May our Blessed Mother, Mary Help of Christians, be with you.  Dear Salesian family, greetings from St. Bridget Chinese Catholic Church.  This year St. Bridget is celebrating our pastor Father John Lam’s 80^th birthday.  Fr. John Lam is a faithful apprentice of St. John Bosco, humbly serving God and his charge in all his ministries.  Fr. Lam entered the novitiate in 1960, professed his perpetual vow as a Salesian in 1964 in Hong Kong, and was ordained in 1971 at Oregon.  He taught and served as principal in Hong Kong before transferring to parish ministry as associate pastor in 1990 at Saints Peter & Paul Church in San Francisco.  In 2006 Fr. Lam transferred and became the pastor at St. Bridget Chinese Catholic Church in China Town, Los Angeles.  Fr. Lam follows Don Bosco’s teaching: an important priority in his ministry is serving the youths.  St. Bridget, after 80 years of serving the Chinese community in its current location close to downtown Los Angeles, under Father Lam’s leadership, is in the final planning phase to build a Mary Help of Christians Center on the property to better serve the Catholics and youths in the neighborhood, the San Gabriel Valley communities and throughout Southern California.

St. Bridget had planned to celebrate Fr. John Lam’s 80^th birthday in conjunction with our annual dinner in 2020 in the San Gabriel Hilton.  Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic requires us to transform this event. The event planning committee has come up with safe, alternate activities to celebrate and give thanks to God on August 1, 2020:

1. Thanksgiving Mass at 9:30am, August 1, 2020 at St. Bridget. Limited to 50 participants.  Mass will be streamed online.
2. Drive by birthday greeting at 10:30am-12:00pm, August 1, 2020 at St. Bridget. Must wear facemask and maintain social distancing.
3. Virtual Celebration Gathering from 3:00pm-5:00pm, August 1, 2020. Anyone around the world who wants to congratulate Fr. Lam on his birthday and would like to join, please register at https://forms.gle/H4Q97T3AQ1d8XAgf6
4. Lam is grateful for the support and love from his friends and family throughout the years. In lieu of gifts, he is requesting friends and families to make a donation to the development fund of the Mary Help of Christian Community Center.

Please join us to give thanks to our Lord and pray for Fr. John Lam for his faithful and humble service.