Sunday, June 19, 2016

Dear Unity Friends,

The blocking of all things Google has impacted my efforts to blog.  Karl  Kaemingk and I have found a way to get my journals out.  Today I am going to text him this entry along with some pictures. 

So far the trip has been simply amazing.  I am blown away with the culture and the people of China.  I am so appreciative of this opportunity to recognize the beauty and richness of China and its people.  I also recognize that my limited view of this world is being stretched hourly on this trip.  This is God’s world, and we are so different and yet so similar.

Today we worshiped at a church in Yangcheng, visited a traditional Chinese village / Buddhist temple, presented our schools to a group of about 70 people, played basketball at a local high school that we will visit tomorrow and ended the day with a formal banquet ( a nightly tradition) where we were served with amazing Chines food and enjoyed great hospitality with our hosts.  

The highlight of the day was worshiping God in church in Yancheng.  I could not understand most of it, so it was a time of worshiping in Spirit. 
We did sing By the Sea of Crystal.  We prayed the Lord’s Prayer. The rest, I could just guess at.  Very nice people around us handed us hymnals and Bibles in Mandarin so we could follow along.  : )

Afterwards a translator recapped the sermon for us.  Interestingly,
we were mentioned in the sermon in several ways.  The pastor told the congregation that God sent our group to them at this time to be an encouragement to them.  He also highlighted how the American church is what is making America great, and that if possible the people of his church should travel to America to learn from our church leaders.   Funny thing, I was thinking the reverse.   The church was packed when we arrived, and they cleared out 3 rows for us.  We were treated like dignitaries.  After the service we were asked to return to the church so people could take pictures of us.  

In general, the people of China are very polite and hospitable.  They have gone to great effort to serve us amazing formal meals.  They are extremely gracious hosts.  We even got a police escort yesterday on an excursion! 

Happy Fathers Day from China!

For now,

Wayne