Sunday, August 21 at 4:30 pm Changsha time

Ryan and I are back from swimming. The pool is huge and the temperature is great - almost close to a hot tub. I'm sure that's why Stacie liked it so much yesterday.

After a couple of more relaxing days, today was busy again but in a very good way. We ended up doing different things. Sue, Sarah, Ryan and Stacie went with the group to a museum. The original plans were to go to the park (a big park in the middle of the City), but again it was kind of rainy and uncommonly cool temperature-wise. I understand that the museum was good.

You may not believe it but Stephanie and I, as well as another family, went to church. The young Christian woman that I mentioned yesterday took us to her church - called the North Church because it's on the north side of town (I understand that there's also a South Church on, you guessed it, the south side of town). I don't know how many other, if any, formal churches there are. I'm hoping that there are many of the "house churches" but I don't know.

Anyway, the church itself looked a lot like an older-style U.S. church - it was actually quite big, had cathedral ceilings, and would probably hold 300 to 400 people if full. I have attached a picture of the church. I would guess that there were maybe 200 people or so there, and there are two services - one at 7:30 am and one at 9:30 am. There weren't as many young people as I would have hoped, and our friend tells us that's because younger people are worried about their money situation and trying to support themselves. In the U.S., I generally see people trying to make money to buy a bigger house, etc., but especially for the common people here it's a matter of survival. Anyway, I hope that there are more young people involved in the house church movement. (BTW, according to the website www.light4hunanese.com, the Hunan province is 2% Christian and the city we are in, Changsha, has 6 to 10 million people).

I can't say much about the church service itself because I couldn't understand it. In many ways, though, it seemed similar to our traditional church services - had singing at the beginning, had a few songs by the church choir (which was very good), had a traditional sermon, had a Bible reading from Psalms 103 (there were lots of pew Bibles as well as hymnals), etc. The pews themselves were short and the legroom was, well, not made for someone 6 feet 7 inches tall.

Afterwards, we met with the pastor and talked with him for a bit. I think he was in his late 20s, and he clearly was glad we were here. He gave us some pins with the Christian cross on them and also gave us some other gifts (some cards with sayings on them and some bottled water). We also took his picture and took some a video of him.

I don't know exactly what to make of this given the fact that I know that there is a lot of persecution among Christians in China. I'll let others that are much more familiar with the church in China speak to that issue. What I can say is that the young Christian woman we befriended sure seems to have the love of Jesus in her (as does the pastor, from the short time we were with him). By the way, although we do know the name of the woman, I'm not identifying it just because I don't know for sure if that would create any problems.

Outside the church, the one-way street was buzzing with all sorts of street vendors - selling vegetables, beef, clothing, etc. I've got a video walking down the street and it's just incredible.

When Stephanie and I returned to the hotel, there were a couple of wedding parties that were coming in. It was pretty neat to see them. They must have been very upper class, however, because it is very expensive to have the wedding reception at the hotel. This is also evidenced by the fact that outside the hotel there was a BMW SUV, a Mercedes and a Hummer (yes, a Hummer!).

We then went shopping with our new friend - Sue picked up some embroidery that she wanted and the kids got some other stuff. All of us then went to Pizza Hut for lunch. It was good, as normal, but it was more costly than what we are used to - not much different than the U.S. prices (although our friend had a 20% discount card).

Stacie continues to do very well, although we do wonder whether she's struggling with a cold or not. She is a happy baby. We do think that she may well be active and perhaps strong-willed, though. She truly is a joy.

Sue and the girls are heading out for some more shopping now. We'll then have dinner (probably Chinese) and head to bed early because we have to leave the hotel at 6:45 am tomorrow for the airport. We fly to Guangzhou (about a 50 minute flight), which is fairly close to Hong Kong. We'll spend 2 nights in Guangzhou at the White Swan hotel and then take the train and spend our last 2 nights in Hong Kong. Then we return back to the U.S. , leaving at about noon on Friday and returning at about 5:30 pm on Friday evening Michigan time.

Although things have gone really well for us, there have been others in the group that have been really sick. We really appreciate all of your prayers and support, and we look forward to completing this journey over the next 4 or 5 days. Thanks again - and, oh, if you haven't read Stephanie's post that I put on the blog this morning, please do it. She's probably the best writer in the family!

Gord