Sunday morning we worshipped as a group at Hangzhou International Fellowship, which meets in the building of a registered church for Chinese nationals. The fellowship we went to is in English and only for foreigners. The government regulates how Chinese Christians organize and worship and does not allow denominations, but lets foreigners worship without these regulations. But this means that unregulated churches can only be for foreigners. In addition to these two types of churches (registered and for foreigners) Chinese people can met and worship in other places (homes, rented space, etc) as long as the meetings have 25 or fewer persons.
We took a city bus. Here we are getting on. Fare is RMB 2 which is about 25 cents.
Hang on
This poor guy spent the night outside and it is pretty cold this morning... about zero celsius. As in most cities over several million people in USA, one sees some homelessness and begging in China.
These people are helping us greet the new year. You see these characters all over, along with a stylized ox. It is new years eve today (Chinese lunar new year). A huge holiday in China starts today.
Old building on a hill seen on the way to church.
The front of the church building. Remember this building is owned by a large registered church made up of Chinese persons like we worshipped at in Shanghai last week. The international fellowship we attended today is made up a a few poor foreigners who live in Hangshou and just uses space in the large registered church building.
Shawn and Taylor in a church hallway
The sanctuary. We are all sitting in the left front. We arrive a bit early before the regulars.
We meet a guy from Grand Haven, named Martin, with a good Dutch last name. He is in Hangzhou teaching English and on some business. We took our photo with him, on the left, with Krista, Marissa, Andrew, Whitney, Danny, Elisabeth and Jeff. It was very nice to have a service in English and to see Christians from all over the world worship together... quite a few Africans, some Australians, some Canadians and Americans.
