This past weekend out English Exchange Group traveled to two cities in Jiangsu province, Jiangyin and Wuxi. After worship at Jiangsu Bible college, our group packed up and traveled several hours on the bus to Jiangyin where we were met by Pastor Mary (one of our English Exchange participants) at her church. We shared dinner with the local government officials and pastors and also traveled to a small one hundred year-old church in Jiangyin, and prayed for their plans to build a larger church to service their many congregants. Pastor Mary and the local church officials gave us a presentation about the origins of their congregation, dating back to missionaries from Wilmington Presbyterian Church in North Carolina, and hosted us for a savory seafood lunch. We also traveled to several new, large churches in Jiangyin before moving onto Wuxi city.
In Wuxi we enjoyed another banquet with local officials and pastors and rose early the next morning for 7:30 worship at Wuxi church. Our own Peter Lim preached on Nehemiah 2, urging us to sieze the opportunity to collaborate with God! The church was packed as we celebrated communion together as one body in Christ. Following the church service we rode out to the fourth largest lake in all of China, Lake Tai, and took a boat to the famous Turtle Head Peninsula, named for its resemblance to a turtle's head poking up out of the water. After a late lunch, we rode back on the bus through our first thunder storm in China into Nanjing.
Over the weekend we said goodbye to three American participants and one Chinese participant, so we continue to pray for their travel and ministry.
This Monday morning, our substantially smaller group greeted the day with worship, reflecting on the theme of gratitude. Following worship, we convened in small groups, focusing our English study lesson on cultural differences, swapping stories, and growing together. God continues to build bridges between us despite the language barriers, and during the afternoon trip to the Presidential Palace, we spent time learning about its rich history, from its Ming dynasty origins to its collapse during the Taiping rebellion and its brief role as presidential offices to Sun Yatsen in 1912 and Chiang Kaishek from 1927 to 1949.
This evening during worship we continued to recall God's gratitude toward us, especially as experienced through one another here. We have been richly showered with the blessings of cross-cultural friendship and spiritual connection this past week, this weekend and today, and for those gifts and many others, we give God thanks and praise.
Erin Raffety
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