me by extending their invitation to join them here at ACU and entrusting me with this ability to stop conversations at market places. I am grateful to my colleagues for their invitation and am richly blessed to work with them for the common goal of serving God and our students.
Ever since we had made our final move (We have moved so many times ever since our marriage in 1986, and my wife Kyung says she doesn’t want to move anymore) to Abilene in July 6, 2011, I’ve been to Lowe’s on Ambler so often that I have become acquainted with several employees there. On several occasions I started to carry conversations with some of them. During our conversations, four times I was asked the same question: “What do you do for living?” I typically answer, “I teach at ACU.” Then they ask, “What do you teach?” My answer is, of course, “I teach the Bible.” That always does it! Each time our conversation was ended right there as if they didn’t know how to respond to my answer. Maybe they didn’t want to talk about religion. That was why they stopped the conversation. All four of them? I doubt it. On other occasions a couple of employees tried to guess my vocation by asking, “Are you military?” or “Are you an IT guy?” My perception is that an Asian guy teaching the Bible in the heart of Texas may have been the last thing they expected to hear. A usual case scenario in Abilenians’ mind may be Americans teaching the Bible to foreigners, not the other way around. I could be wrong in thinking that way, but it makes me all the more grateful for my colleagues’ invitation to be part of the Bible faculty at ACU.
I still remember vividly one day soon after my immigration to America thirty-four years ago: I lamented in Korean, “I wish I could speak English well so that I can talk about philosophy in English.” I did not know what to do with my life at the time. I majored in electrical engineering in Korea, but I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life. I wanted to do something more meaningful. Soon after my conversion experience I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life – study the Bible and help young people in their struggle for meaning in life. Then some twenty years later it dawned on me as I was teaching at Cascade College in Portland, Oregon, that God had listened to my lament and granted that opportunity – I was teaching the Bible in ENGLISH! I love what I do. I’ve told so many people including my students that I have my dream job at my dream school, i.e., ACU. I am grateful to God and my colleagues for entrusting me with this great responsibility of teaching the Bible to our students at ACU, my alma mater.
Five years at ACU have gone by so quickly, and I now respectfully submit this portfolio so that I can continue to participate in what God does by inspiring and challenging my students with God’s Word, and occasionally stop conversations at market places, but with the hope that my answer will soon no longer stop our conversations but instead lead to more meaningful ones. This portfolio demonstrates that I have made contributions to the University in my unique way and that I have met all university and departmental tenure criteria as described in the faculty handbook. I look forward to continual growth as a Christian and a colleague at ACU.
Grace and Peace,
Kilnam Cha