As people in America were celebrating Thanksgiving last week, a church in Shaanxi province held its 14th annual Thanksgiving service. This article from China Christian Daily tells how they celebrated.
Shaanxi Church Marks Thanksgiving
Along with the first snowflakes in 2020, the Dawn Church in Baoji City in China’s northern Shaanxi province held its 14th annual Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, November 22.
At the beginning of the service, the Canaan choir and the Joshua choir sang together to praise God.
Then came three sermons in the morning. First, Elder Yi Lianmei shared the gospel. She spent more than half an hour reviewing the 13-year journey of the church and sharing three things before the sermon. First, she said that on one day in September 2007, three believers were suddenly injured in an accident during a trip to Xi’an. Though they suffered severe injuries of varying degrees, they were saved under the protection of God. Because of God’s saving grace at that time, the church started to celebrate Thanksgiving Day every year.
Second, Elder Yi recalled three experiences of building the church and described in detail the hardships and labors with gratitude.
The third experience was of believers who struggled to tithe when Thanksgiving Day was approaching. Two months before the Thanksgiving service, an older sister came to the church and donated to cover all the expenses of the Thanksgiving Day. There were also countless believers who offered meat, rice, vegetables, and steamed buns.
In the afternoon, thanksgiving worship performances began. In the next two and a half hours, the three choirs of the elderly, Canaan, and Joshua, together with the five districts of the south, east, north and middle, performed ten programs. There were poems, singing, dancing, performances, and choirs from each district.
There were also some special features. First were videos of thanksgiving messages from Elder Yi, the leaders of the three choirs, and more than a dozen believers in the choir, which were shown on the large screens on both sides of the sanctuary. They shared the development of the church, the growth of the choir fellowship, and their different service experiences.
The second was a musical melodrama created and directed by the choir themselves. With this year’s pandemic prevention measures as the background, they let people from all walks of life perform on stage to demonstrate the feelings of helplessness and the fear during the pandemic. Nurses and doctors came forward bravely and rushed to the front line to fight against the virus. [The drama showed how] even though worship services were suspended, believers still served the Lord. While staying at home and listening to the sermons of the church’s pastors, they actively donated money and materials to support the fight against the pandemic.
Original Article: “Shaanxi Church Marks Thanksgiving” by China Christian Daily.
Edited and reposted with permission.
Header image credit: Brian Yap via Flickr.
Text image credit: China Christian Daily.
Are you enjoying a cup of good coffee or fragrant tea while reading the latest ChinaSource post? Consider donating the cost of that “cuppa” to support our content so we can continue to serve you with the latest on Christianity in China.