Saint Ronny
Wherever you drive around in Catholic Massachusetts, you can’t miss a Saint Someone in the town center. There is no better time but tonight to recognize that we American Baptists have our own saint—“Saint Ronny!” Now knowing Ronny, she would blush at such a thought. But that is one of the reasons why bestowing “sainthood” on her is that much more appropriate!
Saint Ronny does things that people don’t normally do. She collects and is given more happy faces and owls that can fill a section of the Museum of Fine Arts. While normal people are rushing to get someplace as soon as possible, Saint Ronny takes Amtrak everywhere and drives her cars way beyond factory-warranted policies. When most people are buying a new season of fashionable clothes, Saint Ronny wears her simply made flowing dresses. When most people are taking some ecclesiastical controversy way too seriously, Saint Ronny is wise and knows things like love and respect that others may have forgotten and are busy knitting her Christmas gifts for this year. She knows that Christ brings peace.
When I first knew Saint Ronny, our BYF from FBC, Boston volunteered at the TABCOM office on Tremont Street stuffing a monthly mailing. Since then, Saint Ronny has become an integral part of my life. She gave the grace at our wedding reception in New York City in 1972. She participated in my ordination in 1975. And she has witnessed the baby parties of 3 of our grandchildren.
One of the funniest memories of Saint Ronny is when I was still a seminarian at Andover Newton. Ronny has introduced to us this couple from California whose husband was studying at Tufts Dental School. My wife Joy and I immediately became good friends with Lou and Liz. Liz was a child whom Ronny knew when she was an ABC home missionary to Locke, California. One night Ronny calls us when we were already asleep and told us that she has been trying to call Lou and Liz but was unsuccessful. We tried as well but couldn’t get through. We thought of the worse. So in the middle of the night, Saint Ronny drives to the seminary and the three of us went into Boston to check up on our friends. We were afraid to go alone! We woke them up and discovered that their phone was just off the base. When one is a saint like Saint Ronny, she is able to get you to do almost anything! We still have a good laugh about this incident of caring for one another.
The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:11-12 that Christ gave out gifts “that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Saint Ronny in her conviction to Christian education has helped many including me to answer that call to ministry. In her many bus trips to national youth gatherings, Christian education conferences, and missions conferences, she has introduced countless men and women to Christian vocations to become saintly like herself. I am thankful to God to have become one of her life-long ministry results!
Almost everyone calls me “Don,” but Saint Ronny still calls me “Donald,” my childhood name. She is probably reminding me when I like many of you receive your hand-written birthday greeting and a new $1 bill that God is still not finished with me yet and that I am still maturing “to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” (Eph. 4:13) I need to take each day as a blessing from God because Saint Ronny said so. I still need to “Be of Good Cheer” because Saint Ronny knows the world so badly needs peace and good will.
Happy 90th Birthday Saint Ronny! Thank God for blessing us American Baptists with a saint!
Rev. Donald Ng
First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco