All of us notice that Helen Fong was born in the year 1920 and returned to the Lord in 2020. She
was a centenarian, an honorable accomplishment of long life, good health, and faithfulness. Little
children like Helen\u2019s great grandchildren when younger would count their ten fingers to represent
one year. For Helen, each finger represented 10 years! To have lived over 100 years means that
Helen was a placeholder for your family.
As a placeholder, your lives can be measured along Helen\u2019s 100 years. She was a reference point like the North Star is referenced by sailors, pilots, and scientists to guide their ways. She holds a dear place in your lives. This is the reason why many considered her their surrogate grandmother and auntie because we all need someone to guide us on our way through life.
Of her 9 sisters and brothers, Helen was the first to be born in the US. Being an US born citizen in
1920 didn\u2019t necessarily guarantee that all opportunities would be available to her. She experienced
racism and discrimination that prevented her from getting a good job especially working in San
Francisco\u2019s financial district. But through hard work and persistence, she persevered culminating in a position at Foremost-McKesson in the 1960s that she held for 20 years. Racism told her to stay in
her place but she kept her place in line and succeeded. What an example for all of us today. Helen
Fong is like our Rosa Parks!
There\u2019s a story when Jesus was among a great crowd (Mark 5:25-34). Suddenly he felt the touch
from a woman when she only touched his cloak. She was immediately healed. When Jesus noticed
the woman, he said, \u201cDaughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your
disease.\u201d
Like this woman in the Bible, Helen against obstacles of being a woman, a Chinese American,
educated but not viewed as employable, and wanting to work outside of the house, stood her ground and was blessed. Helen reached out to Jesus. Helen is a placeholder for all those who have been discriminated against, belittled, and looked down upon to stand up for justice and a rightful place in society.
Helen\u2019s life embraced both Chinese and American heritage and culture. Going to China as a child
ingrained in her to appreciate and value her Chinese heritage of language, rituals, and food. Growing up as an American taught her to navigate western culture and practices leading to a healthy integration of truly becoming a Chinese-American.
Helen is remembered for her cooking Chinese delicacies to which I personally was blessed during
the celebration of Chinese or the Lunar New Year. Of all the jia that I had to eat, Helen\u2019s was the
best! She would bring us a plastic tub of her jia that we thoroughly enjoyed. Helen\u2019s jia was tasty.
You who have been blessed by Helen\u2019s cooking could continue to use her recipes and the result of
your labor is that you would always remember Helen through her food. One can say that there
would always be a place for Helen around your table.
As a placeholder for your family, Helen was also a dedicated holder of places to live. She purchased
houses to improve on her family\u2019s living conditions. She especially held onto to places like
Chinatown where she grew up and had friends and to San Francisco where via public transportation, she can visit all 49 square miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day when I was on Waverly Place near the church, I saw Helen on a weekday. I said to her why
are you here? She in her beautiful smile said, \u201cI come to get my hair done.\u201d I said, \u201call the way from
San Jose! They surely have hairdressers in the South Bay!\u201d But she not only got her hair beautifully
done but she had lunch with her friends. Even when she was 60 miles away from her neighborhood,
she had a place to call home.
Ministers have used the Ode to a Capable Woman found in Proverbs 31 when we are celebrating a
woman\u2019s life. This passage absolutely describes Helen. Helen had many hobbies and talents. One of these is her ability to knit, crochet and sew. The Proverb\u2019s capable woman \u201cputs her hands to the
distaff and her hands hold the spindle\u2026her household are clothed in crimson\u2026She makes linen
garments and sells them\u2026Strength and dignity are her clothing.\u201d To that end, the capable woman\u2019s
\u201cchildren rise up and call her happy; her husband too, and he praises her.\u201d
We know that Helen was always dressed fashionably and she made many nice sweaters for her
children and her children\u2019s children. You see, when Helen dressed in her best, having dressed her
family in their best are holding their places on the runway of life, setting a standard for all who see to
aspire that living life to the fullest is truly a blessing. The Proverb\u2019s capable woman is a person who
feared the Lord or understood her place in God\u2019s favor is to be praised. We today praise Helen
whose hands and fingers were not idle but made beautiful creations for the whole world to see.
God created each of us for a special purpose. For Helen Fong, she was created to be a placeholder
making sure she can have a job in the financial district. She was a placeholder to become the
matriarch of her large extended family. She was probably a placeholder in line to check out groceries to make her Chinese dishes and jin dueys. She was a placeholder when she stepped into the waters of baptism to become a disciple of Christ. She sat in her special place enjoying the warm sun of the South Bay that gave her warmth and the reassurance that God loves her. Most importantly, Helen held a place for Christ in her heart and in the end, Jesus Christ had a place in heaven for her.
The meaning of Helen Fong\u2019s life for us the living is that we must not just take up space in our
places. We must not be idle. God has given us life to also be placeholders as Helen was in order to
make a difference in others and in the world. We can only pray that when people remember us in
the future, would they also say that they have measured their lives to yours or mine?
For over 100 years, Helen Fong walked this earth and gave witness to God as her Creator, to Christ
who gave his life so that she may live everlasting and to the Holy Spirit who unified her family and
to this day and forevermore will bring fellowship and loving joy to you.
Amen.
Let us pray. Gracious God, Creator and Maker of all things, we thank you today for the life of Helen
Fong who for over 100 years lived faithfully in you and became an example of love, convictions,
dedication, and kindness for all who have been blessed by her life. As we believe she is abiding in
you, abide in us to also become placeholders of faithfulness to others in the world. Our lives have
been blessed because of Helen Fong. Thanks be to God. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All of us notice that Helen Fong was born in the year 1920 and returned to the Lord in 2020. Shewas a centenarian, an honorable accomplishment of long life, good