Day 5:
Our trip to China has been amazing so far. The days are going by so fast and it's hard to believe Sunday is here already. Although we lost a day somewhere over the Pacific Ocean...We woke up early to drive out to a rural congregation for a worship service. Below is a picture of our trusty van. This van carried us all over China from Chengdu and the surrounding country side. The van and driver came together as a package deal. I'm absolutely amazed the van made it into all the places we went. It did die in the parking lot of the hotel over night but with a crack team they got it going again. Rather than jump in and help push I grabbed my camera.
It was a long and bumpy road but we made it to church. The hillside on the right side of the photo came down a few years ago in the earthquake. That is a tiny road that goes by the church on the right side. This was an old cotton warehouse/factory that was converted into a church building. This congregation doesn't have a full time pastor but is served by a larger city congregation and their pastors.
The congregation typically starts to assemble an hour before worship begins. As they gather they sing hymns. The hymns are led by a song leader and accompanied by a keyboard. Very simple.
Below is a picture of Pastor Wei, and Pastor Peter Chen, entering the sanctuary. There were several doors like this down the length of the building. They remain open during the service, so the outside temperature is essentially what you get inside as well. It was about 45F that morning, pretty chilly. You can see the congregation is all bundled up!
Gathering for worship and singing.
One of the pastors who often preaches at this congregation. This is also his home town. You'll see a picture of his grandmother later.
We were asked to preach at this congregation. Peter tirelessly translated for us as we each took a turn proclaiming the good news.
This is a picture of the assembly that morning. There were about 800 people in worship that morning. And this is considered a fairly small rural congregation. It was absolutely amazing to preach and help serve communion with these folks.
This their "fellowship hall" the corridor outside the sanctuary. They had tea and coffee and milled about for a while. Looks familiar when you see it that way.
You can see the pastor form the earlier picture here, he is standing next to his grandmother. She is responsible for Christianity taking root in the Sichuan Province. Now that sounds like an incredible claim, but apparently during the cultural revolution she and her family carried the spark of faith and kept it going. Once things freed up a bit, she began to work and invite people back to church. She spent 40 days in jail, not too long ago, for converting others.
The countryside in china is beautiful. I really enjoyed being out in the rural areas. The big cities are like any big city but the landscape out in the country is great.
This is a bridge the ELCA built. We talk about building bridges as a euphemism for building relationships and partnerships. But this is really a bridge we built as well as a relationship and partnership. The original bridge was damaged by the earthquake and two kids were killed trying to cross the unsafe structure. The ELCA stepped in and rebuilt the bridge to connect the town again.
The rivers still mean life in the rural areas. Here are some folks doing their laundry. It was mind blowing to see extreme wealth and extreme poverty right next to each other.
For example, here is the restaurant we ate dinner in. Very nice, beautiful building. I was grateful for the wonderful meal and great experience but also mindful of those who go without.
Here is our group and our hosts for the evening. This was the lobby of the restaurant. It was very ornate and all done in a traditional Sichuan style.
Tomorrow we visit more churches and hear more about the incredible ministry happening in China!
No comments:
Post a Comment