Good Deeds Feeding A Farm Town Immigrant Family Opens Restaurant To St. John’s Seniors For A Free Meal

At high noon, Lily Sun is rushing toward her customers before they even get a chance to sit down.

She grips two brown mugs in one hand and a fresh pot of coffee in the other.

“Soup today, bean soup,” the 49-year-old Chinese woman says to a group of customers, offering a smile as she zips around the cafe with a pencil and pad, scribbling down orders for her famous buffalo burgers.

Sun and her husband, John, are the only Asian family in St. John, and they own and operate the only restaurant in town, the St. John Inn and Cafe. Each holiday season, they close their cafe and offer a free Christmas dinner to the town’s senior citizens. It was held Dec. 11 this year.

Thrown by a couple who speak little English but know most of their customers by name, it’s a party that many in the community say is only one example of the selflessness of the Sun family.

“They are probably the most generous people in town,” says Marilyn Webb, who donates sweet rolls to the dinner. About 30 people showed up at the first dinner a decade ago. Now, the Suns serve a holiday crowd twice that size.

“That’s the only free dinner this time of year,” says Larry Dickerson, the town’s mayor. “It’s an appreciation dinner, and a social party.”

The Suns, who live in an apartment above their restaurant, began offering the dinner in 1985 - the same year the family moved to St. John, about 50 miles south of Spokane, and took over business at the inn.

“When I do this, I never thought I’m generous,” says 58-year-old John Sun. “I just believe I have to make some contribution to the community which I love.”

John and Lily Sun, and their two children, Michael, 24, and Carolina, 22, moved to Paraguay, South America, in the late 1970s to escape the political turmoil and crowded streets of China. They eventually immigrated to the United states after John Sun’s sister, who then lived in Cheney, was able to sponsor the family.

John Sun says the family had two concerns before moving to a small town: Could they make a living there, and would they be accepted?

Despite their concerns, many people in the town of 529 became their friends within the first year of their arrival. Locals say they’re the most successful and dependable proprietors of the restaurant.

The cafe opens promptly at 6 a.m. and closes at 7:30 p.m.

Unlike most businesses in town, the inn is open seven days a week. The only day of the year the Suns close is for the Christmas dinner.

And unlike most immigrants who tend to magnetize toward larger cities, the Suns prefer the slower-paced life in small towns. Their “American dream” is a simple one: raising a family and growing old in a good community, John Sun says.

“Most important for us,” he says, “is good quality of human beings.”

Spend an afternoon tooling around town, and it’s clear why the Suns want to stay.

In St. John, rush hour consists of about 20 people converging at the cafe and a few John Deeres groaning by on Main Street. Here, newcomers are given a gas card they can use at the local grocery store, the flower shop, even at the restaurant as an IOU, to be paid back at the end of the month.

John and Lily Sun use the honor system at their cafe. They leave fresh pots of coffee at the front counter where customers can serve themselves, tossing the right amount of change in the coffee fund container.

“It’s like a family,” says Carrie Gossard, who is one of three part-time waitresses at the cafe. “If anyone needs help, everyone is right there.” Especially the Suns.

Take, for example, the time when Gossard needed to go to South Dakota to resolve some family issues. She asked John and Lily to cut her a paycheck for the hours she had worked that month. Instead, John Sun pressed an envelope into her hand with $500 in cash inside.

“He said if I needed more when I got there, just call,” Gossard says.

But John Sun says his family’s good deeds are only a small way of reciprocating the kindness of others in the community.

In 1990, when John and Lily Sun passed their examinations to become naturalized citizens, almost the whole town showed up for a surprise party. Friends gave them an American flag, and John Sun, filled with emotion, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“I need this community, so I have to devote myself to serve the community,” John Sun says. “So I let the community feel they also need me.”

Folks in town say the family’s generosity goes beyond the Christmas dinner. It also has given the community a taste of Chinese culture.

Although they serve mostly American fare, the Suns also have a dinner menu where people can get chicken stirfry and fried rice, among other Chinese foods.

“They’re just a real giving people,” says May Ensign, who partakes in the Christmas dinner each year. “They put their hearts into it, and that’s the way they do everything.”

But the Suns say they are only giving back to the community what the town has given them: a sense of home.

“If you want people to love you, you must love them first,” John Sun says.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)