Two Sundays I got a chance to go to one of the two legal Protestant Christian churches located in Chengdu. Crystal discovered the church after some random guy (now our new friend Michael) walked up to her when she was eating at a restaurant, asked her if she was a Christian and wanted to go to church. Michael then connected us with a New Zealand middle-aged couple who had lived in China for about 3 years. They met us at the North Gate-end of campus where we rode our bikes to the church about 20 minutes away. The church was a very traditional-style sermon and congregation. We started out with hymns, then a prayer, along with a message- all in Chinese! I wasn't able to understand most of it mainly because of the Sichuan dialect, but Michael helped me follow along in his Chinese-English Bible, which he later gave to me. We learned about Giving in 2 Corinthians 8. It was a very good experience.
This past weekend my classmates and I took a short trip to Leshan (Happy Mountain) and Emei Mountain. Leshan was has the largest stone-carved sitting Buddah in the world. It is about 71 meters high and would be 88 (a lucky number in Chinese) meters if it were standing. It was carved about 1,200 years ago and took 90 years to complete. The people at that time it was built suffered from terrible flooding every year that resulted in many deaths and destroyed crops. The giant Buddha was built to protect and watch over the people of the river which it sat above. I wonder if it worked...?
The next day we went to Emei Mountain and bused/hiked/cable car-ed to the summit, called Jin Ding or "Golden Peak." There was a giant golden statue of a buddah with several heads on an elephant with eight heads. The cost to build said idol: 40 million yuen (Chinese dollars)! There were also several temples and viewing areas at the top of the mountain. It was quite foggy, but nonetheless still very breathtaking and very high up!
But the best part about the WHOLE weekend was what we did after Emei Mountain....the MONKEYS!!!! We took a 7 km hike into the depths of the forest where we encountered creatures unlike any I could ever expect. They were greedy, fat, hungry, addicted to people food- yet the cutest animals alive! They knew we were coming too. We were greeted with tiny hands rummaging through our pockets looking for food and snatching at any shiny thing they saw. We were also greeted by men who offered to put monkeys on our heads and take pictures. I was hesitant at first, but after watching Crystal and my other classmates do it, it seemed just barely safe enough- so I reluctantly followed suit. I only live once I suppose...why not put a monkey on my head?? :D
Bible Verse of the Day:
2 Corinthians 8:9 "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; rich as he was, made himself poor for your sake, in order to make you rich by means of his poverty."
Chinese Word of the Day:
Hou 猴 "Monkey"
Yeah! I loved this blog. I may call you monkey head for some time to come. Great pictures too. I've seen smaller versions of the Buhda with the elephants in gift stores. Now I know where the idea came from. Did I mention that I wish I was you? Well, maybe not you, but the experiences you have. Keep the blogs coming...expected and unexpected happenings! We want to know the regular day to day stuff too. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!
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