Extraordinary Sunday in Beijing!

It was an extraordinary day!  One of those days when everything comes together perfectly.  Our Father rained His gracious blessings on us.

 When we peaked through the window curtains this morning, the sun was bright and the sky was clear blue for the first time this trip!  The 11:30 service at the government Hainain Three Self Church was in English.  It was quite a moving experience to sing familiar hymns, including Amazing Grace, worshiping our Lord while in China.

After leaving the church, we prayed (literally) that we would find two taxis to take us to the Temple of Heaven.  Since the Temple park is HUGE and there are several entrances, we were a bit concerned that half of us would “be delivered” to one entrance and the other half would be dropped off at the opposite end of the park.  Our Father brought two taxis at the same time and they followed each other to the front entrance.    

The weather was absolutely perfect to spend the day walking through the Temple park.  It was ideal for taking photos so we took hundreds of them. ;-)  The temple complex of trees, buildings, and highly decorated corridors are very beautiful, but what was the most fun and fascinating was watching the Chinese people playing in the wonderful weather and gorgeous setting.  Groups of people were sitting on railings playing cards or selling lovely items they had made.  We saw a darling little woman all dressed up in costume singing.  Another lovely woman did a traditional fan dance to recorded music.  In the distance we heard beautiful music so we walked over to investigate.  There was a small band with a director playing while hundreds and hundreds of people gathered around and sang.  It was fabulous!  After the band finished, recorded music started and hundreds of people did line dancing.  Leslie and Linda joined the dancing to the delight of the local people.  My face still hurts from smiling so much.

Again our Father provided two taxis somewhat close together to take us back to the hotel.

Dinner was at our favorite noodle restaurant in the hotel with a little Cold Stone ice cream for dessert.

We are enjoying the way Grace has arranged our teaching schedule to be more concentrated, thereby also concentrating our free time together. 

Thank you for your continued prayers.  God’s loving hand was certainly with us during this very special day where we made wonderful life-long memories.

Love and blessings,

Mary for the China Dolls