Surprise

It is Sunday, my third full day here, and I need to catch the bus for the ride across town to attend a church service where I can’t understand the language that is spoken there. You ask why I go there. I go there because it is where I taught through an interpreter for four months and in the process have established some very special relationships. It is also a place where worship is more real for me than it is at my church in the US. I always leave this Chinese church with a feeling that I really had a good worship experience. Here worship is driven from the congregation, not from the platform. With only a broken down piano and a song leader up front, you are not overwhelmed by the sound coming from the front of the church. In the US I feel like a spectator, but here like a participant.

I sat listening to the congregation rehearse the hymns they would sing that morning (people come to church early here and prepare their hearts with this pre-singing), and, as I did, I kind of hoped Emmy would come as she used to after becoming a Christian on my last trip. A couple minutes before the start of the service she walks in with her mother. That was a very tender moment for me. They came and sat next to me. She was very interested and asked Emmy many questions as the service progressed.

Joy, my interpreter preached the message that morning, which focused on salvation. I know this only because Emmy told me. Being the first Sunday of the month, they served communion. Emmy and her mother refused, because her mother was not a Christian, but she saw what that was like. At offering time they went forward to give and when first time visitors were asked to stand Emmy’s mother stood. Then when asked to come forward, she went. While she was up front I asked Emmy what her mother thought of being here. Emmy said that she wants to come back with her each Sunday.

After church, Emmy and her mother asked me to join them for dinner. We took a bus to a restaurant, not far from their home, and had another wonderful meal and a very special time of fellowship. After we ate we leisurely walked and talked our way to a bus stop where I could catch a bus back to my apartment. I cannot find adequate words to explain this experience. It was such a warm and tender time. It is the kind of experience that takes hold of your heart and keeps it here in China. It is such a contrast to the cool busyness of life in the states.