On March 7, 2009 PaLM honored Lee Hearn for his faithful service to the New York Asian American Community. Here are the introductory remarks made by Howard Chan in that presentation...
One of my favorite movies is "It's A Wonderful Life." One reason I love that movie is because it's a story about an ordinary guy, who lives an ordinary life, only to discover - thanks to an angel - that his life wasn't really that ordinary after all.
The movie is about a family man named George Bailey. Generally, all goes well for George until his absent-minded Uncle Charlie loses a large sum of money from his Savings and Loan business. George frantically searches for the lost money but cannot find it, or replace it, and as a result falls into despair and prepares to take his own life by drowning himself.
But, before George could carry out his intentions, he is saved by Clarence, an angel from heaven. Though saved from drowning, George is still depressed and expresses to Clarence a wish that he had never been born.
Clarence wisely grants George his wish and George is given a great gift...an opportunity to see what the world would be like...if he had not never been born. George soon discovers that the world of Bedford Falls would be very different if he had not been born.
In this world with no George Bailey, a life-long friend who is a pharmacist ends up going to prison and becoming a drunkard because George wasn't there to stop him when he accidentally put poison in a prescription he was filling.
In this world with no George Bailey, George's younger brother, Harry dies in a winter sledding accident because George wasn't there to rescue Harry from the icy waters he fell into.
And in this world with no George Bailey, the town of Bedford Falls turns into a town of disrepute and is renamed Pottersville because George wasn't there to stand up to mean-old Potter and his greedy ways.
In these and in many other ways George discovers that his ordinary life wasn't so ordinary after all. For his life touched and made a difference in the lives of the people of Bedford Falls in ways, and to a degree, that he never realized and understood until now.
This afternoon, I submit to you that there exists another George Bailey; and this "other George Bailey" is not a fictional character. He is, instead, a real human being. And that person that I speak of, of course, is Lee Hearn the man we have come to honor this afternoon for his faithful service to the New York Asian American community.
When we look at Lee, and the service he gave to the NY Asian American community and CEMC-M, we see nothing out of the ordinary. But, the fact of the matter is, the life that Lee lived as a pastor may appear to have been ordinary, but in terms of the impact that he has made on the NY Asian American Christian community and CEMC-M, in particular, is anything but ordinary.
Let me play the role of Clarence the angel, and help you to see three reasons why Lee's service to God was anything but ordinary.....
The first reason why Lee's service to God was anything but ordinary is due to his longevity. Lee began serving CEMC-M in 1962 when the church was simply known as CEM, Chinese Evangel Mission. He started going to CEM in 1962 to teach Sunday School and he continued to do that for three years, until 1965. In 1965, Lee's routine changed because that year he graduated from Nyack. Upon graduating, he moved into CEMC-M and continued to serve there until 2001 when he retired. In other words, Lee served CEMC-M for the entire time he served God as a pastor; and if you include the three years that he taught Sunday School while in seminary, Lee faithfully served God and CEMC-M for some 39 years. Statisticians tell us that a typical pastor stays at a church an average of 3 years before moving on to another church. In Lee's case, he stayed on at CEMC-M 39 years - 13 times longer, 13 times longer than most pastors stay at any one church! Would you say that that was ordinary? Or, extraordinary?
A second reason why Lee's service to God was anything but ordinary is the number of workers he nurtured and sent into God's harvest field. While serving as the English pastor of CEMC-M he inspired, discipled and sent forth ten...ten people into full-time Christian work. These ten people include some of the people who are sitting in this room. They include:
John Eng, current pastor of Chinese Evangel Mission Church, Manhattan
John Ng, seminary professor at ATS and an Associate Director of PaLM
and Lisa Yu, an InterVarsity Christian Staff Worker
In addition to these three we have seven others:
Frank Chan, professor at Nyack College
John Chan, former missionary to Africa
Steve Chin, senior pastor of Boston Chinese Evangelical Church
Dan Ho, serving in a church in Texas
Derrick Jackson, planting a church in New Jersey
Sally Johnson, missionary to Hong Kong
and Bayer Lee, serving a couple of churches in New York Chinatown
Lee nurtured and sent forth each of these men and women. The number ten may not sound like a very big number to some of us.... trust me, it is a big number...it is a very big number. It is a number you would appreciate more when you realize that in far too many churches, this idea of nurturing and sending forth workers into the harvest field is, too often, overlooked. But, that wasn't the case with Lee.
In Lee's service to God, sending forth new workers into the harvest field wasn't an incidental job to done when he felt like it. Instead, for Lee it was a cornerstone of his ministry. And because it played such an important role in his service to God, Lee today, continues to influence a wide-range of people; no longer directly as he once did with these ten people but when he nurtured and helped these men and women to become pastors, missionaries, and professors, he through them has influenced hundreds and thousands of others. Would you say that that was ordinary? Or, extraordinary?
A third, and last reason why Lee's service to God was anything but ordinary is due his character. When people look at Lee, who do they see? That question made me curious. So much so, that I decided to post a survey online to see what people would say when asked, "when you see Lee, what kind of person do you see?" I had hoped a large number of people would take advantage of the opportunity and participate in the survey; but alas, only 30 people took the survey. While the number of participants was not as high as I would have liked, what these 30 people shared about Lee was revealing nevertheless.
Can you guess what was Lee's top quality, or character trait? What do you think?
Let me share with you the TOP FIVE qualities or character traits people see in Lee....
05. Patient, Honest 22/30 (73%)
04. Always available 23/30 (77%)
03. Caring, Servant, Well-liked 24/30 (80%)
02. Easy to talk to 25/30 (83%)
01. Humble 29/30 (97%)
29/30 people see Lee as a humble man. And no doubt, the vast majority of us here this afternoon, including myself, would agree with that assessment.
And that is why I must confess to you now that I am deeply appreciative of Lee's willingness to accept PaLM's invitation to honor him here this afternoon. There is no doubt in my mind that there is no person more deserving of such a recognition than Lee. But, as we all know because Lee is so humble, receiving such a recognition makes him feel extremely uncomfortable. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that Lee would gladly give up drinking his beloved Chinatown coffee for the rest of his life than to be sitting where he is right now...in the spotlight. Is he squirming yet? Thus, despite his intense dislike of being in the spotlight...he agreed to come and be recognized nevertheless. And for that, I thank you Lee.
In my survey I had also asked people to share their special stories about Lee with me. I received nine stories. This afternoon I would like to share one of them with you. The rest you can read for yourselves....I will put a copy of the stories at each table after this presentation.
Of all the stories shared, I believe this one captures the essence of Lee....
I'll never forget how hard and wonderful it was to laugh at what Lee did on the day Johnny Soohoo got married. Lee once again revealed what a self-sacrificing person he is when he willingly gave his white shirt away to a member of the bridal party, who had forgotten to pack it. Many of us had not seen Lee in a while since he retired, and when we saw him, he was only wearing a white tee shirt under his suit jacket.
Pictures were taken of Lee and other wedding guests showing Lee with his "new, more hip and modern" look. Knowing Lee, he must've felt pretty embarrassed, but he did it anyway. Thanks Lee for being such a great example of a self-sacrificing person and for the laughter you bring into our lives.
This is Lee's legacy. He is someone who is willing to literally give you the shirt off of his back. Lee, you are extraordinary human being and an exceptional man of God.
In recognition of your contributions to the New York Asian American community at large, and particularly to CEMC-M, PaLM would like to present to you a special gift...a special made crystal bowl.
As we understand it, you like to have potpourri around your house. We hope that this special bowl that we had made especially for you will help you enjoy your potpourri.
The inscription on the bowl reads....
The PaLM Logo is on top...
Below that is your name...Rev. Alfred Lee Hearn, followed by the inscription....
In Appreciation of Your Faithful Service, Saturday, March 7. 2009
Congratulations Lee!
