A Journey of Daring Faith

In 2013, Saddleback Irvine North member, Linda Lee felt God leading her to Hong Kong. She had fallen in love with the people and culture during a PEACE Trip the previous year, and hoped there was a way she could someday return.

Just months later, Pastor Rick announced Saddleback’s multi-campus initiative to launch locations in other cities including Hong Kong.

Linda will never forget that moment—she almost fell out of her chair when she heard the news. God had been laying a specific destination on her heart for months, and now she knew why. Taking one faith-step at a time, Linda left her job as a teacher to become Saddleback’s ambassador for Hong Kong.

On that first vision trip, Linda helped establish connections and lay the groundwork for the new campus. Many of the people she met on that initial visit are still Saddleback Hong Kong members today!

By December 2014, Linda had moved from Irvine North to Hong Kong where she spent the next seven months training for yet another calling—one that would lead her back to the same place where her life was changed six years earlier.

“I knew God was drawing me into full time ministry,” says Linda. “But I didn’t know how or where.”

That’s when an email arrived from Saddleback’s Irvine North Pastor, DJ Crawford, asking if she would consider the role as Campus Coordinator. The job was scheduled to begin exactly one week after her return flight from Hong Kong.

In God’s perfect timing, Linda accepted the position to help grow the campus that launched out of Saddleback’s three-year Daring Faith campaign. Fully committed to the calling, Linda knew this was the mighty step that God had intended for her life.

On July 12, 2015, Linda was commissioned as Campus Coordinator for Saddleback Irvine North — which just so happened to be the same date and place where she was baptized six years earlier!

“God confirmed the whole thing for me,” says Linda. “Here I am three years later as Irvine North’s Campus Coordinator, and it’s all connected through Daring Faith.”

Watch the video about the launch of Saddleback Hong Kong: "A New Campus in a Very Unchurched City."