They say that God works in mysterious ways, and Anna Shen (沈孝芬) seems to be living proof of this adage.
Shen spent four years working as a public relations officer for the Israeli Trade Office in Taiwan and for the past few years has run a non-governmental organization that serves as a bridge between Taiwan and Israel.
Her public relations job brought her into contact with Israeli colleagues in Taiwan and those visiting on business trips.
It also gave her the opportunity to make several trips to Israel as part of the office’s staff and inspired her to set up an organization called Encounter International Consulting to fulfill her dreams and prayers, which she said has given her life new meaning.
“After I left my job at the Israeli trade office, I felt a calling in my heart to bring Jewish people in the diaspora back home to Israel,” she said. “It all started happening for me when I flew to Israel and attended the Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal [KH-UIA] First International Women’s Chapter Conference in Jerusalem.”
Shen received her undergraduate degree in English at Tunghai University and later studied architecture at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.
When she returned to Taipei, she worked as an interior designer and a college English teacher, as well as moonlighting as a Chinese-to-English interpreter for international conferences.
Raphael Gamzou, a former Israeli representative to Taiwan, met Shen at a conference where she was translating and was impressed with how she worked.
He offered her a job as a public relations officer at the Israeli trade office and she accepted.
The four years Shen spent there were very fulfilling, she said, adding that she has had a long love affair with Israel.
“Earlier in 2007, I left my college teaching job so I could stay in Israel longer to pray for Jerusalem while the international meeting to divide Jerusalem was going on at that time,” Shen said. “I also visited Sderot [in the Southern District of Israel] with a Christian Zionist group to see and experience what it was like to run for your life in a few seconds as the incoming rockets alarm siren sounded.”
Last year, Shen was elected as KH-UIA Taiwan Office chairwoman and started devoting herself to help bring Jews back to the “promised land.”
“It’s not about me, it’s about God’s mighty hand of taking his people back home as he promised,” Shen said. “And he is raising up a banner to call people to bring the sons and daughters of Israel to come home. Our call is to all Jewish people in the diaspora to come home and build the nation up for God’s glory.”
Shen now runs Encounter International Consulting to keep building bridges between Taiwan and Israel.
The group offers Hebrew classes, teaches people about Israel and fosters business connections between the countries.
“When a brief war broke out in Israel a few years ago, the first thing I wanted to do was to go there and join the Israeli Army if I could,” Shen said. “I just couldn’t focus on other things, but I know that my job is here in Taiwan to talk to people to help raise money to build bomb shelters to protect the people of Israel.”
Shen’s NGO recently hosted a Torah sharing event that featured Rabbi Ari Abramowitz as a speaker. The rabbi flew in from Israel to attend and serves as a director of the Friends of Israel Division at KH-UIA in Jerusalem, Shen said.
“We continue to hope that the connection between Israel and the Taiwanese people will be built on the foundation of sharing God’s word,” she said in an e-mail.
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