March 2, 2019
An Ambassador for All
The parade of witnesses of family and friends have testified what an amazing person Mrs. Ngon Ling Lim Pang was in life that with the faith that we have in Christ, she continues to be amazingly embraced by God, our Creator in heaven.
We heard she got up very early in the morning to make hash browns from scratch—who does that today! Pregnant with Lana, she was up on the roof nailing shingles. No language barrier kept her from getting jobs at places like the Salvation Army that happens to just be down the street from here. The children remembered that she had an arm strong enough to hit you in a snowball fight. And many of us have experienced when meeting her, you become an instant friend conveyed by her quick smile and feisty spirit.
In the Book of Proverbs appearing right before the Book of Ecclesiastes that was read today is an Ode to a Capable Woman. In Chapter 31, it describes Mrs. Pang:
“She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household and tasks for her servant girls.” (In Mrs. Pang’s household, after making a hearty breakfast, all the boys had paper routes!) “She girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong.” (Remember she can throw a snowball.) “She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all her household are clothed in crimson.” (Mrs. Pang worked in a sewing factory and at the family Laundromat making everybody look like kings and queens!)
If we remembered Mrs. Pang for all of these wonderful and life-giving things that she has accomplished in life and for her family, it would be enough. She lived a life well lived. She lived a long life of over 89 years. This would be more than enough. But there is much more that can be said about Mrs. Pang.
Like so many women in the days of Mrs. Pang’s childhood, girls were arranged to be married at an early age. While they may have wanted to complete more education, they were seen as subordinate helpers to begin and sustain a family. We wonder today what would have happened if women like Mrs. Pang were afforded the many educational and career opportunities that girls and women have today. What would they have become?
From hearing the stories and moments shared by family members and friends, Mrs. Pang could have become an ambassador. In China, she might have become the ambassador from Guangdong, China to places around the world. In her life, she demonstrated the qualities of a person who acts as a representative to bring about understanding and mutual relationships. She is known as someone who connects people and things together in order to bring about something new and better.
Having her education disrupted by the Japanese invasion in China during World War II could have led her to dislike Japanese. But that did not prevent her from befriending the Morita family who lived on the other side of Sanders Road. She was a peacemaker.
After returning to San Francisco but knowing how delicious the Golden Delicious Apples that came from the Morita farm were, she took hundreds of orders for apples to be delivered from farm to table. She became an ambassador for Golden Delicious Apples.
Realizing that living in Sebastopol denied her children from learning about their Chinese heritage and language, she and her husband, Lawrence relocated back in San Francisco. She knew that knowing and being proud of one’s racial and cultural identity is fundamental to a well-rounded and mature person particularly living and growing up in America. She helped her children connect to their heritage.
For that to happen, Mrs. Pang knew that she had to demonstrate how to navigate and successfully live as a Chinese American herself. She not only baked don tarts and char siu bows but she learned how to make angel food and sponge cakes. She tried cooking American meals with a recipe book serving up fried chicken, steak, pork chops and fish for each day of the week. She was an ambassador of multiculturalism.
Mrs. Pang’s limited English was never a barrier to what she believed is important. To make a living, she found a job at the Salvation Army center and worked at the Laundromat talking with customers about their alternations and repairs. Speaking English may have been helpful but relating as human beings with one another was essential.
Whether on the sidewalk or on the bus to the casino, Mrs. Pang was deep in conversations with people, making connections, sharing ideas of where the best savings or double coupons can be found, and happily sharing memories of her latest traveling adventures. She was bringing people together.
On her many vacations, while the major sights may have been interesting, connecting with her friends and former classmates were even more delightful. She was an ambassador of friendship and reunions.
Mrs. Pang’s world wasn’t just limited to her family and a small circle of friends. She was an avid newspaper reader and wouldn’t recycle any old papers until she read them all probably thinking that there’s always something she can learn that she can tell others about. To be a good ambassador in this world, one does need to know local as well as national and global events.
In Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, Paul proclaimed that if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. From God’s grace, Christ has reconciled us with God. This means that God no longer counts our mistakes but when we believe in Christ, we are now back in a good relationship with God. We are once again connected with God rather than separated from God. The result of this, according to Paul is that we are now ambassadors for Christ. We are to represent Christ in the world.
Mrs. Pang’s life-long journey is like an ambassadorship. In her own way, she helped reconciled war-strained relationship between the Japanese and Chinese by becoming good neighbors and enjoying delicious apples. She reconciled the sometime wide chasm in growing up as Asian Americans with one foot in Asia and one foot in America. And she must have reconciled numerous misunderstandings when she would serve as a bridge or interpreter between enemies in order that they may become friends once again. Like Christ who intervened for us for our salvation,
Mrs. Pang intervened and connected her world to make things better.
From Proverbs 31 again, it says, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her happy; her husband too, and he praises her: Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.”
Mrs. Pang could have easily become the official ambassador from Guangdong, China to San Francisco. She spoke words of wisdom and taught kindness and generosity in both words and deeds. She truly could have been a diplomatic ambassador, but in her own way, she served an even more valuable service of being an effective and loving ambassador for her family and friends.
And lastly from Proverbs 31, it says, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.” Today we do indeed praise Mrs. Pang’s work in the city gates of San Francisco!
As we remember and celebrate the glorious life of Mrs. Pang, she, even in death is gathering and connecting you to one another. She is still acting like an ambassador of love and unity in your family.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Donald Ng
Retired Pastor, First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco, CA