Sunday, July 4

The Wall, The Temple and The People!

Here are some more pictures for you! Check out the three ladies in their special prayer shawls from our dear KnitWits!! The shawls and the women are gorgeous!!

On Thursday, we made it another shopping day because it rained all day. Such hard work that shopping is… Then we saw the sweet children at the orphanage and had fun giving them little gifts and lots of hugs. There was a group there from Grace Alliance Church in Ohio and it was yet another wonderful connection with Deborah and Peggy as well as two of Peggy’s adult children who were having ministry there. They were so excited about all we are doing and I know the relationship will continue.

What a fabulous dinner time we had with Jennifer Chen. We certainly share the same heart and will collaborate together to help the women here! It was so exciting to make our plans for the Saturday training and we enjoyed fabulous food at the Taiwanese restaurant. We are certainly well fed here! I don’t think I’ve eaten the same thing twice and it is all soooo good! This restaurant is nearly walking distance from out hotel and is another one run by Christian people.

On Friday, we had a great vision casting meeting with Shaun and Sarah BAO – wonderful to see their hearts for God and this city! Later, we went with Hope to eat real “Beijing” food….YUM! Then we made a trip to the Temple of Heaven which was wonderful and very HOT! From there we made a quick exchange for Maye at the Silk Market and had a quick planning meeting with Sabina for Saturday. Finally, we had such a great dinner and visit with Ramsey, Iwona, Melvina and Esther Fahel. It really was a joy to see them and to share their lives and our ministry. Ramsey also told me he would arrange for me to meet with someone at his company (large petroleum co.) to discuss a corporate donation for the center here! I will be going there on Monday morning; please join me in praying for this!

Well, enough for now….more later :). It is pure joy watching God work in this place!!

Saturday, July 3

Wish you were here!

I know I am behind in writing this week. Oh, what a week it has been! I will give you a brief summary for now and, as is my custom, I will write a trip journal when I return home with more of the highlights.

On the 29th of June - We went to the Forbidden City with Dony. I have never before experienced the “instant friendships” one develops here! It is such a pleasure. I do have to say it was very hot and humid for this Colorado girl :) and Maye, Faye and I were in competition as to who was the drippiest! Later on we went to train on how to lead a Bible study for small groups. Another great day!

On the 30th of June - Our team went to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall with Eunice (pastor’s wife of the Chinese international church) and Dony. It was really nice getting to know Eunice and sharing about the vision of Global Partners to help orchestrate religious freedom in China! We rode chair lifts to the wall this time, walked and took pictures and then decided to ride down on the sky slide. It was so funny to see Dony intervene so that Maye and Faye could ride down. Their beautiful silver hair caused the Chinese workers to question whether they were young enough to ride (my hair of course is a “natural” brown :))… the sign there says you can’t ride for various reasons including if you are “old and weak”. We all got a big laugh out of that and it became a “funny” the rest of the week! Dinner that evening was with Shaun and Sarah at another Christian restaurant in Beijing. We met some terrific people again and enjoyed fellowship.

I will catch you up on the rest tomorrow. So much to tell including the terrific training today with another 45-50 ladies and some really really wonderful possibilities!! Stay tuned…

Blessings and a hug from Beijing!

Monday, June 28

“Gospel Shopping”

Today we had a very wonderful day at the Silk Market. It really is an experience! Our new friend Phoebe went with us and was a great help to us. At one vendor where we purchased some fans, a young lady named Lucy remembered me from the March trip and was so friendly to us. While she helped Maye, Faye and I, her boss asked Phoebe why we were so happy and energetic considering that many women in our age group are fairly cynical and somewhat embittered by the all they have experienced around the time of the cultural revolution etc. Phoebe explained that it is our faith that gives us joy and a beautiful seed was planted! This happened several more times and so Phoebe named it our “Gospel Shopping Day”!

Tonight we had a very special dinner with Lucien, Katy and Sally Wang and Sally’s fiancé, Chris! So great to be with them and to learn so much from Lucien about the “unregistered churches” here. In his words, “it is such an exciting time to be a part of God’s plan for China!” To that we say, “Amen”!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Wonderful Sunday!

A very sweet service yesterday at Josh and Sabina’s church! Everyone is engaged and complete attention is given by all 70+ people. It felt like 80 or more in the room and was very hot in the small apartment but no one appeared to be bothered at all. Maye, Faye and I shared for just a few minutes about who we are and why we are here. A very delicious meal was served and then 6 people were baptized! I will include pictures on the next posting – just so moving to see what they do and how each person is genuinely happy for each new believer. After each one comes out of the water (in the bath tub) everyone sings, “I have decided to follow Jesus”!

This small place and each person is so well organized and it is fascinating to watch as it is transformed from church, to dining room and then each knows what they must do to completely clean the place in record time after the baptism. The schedules don’t allow for coming back to do these things with working many hours each day, long commutes and working 6-7 days per week for many.

We were invited by Jennifer Chen (who attended the training on the 26th) to attend a “passport church” for Chinese who’ve lived abroad and have foreign passports. Again, we met very warm people and were very warmly welcomed! I shared for about 10 minutes about the work of Women’s Connections here and we now have more people attending our training on Saturday! Nearly all spoke English in this service which is held in a convention center. And of course these dear folk invited us to dine with them after the service! A great day!!

Thank you for praying! Stay tuned for more!!

Peggy

Amazing Day in Beijing!

Maye Jepson, Faye Hayes and I arrived safely last evening, rested very well and along with our beautiful translators/speakers Hope and Sabina, we conducted a very successful seminar! The room filled almost completely with 70+ in attendance (the room would hold 80). This doubled our attendance at our biggest event on our first training trip in March! God certainly went before us and doubled our efforts in every way.

The women were very receptive and very responsive to our efforts to train them. All speakers did a fabulous job, including Sabina and Hope who translated and taught as well! Hearts were certainly touched and the interaction at break time and at the end could have gone on and on. One new friend “Phoebe” introduced me to her visiting friend who was open to hearing more of Christ! So much to tell and yet it is time to rest.



Oh, 4 of the prayer shawls made by our beloved “KnitWits” were received so well!. If the temperature were not in the 90’s I am certain they would be wearing them everywhere! Wendy said with tears in her eyes that, “this was the most precious gift she had ever received!”. Sabina also received beautiful knitted things for her coming little boy, she was so thrilled and said he was spoiled already. She wanted to express to Ruth Selby how much she loved the baby things!


Tomorrow we will attend Josh and Sabina’s church and baptism and then in the afternoon we will visit George and Jennifer Chen’s church as well. We so wish you were here with us to share in our joy! Maye already said she can’t wait to come back and we only just arrived…

Blessings until next time
Peggy

knitwits :)

I want to especially thank the KnitWits! They are "knitting a witness for Christ" and sending 4 beautiful prayer shawls with us to China as gifts for some wonderful women there. Check out their blog, they are great! I love my beautiful red shawl and feel wrapped in prayer when I wrap up in the mornings. Thank you knitwits!!
http:/knitwitknews.blogspot.com

On Our Way to Beijing!

Here we go - Our second team leaves for Beijing on June 24th! We are so excited and would be so grateful if you would pray that the people God would have us to see are ready and that we are prepared to be all we should be for them! Watch for updates - starting on about June 25!

Connecting Hearts

We are so excited about putting together a new way to connect women in North America with the women of China! We're calling it, "Connecting Hearts"! We wil connect 2 N. Amer women with 1 English speaking Chinese woman and 4 others. This will give us an opportunity to meet the requested needs for training leaders there.
We ask for your prayers in this...