Judson student reunites with family from Myanmar

Some college-bound students consider a few hours' drive a long distance away from home.

Sau Win Mading dealt with 8,200 miles and two continents' separation from her family.

Mading, a senior at Judson University in Elgin, reunited with her parents this week for the first time in 4 1/2 years, as they traveled here from northern Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia for her college graduation.

"When I was at the airport to meet them, my father didn't recognize me," Mading said. "He said I looked all American. My hair was much shorter."

Mading said her parents, Hkaw Sau and Htu Shan Lasi, have aged a little since she's last seen them. They're thinner, she says, and she finds herself looking them over with new eyes.

"It was different. They have changed a lot. I'm sure I have for them as well."

Dealing with a 12-hour time difference and long-distance calling rates, Mading spoke to her family just once every two to three months, supplemented by occasional e-mails.

Completely on her own, Mading said, adjusting to American college life during her first few months at Judson was very difficult.

"The first semester I had no clue. I even arrived 10 days late, not knowing what classes I was taking. I was pretty lost, but I finally caught up."

She had originally planned to pursue an education degree, but later switched to biology, with a minor in chemistry. "Science is a little easier to translate," she said. "The numbers and equations are the same."

To supplement her scholarship and financial aid package, Mading has worked her way through school with two different jobs - as an assistant in the school's business office and a laboratory assistant in the chemistry department.

She still finds some aspects of life in the suburbs foreign - the fact that everyone drives cars, rather than riding bikes, chief among them - but Judson is her home now, she says.

She hopes to enter nursing school in the fall, working at the same time, with the eventual goal of becoming a doctor.

Roughly 5 percent of Judson's 1,250 students are international, this year coming from 36 countries.

"With recruiting, we've got two or three main sources," Judson President Jerry Cain said.

"We get a lot of references from missionaries who say this is a kid that will change the country, is going to be a leader. Another would just be the crass recruitment of our athletic teams. If we're going to maintain our reputation in soccer, we're going to send our coaches to look in Brazil," he said. The third source, Cain believes, is the draw of an American education.

"My mom wanted at least one of her children to be educated from the West. To get a good education," said Mading, the fourth of five children.

She is the first in her family to go to school in the States, though, she notes, hopefully not the last.

Mading first became interested in Judson after Cain traveled to Myanmar in 2000 to speak at a small college's commencement.

Judson University's namesake, Adoniram Judson, the first protestant missionary from America, spent 37 years working overseas in Myanmar.

His influence is still prevalent today, with 1.6 million of the Burmese people calling themselves Christians. Hkaw Sau is a pastor of a large church, with about 2,000 congregants; his wife was a leader in the Myanmar Christian Church and led the women's ministry.

She and Cain began corresponding, and he sent Sau Win an application to Judson.

Mading said her parents' trip to Elgin marks her father's first journey to a foreign country. And it's been a long time coming.

"A year ago, my mom said should I come to graduation. We want to be at graduation," Mading said. "And I told them, you can come, but I don't have enough money for plane tickets."

Hkaw Sau and Htu Shan Lasi's three-month travel visas were approved with relative ease, Mading said.

Adjusting to a drastically different time zone, however, is another thing.

Since arriving on Monday, Hkaw Sau and Htu Shan Lasi's body clocks have been out of whack.

"The other night, I wanted to take them somewhere to eat. I wanted to get my father something like a steak, but by the time they woke up it was 10 p.m. and everything was closed."

Mading ended up taking her parents through a KFC drive-through. She said Hkaw Sau and Htu Shan Lasi marveled that four pieces of chicken were considered an individual serving, and the three of them ended up splitting a single meal.

On Thursday, the family spent the afternoon visiting and praying with Cain in his campus office, giving thanks for the chance to be together.

Mading will spend time with her parents for the next several weeks, before they take the long flight back to Myanmar.

Perhaps one of these years Mading's parents will get to see more of her and Cain will see another one of his international students return home to make a difference.

"Someday I do want to go home," she said. "Go home and help."