Eric's Beijing Diary

We decided to have our Christmas party today instead of Sunday, because Christmas Sunday is always so busy. The ones who are in the choir are not able to come because they have to practice. Another thing is that the old Wudaokou market has been torn down, In the past, I would go with the cooks and buy whatever they needed. But since that is no longer possible, we decided to have a potluck. The sisters said it was a bit awkward to bring something to church first and then here, so Saturday seemed to be a better choice. After they started cooking, Joy sent me to the store to get some green vegetables. The small market near the north gate doesn't have a produce section inside, but there is some stuff being sold out in front of the store. I saw some leafy vegetables that I could not recognize, but it looked interesting. I was looking at it when one of my neighbors happened by. She is a librarian here at the University. She was telling me how to prepare the stuff, and she said it was pretty healthy, which I had already surmised. I bought some and took it home. As has happened to me several times before, no one could tell me what this new vegetable was, but they all liked it. Chinese cooking is like that. I find myself eating something I have never had before, but when I ask the others eating with me, none of them has eaten it before either.

I read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke, and we had a little discussion about it. Helen, the student I met when I was riding the "cattle car" from Suzhou to Beijing in October, brought a bunch of her friends from Gily University. Most students in China do not come from a Christian background, so there are always lots of questions and also some interesting comments ("What does Christmas have to do with sin?"). After our discussion, we sang some Christmas carols--some in Chinese and some in English.