Today was a pretty exciting day. We were able to visit a church in Beijing and then we visited the Great Wall!
We all slept pretty well. Rachel and I slept almost 9-10 hours, which was great. Bob slept around 7 or 8 as well. So we were pretty well rested today.
Bob found a church online that we were able to visit in Beijing. They have lots of different services in many languages, but we were able to visit the English service this morning. It was funny because we pulled up to the hotel they meet in, and a girl behind us yelled out, “Excuse me! Are you going to the church too? I’m trying to find it.” It took me by surprise that she was speaking English to us! And then I remembered it was an English service.
It was a nice service, though. The church was probably around 100-150 people (I guess during the summer its much smaller), from all over the world. Some were visitors just like us, but mostly they all lived in the Beijing area.
We sang worship songs at the beginning. It was surreal to sing worship songs that I’ve sung many times at home or at school in Beijing, China. It was a very neat experience. The last song we sang was called “God of this City”, which is a song that we’ve
always sung during my previous Chenzhou trips during our devotional time. It was so powerful to sing this song with a room full of believers, praying to God that HE has greater things for this city.
Greater things have yet to come, greater things have still to be done in this city…
What a powerful prayer and promise to hold on to.
I had tears welling up in my eyes as I sang, thanking God that He is the God of this city, and He has great and amazing plans for not
only Beijing, but the whole country.
We were able to meet some really cool people at the church today. We visited with a young girl named Bonnie, who studied in the US but came back to China to teach English. It was really interesting to hear her tell us about her job and how the culture is very different in the US from China.
After the church we took the long drive to the Great Wall. I always
joke that I should have a frequent customer punch card for the Great Wall. This is my 6th time up, and you would think that I would have a free visit by now ;). We ate lunch at the same restaurant that we ate at last year, which was kinda funny. The streets leading up to the entrance of the Wall has completely changed, though. There aren’t any street vendors on the street trying to sell us their souvenirs.
As we were walking to the entrance, we noticed that everyone
coming down from the wall were drenched in sweat. It was a humid day, but at that point I couldn’t imagine ever being that sweaty… but boy was I wrong.
We took the cable car up to the part where we actually climb the Great Wall. Halfway through our ride up we noticed our car had writing on the top of it, and none of the others did. We read it and it told us that Michele Obama actually rode in that very cable car in March to get to the Great Wall! Haha. It was kinda funny.
Once we reached the Wall, Rachel, Steve, and I all climbed the wall together, and Bob walked around some of the other parts and took some pictures. Rachel and I got to spend some quality time with Steve on our hike up the Wall. I loved Steve as our guide last year, and I’m really glad we have him back this year. He’s got a great sense of humor and he is very good at his job.
The three of us made it to the top after climbing lots of stairs and a few ladders. At one point, the steps were so steep it felt like we were almost climbing a ladder with no handles. Very tricky. But we made it, and I will say it is very beautiful. I always enjoy the Great Wall, and every time I’m so amazed that the soldiers were able to run up and down the wall during the war… because walking it is no easy task.
Needless to say, we were all soaked in sweat by the time we reached the top. Haha.
Once we were finished we went back to the hotel and then went to dinner soon after. And that basically took up our entire day.
I know we’re all pretty exhausted from the long day, so hopefully we will sleep well tonight. We are so excited to go to New Hope
just outside of Beijing tomorrow!
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