The meeting with the gentleman from here the other night was really something. Here’s a successful guy who comes to Christ later in life, who once he does so finds his business suddenly frittering away to nothing, a baby on the way (their first – actually born two days after our meeting! It’s a girl!), and a country with a lot of believers who don’t really know much about the Bible or how to really operate properly. He struggled against the idea of becoming a pastor for a long time, but the Father just took care of his business by relieving him of it – now, he is committed to service, and wants to go abroad to study. So, we had a long evening of fellowship on that subject and others, to good result. I’m praying that in a few years he’ll be able to see the desire of his heart fulfilled when he returns and starts a new fellowship in his home town.

We met for coffee with a sister whom I’ve heard about for a quite awhile the next day. She’s been helping our friend here with an important translation project up until a couple of weeks ago, when a situation at work got way out of hand, and people have left, been arrested, and are generally living in fear for their livelihoods, while she has been the one who has been tasked with trying to hold it all together. It finally came to a head this week, and it was a pleasure to come alongside with biblical counsel and comfort, and see the Father just wipe the care away from her countenance. We were all able to continue our fellowship that evening as we walked (about 3 km) to this really terrific hot pot restaurant for dinner. The food was great, and the noodle man put on quite a performance taking a lump of dough and acrobatically turning it into a ten foot long noodle to cook in our pot. Neat stuff. The ladies finished off the evening with a time of study, and I returned to the hotel to contemplate in insides of my eyelids.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went downtown again (frankly, all of Beijing seems like downtown, but this was the CBD – the central business district) to wrap up a couple of minor shopping stops and see more of the realm of the expatriate, or expat, residents of this city. This group of over 1 million people have very little in the way of any sort of ministry aimed at them. About 300,000 are English speakers. It’s a burden of our friends here that a fellowship should be started specifically aimed at this group. There are a few other gatherings here, one or two of them fairly large, but are theologically lacking in much substance, being more in the line of the church growth mentality that has turned so many western churches into consumer driven smorgasboards of human preference and entertainment rather than real houses of worship. Today, we’re going to visit one of the biggest ones, and then go to a smaller denominational fellowship where folks like our friends here tend to gather. Then, I’ll be giving a seminar on music through the history of the church this afternoon, and we’ll wrap up the day with a time of fellowship around a meal, a fitting way to end my time here before heading home on Monday. I’ll let you know how the day goes with one more installment to conclude the trip’s blog.

Thanks again for your prayers all this past month. I’ll get some more pictures up once I can get somewhere that doesn’t block access to my site. There’s a lot to show you! Blessings!