Christmas in Beijing

There are a few decorations up and around in the city. However, most of the time it is hard to tell if it is for Christmas, or, more likely, coming Chinese New Year.  The reception for our housing complex has lots of Santa faces and a very pretty Christmas tree. We decorate in our apartments with things accrued over many other people leaving things behind: some of it beautiful, and much of it a little questionable, but it is what we have.

We will teach on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There is no official recognition of the Day. We will explain the secular and religious aspects to our students under the heading: “Wester Culture”.  There are no real Christmas parties or gift exchanges, although we do deliver small presents to our direct supervisors at the college….just cause. 

We will call our family and be homesick, but there is little that can be done. Presents will wait until we fly home early January. We probably will get together with ERRC team members for a  meal of some sort. It is sometimes just a matter of getting through the day. Of course, maybe then we are forced more to think of the true meaning of Christmas, rather than all of the extraneous hoopla.  We do try to honor the Lord in this way.

However, there is a joint church Christmas program at the Three Self official Chinese church. Only those holding foreign passports can directly attend our international church, but everyone can worship at the Three Self Church, so we have the big evangelistic Christmas program at that church. The program is this weekend, and it is a very good presentation put together by various groups: English church, Korean church, Indonesian church, African church, etc. We are taking our 3 students who meet for our study of Luke every Friday night. They seemed excited when we invited them. One said, “Oh, a field trip.” Please pray Friday night for the impression that God wants to deliver through this activity, and pray for us and that we quietly search for what God has for us during this time.