However, there are also beneficiaries
of change, in this case Pu Qian Church, my church home in Fuzhou.
The church was founded 150 years ago by Western missionaries and
currently worships in a sanctuary built in 1946. During the Cultural
Revolution, the building was used for a time as a paper factory.
The sanctuary today is desperately in need of repairs and refurbishing.
Perhaps more importantly, the church is hemmed in by shops and
apartments. There is no space to expand. The church fronts on
the narrow street that is the center of the urban redevelopment
project described above, and it, like the old wooden buildings,
will soon be demolished.
One Saturday I happened to pass by the church when a special
100-voice choir was rehearsing for the service the next day. As
I enjoyed the music and the quiet of the empty sanctuary, I watched
two elderly women, the true strength of the Chinese church at
this time, doing housework in the house of the Lord. One was cleaning
the tops of the doors and the pictures high on the walls with
a dust mop. The other was meticulously threading a damp rag between
the slats that form the backs of the pews to remove all traces
of dust.
On Sunday the congregation and the choir participated in a service
of thanksgiving, praising God for his loving care over the past
150 years and for his role in securing the future. The church
has found temporary quarters that it can occupy for two years
while a new five-story church building is being constructed on
a site just north of the current church. The exact date of the
razing of the old building and the move to the temporary quarters
is unknown because it depends on word from the government. Nonetheless,
when I talked to the senior pastor, he seemed unperturbed by the
uncertainty. As the Bible counsels, he and the congregation are
not worrying about the morrow. They are focused on praising God
today.
Let us remember in our prayers those who have been dispossessed
and face the loss of their community, even as we rejoice that
Pu Qian Church will have a new building that provides space to
house its growing congregation.
It has been a privilege to serve in China for the past nine years.
I am deeply grateful that I have been able to share in my students’
lives and to be a part of the ever-growing Chinese Christian community.
This will, however, be my last newsletter from China. In June
I will be returning permanently to the States for health reasons.
God is now leading me to service in another capacity in another
place that will be revealed in God’s time.
Through your prayers and personal expressions of support you
have upheld me and shared in my mission in China. I wish that
I could thank each of you in person.
In Christ’s love,
Barbara Maynard Penney
After June 15, 2004:
Barbara Penney
c/o Carty
3535 W. 1000 S.
Rosedale, IN 47874
(765) 548-2934
barbara_penney@yahoo.com
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
86
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