Eric's Beijing Diary

Went with Nancy and Lydia to the English mass at the South Cathedral this morning. The priest was talking about the difference between Protestants and Catholics. I haven't been to very many Catholic masses in my life, but this sermon was interesting. Most of the time when I go to a Catholic church, it's a sermon about the Eucharist. Anyway, this guy was saying that in the Catholic church, they tend to emphasize the Eucharist, while the Protestants emphasize preaching the Word of God. For this reason, he said, Protestants have become better preachers. Not sure if I agree with that--good preachers are rare among Protestants too. But I have heard this comment before. It was Father Dale in Arizona. When I was going to Word of Grace, Pastor Kinnaman did a couple of sermons on Protestants and Catholics. One of them was on what Protestants can learn from Catholics, and one of them was on what Catholics can learn from Protestants. When Kinnamon asked Father Dale what Catholics can learn from Protestants, he said that he thought Protestants were better preachers. But Father Dale said something else that stuck with me. He was asked why he chose to remain single. He said, "I felt that if I was willing to remain single, I could love more people." There is a lot of truth to that statement. If your primary objective in life is to share God's love with people, you may be able to do this more efficiently as a single person.

In China, Catholic churches are not allowed to operated openly and legally unless they declare independence from the Vatican. But ironically, the average Catholic in China is probably more loyal to the Pope than the average Catholic in America. This is because Catholics in China are very traditional. In fact, when I went up to take the Eucharist, they only gave me the wafer. Only the Body of Christ. I felt like saying, "Where is the blood? I need the blood!" (I held my tongue; don't worry.) This is the way things used to be in the Catholic Church. But every time I have been to a Catholic mass in the U.S., I have always been offered both.

Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For the things that could not satisfy:
And then I heard my Savior speaking:
"Draw from my well that never shall run dry."

Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more,
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

After mass, we went to a Yunnan restaurant near the South Cathedral and had rice noodle soup. I love rice noodle soup. After lunch, Nancy and I left for the Square. Today is National Day in China (sorta like Independence Day in the States). It commemorates the day in 1949, when Mao stood on Tiananmen Gate and said, "China has stood up!"

We often get together for fellowship on Sunday afternoon, but I thought since today is National Day, it would be kinda nice to go to the Square and pray for China. In America, it is considered good citizenship to criticize one's country. I cannot say anything bad about that, because I am not above pointing out things I see from time to time that could use improvement. But you know, the Bible never exhorts us to criticize our leaders. It tells us to pray for them. It's not easy to lead a country like China. I certainly wouldn't want the job. As a foreigner living in China, I sometimes feel out of place occasionsons like National Day. What can I do for this country that has been so hospitable to me? Well, even though it might not seem like much, I thought that one thing I could do is to offer a prayer of blessing for China on this special day.

I had suggested we meet at the Monument to the People's Heros. But it was not that great a plan, because the Monument was fenced off some ways back, so the perimeter turned out to be a very big area. In the front of the Monument, a huge portrait of Sun Yat-sen had been erected. This was very interesting to me. Sun Yat-sen is known as the first president of China, although he only occupied the office for three months. But he is regarded by a hero by the Communist Party, because he was a revolutionary. He was the husband of Soong Ching-ling, who was a non-communist friend of China during the Mao years. And he is also revered in Taiwan, because he was the founder of the KMT (Guomingdang). So the decision to use his portrait instead of Mao's seems to be an attempt to reach out to those from Taiwan who would never be able to identify with Mao. Anyway, I met three of the others as I was standing there looking at this portrait. But somehow, Joy never found us. And it turns out that I didn't pick the best meeting place, because several people had trouble getting a cell phone signal in the center of the Square. My Xiaolingtong didn't work, but my cell phone did. But Joy's cell phone didn't, so none of us could reach her. But four of us were somehow able to find each other.

Take it from me, Tiananmen Sqaure on National Day is not really the best venue for a prayer meeting. It's way too noisy. Not to mention crowded. People mountain, people sea. But we managed. Right there in the middle of the square with Sun Yat-sen smiling down on us. But mainly with a loving God hearing us. We gathered as two or three (actually four), and I think we all felt God's presence. When we had finished praying, we noticed that a man with a bright white shirt and dark sunglasses was standing there listening to us. He waited for us to finish, then pulled out his badge and asked us what we were doing. Turned out he was a plainclothes police officer. We told him that we were praying for China because it was National Day. I think the guy was relieved that we were not terrorists, or something. He put his hands together to show his respect, then moved on.

After our time of prayer together, we walked to McDonald's on Wangfujing Street. Star told us that her grandfather had been a KMT officer before 1949. He was the only one in his group who did not go to Taiwan. During the Cultural Revolution, he committed suicide. She also had a grandmother who was in Nanjing during the massacre. The Twentieth Century was a painful time for China. Surely God has ordained a time of blessing and opportunity for China during these days. We must continue to pray for this country.