Chris Fung was a missionary with her husband in Kenya for 11 years with African Inland Mission. Prior to Kenya, she taught in public school in Boston and Alhambra, CA for a total of 18 years. Chris was born in Hong Kong, and has a BA in Music and an MA in ESL. She loves swimming, aerobics, hiking, spicy exotic foods, and different languages and cultures. Chris is currently a student in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Who have been influential leaders/role models for you?
Jeannette Yep was a key mentor for me. She helped me articulate my faith and find my identity in college. Under her guidance within the context of InterVarsity fellowship, I served in a leadership position. I felt so different from the other leaders, but they really encouraged me. Also, I went on a short-term missions trip with Jeannette, and that experience started the call to missions in my heart.
When we went to missions, two other women were also highly influential in my life. The first was Leslie Bates, who started a school in Turkana, Kenya. She was 18 when she went to missions and met her future husband. When she returned to the States, she was married and lost her husband within 9 months to an accident. After that, she became a teacher, and spent the rest of her life in Kenya. As a single woman, she would go to the most remote parts and open schools that influenced many. She taught me, “We are a guest in a host culture. We never impose. Listen, and walk with people.”
The other woman is Lois Ooms, whom I also met in Kenya – another single woman. She learned the language very well and became an excellent missionary among the tribe. She left the ministry after running it successfully for 20 years, but upon her return after 2 years, she found that the ministry had crumbled. She realized that it was her own agenda that she had been running all those years, after which she changed to a new ministry philosophy and taught me, “Transformation needs to come from the people themselves. They need to have ownership, and they need to come up with the vision.” We missionaries often impose our own agenda. After meeting her, I began adopting her ministry philosophy as my own.
What would you say to those who feel called to missions, but feel pressured by family, friends, or other fears to stay in the United States to pursue the conventional American dream?
While each case is very different, you need to be true to yourself. You need to separate the outside voices from your inner voice and from God’s voice. I do want to be very honest – as missionaries, we constantly struggle with the following issues: “Where is my home? Where is my family? Who am I?” As we go to different cultures, and even upon returning to the States, these questions come up in a new way. So we have to face it, ask it in light of God’s word, and struggle with it. I think I’ve grown from it. On the one hand, nowhere is home. The flipside is that everywhere is home. How do you define home? For me, I need to have friends. I have a women’s group that calls me every month, and they pray with me. That’s their burden — to support a missionary. I need that kind of system to hold me accountable and people to love me into their community.
What have you been learning lately?
At Fuller, I’ve been learning what it means to be a world Christian. We live locally but our minds needs to be global. I realized that I have been ignorant for most of my life. Perhaps I’m not the kind of person to watch the news, but still, I need to live responsibly. I’ve been thinking about justice — what does that mean? I think discipleship needs to go down to that level. How do I react to it? I need to speak up.
I’ve been wondering that if missions is really God’s mission, then how should local churches and church leaders play a role and read Scripture with a missiological lens? What is God doing and how do I relate it to my mission here? What am I doing towards God’s greater mission? It’s not just about us. Normally, I like to talk and think about myself only. I think God is doing something in my heart and creating more space for people.
Interviewed by Joy Wong
