Name: Tai Wei Fu
Nationality: Taiwan (Republic of China)
Favorite color: Black
Favorite books: I really enjoy reading non-fiction books or websites, especially about a particular culture or country, or about craftsmanship.
Hobbies: Building guitars, playing guitars, reading stuff online, playing games, chatting with friends, etc.
Countries visited: 3
Favorite song/bands: August Burns Red, As I Lay Dying, Hands, In Flames, Kalmah, Iron Maiden, and basically any bands that your mom wouldn’t allow you to listen to (but are Christian nevertheless).
Hi my name is Tai Wei Fu. I was born in Taiwan on July 19, 1981. I had lived a rather normal (at least in my mind) childhood in Taiwan, then I moved to the United States in 1989.
Things were great while I was living in America and then I met this friend who happened to be from Syria. I met him through this thing called PALS (I forgot what it stood for, I think its Peer Assistance something) since he ministered to me. I was happy to meet him since I had no friends so we ended up becoming best friend. Naturally he was a Muslim so he told me about his religion, and somehow it made sense to me, so I decided to convert. I reasoned that if there is a god there could only be one.
After high school I enrolled into the University of Texas at Austin, and I got involved in the Muslim Student Association, and we talked about many issues like unbelief and how Palestinians were oppressed by “mean” Israel. Much of our juma prayer sermon focused on inner spiritual growth or occasionally about the tyranny of the west by helping Israel blow up innocent children and things like that. Then 9/11 happened, and while I was fearful of religious persecution I maintained that Islam is a religion of peace and none of the Muslims in the United States would ever think about doing something like that. However in my mind I often wondered why there had never been much condemnation from the Muslim community for any terrorist attacks. I thought I was fine, until one fateful day on September 5, 2002.
On the morning of September 5, 2002 I woke up, did my laundry, and then I heard a knock on the door. I opened thinking it’s a neighbor or something then like 20 Federal agents stormed into my room, and I wondered what crime I had committed to warrant such an action. Then in the next few hours it became clear to me. The FBI tried to talk to me and I tried talking (which I shouldn’t have done) and I just ended up requesting a lawyer. It turns out that I had been in the United States illegally for over 13 years, and that I had gotten a few guns for recreational purposes. So therefore it seems that it’s against the law for anyone in the United States illegally to own guns, so I was put in jail waiting for trial. After 4 months of court procedure I was finally charged with possession of a firearm as an illegal alien, and 4 counts of using a false social security number. I received a very light sentence of 12 months and a day, and I was to be transferred to FCI Lompoc to complete the remainder of my sentence (time spent in pretrial detention counts towards your sentence).
Then 2 months after sentencing I was transferred to FCI Lompoc, and we were taken to a Federal Transfer Center before going to our destination, and while there I was placed in solitary confinement because of my religion and other things. If there is one thing I hate the most it’s being locked in a room myself. I started rethinking if it was really worth the trouble to be in a religion that offered no real hope beyond that you could *maybe* go to heaven IF you did enough good deeds to outweigh the bad. It wasn’t good enough for me and I had prayed long and hard to Allah with no answer, and if there was an answer it was really a coincidence. So I toyed around with praying to Jesus and see how it works, and I even found a book on prayer in the library cart that rolled around and began reading it. Mind you the guy in the cell next to me said he’s been there for several months already and the average time there is a week while they get enough people on a plane so they could fly you out. I read the book and followed its instruction and prayed my heart to Jesus. I said that if he was to let me out of there I’d follow him. I went to sleep that night thinking if God is actually out there.
Early next morning I heard a loud voice that said “Fu! pack your stuff, you’re leaving!”. I was really excited, I pinched myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream, so I got my stuff and 30 minutes later the guards came and got me out of the cell and processed me through the queue on a plane to Lompoc. Once I arrived at Lompoc however I seem to have developed a hunger to know the Bible, for whatever reason. I got in contact with Muslims there but never followed up on it and they just faded away. Then after 2 months of being at the prison I decided to be baptized knowing full well what it means for my soul and what could happen to me if I were sized by Islamic authorities. I was released on July and subsequently deported to Taiwan.
In Taiwan, I worked at a store called Watsons in Taipei because I had no college degrees and I was waiting for military service. I served in the military and attended a church in Taichung, and I really enjoyed the fellowship at that church. I had thought about missionary work but I dropped the thought since I had no calling and no one gets paid for missionary work. I really thought careers were more important than anything else since the atmosphere in Taiwan is that everyone has to work hard to earn the right to eat and sleep. I continued that mindset well after military and I wanted to get a skilled job in Taiwan so I could immigrate to Canada under “Skilled Worker” visa.
Right before my military service was fulfilled however I discovered YWAM Taipei, in the coffee bar called “The Rock”. It’s a ministry of YWAM Taipei which offers free drinks for anyone, and I found alot of Americans there which was what I was looking for, since I had serious trouble relating to Taiwanese and I really was starting to hate this place. I also discovered that they run a Discipleship Training School and at first I was totally against the idea of attending such a school since it costs $3000 dollars and takes up six months of your time, and I could not raise that kind of money in a short time either. So I kept working trying and failing to save up money, buying all kinds of useless junk. Finally a year before I was to graduate from college (I was attending University of Phoenix Online) I prayed about DTS with some friends and I felt I was to wait until I finish college. So after college I decided to apply for a DTS even though I have very little money (at least compared to the amount I needed to pay for the school!) but first time around I was not accepted. So I waited another six months and applied for a DTS in Herrnhut, Germany thinking they probably won’t accept me either. Well in March of 2009 I lost my job due to bad economy, and then I was accepted into the school. So I tried looking for new jobs unsuccessfully, and I was thinking to teach English or something and someone even offered to train me for that sort of job. At the time I thought I could just accept his training and just become a career English teacher and forget about DTS and I even communicated to the DTS leader that I had no money, even barely enough for a ticket to fly there. However the leaders told me to fly there anyways and don’t worry about the school fees, also some friends told me that I had lost my job but got into DTS so maybe it means that’s where God wants me to be, so I told God that if I got a visa then I’ll go. I really did not think I would actually get the visa due to my history but I applied anyways. Then one month later my visa was approved and then after that the money I needed for the flight came in as well. It’s really amazing how God will provide if you do his will, even money can’t stop me from doing his will.
While at Germany I learned a lot and really grew in God in a way that wasn’t possible elsewhere, sadly I had exhibited too many negativities which caused the leaders to finally decide that I should not go on outreach this time. So after two months of lecture phase I came back to Taiwan, but now I have a calling to reach out to the Muslims. I guess I can say that I had that calling in my mind ever since one year ago but for some reason I decided to run from that call, instead I said I wanted to reach out to the musicians. I guess alot of that is fear since Muslims don’t generally convert peacefully and bad things happens to people who do convert. However with the calling in mind now I have grown stronger in God that nothing will stop me from achieving this calling. Please pray for me as I make preparation to go back to Germany to reach out to the Muslims there, and that I will get every support I need to get God’s will done, amen.
Epic.