Eric's Beijing Diary

I went to the Haidian District Protestant Church again today. Pastor Wu was speaking from Matthew 21 about the "Road to Jerusalem." At the beginning of the service, we were singing "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross," and I happened to be familiar with that hymn, so I was singing it in English. The elderly lady sitting next to me nudged me and offered to share her hymn book with me. Struck me funny, because the lack of a hymn book was not my problem. My character recognition skills are still pretty scanty, and those books don't have pinyin, so it was a struggle, but I listened very carefully to her, and watched as she moved her finger across the page. It was actually a pretty good linguistic exercise.

I was more careful this time to make sure I had an FM receiver that worked. Still hard to follow the translation, because the volume of those things is not very high but so much better than last week. We also had a communion service at the end. Lots and lots of people. But there really is a good spirit in that place.

Ring the bells of Heaven! There is joy today,
For a soul, returning from the wild!
See, the Father meets him out upon the way,
Welcoming His weary, wandering child.

Glory! Glory! How the angels sing:
Glory! Glory! How the loud harps ring!
’Tis the ransomed army, like a mighty sea,
Pealing forth the anthem of the free!