F&WJ Interview with Alum,Daniel Chia, Software Engineer: Technology & God’s Goodness

As a software engineer at a data company and a F&WJ Alum, Daniel Chia has witnessed how the technology services he has built have been tools for God’s goodness.

Chia was a participant in the F&WJ Premiere Experience in Spring 2022, and for him, the program came at a time in his life when he was reflecting on: “How do I relate what I do everyday to God’s work?”

“I spend so much time at work, and I always wanted to understand the connection between work, life, and faith,” he said. “Serving at church felt like God’s work, but everything else was a question mark.”

For as long as he can remember, Chia shared that he has enjoyed programming and learning about technology, but he wasn’t quite sure how it intersected with his faith. In his current position, Chia helps build technology that finds insights in data, which in turn, helps more people do more everyday. The F&WJ experience showcased to Chia that doing God’s work includes work outside of church, and provided a deeper understanding of how to shape the world into God’s kingdom to manifest here on earth.

“In all the companies that I’ve worked for, the technology that I have helped build has been used to do good,” he said. “For instance, online education has helped many people make a career change.”

Chia shared that he has also enjoyed mentoring other colleagues who are earlier in their software engineering career, which he sees as another way of serving God at work. In addition, he reflected on how improving technology has significantly helped some of the
organizations he has volunteered for, including a soup kitchen and food pantry in New York. He shared that he was able to improve the way the organization kept track of the number of individuals who came in on a given week, and therefore, improve the overall workflow – especially helpful given the sudden growth of food pantry participants during the pandemic. “It sticks out in my memory where I felt God told me to help,” he said. “It turned out that they had a big need where my skills were needed.”

One of the elements that Chia shared he enjoyed most about the F&WJ experience was meeting people from all different industries and learning more about how faith and work intersected for them.

“It is an important message that more people could benefit from hearing, especially if you are wondering how to connect what you do everyday to the broader mission of what God wants you to be doing,” Chia said.