The international travels have slowed down family and friends quality time, we have not been able to see each other for a while now and my most recent encounter with the Hungs brought me back to June / November 2019. It felt like a decade, time and space seemed to have shifted so much that I can't recall specifics anymore. To be honest, I tried really hard to dig into my memory and all I could get out of myself were a handful of blurry memories and lunches, convoluted flashbacks, pieces of conversation. I was disappointed and blamed my failing brain for not having any worthy anecdotes to share. Tales that would make us all smile and laugh, I had nothing.

So I shifted gears and instead of trying to remember actual slices of life I had shared with Pastor John, I pondered for a few days on how I could put into words how I remember Pastor John. 

The first thing that came to me very quickly, was to remember Pastor John as a father. 
His commitment to his calling as a missionary and dedication to minister towards the Chinese immigrant population in the East suburbs of Paris had brought him to Noisy le Grand (of all cities in France!) 30 some years ago with his family of 4. Back then, I was a child myself, couldn't care less about the adults so naturally I gravitated towards his children first. Little did I know that we would develop a lifelong friendship with Charis and Matthew. 
I remember Pastor John as my friend's father, I would join them on family outings, he would chauffeur us around to the movie theater or to the swimming pool. He would be welcoming me at the door when I would come over to their house for playdates. He would man mini olympic stations at one of Charis' birthday. I was once at the bowling alley with him and the young people of our church and he dominated, somehow I was surprised about it but it just showed me that he was just a guy having fun. 
He was always kind and patient, cracking dad's jokes whenever he could that made us roll our eyes. 

The second thing I remember of Pastor John was that he was a husband.
As a youth and primary French speaker, I got to be discipled by Patty who oversaw the French speaking congregation. Pastor John would focus his time and energy on the Chinese speaking congregation. Looking back, I always enjoyed them ministering in tandem throughout the years. Tandem is the right word to describe them as a couple, going the same direction, outputting efforts to move forward, in their own styles and sometimes one harder than the other one but together with the same rhythm. 
You learn to know someone through the lenses of their spouse, the way their spouse sees them, talks about them, shares their same thoughts, describes their interests and likes. So a lot of how I remember Pastor John is through how Patty loved him as a husband, how they walked alongside each other and supported each other. One framed picture I would vividly remember that sat on display in their homes, was one of young Patty and John kneeling down receiving what looks like a commissioning prayer. It has always struck me how they both were in it together in the same posture of obedience, that they both committed to serve as one unit. It's a beautiful picture that is so attractive to me even more so now that I am myself married.

Lastly I remember Pastor John as my Pastor. It is an obvious one but it only became more evident during my adult life. As I moved away from France, our meetups were a rarity, time was always limited but John and Patty always made the time to pursue us whenever we were back home in France or when they were in HK. I recall clearly once when he came to visit his mother in Hong Kong and we got to have coffee with him and Patty. It was about 6-7 years ago, Ricky and I started to work full time for our church. After the usual checks on how everybody was doing and learning about our new roles in ministry, he asked "Do you sleep well at night?", we said "yes!" and he replied "Good". I distinctly remember that moment because I felt it was quite odd yet it was one of the intentional questions he asked us. What did our sleep have anything to do with ministry? I can only appreciate the depth and weight of his question now with more perspective and years of experience. How caring and loving he was for checking how it was impacting us personally.  How wise he was for accepting our enthusiasm for an answer and for not pushing further, letting us ride on the prospect of our exciting journey. This was the good shepherd that he was.


Reading that he had the desire to write his life story has challenged me to think of my own story. Have I let God write my story or have I just been strolling away, have I used my life in a way that impacts the Kingdom... I guess those are thoughts for me to wrestle with personally. 
But I'm certain that Pastor John's life story had shaped the trajectory of my life and I would be forever grateful for how God had used him and his family to change mine forever.

Sending my love and thoughts to Patty, Charis and Matthew and his family.
Nina