Going to Church

I have decided to dedicate an entire blog about my church experience in China. I don't care what I say in this blog. I am leaving China soon anyway, so it can't hurt anyone and I'm not going to preach at you. I am only talking about my own personal experience.
On most Sundays when I am not off on a weekend trip or whatnot, I go to one of the legal churches about half an hour's bike ride from my school. The service is a more traditional protestant service, with hymnals and reciting the apostle's creed and Lord's prayer. It is really cool to hear that stuff in a different language in unison. It is still as powerful as in English. When the pastor prays, people interject "amen" throughout the prayer, just like in America. Despite the fact that the sermon was in a language I can barely understand because the words are not common words used in regular speech, it is still great to be in fellowship with brothers and sister in Christ. After church is over, Michael, Bruce, Roselle, Peter, some others, and I usually go out to eat lunch. It is always a great time because Roselle and Peter are from New Zealand, so they speak both English and Chinese. Roselle is a crack up. She has funny facials expressions when she speaks Chinese and is so full of life!
My Chinese friend whose name is also Sarah (we call her "Chinese Sarah" so we don't get her confused with my sister) invited me to go to her underground church. Sarah, Bruce, and I have been there a few times now and Bruce says that it is much more meaningful than our morning church (yep, I go to church twice in one day!). Bruce really likes the worship songs a lot more than the hymns too. The first time we went there, after the service the people took us to the back room and told the "newbies" about the fall of man and how we have a savior who paid the price for our sins. The woman telling us all of this asked each individual if they would like to pray and become a Christian. As we prayed I felt the holy spirit and got these "spiritual tingles" even though I couldn't really understand what she was saying. This was an important moment for me because it was amazing for me to experience the holy spirit defy language barriers! Praise God!