About Weiling and Garry
Weiling was born in Singapore and moved to the US at age five, but she wasn't influenced by the church until college. Garry was raised in the United Methodist Church, but as a teenager, he questioned the church's authority. He attended the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana where he met Weiling. Both graduated with degrees in Information Design. After college, they were married and pursued several entrepreneurial activities including a graphic design studio and teaching martial arts for several years near Chicago. They began searching for a church home after their daughters, Ellissa and Julina, were born. They moved to Kissimmee, Florida, and started attending First Christian Church where they were immersed and began the next phase in their walk with Christ. Weiling became coordinator for the Wednesday night nursery at church and got involved in the Mothers of Preschoolers program (MOPS) after having a son, Aaron. Garry began searching the Scriptures daily - seeking answers to lingering questions from his childhood. He regularly attended Wednesday and Sunday Bible studies, started the church's web ministry, led small groups at home and at work, and took the next step of servanthood by becoming a deacon.
Between Garry's first and second term as a deacon, the call to serve Christ in Japan started to sound. Although he was familiar with Japanese pop culture, an Orlando-based ministry alerted him to the island nation's need to know Christ. Mission to Japan, an organization that facilitates home-stay trips for Japanese students and Christian host families in the States, aired an ad on the local Christian radio station. "I've always been intrigued by the Japanese culture but was surprised to learn they've had very little exposure to the salvation available through the Gospel," Garry recalls.
"We wanted to see what role God might have our family play in sharing His plan with them, so during the summer, we tried to coordinate a home-stay program at our church for Christmas of 2007. We were just shy of the 10 families needed for the event. The program coordinator, sensing our disappointment, suggested we attend the Church Planting Institute's conference in Japan if we're really serious about spreading the Gospel there."
God confirmed His desire for Garry and Weiling to travel with 68 other volunteers who would help facilitate the conference for missionaries and pastors. The Klines got to help with the event and attend many different sessions aimed at equipping those on the field throughout the island. By the end of the first week, God had made it clear that Weiling and Garry would be going back to Japan in an even greater capacity to reach the lost with the message of salvation that can only be found in Jesus Christ.
March 2008, they joined Team Expansion, a non-denominational Christian mission agency under the leadership of Doug Lucas.
Summer 2008, Garry and Weiling graduated from the Center for Intercultural Training where they underwent 9 weeks of classroom and hands-on instruction in mission field skills.
Fall 2008, Garry began pursuing his Masters Degree in Intercultural Studies with Hope International and completing his Bible study prerequisites.
Winter 2008, Weiling and Garry will be ordained as missionaries by their home church.
Summer 2009 is the target launch date for the Klines to head to Japan for an initial 3-year term to join the Kornegays and Shields who comprise Team Expansion's church planting team in Tokyo.
Presently, Weiling is a fulltime Mom. Garry runs a successful web design and photography studio. His hope is to use these talents to further the Kingdom via interactive media.
Their mission leadership includes two elders, a prayer liaison, a forwarding agent, and a team administrator. Their prayer team consists of 140+ individuals who pray on a regular basis.
They desire to be the church of Acts, so please join them on their journey to take the Gospel to Tokyo and beyond!
