April 28, 2017
8:30 pm
Beijing, China
Today was a nice, early morning. Of course, with so many people suffering from jet lag, it was bound to happen that someone overslept. So this morning, I woke up to a text message from Dad saying, “Where are you?” Yep, I, the person who has no jet lag, was the one who managed to sleep through my alarm this morning. Oops! Luckily, I only managed to be about ten minutes late for breakfast and didn’t miss out on anything super important, although I think Wendall will hold it over me for the rest of my life.
After breakfast, we were able to meet with Pastor Lu, who is the headmaster of the seminary and the Vice Chairman of the CCC in Harbin. There are two important Ch—stian entities in China: the CCC and the Three Self Patriotic Movement. Unfortunately, I’m still not completely sure what the difference is between the two of them to explain it to you. All I know is that they are basically the governing forces of the registered Ch—stian Ch—ch here in China. They help raise funds and gain support, as well as communicate with the Chinese government. Basically, they’re in charge of the whole shebang and without their support, we wouldn’t be able to participate in this amazing adventure.
It was nice to talk with her. She told us a bit more about the ch—ch’s situation in Harbin and the support we can give them. After a bit, the conversation steered toward what we would be doing later. In the afternoon, we would be delivering 500 Maxwell Leadership Bi—es to the students at the seminary. While they were grateful for this, Pastor Lu said that they would love it if they could get 1000 more copies. Apparently this June they will celebrate their 21st anniversary. As such, they will have a big celebration where many of the alumni will return to the campus. They would love to be able to give each of the 1000 alumni they expect to return a Leadership Bi—e to take back to their ch—Che’s. It was amazing to hear the passion that she has for spreading Abba’s Word. Consequently, if you have a few (or 11,000) extra bucks lying around, I have an idea of where it could be put to good use.
Once our conversation with Pastor Lu was finished, it was time for ch—le. Each student received a Bi—e as they walked into the service. For the service, Wendall, with help from Jenny, gave them an example of what using the Maxwell Leadership material looks like. It was definitely an interesting encouragement he gave. I wish I knew more Chinese so I could hear how Jenny translated it.
After lunch, we said goodbye and headed back for Harbin. When we arrived at our hotel, we quickly dropped off our suitcases (we got Dad’s from the check-in counter) in our rooms and headed out to walk around until dinner time. The area around our hotel is interesting and very busy. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take pictures, so I’ll have to do that tomorrow. This evening was spent having an amazing dinner and great conversation in the hotel restaurant. Now it’s time to settle down and head to bed. Mom’s already out or close enough.
Talk to you soon,
Kristen
