Dear Preacher / Pastor Yao:
I would like to greatly express my sincere gratitude for your efforts in helping my son during his 18 month rehabilitation at Operation Dawn, San Jose. Your understanding love and care for others have, and only continue to inspire him since the experience.
Deeply stirring my heart, I still reminisce of your empathetic concern for my son’s exceedingly anguishes situation and major internal conflicts prior to his involvement in the program. Your enduring assistance, love and care to him before and throughout his program experience are evident in the reformed life pattern he has established since. Through quiet self-reflection and self-awareness, my son has revamped his self-concept from the inside out. His once pervasive cynical and dark perspective of life and the world in now filled with hopeful optimism.
A renewed, reformed perspective and mentality towards life, my son has gained, in addition, self-control with overcoming the temptation of drugs, alcohol and other self-destructive outlets. He has become like himself once again after such a long time of prolonged bouts with major depression while living day-to-day in a downward spiral, in which he had no hope in himself for a positive future. He has gained further knowledge and practice in addressing various life responsibilities and initiatives as well, including those among his studies, cooking, cleaning including other household chores and contributions. He has incorporated a more disciplined approach to life, scheduling activities at healthier, more regular hours of the day, often waking normally again as early as 7 a.m. and going to bed as early as 11 p.m. Other apparent area of his growth include a more active attendance and theist for wisdom and self-improvement at his local church fellowship, increased confidence with expressing himself, and an ever-deepening concern for the well-being of others in place of his former reclusive, detached and worldly materialistic goals. Most importantly, my son has found himself among loving and supportive individuals, experiencing God and seeking His wisdom, and a life of meaning and fulfillment by remaining devoted to Him.
Greatly through your patience, kindness, persistence and belief in my son as a pastor, supporting him during the darkest period of his life, he has been able to stand firm in acceptance of himself, with a newfound love and zest for life, influencing a dramatic improvement in all aspects of his being. By this same love and encouragement, we can all look towards the future by reconciling and tackling the past.
I am most grateful for the opportunities afforded to my son through this program to change and refocus his life goals. Since his stay at Operation Dawn, he has switched from his business major, which he previously found stale, to passionately studying psychology, hoping one day to become a distinguished therapist and counselor for those in need, in pursuit of a meaningful purpose of life all for the glory of God. In effect, you have inspired and set for him a great example of living – not only for ourselves, but with earnest compassion and love for others. Thank you again so very much!!
Very truly yours,
JC July 5, 2008
