Update about China

Friends, Sorry I was unable to update during my time in China and I
hope to provide a full update as soon as I can. God has been so good
during my wanderings and I have so much to catch up on. Right now, I
am staying at Sabah Theological Seminary in Malayasia. I am able to
use the computers on campus so I hope to provide a recap (as best as I
can) from my time in China (hopefully, later today) I will be
attending the chapel service in a few mins. so I am unable to give a
full update but I will start....
When I arrive in Beijing, I was greeted by Michelle (whom I refer to
as one of my angels in China) she not only made sure my luggage had
arrived safely (it was late getting off the plane) but helped me at
the ATM, purchase a SIM card, and waited patiently as I tried to load
the Chinese characters of my host's address via my cell phone from
wireless. Since we were unable to reach my host, she helpled me into a
taxi and then also travelled with my on the other side of Beijing and
waited until my host was contacted and reached. The brothers and
sisters I met in China really and truly went above and beyond my
expectations of hospitality. Grace and SaSa (my host during the stay
in Beijing) and their church sisters living across the hall worked to
not only provide a place to stay but to also help me do some
sightseeing and arranged various brothers and sisters from their
church to meet with me durning my stay. I spoke with Grace and her
friend (also named Grace) during my first sightseeing day to the
Summer Palace about some of the activities in their church. Grace
explained that basically when the house church was opened (it is an
official church that meets at a house for the time being...I'll try to
explain more about this church classification system later) there are
people there to pray...even if this means 4 AM. Grace, who is an elder
at the church, spent the nights after taking care of my needs at the
church..praying with the sick and leading a Bible study to a group of
women. Grace also arranged for a trip to the Great Wall. It was
beautiful. We spent lots of time sitting around at the wall and
speaking about the church...I was unable to visit her church while
there so I wanted to get as much of a clear sense about her ministry
as I could.
After spending some time in Beijing and meeting with church leaders
there, I took the high speed train (about 310 km/hour) to Nanjing to
meet with a group coming from the United States with the Outreach
Foundation. I spent one night in Nanjing and then travelled with the
group to Haui'an, China. Haui'an is famous for Christianity in China
as it was the birthplace of Ruth Bell (Billy Graham's wife) She spent
many years there and had a love for the people of China. Haui'an
church had a wonderful museum honoring her and giving a detailed
history of their church. Every year the Outreach Foundation holds an
English exchange camp for pastors in the province to come together for
a retreat and to practice their English skills. I had the chance to
speak with pastors throughout the week and visit many churches in the
afternoon.  The largest church in the city that I was able to visit
had 10,000 members. Many of the churches have prayer meetings and
small group Bible studies. I was blessed to spend some time with some
of the hardest working, yet joyful pastors, worshipping, learning some
Chinese phrases, and hearing about their unique ministries. One pastor
at the camp questioned about America's terms, believer vs non-believer
and explained in China, Christians view people in two classifications:
believers and those who are yet to become believers. Christians are
very optimistic in their reaching out and inviting others into church.
During one of the church visits (where roughly 5,000 Christians
worship every Sunday) the group was greeted by traditional ethnic
dancing. One of the assistant pastors explained that this is used on
special occasions (Christmas, Easter, and during evangelistic events)
to help make new believers or yet to be believers feel welcomed in the
church setting which may be intiminating at first.The Christians in
China left a huge impression on my life. They are so joyful in their
worship. Everyone is smiling, clapping hands, and you can see in their
faces that they truly are happy and content as they worship the Lord.
One pastor in my small exchange group explained that while he is
thrilled the church is growing, he really prays for the people filling
the churches to have a true relationship with Christ. Even though he
is the head pastor of a congregation of 3,000, he takes time to pray
for all his members.  He works to develop smaller groups so all the
members are able to have a strong sense of Christian community.
Another pastor explained the importance of witness worshipping in
China.  This is a special worship service where yet to be believers
are able to come with friends who have invited them. The worship
service is non-intiminating where songs are song, tradtional dances
are performed.  The most important aspect of this worship is members
of the community giving their testimonies.  Brothers and sisters are
able to proclaim what God is doing in the midst of their lives. They
share stories of God's continued grace and how God has helped them in
times of suffering. My time in Haui'an and China was a blessing, as it
served not only as a rich learning experience, but also a spiritual
retreat.
Please pray for the Chinese church. Biblical training is very
important to Christians there. Since pastors are in short supply,
training for all members help reduce heresy within the church. Many
asked to pray for God to raise up new leaders within the church who
will remain faithful to the true Biblical teachings of Christ. Since
churches are growing so rapidly, there is a shortage of pastors and
much of the pastoral care situations are in the hands of other
brothers and sisters at the church. (Grace, my host in Beijing is one
of these "staff" members at a church)
I have many more stories and information from China but this is all
for now. :) Thank you for your continued prayers and I will try to
update again from Sabah soon. Love in Christ, Amanda :)