"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55:9 Dear friends, For those of you who have been following us on Facebook, you know already that we are out of our house in San Jose and have less than a week left before we depart for our two-year adventure in Malaysia. For those of you who are wondering, "why are Nate and Annie moving to Malaysia?", go back and read my Xanga post about that. But this post is titled "Why Nate and Annie are Moving to Kuching". Where is Kuching, and what's the story behind that? Kuching is the 4th largest city in Malaysia, and is the main city of the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. That's right. Borneo. This Hawai'i boy is going to be living on a tropical island again!
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But isn't Annie's mum living in Kuala Lumpur on Peninsular Malaysia? What caused the shift to Kuching? Backing Up Back when Annie and I were seriously considering getting married, I knew that she had this two-year homestay requirement on her visa. I knew we'd eventually have to go back there. And I knew that I'd have to get a job there. My thinking was, I could get a job in IT with a multi-national company and then transfer over once we were ready to return home. I got a job in San Jose with IBM doing Deskside Support in 2000. About a year after that, I transferred to another IBM site in San Jose, Almaden Research Center, to do Executive Support for the lab director and some VIPs there. I stayed there for 5 years until I heard about an opportunity to do Executive Support at the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies account. I was excited to jump over because it meant a shorter bus commute for me since their headquarters was right in our neighborhood. I got to meet with and help out all the top execs at Hitachi GST. Things were going relatively smoothly work-wise until we got word that our application for the waiver of Annie's homestay requirement was rejected. We decided to move back to Malaysia this August, and stay with Annie's mum in KL (Kuala Lumpur) while I looked for a job. No Dice I started looking for a job within IBM there in Malaysia, but I was having no luck. In the meantime, I heard that Hitachi had just purchased a factory in Kuching. However, I didn't see any job postings within Hitachi about an IT opening there in Kuching. It was getting down to 6 weeks until our flight back, and I had no job prospects in sight. Some people were counseling me to let Annie and the kids go back to Malaysia while I remained here in San Jose to work and send them money. But I was resolved to keep our family together. If it came down to a choice between job or family, I choose family. I had informed my management that I was leaving to go back to Malaysia. They all thought that, since I was moving to KL, I wouldn't be interested in working in Kuching. But once I expressed interest in going there (and working at local wages instead of an expat salary), suddenly things started happening. The Ball Starts Rolling Less than a month before my end date with IBM, one of the bosses at Hitachi asked for my resume. The following week, they arranged a phone interview with another manager in Singapore. We discussed my qualifications vis a vis the position that they had in mind for me there. At the end of our interview, I asked him what he thought my chances were of getting the job. "Honestly, 20%. Because there's a larger labor pool in Malaysia so they don't need as many foreign workers." When this job opportunity opened up for me, I had asked my close friends to begin praying for me, that God would grant me favor with the bosses. When I heard that I had a "20 percent chance", I was initially dismayed. But then I asked my friends to pray even harder. The following week, I began letting the admin assistants know that I'd be leaving soon. As I was visiting with the admin for the head of IT, he happened to come out of his office. "What's going on?" ME: "I'm moving to Malaysia." BIG BOSS "Malaysia! We've got a plant in Malaysia." ME: "I know. I've been interviewing to get a job there. If you could help me get that job, that would be so sweet." (I can't believe I talked like this to the big boss!) BIG BOSS: "I think I can do that for you. Let me talk to my people." ME: (stunned silence) The Offer Can you imagine how I was feeling? Elated. Overjoyed. And humbled that the head of IT would go to bat for little ol' me. Praise God, He DOES answer prayer! The next week was my last full week of work. I was busy preparing my able replacement to take over. On the job front, I heard that there were concerns about hiring me as a foreign worker. But I was hopeful that they could make it happen. That Friday, I got a call telling me that they wanted me to bring in my passport and birth certificates. A very good sign! Late Monday, the day before my last day of work, they sent me the offer letter and arranged a conference call with some HR people in Malaysia. At first, I was underwhelmed by the offer, because it was lower than I expected. But I think that perhaps my expectations were too high. We had a very good discussion, and I told them I needed some time to go over the offer and to think. People would think, "hey man, you got what you've been asking for, and in an incredibly short amount of time! Hitachi is making a huge effort to bring you in as a foreign worker. Why make them wait?" Why Wait? The situation is, even though I would be working for local wages, the truth is I am not a local. I am moving there from the US. I need to fly from KL to Kuching, set up housing, get a car, and most importantly, provide for my family - including schooling. My US-born kids don't speak the language so they can't go to public school without difficulty. A local wouldn't have to worry about things like this, but I would. That's the reason for the hesitation. I got on another conference call with HR and asked if they could provide any help for us to move from KL to Kuching. They said they don't normally do this kind of thing, and they didn't want to set a precedent. But they'd send my request up the chain and see what happens. I said that's all I'm asking for, is their consideration. And then of course, I asked my friends to pray some more. I also asked the big boss very politely if he could help get the answer from HR sooner. That Thursday, they sent the revised offer, this time including a signing bonus to help us with the move! Again, God answered prayer! This past Monday, I went in to sign the offer letter. I'll be starting with Hitachi in Kuching around the first of September, depending on when they can get the employment pass granted. Giving Thanks I really want to thank God first of all for guiding me through this long journey. I also want to thank my friends who prayerfully walked along with me on this journey. Special thanks go to the bosses at Hitachi who had such faith in me and who went above and beyond their calling to help get us to Kuching. I hope to confirm their faith. What Now? KEEP PRAYING. The company still has to get my employment pass and the family's dependent pass granted by the government. Otherwise I will not be able to work in Malaysia. This could take up to a month, so we're now praying for favor with the government officials. We will have to find housing in Kuching. We'd of course love to have a place with space to plant a garden, but I don't know what the price to rent a house with a yard is over there. Pray that God would lead us to the place He wants us to be, with neighbors He wants us to meet. Our main concern is now schooling for the kids. Neither Daniel or Esther speak Chinese, so it would be difficult if not impossible to send them to a Chinese-speaking public school. We may have to send them to an International school which is taught in English. But that could be prohibitively expensive. Pray that we have the wisdom to place them in the best school for their situation, and for the kids to be able to adapt quickly and fearlessly to the new school environment. The Plan We leave for Malaysia on August 11 and arrive in KL on the 12th. We'll be staying at Annie's mum's place for at least a week before flying to Kuching to secure a house and a car. Hopefully we can have a Kuching address before our household shipment arrives in Malaysia. That way we could direct the shipment directly to Kuching instead of to KL first. Once we've settled in Kuching, we'll try to make the most of it. I'm sure there will be speed bumps along the way. Difficulties we'll encounter and curves and swerves along the path. But we'll manage with God's help. Our plan is to stay in Malaysia for two years. That's how long Annie has to fulfill her homestay requirement. Also, my work contract is two years long. We keep telling people, two years is a short time. We hope to be able to return to San Jose after that. But who knows?
God worked miracles to get us to Kuching for a reason. We don't quite know what that reason is yet. So we won't know whether He'll be done with us in two years' time. I can only hope that we will be obedient to His voice and faithful to His calling. Aloha, Nate #include <std.disclaimer> | 
) I especially want to recognize Danny Chow from the Cantonese Congregation. When he heard we would be moving, he came over to survey the stuff we were getting rid of. I think he single handedly was responsible for taking most of our furniture, plus the fridge, freezers, washing machine, and garden beds. He even helped clean out our backyard and prepped the junk for removal. He is a humble guy, but his service to us was stellar.
