Plant City student to teach English in Hong Kong

Some students graduate from college anxious about job prospects.

Others, including Ryan Napier, son of Melissa and Barry Napier of Plant City, first want to do something to help others before they seek employment for themselves.

Napier graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English from Stetson University in May. He spent the spring 2009 semester abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland, is taking a class this summer in Prague, Czech Republic, and considered going to graduate school in the fall.

"But as I thought about it more, I realized that I needed to do something that was not for myself," he said. "I knew that I needed to do something that demonstrates for others the love of Christ."

From September through July 2011, Napier, a member of Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Lithia, will serve in Hong Kong as a Globally Engaged in Outreach missionary of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod World Mission.

He will teach English classes at Lutheran schools in the Lutheran Church's Hong Kong synod and work in outreach projects with the schools' partner churches.

This is a bigger commitment than Napier's work years ago on Servant Events projects with his church youth group. Those were weeklong trips to New York, Missouri and Indiana cleaning up after disasters or running children's camps. The Hong Kong trip will be longer, farther away and more challenging linguistically and culturally.

"I'm glad I've been placed in Hong Kong, because it's a critical place for this work," Napier wrote in a fundraising letter. "As a Special Administrative Region of China, Hong Kong retains many political and religious freedoms, but as mainland China exerts more control over the region, these liberties may soon disappear and the window for helping and reaching the people of Hong Kong may shut."

He has a broad view of what he is about to do. "Part of mission work is not just helping people in the place you're going, but also helping people at home," Napier said. "By hearing from those who go abroad, people at home can feel more connected to the whole world and understand their place in it better; they can realize that those in foreign countries are, deep down, just like them, which goes a long way toward fostering understanding."

In addition, he said, mission work can show people the value of charitable works.

"So that's why it'd be nice to get the word out about my mission. Support is important," Napier said.

Besides missing a year of income, doing volunteer mission work involves travel and living expenses.

His plea is simple: "Only some can go, but all people are called to spread Christ's love and help others in all corners of the world. By supporting the mission financially, you actively partner with me to work toward God's purpose; ultimately, it's not about you or me, but about God and the ways He can use us best. Will you partner with me in bringing Christ's love to Hong Kong?"

For information, contact Napier at (813) 757-0547 or ryannapier88@gmail.com.

For details about contributing financially, e-mail the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod World Mission at mission.giving@lcms.org or call 1-800-433-3954.