Pastor Fred Tow was born in 1954 in Hong Kong. He has an older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother. He and his family immigrated to Oakland, California when he was 8 years old and settled down in the city’s Chinatown, without knowing much English. Pastor Fred completed his undergraduate degree in Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley as a commuting student. Upon graduation, he received his teacher credentials with plans to become a teacher in the future. During his teaching credential program, Pastor Fred had a strong urge to pursue seminary instead. After some pushback from his parents, he ended up completing the teaching program and taught at his old high school while still finding ways to serve in ministry.
Soon after, Pastor Fred decided to face his parents again with hopes that they would allow him to go to seminary school. His parents slowly became more open to the idea and eventually allowed Pastor Fred to go to Dallas for seminary. After seminary, Pastor Fred did a few internships in New York and Boston, and ended up taking up a job at Houston Chinese Church as the first English pastor since the church’s founding. He has personally lived through the many changes within HCC and continues to serve as the English pastor for the church as well as a committee member for Partnership of Asian American Churches in Texas and Houston Area Christian Educators to this day. He is currently married to his wife and they have two kids, a son and a daughter.
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