The Gospel in China

Started our university class today. Just meets a couple times a week, so it really won’t hurt our regular schedule much. Small price to pay… So I guess I officially started studying writing today. Not nearly as scary as it was when we first got here. By now, we’re really familiar with lots of characters […]

Worship service last night. Best group we’ve had yet this year, and their arrival times were pretty much as varied as the night before. About a quarter of the people got there right after I got up to preach (about half an hour into the service). Our music went really well tonight, I thought. They’re […]

Finished our Gospel class last night. A bunch of students are back, but they apparently don’t really remember when we start. Last semester we had two services on Saturday, 5 and 7, so that might have something to do with it. People trickled in from 4:50-6:30! Good to see some old faces. This is our […]

Last night we had a meeting with another church’s pastor. They’re probably the closest church to us, and they’ve done as good as any other church in town at getting students to come to church. Their location is also right outside a university. This is the church that I’ve mentioned before – started by a […]

We’ve secured another six months of visa – went to the university this morning and negotiated our deal for the next semester. I always get sent to the principal’s office before we work anything out. It’s a pretty good arrangement: we pay a bunch of money, we take part in one class and get a […]

We’re still not exactly back to normal, but we definitely had the highest attendance last night that we’ve had in more than a month. There were probably six or seven people back from vacation. Somehow, it was unofficially bring-your-high-school-brother-to-church night; there were two girls that did so. It was our seventh week of the Gospel […]

Tonight felt like a big step in getting back to normal around the church. I’m really interested in what the net results will be at the end of this school break. I think it’s been a good time for our core group, and it seems like they’re anxious to get started on a new semester, […]

I think that the holiday is in its death throes. Today is the fifteenth of the lunar new year, and the moon is full. And today is the end-of-holiday holiday, complete with its own traditional food and a barrage of fireworks that even surpasses the new year’s. The streets are packed full of people, as […]

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it on the blog before, but my wife suffers through some pretty severe back pain on a daily basis as a result of an injury when she was in school. One of those discs that is supposed to make your back work is basically gone. Anyway, the pain has […]

We’ve had a good weekend. Still a couple weeks before registration for the next semester, so just about everyone is still out of town. But most of our native people, along with quite a few visitors from some other local churches, showed up last night, so we had a decent crowd. I was exceptionally excited […]