February 1, 2009
A few weeks ago, I noticed a dirty, black work shoe footprint on the 15 Waverly stairs going upstairs. At first, I was irate and wondered how someone can be so disrespectful of our church home. When I saw it again on a Sunday morning, I became aware that someone probably an evening student or one of our Friday Night School students came to our church to study after a day at work. He may have worked in one of the many greasy restaurants cooking meals or washing dishes. He might have been a construction worker who left his worksite. That footprint serves as a symbol for me that we are faithfully serving our Lord by inviting God’s people to come and to know him as their Lord and Savior. A footprint on our stairs is a footprint for Jesus.
2009 represents our 129th year serving Jesus Christ. While I may still want our stairs clean, I can hardly imagine the literally tens of thousands of footprints that were left on those same stairs down through the years. I am happy to report to you that the state of the church is healthy and becoming stronger because of the hundreds of footprints that we have.
Christian Education
One place that we can see hundreds of footprints is in our Christian Education programs. Pastor Chris should be giving this part of my report! Once again we had over a hundred neighborhood children in our summer Day Camp. They are very noisy when they stomp up and down our stairs. We had one of the largest Youth Camps this year. Our Nursery is filled with little footprints, some just learning to walk. We continue to leave footprints when youth and adults walk up to Cameron House for life-changing classes. Last year, Serena Jang started Jubilee Toddlers Time for our maturing toddlers. Pastor Lauren has Mom’s Groups for support and Bible study. In 2009, Pastors Chris and Lauren will design and launch a leadership training program to equip more persons to serve as confident leaders for our expanding programs.
Pastor Peter Lee
Last month, Pastor Peter Lee’s footprints were only in Hong Kong. While he didn’t walk on water to come to San Francisco, he is leaving new footprints at FCBC and all over Chinatown, in Millbrae, in San Francisco, and pretty soon beyond the Bay Area. I am excited for the many possibilities and opportunities that God has in store for us now that we are finally at full staff strength. Programs and ventures that have been tabled or delayed can now emerge to be considered because we are a complete staff team again. As we serve the Lord together, we pray that our whole church will also learn to serve the Lord together because we do believe in one Lord, one baptism, one church.
Financial Health
As our country and the entire global markets are reeling over recessional times, our church’s financial situation is solid and fully monitored. Nelson Wong reported to you that against uncertain economical times, you continue to be faithful to your commitment to God’s work through our church reflected in the 2009 Canvass. John Tom reported to you the positive year-end results and the significant reserves and endowment funds that we have received. While no one can be sure about what the future might hold, as long as we are focused on Jesus Christ to lead us into discipleship, we will continue leaving footprints on Waverly Place and around the world.
Carbon Footprints
In memorial to our dear friend, Diana Ming Chan, we now have a solar energy project that the Trustees will give energy to this year. How can we reduce our carbon footprint as a church by generating our own electricity with solar panels installed on our rooftop? Inasmuch as when we received an energy award after retrofitting and renovating our church in 2000, I would like to see us be the first church in Chinatown to contribute to the PG&E power grid!
The long awaited building project at the Chinatown YMCA has finally started. There’s a great opportunity for our church to partner with the Y to renovate the old gym to become an all-purpose room available for us to have another Sunday morning worship service. As our church expands and grows in our membership, in recent years, we are constantly looking for more space. We’ll continue to rent space as we have done for years. But the opportunity to partner with the Y to renovate their gym and have a legal contract to have first priority to use this space on Sunday mornings may not come again in our lifetime. The cost of renovating the gym in comparison to buying, retrofitting and renovating an old building in Chinatown is miniscule. We would all agreed to the wisdom of applying our financial resources for ministry is better than in investing in buildings. I have asked a group of key church leaders to look into the feasibility of this project and to begin exploratory discussions with the good people of the YMCA about such a partnership. Hopefully, we will bring you a full report and recommendations at our next membership meeting this spring on March 29th.
Stepping on Footprints
Our granddaughter Sage recently discovered the Chinatown Alleyway monkey’s footprint medallions on our Waverly Place sidewalk. She was putting her little shoes on each of the monkey footprints. When I saw this, I wondered if we would have descendants to step on our footprints when we are no longer here.
One of the major developments last year was the integration of the 9:30 Worship Service meeting in Cameron House into the sanctuary by merging it with the 9:00 English Youth Service. You can see that we now have an enthusiastic and inspiring worship service at 9:10. From 9:00 to almost 1:00, we have four hours of praise to the Lord in the three services that we have. When I look at our three worship services and can see youth and college students, young adults and young parents, successful working adults and seniors, I am absolutely confident that there will be descendants stepping on our footprints. I love it when we are congregating on the sidewalk after 10:20 Worship and the Sunday school children led by their teachers are weaving through us to get to the playground.
Next year, 2010 would be our 130th anniversary! I think it’s time for us to celebrate once again because the good Lord continues to bless us with abundance and the joy of discipleship. It may not be at the grand scale of our 125th, but spending a Sunday like on October 10, 2010—10/10/10 in joint worship followed by a luncheon would allow us to invite former members, inactive members, friends of the church, family and relatives, partners in ministry, and our neighbors to come together and praise God again for his providence. Let’s get some of these footprints unfamiliar in our church to come back again.
Footprints in the Sand
Probably one of the most familiar poems of our time is “Footprints in the Sand.”
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord, “You promised me, Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”
Mary Stevenson, 1936
As doers of the Word, we are committed to leaving footprints in the sands of life. But in the end, we realize and come to confess that when we are too weak to walk or too tired to walk the talk, the Lord will be there, leaving his footprints in the world. May we in 2009 do everything that we can to leave footprints in the name of Jesus Christ.
Let us pray.
Lord God, all praise and hallelujahs are yours because of the countless blessings that we have received from you in the year 2008. Thank you for inviting us to participate in your kingdom work through our church. We pray that we may continue to be fruitful and faithful, dedicated and committed, courageous and contagious with your love. In the name of Christ Jesus who taught us to teach, lead, heal, and believe, we pray. Amen.