Worshipping with the Saints

We just came back from Christ Church here on Shamian Island. It is a small church with straight-back wooden pews dating from the colonial period when the British were here. The place was packed. There were easily 300 people in there from many countries. We knew several of the families, as they were there through AGCI. Many were Chinese.

The service was called the Chinese-English Bible Study, and for good reason. Each time a speaker spoke, there were actually two speakers. The first one would speak in Chinese, the second would translate into English. We sang two song in Chinese. No English translation, but they had the characters up as well as the pinyon so we could sing too. (You have to know things like "qing" is pronounced "ching," but it worked. I have know idea what we were saying, but God was glorified, I am sure.) We also sang "Isn't He" and "Days of Elijah." Oh, my. Singing "Days of Elijah" in China with what I know about the persecuted church here absolutely brought me to tears. Here are the lyrics:

These are the days of Elijah
Declaring the Word of the Lord
And these are the days of your servant Moses
Righteousness being restored
And though these are days of great trials
Of famine and darkness and sword
Still we are the voice in the desert crying
Prepare ye the way of the Lord!

Behold He comes!
Riding on the clouds!
Shining like the sun!
At the trumpet call
Lift your voice!
It's the year of Jubilee!
And out of Zion's hill salvation comes!

And these are the days of Ezekiel
The dry bones becoming as flesh
And these are the days of your servant David
Rebuilding a temple of praise
And these are the days of the harvest
The fields are as white in the world
And we are the labourers in your vineyard
Declaring the word of the Lord!

Behold He comes!
Riding on the clouds!
Shining like the sun!
At the trumpet call
Lift your voice!
It's the year of Jubilee!
And out of Zion's hill salvation comes!

I kept thinking about the song "He Reigns" from the Newsboys. We were truly worshipping with the Asian believers, filled with God's holy fire. They taught from Genesis 27-28 about Jacob fleeing to Laban. The point was that we cannot make heaven on earth, and that we need to have a relationship with God to be right. Very powerful. Greg stayed after to try to talk to the pastor. I'm sure he will have more to share when he returns. I need to go feed the children lunch now.