Today I woke up without my alarm, which is good because I had it set to the wrong time. I asked Wesley and Hannah if they wanted to go to church with me in the morning, and they all agreed. I’d talked to Wesley the night before, as I lay in my bed falling asleep, and I wasn’t sure if I’d told him the particulars of the morning. I went and knocked on his door at 8:30 (as we planned to leave at 9), but no one answered. I tried to call his phone, and I returned to knock on the door again, to no avail. I had finally decided that he was dead asleep, and at that point, even if I woke him up, I don’t think we could have walked out the door at 9.
I met Bing Bing, one of Jesse’s good friends, who also goes to Jesse’s fellowship. Bing Bing is a senior this year, with a major in computer engineering and something to do with science. I don’t really understand all of that magic, so I won’t bother trying to define the ins and outs of her degree. After she graduates in June, she is going to the University of Massachusetts to get a Master’s in computer engineering. After that, she plans on living in China, which I find interesting. I would assume that Christians living in a place like China would love to get out. However, she feels compelled to stay here and minister while working. Her decision really took me by surprise and gave me a new perspective on the ministry. But, like all Chinese graduates right now, she is ready to go wherever her job opportunities lead her on the mainland.
We walked over to the subway station, and as we were boarding the train, I got a call from Wesley, saying that they were eating breakfast when I’d called. They still wanted to come along, which I thought was awesome. So we chilled on a bench in the station, waiting on them to arrive. With all members present, we hopped on the train and headed north to the ZhongGuan Cun station. The station opens into a giant fake electronics mall, where you can buy an assortment of Windows 7 operating systems for 10 Yuan (that's $1.50!), Apple Company iPhones, and anything else that your heart desires.
From the station, we walked over to the HaiDian Christian Church. The church is a monolith of a white granite building, sitting four feet tall (which I think is big for a church). Bing Bing says that the church was built to look like Noah’s Ark (Chinese pronunciation: NoYa’s Boat. I had quite the time figuring that one out), but I don’t see the resemblance. At the same time, Bing Bing says that the church is designed to look like a Bible when you open it. I also don’t see that.
When we walk up, there is a crowd of almost 500 people waiting in lines outside the building. This whole experience with the Chinese people amazed me. For one, none of these people were pushing each other to try to beat each other to the door (a common occurrence), and everyone was quietly waiting to file into the church. They were almostreverent when they walked in, which is an adjective that I rarely associate with these people. When we got inside the church, I found that the church could easily fit 1,000 people. Nearly every seat was full.
The Chinese service started at 10, and it proceeded in a fashion similar to the traditional Methodist service. There was a hymn, the greeting by a pastor (there were 2 – one man and one woman), a scripture reading from Psalms, and we recited what I took to be the Apostle’s Creed in Chinese. We sung a few more hymns, and then we listened to a sermon given by the woman pastor. I was a little surprised by a woman giving the sermon, mainly because I associate China with other conservative societies, and given my cultural lens, conservative services means no women in the pulpit. However, I had to remind myself of the impact that the Cultural Revolution and the legacy of Mao has had on this country. I would be hard pressed to find any good repercussions from this era, excepting Mao’s unyielding commitment to androgyny, which has lead this country to have one of the most equal male-female ratios in the workplace (in both persons and salary).
I was surprised by the reverence of the Chinese people during the service. I don’t know if you have ever been to an event with Chinese people, but they are the noisiest, most interrupting people in the world, with the shortest collective attention span when at group functions. This, however, was not the case today. The service continued, and the pastor gave a sermon on having a Biblical focus in the New Year, not merely having personal, financial, or health goals in the year to come. I thought it was a very good message. The service ended with a song, and the attendees filed out.
Then, we waited for the next service to start, as many of the people attending Jesse’s fellowship also help out at this church on Sunday. I saw David helping set up the stage, and I waved to him across the room. I was a little skeptical of this service, given my last experience in an English-lead church service. I was in Qingdao, where two foreigners gave a theologically unfounded message on the nature of heaven. I was most pleasantly surprised. The service was lead by a guest pastor who spoke excellent English; he’d spent the last 7 years studying in England. It was quite comical to hear a Chinese guy with an English accent. He gave a message that apparently almost exactly mirrored a Numa video about faith. The crux of the message is this: don’t give up on China, as the Father is doing great things through Followers here. And if this morning is any indication of that, I do believe that the pastor was spot on. It is amazing to be here and see this happening firsthand. And at one point, he asked the members of the congregation to hold up their hands according to how long they’d been Christian: over one year – about 40%; less than one year – 55%; and not Christian – the rest. That is insane! Over half of their church is people that have been Christians for less than a year!
Then, we walked over to a cafeteria in the basement of this building, where a lot of the churchgoers were getting lunch. Bing Bing bought us lunch at a school-cafeteria-style restaurant. The meal was great, and I was very thankful, but I ate warily, remembering my past experiences with la du zi and cafeteria food. There, we met another member of their fellowship, named Cancan (pronounced tsan-tsan). There, Bing Bing told us more about the church. It was founded less than a decade ago, and the numbers of churchgoers has only increased as the years have passed. As of current, there are 6 services a day, and each of those services has about 1,000 attendees.
We headed back to the school, and parted ways with Bing Bing on the subway. I bid her a happy New Year’s, with promises to make contact with the fellowship (of the rings) when they came back from vacation. Around three, I got busy on my homework, which was quite bountiful. About an hour into my studying, I received a knock on the door. It was Cailin and Lee; they asked me if I would take them to buy a cell phone at the place I went on Friday. I heartily agreed, eager to procrastinate in any way possible. I said that we could take off around 5, which would give me a little over two hours of studying.
At five, I met Cailin and we shoved off. Lee couldn’t come, as she was meeting her host family for the evening meal. This is where is gets interesting. For some reason, the entire city decided to go driving at this point in time. The roads were packed, and it took us nearly an hour and fifteen minutes to travel three miles by bus. I was about to go insane. Note to self: never attempt this feat again. We got to the market around 6:30, and the scene didn’t look good. We were greeted by a lovely guard who informed us the market closed at 6:30 today, and we’d better try again. I was so happy.
I was also about to eat a Chinese person due to my hunger, and we gave in at the first KFC we encountered. We dined on spicy chicken sandwiches, and strutted back to the dorm where we began the toilsome evening. I have an essay due on Tuesday, which is 750 characters handwritten. I do not want to write this essay with every fiber of my being, but had no choice. I finally crashed at 11. Done.
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