Author: Hannah Nation

The Chinese church needs and is developing excellent pastoral training, but it also needs to raise up Christian educators, going beyond theologians and exegetes to include historians. As an American, I can help try to teach and interpret the history of the church for Chinese context, but it will be best done by Chinese educators themselves. As they document and write their own church history, they will be the best at understanding how it connects to the bigger story of God’s work throughout the world. 

If you’re like me, hospitality is not something that comes easy, even in my own culture. I’m naturally introverted and opening up my home can sometimes feel chaotic, even overwhelming. With the added element of cross-cultural hosting, I can feel at a loss. But there is something perpetually rewarding in sharing life together with other people, especially those who are “sojourners” in our city.

端午节 (duān wǔ jié) is a Chinese public holiday and is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar. That is June 20th this year, in case you aren’t up on your lunar calendar! Typically, people celebrate the festival by eating 粽子 (zòng zi), which are yummy sticky rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves, and by racing dragon boats.

As noted by historians and missiologists, the operative role of narratives in peoples and societies is precisely what makes conversion to Christianity so full of conflict. With the adoption of a new belief system, the convert suddenly risks losing all of her preceding cultural narratives. Who is she now and how does she relate to her home culture? Where is she going and what are the objectives of her life? And often most importantly, how is she supposed to interpret her past? How are the cultural narratives that previously shaped and defined her life to be dealt with?

Several months ago, some of our dearest Chinese friends came into town and took my husband and I out for dinner. The evening with them was great and we enjoyed hearing about the fascinating things they do in life. We often call them our “Chinese bohemians” because they are constantly traversing the world in search of true beauty and ideals. Sometimes it seems like they were born a century too late for their passions. We love them greatly. Since that night, however, I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching regarding the difficulties of cross-cultural friendship. There were many uncomfortable things about our dinner together that night. As with anyone living outside of their home culture, our friends have a lot of quirks. They are still unaccustomed to American restaurant dining, and of course they struggle with various linguistic and cultural expectations. How do you interact appropriately with the waitress? Do you really have to tip that much money? I found myself worrying most of the evening about how to maintain the good graces of our waitress and the other patrons, while at the same time honoring our friends’ Chinese expectations as the dinner’s hosts.

We’re now two weeks away from Thanksgiving. When I mention it to the Chinese students with whom I work, bright eyes and big smiles greet me. Thanksgiving. They’ve heard of it. Especially the really big bird we Americans eat whose name they can never remember. Today one of my Chinese friends suggested we cook one of those birds at our next weekly cooking class and I laughed. I explained to him that cooking a turkey takes hours and hours and that we would never accomplish the task in the relatively short amount of time we have on Thursday evenings. Thoughts of cooking such a large piece of meat for the whole day made his eyes brighten even more. What a curiosity! Recently, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to American holidays and how we choose to celebrate them. I work with Chinese students, ministering to them in Christ’s name. I see differences between us almost every day, but if there is one time of year when I particularly notice the difference between Chinese and American culture, it’s at the holidays.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to approach the throne of God asking that the detainees will be able to return to normal life. There are still many concerns about these two churches’ relationships with the local authorities, so pray that God will provide a way for the congregations to fellowship and worship peacefully.