Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Sunday (10/4)
This morning I went to the Christ Church of Shamian Island. Obviously, the church is not one of these home churches you hear so much about and actually is located right next door to a a police substation. They had a Mandarin/English service at 11:00 AM. Trent was not feeling well so Tamra, the boys and Elsie stayed at the hotel. I was quite amazed, and perhaps so were the other attendees, for I was the only non-Chinese. It was the first time for me that a Chinese person wanted to get my picture (It happens to the boys frequently). So there I stood at the entrance to the church with some guy I never met posing for a picture. Soon after I sat down, the women I met early in the week sat down by me. I really enjoyed the service, although you could say that half was all Chinese to me. The service started with a chorus in English, then the music leaders would switched to a different song in mandarin. One thing caught my attention very quickly, the English song was not necessary a upbeat praise chorus song like you would in hear in the states. It was more a cry from the heart of someone in despair, kind of like a psalm of David. I have since tried to google some of the song lyrics, but have been unable to find them. The song included phrases like, "how do you go to a land that has no hope" and "people that are in a place with so much pain". I think that everyone there knew exactly what that song means. For in being there, they must have been rejected by their own family, forsaking the traditions of Buddhism. The message by the pastor was on the difference of justification and sanctification and it was handled quite well.
The pastor would speak in mandarin then an interpreter would translate into English. Only the prayers would not be translated. They had responsive reading from the Bible and when the congregation spoke in Mandarin every syllable was in unison, like the soldiers marching in step in the parade days before. When they spoke in English I cringed, for it was sloppy and jumbled. It was kind of neat, because I think believers may come to the combined service just to better understand the English language. Many people do not have the access to higher education, so the combination of Mandarin and English may help them. The sermon included several references to the old and new testament, and it was very encourage to see the young and the old flip through the Bibles. Some had Chinese Bibles, some English, some had a version with both. About half way through the service I notice a closed circuit TV security camera on the wall pointed directly at the front of the church. I could only ponder, was it there to prevent theft during the week or is big brother watching? By the way, since I have been in China, I have never seen so many CCTV security cameras and police in my life. There are even people wearing red armbands that I guess are employed by the police to be a kind of neighborhood watch (Reminds me of Obama's civilian army proposal). Some of you have asked if we feel safe here. Well, with the cameras and police at every coroner the answer is I feel safer here then in many parts of Fresno. Later in the day, our family went out to visit our friend to
give her our laundry (I think most people here have a side business of doing foreigners' laundry). On the way back we decided to stop at Starbucks. At the table next to us, there was a group of younger people having a bible study (not all that much different then what you would see in the states).

Lately, our days have consisted of staying in the hotel and taking short walks around the island. It is not necessary what we would like to do, but just what has happened. Sometimes our boys are not feeling well, other times Elsie is in need of a nap. She gets very fussy around 11:30. There is a play room in the hotel, where we do find Elsie is able to come out of her shell a bit. I did venture out on the subway again with the boys yesterday. We were trying to go to a specific area of the town where they sell jade. We got off the subway and hit a wall of people. With the national holiday, everyone is out and about doing shopping. We were told by our guide that we should expect this until the 9th. We may try later to go to a museum or hopefully an animal safari park. The fireworks show the other night was phenomenal. From the country that invented fireworks, they really know how to put on a show. Since the island was packed with people we decided to stay in our hotel. We all went to the 8th floor and watched them from a stairwell, not a bad view at all. I must admit that I usually get bored at fireworks shows. Sometimes they all look the same to me, just different colors. Not this show. It went on for 30 minutes with different themed fireworks every few minutes. After the show was over, we came back to the room and watched the show at Tiananmen Square. From what I head, they used 10 times as much fireworks at that show as they did at the Olympics. When they camera would pan the crowd all you could see is teenagers and college age kids waving the Chinese flag. The government is very aware of what is displayed on the TV. They would lead you to believe that everyone is happy and if your
not, your strange.