Remembering Rev. Wesley Chang

I think I was the first one who got the news that Rev. Wesley Chang passed away last January 1.  I immediately SMS the pastoral team and hurried to the hospital to assist his remains.  It was swift.  He was still alive and kicking that week.  If was only December 31, I heard that he was hospitalized because of pneumonia and afterwards he passed away.  He died at the age of 95.

When I arrived in the hospital, other pastors and church leaders have already arrived as well to help.  I was tasked to go home to look for a nice picture of him since I have been archiving photos of our church since 2003.  On my way home, immediately what struck my mind was, who will write the obituary in the Chinese Newspaper?  For years, he was the one who write those for our church members until his 90s.  Indeed, he served the Lord until he breathe his last.

I have good memories with him as a young pastor.  So many things I can learn from him.  During my first year serving in church, I asked him, his secret for having long life.  I can still remember he told me that he eats hardboiled egg every morning.  He said, that was his secret.  He is also a person who like vinegar.  Actually in Chinese it is the same as "selos."  I can remember, every time we go to banquets, after the banquet he will ask the waiter for black vinegar.  He will took a Chinese spoon and fill it up with vinegar and then drink it.  He said, this is good for digestion, and cleanse the too many oil we ate from the food.

Another memorable experience when we went to a funeral.  I accompanied him, this happen around 5 years ago, he was the speaker and he asked me to translate on the spot.  I do not know how to translate but I have to since he  preaches in Chinese and most of the bereaved family were English speaking.  The whole necrological service became a comedy because of my translation.... that was frustrating for me.

He was the keeper of records in our church until he turned over the master list to me and Pastor Cathy to continue his work last 2003.  I believe without his diligence and faithfulness on our church records, we have lost so many data about our church members.

As a young pastor, I learned so many things from him though he was already retired.

First he is a man of prayer.  He attends all prayer meetings and has been leading one of our prayer meetings until 2007.  He stopped because he lost the sight of his left eye when he bend down to pick up something after his eye operation.  This frustrates him, and has made his health deteriorate.

Second, he is a man of visitation.  He continues to visit church members until last week before he passed away.  In my early years serving as a pastor in our church, I would go with him to visit some church members.  I can still remember that he does not know any English, Tagalog or even street names.  But he know how to go to those houses as far as the deeps of Caloocan City and San Juan, Quezon City.  He would just tell the drive to turn left or right.  He never new the number nor the street of the house we were visiting; he only knows how to go there.  During visitation, it is simple.  He would say a few Bible verses to encourage the family and he would pray for them.  What is amazing was that he will mention every single name of the family from the grandparents down to the great grandchildren.  He knows each one of them by name and amazingly he even know every prayer concerns of each individual.  Amazing pastor.  I can't even memorize the names of our young people.  I am very poor in memory.

Third, he is a humble man.  He is already retired but he continues to send money to the ministry of his hometown in China.  In order to save money, he will not use air-con though it is very hot.  He would go up every night in the church top floor to sleep there because it is colder up there.  You will not hear any complain or request.

There are so many important moment that I have learned from him.  A young pastor like me surely has so many things to learn from his modeling.  I am just glad that he was still alive during our 80th Anniversary celebration and during our ordination.  This was really a very significant event for me.  I was so blessed when his remains was brought in the church, Rev. Wesley Shao, his co-worker also age 94 in a wheelchair, came in and stood just to see his remains.  And the most touching part when two group pictures was flashed.  During our 80th Anniversary the whole church leaders from several generation came together for a group picture, and when the members of the pastoral team also from different generation gathered to take a historic picture together.  Truely, that is already historic in his passing away.

His life is worthy to be emulated especially by younger pastors.  Praise God indeed for he was indeed faithful until the end serving Jesus.  To God be All the Glory!!!