Local fellowship.

There's only a handful of government sanctioned churches in the city. Two of the international fellowships are only available to foreigners...as no Chinese locals are allowed to attend. I'm not familiar with all the rules and regulations concerning local churches, but most LOCAL fellowships are small and unless you look Chinese, you are discouraged to attend as it raises red flags.

Well, Lily and I are blessed to look the part! :) We've really struggled and prayed about which church/fellowship to attend on Sundays. We've bounced around and tried both (government sanctioned) international fellowships. However, after much prayer, we decided 2 months ago to commit to going to a local fellowship.

Yes, the local fellowship is small (at most 30'ish people), doesn't have a children's ministry (we have to take care of our own kids), we struggle with understanding a lot of the sermon/content (spiritual language can be complicated), and the leadership isn't totally stable...however, we just feel so privileged getting to spend time with and invest in the lives of local believers! Equally awesome is that we feel like we are loved there, and others have invested in us! True family.

We need a lot of prayer when it comes to how we can best use our "gifts" in serving the church. Here's a picture of our family here in Kunming, China:

A local health and vitamin store owner (new believer) has allowed us to use his store as our gathering place. Man, how we in the States take for granted our church buildings, facilities, resources, and more importantly our freedom to worship!