April 13, 2013
10:00 AM
McAvoy & Evergreen, Geary and 10th Ave. in San Francisco
Call to Worship
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…So we are ambassadors for Christ… (2 Cor. 5:17-18, 20)
On behalf of Mrs. Catherine Ja and her children, Charlene, Denise, Alexander and Benjamin and their respective spouses and children, I welcome you here to celebrate the life of Eugene Ja who was born on March 22, 1918 and returned to the Lord on April 4, 2013 having lived for 95 good years. Eugene Ja was baptized at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco when he was 16 years old. The story is that he stopped attending church when he couldn’t afford a 25 cents offering. But he nevertheless knew the value of church and his faith in God his Creator led him to bring and encourage all of his children to attend First Chinese Baptist. Let me say that while Eugene Ja may not have had 25 cents, he gave much, much more to God by the faithful and humble life that he lived on earth. He dedicated himself to the work of the kingdom and this is the reason that we’ve come to celebrate his life today. Since Eugene Ja was in Christ, everything has become new.
The Ja Family expresses their gratitude for your presence and pray that in as much as you are a blessing to them during this time of grief that the time we have today will also be a true blessing to you.
Let us pray.
Creator and Redeemer God, at a time of deeply felt loss, we turn to you for comfort. We glorify you for creating the universe out of nothing and each one of us in your image. We acknowledge your sovereign wisdom in setting limits to our life on Earth and for setting before us, through Jesus, our crucified and risen Savior, a limitless life. Being reconciled to you through him, we hail him as our divine leader in that ministry of reconciliation in which he expects us to serve as his ambassadors. To Christ, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all glory and praise. Amen.
Scripture Readings
Psalm 23 Isaac
Matthew 6:19-34 Jared
Biography
Words of Remembrance
Slide Show
Kindhearted
Eugene Ja, like so many sojourners of his time, traveled across the vast Pacific running the risk of safety, security and perhaps even life itself with the hopeful vision based on stories he had heard in his village that in America, the streets are paved with gold. Such dreams are the material that empowered young men like Eugene Ja at age 14 to become a stranger from a different shore. You might say he had a brave heart.
In addition to having a brave heart, sojourners needed people with a kind heart too. When the Chinese were allowed to come onto the mainland after grueling interrogation sessions on Angel Island, they needed to start somewhere. All over America, Chinatowns had Chinese consolidated benevolent associations and the specific family benevolent associations. These associations’ primary mission was to assist sojourners to get a new start in a new land. They provided humanitarian aid and compassion to those in need as people labor to make ends meet. To this day, there are many of these associations still operating effectively as today’s “welcome wagons” and “stations of hope.” They symbolized a kind heart.
When Eugene Ja opened the On Wah Company on Grant Avenue selling gifts and souvenirs to tourists around the world, he functioned like his own kindhearted association. Eugene hired young people who needed jobs and he treated them like his own family members. Inasmuch as someone at a family association gave him his first start on a job, Eugene did the same by giving many youth their first starts in making a living. When the store closed at 10:00 at night, he would drive his young workers home for their safety. And for the rest of their lives, these workers who are now retired themselves still revered Eugene Ja for his kindheartedness, goodwill, and caring. They continued to send him holiday cards expressing their appreciation for his big heart and generosity.
In the Bible, Jesus told a parable about what the kingdom of heaven is like (Matt. 20:1-16). There was a landowner who went out in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. The early morning group agreed on the daily wage and they were sent out to work. At 9:00 AM, the landowner saw more workers standing idle looking for work so he hired them and sent them out to the vineyard. At 12:00 noon and at 3:00 in the afternoon, he hired more workers and sent them out as well. And finally at 5:00 when you would think that it is the end of the working day, the landowner saw more idle workers, hired them and sent them out to work.
When evening came, the landowner said to his manager to call all the workers in and begin paying the last to be hired their daily wage and ending with the first to be hired. But when the first to be hired who probably worked for about 10-12 hours received the same daily wage as those who were hired at 5:00 PM, they grumbled and complained and thought that they deserved more. But the landowner told these first to be hired that it was up to him alone to be generous and kindhearted. God is like this landowner according to Jesus. Jesus said, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”
If the kingdom of heaven is like that, then Eugene Ja in his kindheartedness was bringing a little bit of heaven into the world. Working for Eugene Ja must have been like working for this landowner in the Bible. He was fair, kindhearted, and generous. His bigheartedness gave hope and encouragement to many others who worked for him the same kind of hope and the fulfillment of dreams that he received arriving in America when he was only 14 years of age. He believed that that regardless of where you may have come from as long as you have a honest character, the last shall be first.
Eugene Ja’s kindheartedness extended to his own family. While soft-spoken, very humble, and never bringing attention to himself, his children couldn’t remember one time when Eugene Ja was angry at them.
Eugene Ja worked for a lifetime as owner and manager of the store in Chinatown. Eugene’s own children work there during the summers and seeing how both their parents earned an honest wage, they learned the value of honest work. And it seems that all of you have done quite well in both your studies and in your respective careers!
Eugene Ja along with his wife Catherine set strong and firm examples of what a stable family is like. They taught you the importance of table grace and the appreciation and enjoyment of good food. You value today time with the family because your parents spent family time with you even in the midst of long and hard work at the store. They taught you the value of kindheartedness by preparing 6 course dinners on a daily basis and promptly eating at 6:00 PM so that you now can do the same for future generations. They taught you that true love between two persons is mutual respect and a united front so that today you know how to have strong marriages and thus a stable home. In today’s world, this is often hard to find.
If there’s one word to describe Eugene Ja in this world as well as in heaven, it is kindheartedness. Like the landowner in the Bible, Eugene Ja’s kindheartedness and compassion are things that will live on in you for the rest of your lives. Just as Eugene Ja was kindhearted, may you be kindhearted too.
Let us pray.
Creator and Provider God, at this time of all times, we thank you for the precious gift of life. Thank you for the life of Eugene Ja and his kindheartedness to his workers, in the community, and for his family.
We thank you for health—and for the skill and compassion of those who care for us when our health falters and fail. Thank you, O God for the long and unselfish life that Eugene Ja lived that continues to teach us what a good life is.
We thank you for home, for the roof over our heads and for the loved ones who make that house into a true home. Thank you for Eugene Ja’s generosity and kindness that touched the lives of all those who knew him.
And we thank you for hope, hope for the pursuit of the next goal when one goal has been reached; hope for recovery and a fresh start when a goal has eluded; hope at the last, when all hope seems lost, except for the one shining hope set before us in your raising our Lord Jesus from death. It is that hope that we believe our loved one, Eugene Ja is now with you, dear God in paradise. Amen.
Acknowledgements
If you wish to make a memorial gift in the name of Eugene Ja, the family has requested the following: First Chinese Baptist Church, Chinatown YMCA or the Chinese Hospital, all in San Francisco Chinatown where he spent his entire life.
There will be a Committal Service at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma following this service. Following the Committal, the family invites you to come to the Memorial Meal at Empero Taste restaurant at 4052 Balboa at 42nd Avenue where they will look forward to meeting you and to continue to share memories of Eugene Ja with you. If you wish to go directly to the restaurant from here, the plan is for the family to arrive at Empero’s Taste by 1:00 PM.
After you have come forward to pay your last respects, upon your exit, you will be given a red envelop with some money in it to symbolize that your life will continue to be happy and prosperous. You will also be given a Madeline cookie to enjoy since Eugene Ja loved sweets and always had sponge cake or pound cake or a Madeline with his afternoon tea. The family wishes to bless you with something sweet to sweeten your life.
Benediction
Beloved, in the midst of sadness, I charge you to rejoice.
Rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God!
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)
May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Committal Service
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. (John 11:25-26)
Do not be afraid: I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead and see, I am alive forever and ever. (Rev. 1:17-18)
And from John, “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)
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, we commend to God’s merciful care our brother, Eugene Wing Ja; and we commit his body to this resting place: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
“Blessed are the dead who…die in the Lord…They will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.” (Revelations 14:13)
Let us pray.
God our Maker, you made our brother, Eugene Ja, in your own image; you set his feet on a sojourner adventure; you watched over him along the way. As you lovingly received and welcomed him to the ranks of the redeemed, we pray that you would continue to guide our sojourner steps so that, at the appointed time, we might join Eugene Ja in the communion of saints—forgiven, transformed, and fit for our new life with the Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.
We’ll only have the immediate family pay their last respects by presenting flowers in the gravesite. After this has been done, the service is concluded and we will gather at the Empero’s Taste Restaurant.
Benediction
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen. Go in peace.