Roy was born in Los Angeles, CA. His parents were once international students from Japan and so he developed a heart for those from other countries. He was trained as a Mechanical/Aerospace Engineer at Princeton University and worked in that field from 1988 to 2003. His passion to serve people led to him international students ministry, joining ISI in 1996 and starting with Lisa the UTA ministry in 1998. Roy is a ThM graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and Moody Bible Institute. He currently serves as the Rocky Mountain and Plains Regional Field Director for ISI and helps out at UTA. Roy was campus director at UTA until 2006 and the North Texas Area Director until 2015.
Lisa was born and raised in Orange County, CA. After a short stint in Portland, OR, she moved back to California to attend Biola University as a Liberal Studies major. She has always had an interest in people from other countries. She go a MS in Teaching English to speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from California State University, Fullerton. She currently works at Dallas Baptist University as an ESL instructor.
Roy and Lisa were married in 1994. They have adult two sons and a daughter. They moved to Texas in January, 1998 where they have been helping international student understand the love of Christ since.
My wife Hai-Chin and I have been at the UTA Community Garden since it opened in 2011. Since 2018, we have formed a friendship with gardeners Sajib and his wife Shuvra from Bangladesh.
Sajib is a post doc in Physics at UTA, and he is struggling with stress and depression. He reached out to me two weeks ago to ask about spiritual things, and we spent a couple hours talking. When I discussed belief in Jesus, he drew a blank. He has been told what to think, memorize, and do his whole life. The idea of forming his own beliefs is something he has never explored. His first son was born last November, and he wants to learn how to help his son be happy instead of stressed out. When i talked about the freedom from shame we have in Christ, it was like a shock went through his body. He is very interested.
I mentioned this today to Jim Gibbs, and he gave me your name.