Today we attended church at Shamian Chapel Christian church of Guangdong. We were scheduled for a visit to the zoo, but chose to stay home and go to church. This is one of the few “government sanctioned” Christian churches. I am sure that there are rules as far as what can be preached. The majority of the Christian church in China is underground.
As we came up to the building, we could hear the sermon being preached for the earlier service. There were many people outside waiting. Pat walked around the corner and caught a glimpse of a children’s Sunday school class playing a game outside and took a few pictures. When it was time we went in the sanctuary and sat down. The sanctuary quickly filled and I’m guessing that there were about 300 people including about 15 Americans. There was a box near the door where people could get an offering envelope or leave a prayer request. We watched a line of people form where the prayer requests were being filled out.
When the service started the words to the songs were projected onto a screen in Cantonese and in “Pinyin” (which is the Cantonese characters spelled out phonetically in English letters) We sang along as best we could, and noticed that many were singing out whole heartedly with hands lifted up. Next they sang “How great thou art” in English, and then a third song in Cantonese that had a very familiar tune to it but I could not place it. It was an older chorus, I think.
As we sang the third song, reality kind of sank in and I became very emotional. Here we were, half way around the world worshiping God…..My God. Not the gods of all those temples and “holy” places that we toured earlier this week. Those temples were beautiful ancient buildings and nothing more. People still come to those building and worship their gods and burn incense and offer up fruit and such. But today we were in a simple building, with paint chipping off the walls with beat up wooden pews……..and very much sensed the presence of God.
The service was bi-lingual, which was nice. The pastor taught from Genesis 2, and talked
a great deal about creation v.s. evolution. I thought it was very cool that he spoke to the local people about “the ancient teachings” being wrong. This country is very proud to remind the world that it is one of the most ancient of civilizations. I can’t tell you how many times we heard “millions of years” as we toured.
We ended up taking the baby outside because she was being noisy, and took a seat just out side of the door. There were folding chairs lined up with people sitting, listening, as there was no room left inside. I notice that as people got up to use the restroom (which was outside) they left their bibles with the usher at the door. She held them until they came back in the building. That was a little different, and I am not quite sure if it was for safe keeping or what……
What an experience… |
