The view from my home office is the San Francisco Bay just north of Golden Gate Bridge. On my left is Mt. Tamalpais, the highest peak closest to San Francisco and on the right is Angel Island where many Chinese stayed while their immigration papers were being processed before World War II. I see many sail boats, yachts, kayakers that look like dolphins from where I sit. During the winter months, we can hear the barking of sea lions travel up the side of the hill where our house is situated.
After completing over 20 years with American Baptist Educational Ministries, I returned to the local church in 1998. Some have wondered whether or not there’s life after denominational ministry and the answer to that is “Yes!” But that’s for another article. The challenge for my wife, Joy and me to accept the call to serve as the Senior Pastor of First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco was not as much as doing local church ministry as it was to find suitable housing in the most expensive housing market in the country.
Our housing situation was nothing short of a miracle! For our initial move, a church member with apartment rentals had a vacancy. They installed new carpet and upgraded the kitchen to welcome us! We moved right into SF’s Richmond District where I took the public bus to work. But the most amazing miracle was still to come.
After graduating from seminary at Andover Newton in Boston, my first call to ministry was at First Chinese Baptist Church as the Minister of Christian Education in 1975. When we lived in Daly City, my parents-in-law would come to visit. My father-in-law fell in love with the area since he lived in New York City at the time. As he was planning for retirement, he bought a two-unit house in Sausalito in Marin County. As the result of a number of events, the Sausalito house became a rental income property until my mother-in-law agreed that we can invest in the house to renovate and live in it in 1998.
The miracle is that we now live in a contemporary home with a million dollar view of the bay! My commute is only 9 miles across the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the wonders in the world to the front door of the church. Some have said, “When there’s a will, there’s a way.” I would say, “When its God’s will, there’s always a way.” No one would think that what happened 25 years ago in 1975 was actually preparing us to return to the Bay Area to be able to live in a beautiful place like Sausalito. No one would say that I would return to serve as the Senior Pastor of this historic church after I first served as its Minister of Christian Education. While we might have a short view of life, God has a long-view and we realized that we are blessed with God’s gracious plan.
We came to San Francisco in faith that God will take care of us. As ministers, some of us have parsonages to live in. Others are able to come up with a down payment for a home and receive the benefits of a housing allowance in our federal taxes. These are all helpful benefits that make it possible for many pastors with modest or low salaries to serve. But when Jesus sent out the disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal, he told them to “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there.” (Luke 9:3-4) I fully know that we need some resources and comforts to serve but when we can trust in God’s promise to provide, I can testify that God does!
If you are in San Francisco, you are welcome to visit us and to hear the sea lions barking.
Don Ng is the Senior Pastor of the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco since 1998. He can be reached at: revdonng@fcbc-sf.org.