[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 29, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1990-E1991]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE HILLSDALE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF SAN MATEO CELEBRATES ITS FIRST 
                              FIFTY YEARS

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                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 29, 1999

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, in a few days, the Hillsdale United 
Methodist Church of San Mateo, California, will celebrate fifty years 
of ministry to the San Mateo community. I would like to take this 
opportunity to congratulate the Hillsdale United Methodist Church for 
its outstanding record of service to the people of my congressional 
district for the past half century.
  The Hillsdale United Methodist Church's mission is to ``celebrate 
God's gifts as an accepting community, inviting all people to explore 
and live out new beginnings and dimensions in faith.'' The church's 
devotion to this credo of acceptance is clearly demonstrated by its 
welcoming attitude and its numerous and active community outreach 
programs. Some of these many programs include a Tutor Learning Center, 
the sponsorship of Boy Scout Troop and Cub Pack 27, YANSY (Young and 
Not So Young--an adult social group with monthly meetings and 
activities), and Samaritan House, which collects food and monthly 
donations for low-income residents in the area.
  The Hillsdale United Methodist Church has also sponsored two refugee 
families and, as a service to the immigrant community, holds a Tongan 
language service every Sunday afternoon. In fact, five years after 
Hillsdale United Methodist welcomed its first Tongan members in 1966, 
the Tongan Methodist Church began in the United States at the Hillsdale 
United Methodist building. In 1993 the Fale Hufanga United Methodist 
Church began in San Carlos. Hillsdale United Methodist Church's Tongan 
members are still active in this church and recently resumed a Tongan 
language service.
  I would like to invite my colleagues to join me in extending 
congratulations for the manifold achievements of the Hillsdale United 
Methodist Church over the last 50 years. The church's generosity and 
exemplary civic virtues have favorably impacted the lives of 
innumerable people in my congressional district--men and women, 
children and adults, American citizens as well as immigrants and 
refugees. I would like to express my personal gratitude for the 
outstanding work of the church, and I anticipate with great pleasure 
all that the church will accomplish in the new millennium.

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