Pink Louboutin Mary Janes...for big girls!
Celebrating Easter in Beijing was quite interesting…to say the least! For starters, it is somewhat difficult to successfully dye brown eggs. Although, I suppose the real starter is celebrating one of the most important Christian holidays in a primarily non-Christian country. It must be said; however, that there are over 125 million Christians living in China. According to www.religioustolerance.org, there are just 159 million Christians in the USA. Obviously the percentage of Christians in the States is much higher than that of China, but isn’t it exciting to see such growth in a nation that only recently began to permit churches that are not controlled by the Chinese government!
While there were vast differences, there were also many similarities. For example – Brett was able to find Easter Lilies for me and some stores were even selling chocolate bunnies. Of course the biggest similarity was the message of Easter – that He is risen indeed!
In full disclosure, I should admit that there were a few things about the church service that alarmed us. For one, the welcome intro was done via video with a Wizard of Oz like voice narrating a message that sounded more like the end of the world than the beginning of an Easter service. I was actually able to overlook this rather quickly though as I spanned the room (huge auditorium) and saw every different ethnicity one could imagine. It was truly moving.
So even though I didn’t see a single little girl with goldilocks blonde curls wearing a smocked dress with pink mary janes, I did get to sing my favorite hymn “Because He Lives”, and Brett and I had a lovely champagne brunch at the Ritz complete with hand painted Easter Egg centerpieces.
Happy Easter!
Beijing Tip: Beijing International Christian Fellowship church offers services in a variety of languages at multiple locations around Beijing. Visit the website for more information: http://www.bicf.org
Please note that these are contemporary services. I am currently researching more traditional church services, as that is really more my thing!
A Blonde in Beijing 
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