A 1st - one of many - TOTAL SUCCESS

We decided to venture to a church on Sunday. The service started at 3pm - different time for us but actually nice as it eliminates the rushing in the morning.  The church is called AGIF (Abundant Grace International Fellowship).  A friend of mine, Bev, goes to this church & invited us to go.  We have been out of the 'church scene' for quite some time with the "proposed" move to China & then the actual move so all of us were a bit hesitant to go but we felt that we needed to take the 'plunge'.  Mr. He picked us up at 2:30pm & off we went.  The church was bustling with people getting inside from the snow (Shanghai has been having unusually weird weather the past few days with snow & sleet falling at rapid rates that accumulation is present).  We met several nice people upon arriving & then settled into the unpadded pews, which were very cold.  The worship team came up to start the service.  I was wondering what this would bring - music only, instruments - 4 singers, a drummer, pianist & guitarist started us off.  The first song sang brought tears to my eyes, which I was having a hard time controlling.  How good it felt to sing praises to God again!!  As I looked around during the worship, I was inspired.  Many nationalities were represented & each person was praising God - many with lifted hands, clapping, singing so loud, many off key but the common factor...all singing to OUR God without the worries of what people will say.   After singing many inspiring songs, many of which we have sung at other churches & which tend to be our favorites, the children were dismissed to children's church.  Amanda ran off with Chloe,  Bev's daughter, & Justin, so bravely, went to his class (Tanner is right on the brink of being too old for children's church so he hung back with us).  Upon returning from dropping the kids off, we had a nice lesson by the preacher & sang a few more songs.  The sermon was great but I do have to say, Garth is still my favorite preacher!  Different parts of the service were led by teens, women, men - in this case, sex or race did not seem to matter - again, everyone was here for one purpose - to worship God!!  A different experience for us, yes, but one we are looking forward to journeying down.  God has been so faithful to us during all our times but especially now as we are half way around the world.  He has brought us contacts & friends, a great school for our children, ways to communicate with our loved one's back in the states & the experience of journeying to places unimaginable all while soaking up Amanda's culture.  What a better way to 'thank' Him then to join Him in His place of worship, the place He gave us to express our 'thanks' & commitment to Him!!  As we journeyed home, Ron was stating how he had goose bumps for several of the songs & all the kids enjoyed the church with Justin (our quiet one) so excited about children's church.  Thanks God for guiding us to your house of worship & for placing Bev in my life to guide us there!!