Note: I found this article the other day, originally published in 2004, in the Asian American Reporter, a local Little Rock publication. The issue featured a front page story on my family history similar to the "The Family History," which I chronicled and posted here in July 2008. I followed up the front page story with this guest editorial. I thought it was appropriate as we head into Father's Day weekend. The family tree is provided. I'm highlighted by the circle five generations from the top (click to enlarge).---
Leg•a•cy, {lehg e see} n.; 1. Something immaterial, as a style or philosophy, that is passed from one generation to another.
Hopefully, you have enjoyed reading about a part of my legacy as it has been traced from generations back to the present day. I stand amazed at the significance of it all as the tapestry of events surrounding generation after generation is weaved over 150 years, six generations and two continents. It is indeed a wonderful masterpiece of which I am thankful to be a part.
There were so many pioneers in my lineage and many stories that need to be retold. Two of my great, great grandfathers on my mother’s side, Senn Wai Tong and Lee Wuen Juen, were some of the first converts to Christianity in rural China in the 1850’s. My great grandfather, Lee Tsai Leong, was one of the first Chinese church planters in the Bay Area in the late 1800’s, planting the Chinese Independent Baptist Churches of San Francisco and Oakland (both are still in existence today!).
My grandfather, Holt A. Cheng, was the first Chinese doctor licensed in the state of California in 1904. He later returned to China to found the first medical school that practiced western medicine, was administered and taught by an all Chinese faculty, and was the first to admit women. Each was a tremendous trailblazer and possessed great depth of faith in God even in the face of significant racism that existed in early 1900 America. Asian children were banned from attending white schools, and Asians were not even able to own land in California. Somehow, in the midst of such opposition, my forefathers were able to break the dividing walls that others had not been willing or able to conquer.
Each understood the value of giving up what seemed like a great amount for the greater good. Lee Tsai Leong gave up a medical practice in China to become a pastor in California. Holt Cheng never took a single penny of compensation for serving as the Guang Hua Medical School’s dean for over 20 years! They each counted the cost and discovered a cause that was greater than their own desire for material possessions, prestige or position, and even the need for security.
A famous Christian missionary once penned, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” As a pastor and a minister of the gospel of Christ, I fully believe that is a trustworthy statement. The pioneers before me denied themselves many things but discovered the importance of that which is eternal and lives from generation to generation.
Now it’s my turn, taking what was handed down and building on the precious gift that was given to me. I marvel at the orchestration of it all. How is it that such a legacy was left for me? Even more importantly, what will I pass down to the next generation or even the next? What will be said of me 150 years from now?
It puzzles a lot of people, Asians in particular, that I was willing to leave a comfortable and respected position as a university professor in a high demand field to become a pastor of the Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, a church committed to ministering to all people in the heart of the deep South; a church committed to breaking dividing walls. Hopefully, as you read about those who preceded me, not only will you only understand why I chose to become a pastor here in Little Rock, but you’ll be convinced of the responsibility we all have to affect and influence those who follow.
My hope is that my children’s children will have plenty of stories to tell about their grandfather.
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