T28 & 29 - preparing Bible Study, a random walk and a pastoral visit

13/10/2009 by paul.

After the mamoth Sunday, Monday was fairly quiet. I’m beginning an English Bible Study series here looking at 1 Peter, and so I began my preparations for our first meeting on Wednesday. The church see this as a mission opportunity. Previously the church have run English Bible classes and they have attracted non-Christians who wish to learn more English. So its important that the approach and balance of the Bible Study is right - without neglecting anything of the passage, we also need to focus on the English vocab and grammar. It’s been really interesting to prepare for. How do you explain ’salvation’, ‘joy’, ‘inheritance’, ‘faith’ as vocab - in effect how do you explain the gospel in simpler terms so that all can understand, and not just using English church language. Can you do it, and should we do it?

On Monday afternoon I needed to clear my head a bit so I went for a walk. It’s a bit cooler now (quite scarily it dropped to 25C and I wondered if I should put a jumper on, hmmm, something wrong), so I decided to make for the 101 building. I was armed with my camera, but with the cooler weather comes clouds and I had forgotten to put the battery in the camera before I headed out. After about 20 mins I came across a big square building with an escalator leading up to about the 5th floor. I plucked up the courage and entered through a slightly more inviting door at ground level. It was a shopping centre. As I walked a little further I came to an open area in which you could see both up and down - it was huge. There were at least 7 floor below me and about 15 above. In the middle was a ridiculous suspended granite ball which housed a department store. The architecture was quite stunning, and it was one of those places where escalators go at funny angles and just looking around I felt a bit sick! I had in fact discovered the Living Mall, which I later discovered to be the world’s first 24 hr shopping mall, covering a ridiculous 205,000 square meters (that’s about 27 football pitches). I will have to return with either my camera or Jo, the first option being the cheapest…

Tuesday has been more of Bible Study preparation, and then in the evening me, Hsinte and his wife went on a pastoral visit to a retired professor. It was interesting seeing another home, and yet again I was made very welcome: this time with a nice victoria sponge cake topped with shredded pork. tasty.

Sorry for the lack of photos, I’ll try and remember to take the battery next time!

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