3 10 2002
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)
Good afternoon! My name is Don Ng, the Senior Pastor of the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. On behalf of Norman Ng’s wife, Alice and their children Allyson and Jonathan and on behalf of his son, Clifton and daughter-in-law, Malek, and many loving family members, I welcome you here to celebrate and remember the life of our friend, Norman Ng. Norman was born on December 31, 1938 and completed his life on earth on February 19, 2002. We pray that your presence here today will comfort these loved ones and will bring you and your household blessings and peace.
Let us pray. Almighty God, your home is among mortals—both living and dead. As we come today to entrust our loved one, Norman Ng into your tender care, grant us assurance that all our endings and beginnings are in you. Wipe the tears from our eyes, and fill our hearts with hope, knowing that you are making all things new. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Amen.
Scripture Readings
Psalm 23—The Lord is my Shepherd
Matthew 6: 19-21; 25-34—Don’t Worry, God Provides
Words of Remembrance
1. Clifton Ng, Oldest Son
2. Spauding Taylor, Business Associate
3. Gary Fonzi, Good Friend
4. Francis Lum, Friend
5. David Jung, Fiend
6. Gordon Mo, Brother-in-law, Beatrice’s husband
Message—With Little to Much
At the First Chinese Baptist Church, our Pastor Emeritus, Dr. James Chuck started a project to record the life stories of older members in our church. The purpose of the project is to collect life experiences that reveal both the ordinary events of growing up in Chinatown and seeing how people began expanding their views of the world that led to going beyond these streets of Chinatown and into the world. We are fortunate that Norman Ng’s story is one of 64 in this collection that gives witness to God’s faithfulness in his life. I was glad to learn about Norman Ng’s life from reading his story told to Dr. Chuck.
Growing up on Washington Street across from Portsmouth Square, Norman lived with his four brothers and three sisters in a modest typical Chinatown apartment where hot water for bathing was boiled off the stove. He shared about how they picked straws to see who would bathe first since the same water in the galvanized tub was to wash 8 kids! To keep the water warm, they would move the tub around so the sunlight would hit it. They had very little.
When he was 10, he started shining shoes. He was good at it because he was persuasive in pointing out to customers that shiny shoes make a person important. He shined shoes at the family associations, outside gambling parlors, and on the edge of Chinatown where sailors would come into town for recreation. His shoe shining business endeavors were preparing him for the time when he would own his own business. You see, when we start off with little, we eventually will have much.
According to Norman, he was pretty rowdy growing up. His teachers thought that he was becoming a hoodlum and the one least likely to succeed. He needed strict discipline that he eventually got from St. Mary’s Chinese School. The Chinese YMCA provided him an avenue to get along with people outside his family. He learned how to swim there. Across the street, he attended Sunday school at the Chinese Baptist Church. He spent a couple of summers working at the Baptist camp in the high Sierras and continued to expand the horizon of his world. For Norman, the small world of his family was enlarged by his involvement at the Y, his attendance at the Baptist church, and his befriending Caucasian friends. While the YMCA helped him to develop his recreational and social side of his life, the church gave him focus on his spiritual life.
One of the best known accomplishments in Norman’s life was the business enterprise known as Taylor and Ng. He, his partner Spauding Taylor, and brother Win envisioned a company to harmoniously blend East and West together without ending up with chop suey. The company was the first to bring the wok and cylinder shape coffee mugs into the mainstream of American cooking.
Personally, I feel indebted to Norman Ng because he made the name “Ng” famous and pronounceable. Growing up in Boston and having to always explain how people should pronounce “Ng,” it was gratifying to begin hearing television commercials properly pronouncing my name correctly. For me, he took an obscure name like “Ng” and made it popular and well known.
When Jesus was preaching, great crowds followed him. They wanted to hear more of what he was saying. One time, there were 5000 people and the disciples had no food and no idea on how to feed them. Andrew, one of the disciples discovered that there is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish. When Jesus heard this, he had the 5000 people sit down. When Jesus gave thanks to the bread and the fish, he told the people to eat as much as they wanted until they were satisfied. After they have all eaten, they gathered up all of the leftovers. It filled 12 huge baskets. With so little, Jesus performed a miracle of abundance. Norman Ng’s life was like that. From the meager beginnings of a shoeshine boy, he grew up to become an owner of a well-known company.
Life is like this. We begin with little and we end up with much more. Jesus taught his disciples to trust God with the few things that they already had. And in time according to God’s plans, we may be blessed with much more. Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth and rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt. 6:19-21)
As far back as his shoeshine business days of persuading customers that they needed a shine, Norman was always trying to tell us something. As a “pitcher of pennies,” he became a “pitchman”—a salesman. He wished that the problems that have surrounded the company may one-day be resolved. It is important for those who are still able to make a gracious difference in each other lives do so not just for Norman’s memory but for the sake of reconciliation of everyone today.
When Norman reflected on his life after learning that he had cancer in 1994, he said, “I will not be unhappy for I have experienced eternal life through Jesus Christ. I have had a good life, even though sometimes it has been a struggle.” He selected Psalm 121 that says,
“I will lift my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Jesus told us not to worry. Since he cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the valley, God cares for us much, much more. When we strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all of these basic things in life and much, much more will be given to us too. Our friend, Norman Ng began with so little and he completed his life on earth with so much more—eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Announcements
After you have had an opportunity to pay your last respects, interment will be at Woodlawn Memorial Park. The Committal Service at Woodlawn will conclude our services and our remembrance of our friend, Norman Ng. Again, on behalf of his family, we thank you for your presence and caring support during this time of need and loss.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. We thank you, God, for making us in your image, for instilling in us the need to pray, no matter how dimly felt, and for enabling us to pray, even when we have been estranged from you and unworthy of your attention and love.
We thank you for being a God of great patience and forbearance, welcoming an embarrassed, halting prayer as much as a skilled, trusting one,
We give you thanks for our Lord’s closeness to you, for his teachings on trusting you when we have little like having only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish is enough to feed 5000 people.
We thank you now for all who sincerely and faithfully prayed for Norman Ng, whom you saw fit to call to his eternal home with you, where he is alive forevermore—beyond our prayers, but surrounded by our memories and our love.
Now may 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. In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, we pray. 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.
For God so love the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, we commend to God’s merciful care our brother, Norman Ng; 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.
Let us pray.
God, our Maker: You made our brother, Norman Ng, in your own image; you set his feet on our pilgrim trek; you watched over him along the way. As you lovingly received him and welcomed him to the ranks of the redeemed, we pray that you will continue to guide our pilgrim steps so that, at the appointed time, we might join Norman Ng in the communion of saints—forgiven, transformed, and fit for our new life with the Lord, in whose name we pray.
Now, may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus in the knowledge and love of God, and of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit remain in you always. Amen.
Go in peace.