Sunday, December 31, 2006

God sized dream

I'm trying to figure out what will be the best job in the whole wide world. Such childish thinking at my age, but I don't give up on dreams, and I have faith in God and all the talents that He's given me.

How did my career goal go from Biomedical Engineer to Project Manager to Financial Analyst to Economist?

Criteria for decision making:
  • realm of influence
  • personal effectiveness
  • creative potential
  • project lifecycle and time requirements
  • money
  • and of course, everything must be conceived, started, and completed through prayer
I have selected to sit on the fence on this one, between economist and financial analyst, as they do not seem differentiate in these preparation stages. Therefore, the questions that still remains are:
  • Is my CFA sufficient or would an MBA degree from a prestigious school be a probable requirement?
  • Is my mind going to change 5 years from now, and if so, what will be the effects of leaving engineering and project management to pursue basic education in the new field of economics and finance?
  • Would it be better to work and study in my current position in Work Management, or to take a big pay cut and work as a CFP since they will also pay for my CFA and MBA, as well as provide me some personal finance experience?
  • Who do I know that could help?
I know I need to pray about this, but I keep putting that off. I wonder what the differences are between:
  • prayerfully researching
  • fervently praying
  • contemplatively praying
Time is running out, as I will have to put this on hold until my organizing and filing duties have been completed, yet I must return to work in a day.

Korean pastor expelled from Kazakhstan

This Korean pastor was not doing anything wrong. I guess it's really hard for missionaries to define the boundaries of missionary work and friendship. Either way, Christianity is probably a registered religion of Kazakhstan so such expulsion would not be justified, so I wonder what the real reason was.

South Korean pastor expelled from Kazakhstan

http://www.otherwise.net/?p=363

Another useful article on Koryo Saram

Same authors, same info, more concise. Decent overview, but hardly sufficient to produce the feelings of connection to the Koryo Saram for Koreans, in comparison to his aforementioned paper.

Ethnic Koreans in Changing Kazakhstan
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200409/kt2004091921121811950.htm

Koryo Saram

Despite the fact that I knew about our church's Russian ministry for so long, I've been so uninterested in knowing who these Korean looking Kazak people were and where they came from. When describing our church's Russion ministry to a good non-Christian friend of mine, she asked why these people. Once I started elborating on the ministry, I realized that I did not know who these people were.

I had always assumed that they were ethnic Koreans from Russia who have come from difficult backgrounds.

An article by German Kim, an ethnic Korean Russian from Kazakhstan, really transformed the way I perceive Kazak people. I'm really glad I ran into that paper, so I decided to blog this entry for future reference.

It's really amazing how many people I've simply walked by without knowing who they were. If I had, I would have greeted them differently. Whether that's being fair or not, I'm not sure, as it sounds like I am guilty of preferentially approaching people based on my perception of them.

Though totally different, I feel somehow very similar to how I felt when I was told that I had just open my hotel door to find Michael Douglas standing there when I was at Mont Tremblant a couple weeks ago.

I am humbled by these experiences, and ponder on how little I know, and how much potential there is in every little thing that we do.

Here is the link for the article:
Korean Diaspora in Kazakhstan: Question of Topical Problems for Minorities in Post-Soviet Space
http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/publictn/89/contents-63.pdf