We shut down worship-world and treated ourselves to some cooking lessons Sunday evening. Carrie's friend Chunyi runs a little hutong cooking school.

Benjamin & Megan met us there and we chopped and woked away! If you are ever in Beijing, you HAVE to do this. Check our Chunyis site at www.hutongcuisine.com

Sunday Morning Worship Services

 Early morning Saturday rehearsal with the multinational team that will lead BICF services. English speaking congregations but 70 nationalities! 

Had a yummy lunch with CCTV (China Central Television) host and friend today. This was the same team that filmed us playing music at the BICF morning services in 2007. They also filmed our concerts leading up to the Olympics on 2008. It was great to catch up with Eva and hear about her work reporting the arts across Beijing. She brought a friend to lunch with her and together they listened to the new (not-yet-released) Arabic worship tune & viewed the I BELIEVE REMIX video. We invited them to bring out a film crew to any of the music events next week. Her response, "I will check with my producer and hopefully bring out a camera." Awesome opportunities here. And lovely, lovely people to work with! 

Generosity is a national trait of the Chinese. They are forever giving things to each other. We met with two Chinese worship leaders today to plan a bi-lingual and over hot drinks, I received a gift. My friend Christopher made his formal presentation and said, "For your health - a bag of oats and raisins from Xianjang province." If ever a gift brought me to tears, it was today.

Meeting with Chinese worship leaders.

A cure for transpacific jet lag!

The world's coolest driver

Spacing - like timing - is everything.

A local worship leader helps us find a good deal on speakers & a small mixer. 

Zipped past the Olympic Bird's Nest building on the way!

Landed Safely

We landed safely in Beijing. Great, smooth flight. Luggage & musical gear in good shape. Pick up by precious Chinese driver & friend. PS. He’s the one who showed ‘The Door’ to his entire little village. Asleep by 7pm, went 10 straight after being up 31 hours! It’s Thursday here. First stop today. Starbucks. Mark & Wang Shr are off to find a mixer & cables. Carrie has some errands for our month long stay. Dinner with Ben & Megan. To bed.  Heads are swimming with resurfaced emotions of why we love China.