The Celebration of the Life of Evelyn Ou-Yang Shih
March 6, 2004, 9:30 AM
Diamond Head Mortuary Chapel, Honolulu
Sacred Motions Gloria Shih Gulley
Call to Worship Rev. Donald Ng
In Isaiah 40, we read:
A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field…
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever. (40:6, 8)
We are here today because the Word of God in Jesus Christ is standing with us. Although our lives may be as beautiful as the fragrant and colorful flowers found in Hawaii, they will still wither and fade away. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” In the resurrected Christ, we believe that we live and stand with God in this life and in the next.
On behalf of the family of Evelyn Ou-Yang Shih who returned to the Lord on February 19, 2004, we welcome you today to this service of celebration and remembrance of her life and ministry. We pray that your presence here will be a blessing to you and your faith as we witness how God has chosen Mrs. Shih for a lifetime of faithful service in the name of Christ. We also hope that inasmuch as Mrs. Shih was a model of faithfulness and kindness to many that we too will become a loving and compassionate people. Let us pray together.
Invocation
Creator God, we acknowledge that, like grass, we flourish briefly and fade all too soon. This very day we mourn the departure from this earthly life of your faithful servant, Evelyn Shih, whom we have known and loved. Lord, in spite of our faith in your power and in your love, we still feel our sense of loss. Come to us, we pray, in power and in love. In the midst of fading grass and fading lives, remind us of the things that cannot perish: your written word in the Bible, your living Word, Jesus the Christ, our unfading Savior, the resurrection and the life, in whose name we offer this prayer. Amen.
Opening Hymn How Great Thou Art
Words of Welcome (in Chinese) Rev. Simon Lee
Scripture Readings
Psalm 23 Dr. Pon-Sang Chan
Romans 8:31-35, 37-39 Robert T. Gulley (Bobby) & Jared Shih
1 Corinthians 15:51-58 Audphylia Wong
John 3:16-17 Ashanti Shih
Message Lauren Ng Kushner
Prayer from the Christian Community Rev. Peter Yang
Thanksgiving for the Life Rev. Simon Lee
Family: Frank Shih
Ernest Shih
Chee Lin Tan
Friends:
Special Music In the Garden Wallace Choy
Joy Shih Ng, Accompanist
Litany of Thanksgiving Rev. Donald Ng
One: Eternal God, Giver of life, we thank you for all the stages of our lives, from birth
to death and beyond death.
All: We praise you for the freshness, the innocence, the wide-eyed curiosity of childhood.
One: We thank you for the wildly exciting trials of our youth filled with dreams and
hopeful anticipation of the future.
All: We praise you for all the right choices we made in our early maturity and ask for
forgiveness when we made wrong ones.
One: We thank you for the satisfaction of our later maturity when you taught us how to give more and expect less in return.
All: And we praise you for as many sunset years as you may have in store for us: for
guiding wisdom, for the joy of grandchildren and great grandchildren, and for the
courage to face our mortality strengthened by the promise of everlasting life found in the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
One: Thank you, God for the life of your child, Evelyn Shih, ended here and resumed
with the Lord.
All: Amen.
Closing Hymn God Be With Us Till We Meet Again
Charge to the Congregation
Rev. Donald Ng
Beloved, in the midst of sadness, I charge you to rejoice.
Rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God!
Rejoice in receiving the mantle of God, strike that waters that trouble your path, and
walk upon a new shore.
Rejoice even in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope!
Rejoice above all that this hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit! (Romans 5:2-5)
(In Chinese) Rev. Simon Lee
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
Announcements Rev. Donald Ng & Rev. Simon Lee
The Shih Family expresses their appreciation for your presence here today, for your kind words of support, and for your prayers during this time of grief. After an opportunity for you to share your last respects and greet the family, you are warmly invited to remain for the reception whereupon we hope that you would greet one another and to share how your life has been blessed by Mrs. Shih’s life. Before Mrs. Shih passed, she expressively wanted her memorial service to be a time to affirm our faith in Christ and to enjoy the blessings of life that we have together. Wearing her favorite colors of purple and yellow means that we can rejoice even in the face of death for in Christ, we are resurrected people.
The Committal Service is private and only for the immediate family. The dinner at the Royal Garden is by invitation only.
We know that one of the most powerful witnesses of Mrs. Shih is her writing ministry. Many people around the world have heard the Good News of Jesus Christ through her books. To honor her lifelong love of writing, we invite you to give to the Shih EE Foundation Fund to continue publishing her works, her late husband’s writings and other Christian literature. Contributions can be sent to Shih EE Foundation Fund, 1673 Laukahi St., Honolulu, 96821.
Benediction Rev. Simon Lee
May Christ be near you to defend you, within you to refresh you, around you to preserve you, before you to guide you, behind you to justify you, and above you to bless you. Amen.
Committal Service
Opening Words
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)
If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. (Romans 14:8)
When I read the obituary for Popo, I hadn’t realized that she had lived in Honolulu for 20 years. Prior to 1984, Hawaii was only a paradise vacation spot for most of us. It has now become where the Shih family call home. Chandra and Ashanti have never lived anyplace else but in Hawaii. Whenever any of us came to Hawaii, we would visit Popo. We would take the time to come here and place some flowers for Gung Gung. We will continue to do the same.
We know that one of Popo’s greatest wishes for us is to continue to be a close family even in the face of living so far apart from each other in the four corners of the US. Popo wanted us to be a loving family even when our different paths of life have taken us in different directions. Although we have at times struggled to find the best time to meet or the most attractive place to gather, I hope that we would all make every effort to sustain the legacy that Popo has given us by sponsoring our past reunions. I heard that when Gloria, Ernest, Frank, and Joy were all here together last week, they discovered a bond of relationship that was not just based on being childhood siblings but as friends who have much to share and grow together in life.
My prayer for you and our prayers for each other is that we will keep alive the memories of Popo and Gung Gung in how they loved Jesus Christ with all their hearts, with all their soul, and with all their might.
Now do what the Deuteronomist teaches us:
The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (6:4-9)
When we all return to our respective home places after this weekend, let us remember one another and look forward to the many times we will gather for weddings, baby parties, and anniversaries in the future. Let us remember how Popo loved God with all her heart, with all her soul, and with all her might. And may we also love God wherever he leads us, at school, at our work, at faraway places, and at home. With the love of God in Christ Jesus, we give him praise.
Ritual
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, we commend to God’s merciful care our mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great grandmother, and Christian sister, Evelyn Ou-Yang Shih; and we commit her remains to this final resting place, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.
Let us pray.
Merciful God, you created us in your own image, perhaps because you were lonely; you created us as members of this one family, so that none of us should ever be lonely; you share our grief when the family circle is broken and we experience loneliness and sorrow, because someone we have loved and counted on has left us. Grant us strength to face our loss, with the assurance that Evelyn Shih’s return to you has not broken our family circle, but only extended it beyond this earthly scene into the heavens that your children share with you, thanks to the resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Benediction
The Lord bless you and keep you, The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.