Written by Dana Portell, IM missionary to International Students (Illinois)

In 2014, God opened the door for our family to move to Taiwan. Although we were willing to follow Him, we were curious to see how He would use us in Asia because our experiences had been in European and African francophone countries.

For our first five years in Taiwan, Darren taught students from second grade through ninth grade. He had such a booming voice that many of the smaller children were frightened by him. As those children grew up, our school added one grade each year until we had a full high school, and Darren taught primarily high school.

One of the students that he taught during our decade in Taiwan and coached in multiple sports became a student at the University of Illinois, where we now serve international students. We were overjoyed that we had a few students at our university in Illinois who had been our students in Taiwan.

Last Fall, during one of their regular lunch meetings, Darren asked if they wanted to join our Fall Retreat. It was a wonderful experience introducing our English Corner students to our former student, Dan, at the retreat.

In Taiwan, Dan was quiet and reserved when he was younger. We had watched him grow in boldness in his faith during his junior and senior years of high school. We knew that he would be a wonderful addition to our English Corner community, but we were unprepared for how God was going to use his quiet, gentle strength.

We watched as Dan quickly became friends with our international student community. He joined Thursday night large gatherings, attended off-campus events, and occasionally joined some conversation groups during the week. We noticed that anytime he was not in attendance, our students would ask about him. Dan was making a difference in their lives.

Dan was inviting students to join him at church and at Bible studies. He has quietly walked alongside us as we’ve been sharing the Gospel with students. We are convinced that God has placed him here in Champaign for such a time as this. In 2014, we were unable to foresee how following God in obedience to Taiwan would lead us back to the States to serve international students.