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SERVING GOD AND ENJOYING HIS GIFTS –

AN ALBUM OF CHILDHOOD LESSONS

Samuel Ling

A SIMPLE, GOOD LIFE

I am extremely privileged to be in the fourth generation of full time Christian workers in my family. My father, the late Rev. John Ling, and my mother, Dr. Mary Ling (now living in Pennsauken, New Jersey), were teachers at Bethel Bible Seminary in Hong Kong (Dad: 1948-57, 1959-64; Mom: 1950-65). Located at 45-47 Grampian Road, Kowloon City, Bethel’s campus was surrounded by four walls. The front entrance was locked every evening at 10:30. At that time, the watchdogs (German shepherds) would be released from the kennel, and would not be returned until 6 in the morning. It was a safe, secluded corner of Hong Kong!

We lived a simple, happy life during the first fourteen years of my life. Outside the school (particularly the back wall on Inverness Road), refugees who fled the Communist revolution (1949) built their lean-to shacks against the wall. Not far away, the first stages of government housing (Lok Fu resettlement estates) went up in the late 1950s to house these refugees. We were keenly aware that we were the privileged who had a haven and a shelter!

My brother Moses and I learned many things from my parents. As my 50th birthday approaches in 2001, I want to share some of the lessons learned during the first fourteen years of my life, particularly with men and women who grew up in a generation very different from mine. For my childhood world was filled with simplicity, honesty, godliness and sacrificial service: but it was not devoid of wisdom, common sense, multicultural orientation, the humanities and an appreciation of all of God’s good gifts. I want to share some of these nuggets of wisdom. May the leaders of the 21st century “get wisdom” as the first priority in life.

“When I was my father’s son,

Tender and the only one in the sight of my mother,

He also taught me, and said to me:

‘Let your heart retain my words;

Keep my commands, and live.

Get wisdom! Get understanding!

Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you;

Love her, and she will keep you.

Wisdom is the principal thing;

Therefore get wisdom.

And in all your getting, get understanding.” (Proverbs 4:3-7)

SEEKING THE LORD’S LEADING:

PRAYER WORKS

My father moved from Zhejiang province, China to Hong Kong in 1948 to teach at Bethel. My mother was then invited by Bethel’s principal, Dr. Alice Lan, to go to Hong Kong as well. My mother knew about my fahter. She sought the Lord’s will while pondering about her future in the fall of 1949: she prayed that, if she received a letter from Hong Kong by December 31, 1949, she would know that that is where the Lord wanted her to go.

New Years’ Eve 1949 went by. During the first few days of January 1950, she received a letter from my father – postmarked December 31, 1949. By Chinese New Year’s Eve, my mother arrived in Kowloon’s railway station. My father invited her to dinner that evening.

The following is the sanitized version of their romance as we children heard it: Dad took mom out to dinner. He said, “My father is a minister.” She said, “My father is an engineer.” They ate, and went back to the seminary. Four days later they were engaged. The principal and the dean (Miss Vera Shen) thought that (this was 1950) it was unseemly for seminary teachers to engage in a romantic relationship. Thus they should get married soon. They did, right after the semester was over – on July 19, 1950.

While many Christians today would not seek the Lord’s guidance through signs (such as a postmark), many godly believers were sure of their decisions and the steps of their lives, becauses they earnestly sought the leading of the Lord. We were instructed by many Sunday School teachers and youth counselors, through my childhood years, to trust in the Lord and seek His will for all our decisions. Prayer works!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

HYGIENE, SEX AND HEALTH:

THE BODY IS IMPORTANT

Bethel’s students nicknamed my father “King of hygiene” (wei sheng da wang). While I played, as a toddler, in my playpen while the seminary community walked by in the courtyard, my father explicitly prohibited his colleagues and students to kiss me! (My wife often wonders, in light of the above, why I have such rough skin later in life!)

When I was old enough to go to school by myself, and given some pocket money, my brother Moses and I were instructed that we could only buy ice cream from The Dairy Farm and On Lok Yuen (i.e., all other brands were not clean enough!). Everyone had two pairs of chopsticks at the dinner table; one for personal use, one to pick up food from the middle of the table.

Not only was hygiene emphasized in the home; healthy living was taught by Dad and Mom. Fifty years ago, it was quite a revolution that they took the men and the women students aside (separately) and taught them physiology and the facts of life. I am sure that those sessions were appreciated! Even today, as Generation X and Generation Y are bombarded by sensual stimuli in the media, healthy, biblical teaching about the human body, dating and relationships is still sorely missing in many church circles. With the sexual revolution of the 1960s behind us, we have less, not more, healthy, biblical and true information about God’s creation of the human body and his design for us as men and women.

I am grateful that my parents were ahead of their time. By the time I was eleven, my father had taken my brother and me aside and told us, in the coming years, what physical changes would happen to our bodies.

The body is not dirty; God created it; if we misuse it, however, it is sin. We need to teach our children this – ahead of time.

“Flee sexual immorality.

Every sin that a man does is outside the body,

but he who commits sexual immorality

sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is

the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,

whom you have from God,

and you are not your own?

For you were bought at a price;

therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,

which are God’s” (I Corinthians 6:18-20).

GOOD FOOD:

A BROAD INTEREST IN LIFE

My parents lived on a very modest budget. Teaching made no one rich in those days, but we had free housing. My father would put his money into various envelopes. There was, of course, an envelope for grocery money. But there is an extra envelope – about HK $30—for fruit. There were countless comments made that, fruit is good for you. Often we would take evening walks into Kowloon City just to buy apples and oranges. The importance of a balanced diet was engrained into our minds very early!

My father was a native of Ningpo, Zhejiang province. He would make bean sauce (dou shi) on the roof top, and rice wine (jiu niang) at home. He had some very unconventional tastes for meals: sometimes we would come home for lunch, and instead of meat, vegetables and tofu, lunch would consist of sticky rice (no mi) with either red bean paste, or black sesame paste. My mother was not crazy about this sweet, one-course lunch, but my father pointed out that sticky rice is good for us. A lunch consisting only of one sweet item – but nutritious! My parents would also make “man tou” (steamed bread) and many other goodies.

Later when we came to the United States, I watched my father buy his juice machine, yogurt machine, sprouts maker, and plant a full vegetable garden. He subscribed to Prevention magazine. The point I want to make is not only that he was health conscious. He had an interest in his Father’s world! Bethel Seminary was a very strict, conservative place: we did not smoke, drink, play poker or mahjong, go to the movies, gamble or dance. But this did not mean that life was monotonous! My parents loved life, and food was one way this was shown.

Our heavenly Father created a wonderful world for us to enjoy. So let us receive good gifts with thankfulness!

“Here is what I have seen:

It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink,

and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils

under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him;

for it is his heritage” (Ecclesiastes 5:18).

COMMUNITY:

BE THOUGHTFUL OF OTHERS

Bethel was a small community with two single ladies at the helm: Dr. Alice Lan and Miss Vera Shen. There was the elderly pastor (Rev. Frank Ling), who preached with John Sung and others in the Bethel Evangelistic Band in the 1930s. Then there were about a dozen families who lived in seminary housing, like ours. We rubbed shoulders with each other on a daily basis. I can remember my mother, from time to time, taking dishes of food to Po-po Xiao Zhang (Grandma Principal) and Po-po Shen (Miss Vera, the dean). Many outside visitors would call on us, including leading pastors and Bible preachers such as Rev. Timothy Dzao and his family, Dr. and Mrs. John Pao, Dr. S. Y. King and others. Parents of the students, of course, would come and show appreciation or seek counsel. They all, in good Chinese form, brought candy or cookies.

There was a lot of give and take, and gifts lubricated relationships very effectively!

One day, my parents attended a “community affairs meeting.” The entire campus had only one telephone, and it was situated in the office, quite a walk from the apartments where we lived. The school decided to install intercom telephone sets, so that teachers and their families could be promptly summoned, should they receive an outside call.

Three intercoms were to be installed in an apartment building of 12 units. Whose apartments would they go to? Miss Lien, a senior single woman who taught music, lived with her elderly mother in Apartment 202. They had the least need for an intercom, for they hardly received any outside calls. But Miss Lien volunteered to have one of the three intercoms installed in her apartment.

My father came home from that meeting, and told us of Miss Lien’s noble example. We should learn to care for other people’s needs, not just our own. That little instruction that evening is still remembered by me today.

Another example of how we should be thoughtful of others, is how the radio should be played. (A radio in those days took about 2-3 minutes to warm up!) My father said that we should turn the radio to a volume level, so that someone in the next room could not hear it! This is probably unheard of today – but my father played his music very softly.

Community is built as we think of others.

“Let each of you look out not only for his own interests,

but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4, NKJV).

GETTING WISDOM:

A BROAD-BASED EDUCATION IN THE HUMANITIES

Bethel ran a Bible seminary, a high school on campus, and several elementary schools. It would be very easy for me and my brother Moses to enroll in these schools, saving my parents a great deal of expense. But my parents would not have anything of it. Dad said, it would be embarrassing, if we misbehaved or did not do well in school, for Uncles and Aunts (i..e, his colleagues) to point these things out to him. (Later in life, I discovered that church members also would hesitate to tell the pastor if his children were not up to par in conduct!) Thus, I never attended Bethel for one day.

I started kindergarten in Kang Le kindergarten, right next door to Bethel, before I was three. Then I transferred to Grampian kindergarten, at the southern end of our block, and went through the entire two-year curriculum. I can remember very little from those years, except that teachers (all women) were patient and kind, wore Chinese cheong-sam gowns, and that we sang songs during class, and played games in the little playground during recess. Soon it was time to go home for lunch, the end of the kindergarten day. As I took the short walk to and from kindergarten (with our maid accompanying), I would pass by a Buddhist elementary school, a three story apartment building for western Air Force officers, and other quiet apartment buildings (including one in which Dr. Peter Chow, now at China Evangelical Seminary, grew up – No. 31). Grampian Road was shady and quiet, and my early memories of it were pleasant and sweet.

My parents sent me to Pui To, a Baptist primary school at No. 37 Grampian Road. I remember receiving an excellent education in the English language, particularly from a Miss Choy, who taught us conversation (grade 3) and the parts speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) for grade 6. As we recited “I am running,” we were to actually get up and run in our places. One day no one wanted to act out “I am lying” (on the floor!). In retrospect, it was such an advantage to attend a Chinese-language elementary school in which there were excellent English teachers!

I had very little exposure to the outside world. I did not understand, in Grade 5, why some of my fellow students (boys) would read the newspaper, and would be able to respond intelligently to questions on current affairs from Miss Chu (the late Mrs. Kapok Lee; Mr. Lee lives in Bayside, New York today). One day I walked with my father past the Kowloon Post Office on Salisbury Road (on the same site today stands the Hong Kong Space Museum), and I asked, “What is Russia?” My father immediately responded, “Shush! That’s the enemy!” Where did my interest in history and culture come from? That’s much later in life!

In grade 6 we all had to take the Secondary School Entrance Examinations, and to declare our preferred choices for secondary schools. With my parents’ input, I put down Queen Elizabeth School, the best (British) government school on the Kowloon side of the colony, as my first choice. The second choice went to Diocesan Boys’ School, an Anglican institution built on a hill, secluded from the noisy traffic of Kowloon. (My father was an Anglican minister’s son; my grandfather’s mother was an Anglican Bible woman.) They were both very fine schools. When the results were released late in spring 1962, I got into my first choice, QES.