Jeremy Schlitz
1-20-16
“Adventure” Assignment
The Chinese Church
This weekend I ventured into a Chinese church with my African American friend. We both speak conversational Mandarin and we showed up a little late because I got lost driving there. As we were walking in we were very hesitant to go inside the chapel until a man came out of the chapel and talked to us and was amazed by lt Chinese ability. He had such a large smile and looked at us like we had been a gift from God coming down and visiting the Chinese church and speaking it well too. He was a little thrown off right away when he saw us, like he had a “are you lost?” on his face. He was probably the most confused person I’d ever seen a person however he ended up being a great guy and loved speaking Mandarin with us! Later he helped us with translation that we didn’t really understand
Right away as we entered the church, all eyes eyes were on us, the only non-Chinese people in the entire church. Everybody was looking at us weird with a, why are these people here look on their faces. At at the end of the ceremony it was really weird. The pastor asked for all the new people to stand, stating that as he was staring at us, when we stood up, he then told us to introduce ourselves. As I started talking, everyone's faces melted with pure joy, many people had never seen a white person speak Mandarin in their lives until that point. Everyone was smiling as I spoke, as they all had faces filled with pure bliss, it was a magical experience. As my friend spoke there were even more astonished faces. People thought it was crazy to see a white person speak man and it was almost too much for them to see a black person do it too. The Chinese community beloved us, and we felt it, and plan on going back every Sunday after this past one.
After we spoke and service was done, we then were spoken to by just about every single member in the church. They all wanted to know “how do you speak Chinese?”, “Have you been to China?”, etc. Everybody was so welcoming we even got invited to their Bible study for this Friday night. They were so inclusive and welcoming, I don't think I've ever witnessed a group of people be so nice to me in my entire life. I will never forget this experience and I very much look forward to many more experiences like this, getting out of my comfort zone and trying new things. This assignment pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me become apart of a community I didn't really want to join originally, but rather I did it for the reason of trying something new. God bless this assignment!
