WESTGATE STAFF:

Mark Chuang
Elder

mpchuang@yahoo.com

Vitals
Mark was born in Taiwan and his family immigrated to the USA when he was five. He, his parents, and younger brother first lived in Los Angeles and then moved to Cupertino in Northern California. Cupertino was a lot different back then – there were still a few remnants of orchards remaining and Mark’s family was probably one of two Asian families on their street.

Mark grew up in the youth group at a Chinese church. He accepted Christ in high school at a summer retreat because he wanted the love of God in his heart. He also made friendships there that unbeknownst to him would turn into life-long friendships. But it was not until college at UC Berkeley that his adult faith took root. During those years, he was challenged to consider what truly brought everlasting contentment in life and discovered that the world’s promises of performance and success came up empty while God’s command to invest in a relationship with Him and the people around us produced lasting satisfaction (Mark 12:30-31). This was so impactful for him that challenged his fellow graduates to invest in relationships in his commencement speech at the College of Engineering’s graduation ceremony. With a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mark did what any successful engineering graduate, who didn’t want to pursuing engineering anymore, would do – he defected to the “dark side” of marketing and has worked Intel and VMware since.

While at Intel, God called Mark and, his then girlfriend, Cindy to take individual steps of faith to move to Oregon and enroll at Multnomah Biblical Seminary. (Incidentally, Cindy was the first to hear God’s call to go – it took much longer for the message to penetrate Mark’s spiritual earwax.) They completed a short, one-year program, but it was an incredible time that formed a much richer, deeper love of God in both of their souls. Mark and Cindy got married right after graduation from Multnomah.

Today, Mark, Cindy, and their sons Zachary and Ethan live in San Jose and are thrilled to be part of what God’s doing at Westgate Church. We host a community group that meets on Friday nights (see picture of one of our community projects where we helped an elderly man start a garden).

A Few of My Favorite Things

Movies - Lord of the Kings Return of the King, Shawshank Redemption, So I Married an Axe Murderer.

Foods - Fresh baked breads, really good New England clam chowder, New York style pizza with mushrooms, ice cream, fried daicon flour cake, potstickers, noodle soup. (Actually, I appreciate and like to try just about any type of ethnic food.)

Hobbies - Reading, hiking / outdoors, running, tennis (which I haven’t played much since having kids)

Prayer - The Serenity Prayer - “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Ministry - Short-term missions - Helping others “catch the vision” of what God’s doing in the world and have their hearts forever changed