China - Day 26, Sunday

I decided to, once again, try to get to Church. This time I found a taxi driver who knew where to go and we made it in fifteen minutes. While I waited for Mass to begin, I looked around at the people arriving for Mass. I couldn't help but marvel at how many different nationalities, Catholics from all over the world, gathered together to celebrate Mass. I actually became a little emotional thinking about how pleased God must be to see everyone in harmony. This is how it is meant to be. There were Westerners (by this I mean people who can be from Europe, US, Canada, etc), there were Asians, Indians (from India), etc. The Eucharistic Minister I went to was Indian who wore a Sari and the red dot on her forehead. The church itself is very plain and simple. A crucifix on the wall behind the altar, the tabernacle is very small and simple. The pews are very plain. I leaned back to let a person pass and the pew moved with me!


I have read that the Chinese government appoints the Bishops and maybe the priests. During Mass I tried to find any differences. I could not find anything that is different from any other Mass I have attended. It was nice to finally hear the Word of God proclaimed, to worship with other Catholics and to receive Jesus again. I have missed it!! Things are getting better here everyday.



After Mass I bought some flowers from a street vendor and caught a taxi home.


We went grocery shopping this afternoon. Near the grocery store there are street vendors with videos. You can buy all kinds of American TV shows and movies, cheap. I bought seasons 1-5 of Ghost Whisperer (starring Jennifer Love Hewitt), it cost me 40RMB for 8 discs ($6.30). Daniel bought Rango for 5RMB ($.80), Amy got Season 1 of Modern Family for 20RMB ($3). Sometimes they have Chinese subtitles, sometimes they have the "Coming up next"  box in the corner - because a lot of these were copied right off the TV. The quality for the most part is good. It is not studio good, because they copy the videos, but it works.

Some things are very cheap here and other things are very expensive. Electronics (even though most is made here) is very expensive. Labor is cheap while imported food is expensive.


We went home, gathered on our hard sofa and watched some of the shows we bought.