VIII. Life in Los Angeles
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and I twill be given you.”
John 15:5-7
The reason my husband and I chose Boulder for our home was to be close to my daughter, her husband and their family. However, in 1994, my son-in-law was transferred to Austin, Texas and the family had to move there. In Boulder, we had made friends with a lot of Christian colleagues who were able to help us when we needed it. Since my husband and I were in our late 70’s, it wouldn’t be convenient to live there without any relatives nearby in case of an emergency. Our children had been long suggesting that we move to a warmer place. Through prayers and consideration, we decided Texas was too hot in the summer, while California had a milder climate. So we decided to move to Los Angeles as it was close to our son’s home, which was convenient for his family to take care of us.
In deciding to move, we had to sell our condo in Boulder and buy a new house in LA. A few years ago, housing in LA was extremely expensive and far beyond our ability to afford. We didn’t want to live in senior homes because of our large amount of furniture, books and other miscellaneous items. Now, since we had decided to move to LA, we originally planned to temporarily live in our son’s home and then we would start to look for an appropriate residence of our own. We arrived in LA in August of 1996, and started to look for houses everywhere. To our surprise, the prices for housing had dropped sharply due to the government’s decision to close down a lot of the previous military bases. The price on our condo in Boulder had risen because many jobs moved from California to Colorado. Those people bought houses in Colorado, naturally pushing the price of housing up.
We found a one-story house near our son’s home that was reasonably priced and we bought it. We planned to pay the down payment at the end of the year and the rest of it was to be paid by our son and daughter through bank loans. I went back to Boulder to sell our condo. I placed the matter into the hands of God and asked the Lord to prepare a buyer. Completely beyond our expectations, the small residence of ours was sold for $92,000 to a professor at CU (the price had dropped to $40,000 a few years back). This was indeed a blessing from God, who treats His children well eternally. This sum of money was more than enough for our down payment and the moving expenses as well. Soon, our children paid off the rest of the loans.
On March 8, 1997, we moved to our new three bedroom, two living room home in Los Angeles with a front and back yard with plum, lemon and pear trees. It was a lot more spacious than our residence in Boulder. To add to all this convenience was the fact that there was a nice-size shopping center within walking distance. In it we found supermarkets, a drug store, a bank, a post office service desk, a Chinese restaurant, western food restaurants, a pizza shop and so on.
Although life improved for me in terms of both housing and material conditions, I experienced a period of intense spiritual frustration. I wasn’t able to drive, so I could not go out and visit people. To make matters worse, we lived far away from university campuses. I could barely meet any Chinese-speaking students or their relatives. Most of my neighbors were American. There were very little social gatherings between us, although they were mostly friendly.
My husband and I would attend the Sunday Services at the East LA branch of the Chinese Christian Family Church. Elder Shi-Pei Chu was the pastor at this church, as well as the home church. My son, my daughter-in-law, my grandson, and granddaughter were all attending and serving at the church. To meet them every week, we naturally worshipped our Lord there. Being a branch, it didn’t have a building of its own and rented a site from a Korean church. The meeting times were at 3:00 pm every Sunday. Since I had been used to worshipping the Lord in the morning, I began to go to the American Community Church. There were lots of activities at the church with many attendees. Every Sunday morning, my husband would send me to the American church to worship the Lord in the morning and pick me up after the meeting was over. That not only made me feel guilty, but also deprived me of any opportunity to communicate with the brothers and sisters there. In the afternoon, we would go to the Chinese church to worship the Lord. Apart from the Sunday services, we very rarely participated in any such gatherings such as prayer meetings or Bible studies. As for me, my entire life revolved around such activities as laundry and cooking. I also read some spiritual-oriented books and chatted with friends in other states. Indeed, this was a great challenge for me, since I had been used to an active life of serving.
In such a frustrating situation, the only way for me to grow close to God was through praying. During one of the Sunday services, God gave me this message from the Bible, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). Those three verses brought me enormous encouragement. Whenever I felt unhappy, I would always remind myself, “Hasn’t the lord told you to be joyful all the time? You should follow God’s will.” With that, all my unhappiness would disappear instantly. Unpleasant things would unavoidably happen to our children and us occasionally. When that happened, I would encourage myself and other family members with “Be thankful for everything.” I prayed continually, because I had a lot of time. I would pray for people suffering in disasters in every part of the world, from the election of government leaders, to large-scale evangelical meetings, retreat meetings, the needs of family members, and special needs of other people, etc. I prayed especially for the revival of the spiritual life in the United States. I was especially concerned about the rampant crimes in the United Sates in the last 20 to 30 years. Homosexuality, teenage pregnancy, school shootings, and broken families, as well as other issues were in my prayers. Through these prayers, my spiritual frustration was gradually relieved.
Mission Trip to American Samoa
Soon after I arrived in LA, I received an invitation from brother Ruiziang Chen at the Chinese Baptist Church in Pago Pago, Samoa. It was an invitation to go preach there for two months. I was overjoyed with excitement at the opportunity.
The foundation of the Chinese Baptist Church at Samoa was very closely related to me. While leading the Taiwan MeiRen Baptist Church, I was also holding the position of Director of the Foreign Evangelizing Department of the Taiwan Baptist Convention. I had always been enthusiastic about evangelical activities abroad. One day, I received a letter addressed to the Taiwan Baptist Convention and the sender was a God-loving missionary. He called on churches of all denominations to send missionaries to the Samoan Islands to preach to the fishermen from various countries who frequently landed on the islands. The letter described in great length the oppression the fishermen suffered while on the sea and the miserable living conditions they were in. With the most of the time spent on the sea, the fishermen experienced spiritual loneliness and most of them were addicted to tobacco and alcohol. They not only needed people to preach to them, but also pastors or Christians who understood their languages to represent them in court when they were in trouble.
After my prayer, I felt obligated toward such a call. I formally raised the suggestion at the meeting of the Taiwan Baptist Convention’s Steering Committee that pastors be sent to Samoa to preach to the overseas Chinese fishermen there. I also expressed my hope to set up churches in Samoa for long-term work. At that time, the Taiwan Baptist Convention had not yet gained its firm foothold and was experiencing financial difficulties. Foreign mission work was beyond its power to a certain extent. Consequently, I volunteered to go to Samoa for an on-site inspection and reported to the Convention Executive Committee after my return.
I had never been to American Samoa before and I didn’t know anyone there. After I contacted the sender of the letter, he suggested I contact a couple, L.P. and Jane French, who were living there. They agreed to pick me up at the airport and allowed me to stay at their home. I booked a flight from Taiwan, via Nuolu to Pago Pago, the capital.
Mr. French was on time picking me up at the airport and I lived in their home that night. The next day, he drove me to the port to visit the fishermen. I witnessed the gross conditions on the ships and the fact that there were idols on almost every ship. All the Chinese fishermen understood Chinese and some of them were from Taiwan; most of them were in their 20’s. I handed out a lot of flyers and pocketsize New Testaments to them.
During their stay at the port, they would replenish their ships with supplies and kill time at the sailors’ recreation center. The center wasn’t big and its hallways were lined with long benches and tables where they could rest. Here, you could also buy cigarettes, alcohol and snacks. I went to the center several times to visit them, which seemed to make them happy. They chatted with me and I asked if any of them were Christians and two of them raised their hands. Then I suggested singing the choruses of some hymns and introduced myself after we sang the songs. Then I started to give my testimony in following the Lord and I talked about the blessings of eternal life we enjoy as followers of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, I stayed in Pago Pago for only one week and I wasn’t able to visit them everyday. I had to get to know the Chinese people living there to explore the possibility of sending missionaries there.
I found a local Chinese man named Sheriff Chen who was sent over by the Taiwan government to manage the affairs of the fishermen. His wife had been a nurse in Taiwan and was a very capable person. They introduced me to Dr. Li who was a Christian from Hong Kong. His brother was also a doctor there, but he hadn’t become a Christian. I was also introduced to a few Chinese who were running department stores. My brief meetings with them revealed they needed Chinese churches. The Taiwan Baptist Convention wasn’t able to send pastors abroad for financial reasons. All I could do was pray earnestly to the Lord for the needs of the Gospel and a church among the overseas Chinese and the fishermen there. God’s miracle happened!
During my visit to Pago Pago, the World Vision Organization also sent Mr. John Key for an inspection. They were concerned for the needs of the fishermen and the overseas Chinese as well. We met each other briefly through an introduction by Mr. French. Through conversing, we learned that while the Baptist Church had financial difficulties, World Vision had a lack of hands. Therefore, an agreement was made that the Taiwan Baptist Convention was to send a missionary while World Vision would supply half of the funds. He said he would have to submit the proposal to the General Committee for review, but the likelihood for approval was great.
I returned to Taiwan full of hope and reported to the Executive Committee of the Taiwan Baptist Convention. Soon, I received a letter from World Vision and they agreed to provide half the salary for the missionary. Then the Foreign Missionary Department of the Taiwan Baptist Convention decided to send a missionary to American Samoa. Meanwhile, they sent letters to all the Baptist churches in Taiwan asking them to pray and support the mission. Applications were taken for a missionary who would be willing to go to Pago Pago and start the mission work.
Two months passed without anyone applying for the position. I had to fast and pray. Soon, Pastor Wanli Xu applied for the position and his wife later joined him in Pago Pago. Within one year after Pastor Xu arrived at the island, reports were sent back with pictures showing more than 50 fishermen getting baptized to become followers of the Lord. The holy work of establishing the first Chinese Baptist Church there was under way.
During the time when Pastor Xu and his wife worked in Pago Pago, I retired from the MeiRen Baptist Church. My work at the Foreign Missionary Department was taken over by another colleague. After I immigrated to the United States, I received correspondence from Pastor Xu informing me that World Vision had stopped providing half of the salary. The Baptist Church in Pago Pago couldn’t afford it. The Taiwan Baptist Convention then recalled the couple and passed the missionary work of the Chinese Baptist Church on to the Baptist Convention of Hawaii. The Baptist Convention of Hawaii had sent missionaries to Pago Pago before to lead the holy work of the Chinese Baptist Church. All of them left soon after they arrived though. The church then started to send retired pastors who were willing to go there on a temporary basis. Before they called me in LA, they had invited two pastors; one was Chinese and the other was American, but neither stayed for more than a year. Originally, they invited me to go preach for three months. Considering there was no one to take care of the household, I decided to serve two months. My son strongly objected when he learned I was going to be away from home for two months, mainly because I was close to 80 and Samoa was very hot. They were concerned if I were to fall ill, there was no way for them to look after me. After discussing the situation, I agreed to go witnessing for one month and I would pay for the airfare both ways.
At the end of 1997, I left for Pago Pago via the Hawaii International Airport. The director of the Foreign Missionary Department of the Hawaiian Baptist Convention picked me up. He then introduced me to Mr. James Halt who was the director of the affairs of the Pago Pago Baptist Church. We took the same plane to the destination, which was very convenient for me. When we arrived, many of the Christian as well as non-Christian members of the Chinese Baptist Church were there to meet us at the airport. That was drastically different from the first time I went there.
At the time, the Chinese Baptist Church was already experiencing a period of prosperity, which was brought about by the establishment of the B.C.T.C. Samoa Corporation. It was a garment factory employing more than 300 laborers. Those workers were mostly women from mainland China, apart from some Samoan natives. Most of them were around 20 years old, spoke Chinese and were able to read Chinese Bibles. The employment contract was mostly three years, renewable at the end of the contract. Those Chinese workers were mostly living in the workers’ dorm in the factory. Since there weren’t many places to go to in Samoa, and they didn’t have other friends, they were all willing to go to church meetings. They would go as long as somebody in the church would go pick them up. At the meetings, they could not only learn to sing hymns and listen to the messages, but also learn English. The American pastor in the local Baptist church loved to teach them English.
Other participants were Chinese fishermen. Members of the church picked them up from the seashore, normally five or six of them. The rest of the attendees were local church members. Among those, the most enthusiastic were Mr. and Mrs. Ruixiang Chen and his brother and sister-in-law, Dr. Li, Sheriff Chen, and his wife (who attended the church many years without being baptized). There were other members, whose names I wasn’t able to memorize.
During my one month of service, there were on average more than 40 people attending Sunday services, but there were more than 100 at the last Sunday service before I left. They were very attentive in listening to the messages and some of them even recorded them. At every meeting, I would call on people to make their decision to trust the Lord and there would always be quite a few raising their hands as signs of decisions. They were all thirsty inside.
Apart from Sunday services and Bible studies, there was an English language group every Wednesday. The American pastor would teach English and I was only responsible for preaching at the Sunday services, while Sunday Bible studies fell under the responsibility of other members in the church.
After I arrived in Pago Pago, Mr. Halt showed me the Seafarers Center. This center was established with the help of the Home Mission Board of the American Baptist Convention. It was large, well equipped and very different from the crude-looking Sailors’ Center I saw years ago on my visit. Ron Jugram and his wife were taking care of the center and they were very enthusiastic about evangelizing to the fishermen. Unfortunately, they were only able to speak English and couldn’t preach to the Chinese fishermen.
On the first day of our visit, we met three Chinese fishermen. As we started conversing, we immediately started preaching to them and all of them accepted the Lord on the spot. Mr. Jugram suggested that I conduct Chinese language services on Tuesday and Friday and they posted announcements at the center. The first meeting attracted a lot of Christian, as well as non-Christian attendees. Among them, the wife of the President of B.C.T.C. was vacationing there and she came and brought with her a few of the female workers from the factory. There were more than 70 people in the meeting and the small auditorium was totally packed, forcing many people to stay outside the room. More than 20 people made their decision to become followers of the Lord. At later meetings, the attendees were only fishermen, averaging 20 to 30 people per session. Most of them were in their early twenties, all coming from mainland China (none from Taiwan). They were all down-to-earth people, sending all their earnings home.
Before I returned to the U.S., the church decided to hold a baptism ceremony where 23 people were baptized at the beach. Some of them gave their testimonies before the ceremony. The church invited the head pastor at the Samoan Baptist Church to conduct the ceremony and he was a native Samoan. That was the first time in his life he baptized so many people. Many Chinese and foreign church workers, Christian and non-Christian members of the church, and friends of those to be baptized attended the beach baptism. Everyone’s face beamed with happiness and joy. After the ceremony, we had a banquet at a Chinese restaurant.
I bid farewell to the leaders and foreign missionaries of the church at the end of May. I returned to my home in LA. Before my departure, the church not only reimbursed my travel expenses, but also added some of the offerings. What miraculous preparations God had made!
Back at home, I felt a little tired, but my heart was filled with joy. I was already in my 80’s and at such an age, God was still using me to preach the Gospel for Him. Especially in a place like Pago Pago, the church needed such revival after years of inactivity from the lack of a pastor after Pastor Wanli Chen and his wife departed. Furthermore, the factory workers as well as the fishermen on the ships all vowed after accepting the Lord to assume the responsibility of preaching the Gospel.
The miracles from God are beyond our imagination. I am especially thankful to God for the bountiful fruit He has given me. I left Taiwan years ago and was guided by the Holy Spirit to start the pioneer work of evangelism in Pago Pago. All of this happened just as Paul said, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (1 Cor. 3:6-7).
1. Faith and Rest
When you grow old, you have fewer and fewer of your old friends. If we fail to receive a postcard from an old friend as usual, Yungkuei and I would feel uneasy. We feared our old friends were seriously ill and had passed away.
We requested one thing from the Lord — we would glorify God’s name even at the moment of our departure from the world, bearing wonderful witnesses for the Lord. We knew a few Christians whose testimonies at the end of their lives gave people enormous help and comfort.
In his biography, Pastor Billy Graham told about his grandmother’s testimony. She was a devout Christian and saw her deceased husband coming to meet her before she died. She noted on her deathbed, “Why do you have two legs? And that eye of yours is not blind anymore?” Her husband had lost one eye and one leg while being a soldier. However, when he returned to his heavenly home, everything returned to normal. He was meeting his wife with all the joy and happiness.
Another example was one of my friend’s daughters. She was a good student and she loved and served the Lord with a great passion. Unfortunately, she came down with liver cancer and was hospitalized at the Military Hospital on Guangzhou Street in Taipei. While she was at her most critical condition, her father invited Pastor Weiping Chen to pray for her. All of a sudden, she said to Pastor Chen, “Pastor Chen, I see Jesus coming to meet me with many young people.” Knowing that she was leaving the world soon, Pastor Chen said to her, “You may joyfully go with Jesus! I will go to find you soon.” She started to sing hymns and passed away with a smile on her face.
From all those wonderful testimonies, I prayed, hoping that Yungkuei and I would not suffer physical pain or illnesses before we die so our family would not be burdened too much. I firmly believe our heavenly Father, who has loved me so much, will definitely show His mercy for our weakness. He will come to bring us back to our heavenly home according to His time. From then on, there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more sin, illnesses, suffering and death. There we would reunite with our dear son DaChung, my beloved teacher Bertha Smith, President Culpeper and his wife, and numerous other God-loving colleagues, brothers and sisters. There we would tell each other the longings we have had for each other during our absence and together we would worship our God. What a wonderful prospect that is!
To be prepared and alert for the second coming of Jesus Christ, I decided to exercise my faith. The Bible says, “For physical training is of some value, but Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance and for this we labor and strive, that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe “ (1 Tim. 4:8-10). So I have encouraged myself to train in the following areas:
1. The fruits of the Holy Spirit: I examine myself everyday to see how many fruits of the Holy Spirit I have grown. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control” (Galations 5:22-23). The result of the self-examinations helped me realized I frequently showed a lack of self control and patience. Occasionally, when unbearable things would happen to me, I would argue or even quarreled about it with people. Instead of doing that, I would call on the Holy Spirit to give me strength to restrain myself. Instead of trying to punish those people with their own wrongful ways, I would serve and help them with a smile on my face. Initially, when such occasions arose, I would always feel wronged. The more I trained myself in this respect, the more I became able to stand up to such occasions with a calm heart. I have always been energetic in whatever I did. I have even forgotten to eat or sleep and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this habit of mine was also restrained.
2. Holiness of my thoughts: I have been encouraging myself with these verses, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praise worthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). Our daily routine is to clean our face and hands, or take a bath. The same is true for our mind, it must be cleansed and measured according to God’s word.
3. Pursuing spiritual maturity, I use the following scripture to encourage myself, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love, for if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:5-8).
Despite my effort in training myself, there have been numerous times when I failed and even felt tired spiritually. This lasted until I again read the autobiography of Hudson Taylor, which told of his evangelical efforts in China. Under the pressure of war and internal fear (the foreign threat and frequent internal wars during the Manchu Qing Dynasty), he faced dangers of murder and strangulation. He managed to live according to the promises of God, “I am the vine; you are My branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). He firmly believed he was in the Lord, the Lord was in him, and that he and the Lord were one. The Lord was the tree trunk and he was the branch. The branches can continually draw nourishment from the tree trunk. Because of his faith, he was able to constantly draw resources from the Lord and lead a peaceful life. I have benefited enormously from his testimony.
While the Lord is strong, why is it that we are weak? While the Lord is holy, why is it that we cannot resist worldly temptations and seductions? While the Lord is the embodiment of wisdom, why is it that we are so ignorant and dull about spiritual affairs? It is only through reliance on the Lord that we can live a victorious life. It is only through reliance on the Lord that our life in this world will be a life glorifying the name of God. This is expressed best in Paul’s words, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galations 2:20). The Lord does everything and we are no more than a minor limb in the Lord’s body. To maintain a lively and healthy spiritual life, we need faith! The Lord has prepared this blessing for everyone who believes in Him. It is up to you to decide whether to accept and enjoy such blessings with your faith.
Brightness, holiness, peace, fulfillment, ability, wisdom and love — we have all these fine qualities in abundance. Those are all gifts from God. May every child of God praise the Lord with a loud voice. Praise be to the Lord!