Xian church

It was raining cats and dogs on the Saturday afternoon when I was in Xian, so I ducked into a church near the main street for a bit of shelter as well as quietness. This church was usually packed on Sunday evenings, when I normally visited after my classes, if I didn’t fly back to Hong Kong immediately.

The benches piled up outside the sanctuary testifies to the size of the crowds that can pile up on busy Sundays. I heard that there are two services on Sunday morning, and one in the evening, all packed. More than once, I had to listen to the sermon siting on one of those benches outside the sanctuary.

On this Saturday, however, there were no services scheduled for the evening. When I arrived at around 6 PM, the sanctuary was completely dark, and almost totally deserted. After my eyes adjusted themselves to the darkness, however, I found that there were several old ladies praying there. The one sitting next to me actually started to hum a tune that I was familiar with - not the words, however. After a couple of minutes, I found myself humming along! It was a rather eerily strange, but not uncomfortable feeling. We didn’t know each other, never talked to each other, and in fact could hardly communicate with each other, yet we felt comfortable singing together. Another few more minutes later, however, we were interrupted. The care-taker announced that he was locking up the doors.

As I stood in the rain outside the door, contemplating where I should go, a young lady looking like a university student tried to enter the church, ... There is another story that I have to tell some other time.