Church at Xinyang

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A step back a couple days . . . There will be pictures to go with this when I return home too!

The alarm clock goes off and church begins at Xinyang! We stand and shake hands and wish each other God's peace. Well at least that is what I have always assumed we are doing - I am wishing them God's peace anway. Then there is the responsive reading. I think it is Psalm 46 - it sounds good to me anyway. God is our refuge and our strengh and ever-present help in trouble! . . . . The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob our fortress!

Part of me misses the old church . . . I know it is silly - the hard wooden benches with us packed on them like sardines in a building probably hotter than hell in a building that probably should have been condemned YEARS before it was. And there were the REALLY LONG sermons in Chinese that I understood NOT a word of it - yet I feel a little nostalgie for that. Much is the same though - the pile of fans as you enter the door, the singing practice before church starts, the many friendly Chinese faces, and the see of faces not looking like me but smiling and welcoming me anyway! I see not another white face - but then I didn't really expect too!

I forgot to ask Davie for more heart pins - in fact I forgot to wear mine this morning too. This church is where that all started too. An old man was interested in my Chinese-English Bible. I gave it to him and in exchange he gave m a very old beat up pin in the shape of a heart on it with the Chinese characters for love. I still have the pin. David and Steve liked the pin and some time after that they had them mass produce and still hand them out to others frequently. I think David much carry hundreds on him at all times!

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