Eric's Beijing Diary

This afternoon Mark and I took the commuter train to the center of Tokyo to an international church. Tokyo, of course, has a sizable international community, and religion is not regulated here like it is in China, so the international fellowships include both Japanese people and foreigners. A young lady asked me if I had ever been to Beijing. Turns out she had seen me on the BICF bus during the time she was living in Beijing. Must have been some time ago, because I only went to BICF for about three months after I first came to China. In China, international churches are restricted to foreigners, and you need a passport to get in the door. I got really tired of that, and the sterile atmosphere it tends to create. The privileged and the unprivileged. The lucky and the unlucky. Church is for everyone. At least for everyone who wants to come. So I quit going to the international church, and began attending a local Chinese church that provides English translation. These Three-Self churches in are the new international churches of China. Here in Japan, the international churches are largely transplants from America.