Today marks the last service being held at the Mandarin Baptist Church of Pasadena. The church will be moving to a new location and even update their name along with it (finally noting that they're in Arcadia, not Pasadena). And while I am glad for the growth and opportunities that the church will undergo, there will be a lot of sadness in seeing a yet another personal landmark disappear.
MBCP is our family's home church. It is the church that my parents (and us kids) settled into. And we have extended family that attend there as well. To my recollection, we started attending around 1993, when I was in junior high. That would place Rayson in elementary school.
Throughout the years, we participated in Sunday school, Friday evenings for youth group and college group, and extra curriculars activities for some fun. In my brother's case, he honed his guitar playing skills, as well as played ping pong tournaments with my Dad, the church basketball league, and the yearly Thanksgiving turkey bowl. For a while, he played tennis with church friends. Then there were the late nights playing board games (Acquire anyone?) and Texas hold'em with the young adults. In one of the college group's girls' appreciation night, he did a performance of Gollum's Fish Song from Lord of the Rings.
MBCP is our family's home church. It is the church that my parents (and us kids) settled into. And we have extended family that attend there as well. To my recollection, we started attending around 1993, when I was in junior high. That would place Rayson in elementary school.
Throughout the years, we participated in Sunday school, Friday evenings for youth group and college group, and extra curriculars activities for some fun. In my brother's case, he honed his guitar playing skills, as well as played ping pong tournaments with my Dad, the church basketball league, and the yearly Thanksgiving turkey bowl. For a while, he played tennis with church friends. Then there were the late nights playing board games (Acquire anyone?) and Texas hold'em with the young adults. In one of the college group's girls' appreciation night, he did a performance of Gollum's Fish Song from Lord of the Rings.
Despite all the activities involved, Rayson had been hesitant in getting baptized there for years. His explanation was the hypocrisy he saw in the actions in members of the church. Whether there was anything more to that story, I do not know. So when I left in search for a new church in 2006, he would stop attending our home church. He would focus on his art portfolio. And occasionally he would come with me to seek new churches.
When the cancer struck, there was a time where we feared taking him outside the home. It was very isolating for the first few months. Eventually I was convinced to start taking him with me to church again. And eventually we went as a whole family back to our home church.
When everything taken away from you, that's when faith and hope is needed the most. When the opportunity came to become baptized, he became open to the idea. And so on December 16, 2012, he was baptized as an official member of the church.
When the cancer struck, there was a time where we feared taking him outside the home. It was very isolating for the first few months. Eventually I was convinced to start taking him with me to church again. And eventually we went as a whole family back to our home church.
When everything taken away from you, that's when faith and hope is needed the most. When the opportunity came to become baptized, he became open to the idea. And so on December 16, 2012, he was baptized as an official member of the church.
by Patrick Pu, brother | Illustration by Patrick Pu Photo taken on December 16, 2012 |