Church in China

I hate this blog service... really really hate it. You get something all typed up, go to publish and it all just goes away. And if you're thinking to yourself, "well Ted, you idiot, just go to the auto saved version and recover it". Nope, it seems that when it goes away, it also autosaves over the top of anything you may have saved just to save your self the headache of re-typing.

I had this post all typed up just now and it just went away again. I can't cuss for three good reasons 1.) I've got one little guy who will call me out on it, rightfully so.
2.) I have another little guy who is imitating everything I do and say
3.) this post was about our experience going to church this morning, so it just wouldn't be right on any level.

So, back to the post (I'm now typing it in notepad and copying it over...). We went down to the breakfast buffet and were not very impressed again. Sadly, it's "part of the price for your room", so as I've said easier, I'm eating the heck out this thing. It seems that after the coffee incident yesterday morning that they may have somebody manning the coffee machine now, and not very well either. They want you to take a new cup every time you go up there but then they run out of cups. If you bring a dirty cup up, they rattle something off at you that you can't understand. I didn't care though. You don't have cups, I'm using the one I got regardless of what you call me or have to say. Who knows what new regulations will be in place for tomorrow morning!

We've also noticed something strange when you compare all three of the buffets that we've laid waste to. In Changchun and even in Beijing, the fruit was just outstanding. It was COLD up in Changchun, bitterly cold. Beijing was too cold to grow anything this time of the year as well, but
now that we're down here in a much more tropical region, the fruit is not so good. It's still okay, but after experiencing fruit like we have, we don't want to go back!

I'm drifting... back to the point of the post, church. After breakfast we went back up to our room to clean up and get ready to go. We head back to the lobby and pay a visit to the "travel desk" to see if he can help. He wrote us out the Shamien Island in Chinese so we can show it to a cabby. It was written on a piece of hotel stationary so we can show that to another cabby when we want to get back to the hotel.

18 yuan (about $3) later, we were on Shamien Island but the cabby had no idea where the church was. He asked a local who obviously didn't know either so he just dropped us in the middle. That was fine since the meter was still running. We had a half hour to walk around and find the joint. We found a Catholic church but it only had 7am and 8:30am services. No 11am service in English so we're not in the right place. Lesley has an idea. She met Judy, the owner of Judy laundry, yesterday while we were out shopping after Caleb's polite violations at the local clinic.

Judy is 26 years old if I understood her correctly. She has been a Christian for about 6 years now after Steve, a fella from America who with Campus Crusade, asked her if she knew Jesus and gave her a Bible. She became a Christian that day and now witnesses to people who come into her
little shop.

Judy was indeed there. She gave Robby and Caleb some homemade hackey sacks which are not at all like the American versions of that same toy. These are little plastic washers with brightly dyed feathers sticking out of them. She even demonstrated to the boys how to use them, all while
wearing high heeled boots.

Judy didn't just tell us where the church was, she went with us after her husband went and retrieved the Bible that Steve gave her 6 years ago. We talked about various things on the walk to church. I asked her if she had to hide her Bible in China and she said, "No, not so much".

When we got to church, we met two other couples from America that we knew were going there too, but had to take seperate cabs. We introduced them to Judy and had a brief but good talk.

Service was interesting. The music is pretty much universal as long as you can halfway carry a tune. The sermon and readings were done in Chinese, not sure which dialect, and then repeated in English. Sad to say, but I had sort of forgotten how close we are to Christmas. The sermon and the readings were about the birth of Jesus. The breeze blowing in through the open stained glass window told me that it was Easter. It was a powerful dichotomy.

When we were leaving church, Judy made it out before us but waited to say goodbye. She had to get back to her store. I asked her if she will be there tomorrow so that we might get our families picture taken with her. She replied, "Yes, all 7 day", meaning that she works 7 days a week.

Sometimes it's not the message of the church service itself that reminds you of the abundance of blessings in your life, but rather the people you meet going to and fro. God bless you all. We'll be home for Christmas soon enough!