A Lovely Sunday Morning

Guess who came to visit again on Sunday?

Yep. Blue skies and sunshine. My heart was happy. One of my host teachers (Geetika) and her husband (Gary) invited Alicia, Kenzie, and myself to church with them and it is just a short walk from the school and an even shorter walk from the hotel we are staying in. We arrived at church and I was so happy to be greeted with English and familiar worship music.

Me, Alicia, and Kenzie taking elevator pics before church because we're cool like that.

It was a really good service and I felt so encouraged to have found a church. You may be wondering how this kind of thing is allowed in China. Well, the church is called Beijing International Christian Fellowship and in order to attend you have to have a foreign passport and show it at the front door. Chinese cannot attend because of government regulations. Because it's an international church, there are naturally people from all over the world but the chosen language of this service is English; there are other services during the week in other foreign languages.

We are surrounded my international communities - school, church, and at home. It's fascinating to be learning about everyone's backgrounds and stories. At the grocery store yesterday we met a gentleman from Canada who was travelling through China with his Chinese daughter and gave us suggestions of their favourite places they visited.

After church, Geetika and Gary invited us back to their apartment for lunch (and internet hehe). We had a mix of Indian and Chinese food; Geetika is an incredible cook and we've actually been invited there again for supper tonight. It sure beats the peanut butter sandwiches we've been feasting on.

After we ate, we were sitting in the living room talking about where we'd like to travel and listening to Gary and Geetika's stories from their travels. They have some very interesting stories that help put our own experience in perspective. I mentioned that we hadn't had the opportunity to really experience anything authentically Chinese yet and to feel like we are actually in a Chinese city. We could easily trick ourselves into thinking that we're in a North American city.

Geetika excitedly suggested we go to Houhai and see the Hu Tongs. She said that we'd not have many beautiful days like that day so we should go before life gets even crazier and more hectic. Without hesitation, we agreed.

This story is for the next post though :)