Today my membership from Sunset Ministry to First Chinese Baptist Church of SF was approved in the membership meeting. I was a little surprised to learn that I would need to attend classes for this transfer but, in retrospect, I enjoyed it a lot while learning a few things too! In addition to the class, I and others who are getting baptized or transferring membership have to share testimonies at today’s membership meeting. Because I know I tend to lose things, I thought I’d put my testimony into this blog for safekeeping. Here goes….
Hi, I’m Karen and I first started coming to church with my Uncle Charcoal when I was in Jr High. He invited me to Youth Camp, so I thought I should go to church to meet some of the other kids before being thrown into a camp with them for a week. It was there that I met Becky Chuck Lessler who was my first Sunday School Teacher. Like most teens, I had a blast at camp, made lifelong friends and kept riding in from Richmond/El Cerrito with my Uncle Charcoal, Auntie Marjorie, Julie and Jerald every Sunday.
I got baptized when I was in high school in 1979 by James Chuck who married my parents, and later my husband and me in 1987. At CBC, I sang in the Youth and Adult Choirs, served as counselor and staff at Youth Camp, performed in fundraising plays for Youth Camp scholarships, and helped out in the Elementary Sunday School Classes. Both of my daughters Lindsay and Courtney were also dedicated and baptized at CBC.
When Sunset Ministry was formed, I was part of the core group that went over with Pastor Larry Jay. Even though I lived in Fairfield, it was still convenient to go to Sunset because my mother-in-law Lotus lived a few blocks away (2 houses from James and Marie Chuck), and we’d hang out with her after church for Sunday family dinners with my in-laws. After my mother-in-law died, we decided not to make the drive out to Sunset anymore and I later found a local church in Fairfield where I’d been pretty active with until COVID.
Since COVID, I started attending zoom CBC services, the Gathering Sunday School Classes and Bible Study with Joy and Becky… in addition to the screening of Chinese Couplets, Harvest Festival and Prayer Walk at Bayview/Hunter’s Point. Pastors Sebastian and Chris O give messages that really resonate with me. They are able to speak to us about Black Lives Matter, Stop AAPI Hate and the Insurrection through a Christian lens… and always drive home the importance of loving God and loving our neighbors even when we don’t agree. I’ve been feeling called back to CBC, to continue growing my faith and serving the Chinatown community and CBC family. I probably am related by blood or marriage to a bunch of members, and that’s why things feel familiar for me. At the same time, Pastor Sebastian is a new pastor to me and I do see a lot of newer, younger folks like Anni, and it’s exciting and rejuvenating for me. For my faith journey, “everything old is new again.”
