wfn.org | Christian Fellowship in China

[BethAH@mbm.org]

October 4, 2000
Beth Hawn
Communications Coordinator
Mennonite Board of Missions
phone (219) 294-7523
fax (219) 294-8669
<www.MBM.org>

Christian fellowship in China: old ties renewed in the classroom

GOSHEN, Ind. (MBM/CEE) – Although many Westerners think of China
as hostile to Christianity, a father-daughter team from Goshen,
Ind., experienced a lively Christian church when they taught
English at a Chinese university this summer.  They also
reconnected with old friends they had made in China eight years
ago.

The father-and-daughter team of Del and Renee Glick, members of
North Goshen (Ind.) Mennonite Church, returned in August from
five weeks at Northeastern University in Shenyang with China
Educational Exchange.  The Glick family, which also included wife
and mother, Charlotte, had served with CEE at the same university
from 1990 to 1992.  This summer, Del and Renee team-taught
intensive English classes of about 30 students at a time.
Charlotte, who was also Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference
regional minister, died in 1999.

As a third-grader during her family’s previous service in China,
Renee was the only North American in her school class, and the
first child to travel through CEE.  This time she was an English
teacher for several of her former schoolmates.

For Del, CEE’s summer program provided the perfect opportunity to
reconnect with former students, classmates and colleagues whom
the Glicks had worked with in 1990.  Besides sharing meals with
old friends, he said the most gratifying experiences came in
relating to Christian congregations in Shenyang, an industrial
city of 6 million people.

“It was very special and very rewarding to observe the body of
Christ there,” he said.

Renee added, “Anyone who says the church in China is dead has
either never been there or somehow has refused to see reality.”
She said she could not help feeling the presence of the Holy
Spirit when she was led to the front of the church on the first
Sunday they attended a service.

Although the Glicks observed worship services that were similar
to traditional ones in North America, Del said congregations
function a bit differently in the world’s most populous country.

The Glicks first attended a Shenyang church of about 20,000
members that holds four or five Sunday services in a four-story
building.  The live service takes place on the first floor, with
TV monitors allowing people crowded onto upper floors and
overflowing into the courtyard to participate in worship.

Del said he enjoyed the “refreshing nature of being a believer in
China” that he hasn’t experienced in the United States.  “The
sheer hunger for connection with the church shows that something
good is happening in the church in China,” he said.

Although missionaries are not allowed to enter China explicitly
to proselytize, Del said university teachers may answer any
questions they wish.

“There are hundreds of opportunities to share about your own
faith in a setting we found very open and receptive to the good
news,” he said.  Both in the classroom and in their apartment in
the evenings, the Glicks found many students who were
disenchanted with Marxism or communism and were looking for
something different.

“Lots of people thought that without missionaries, the church
would die,” Del said.  “It has survived in a much more healthy
way even without missionaries.  God continues to look out for
God’s church.”

Del will begin work with Bahia Vista Mennonite Church in
Sarasota, Fla., this fall.  Renee is a first-year student at
Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.

China Educational Exchange is an umbrella organization of the
Commission on Overseas Mission of the General Conference
Mennonite Church, Eastern Mennonite Missions, Mennonite Board of
Missions of the Mennonite Church, MBMS International (Mennonite
Brethren) and Mennonite Central Committee.

Mennonite Board of Missions extends the whole gospel to a broken
world by building holistic communities of faith in 46 countries.

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Anne Horst                      PHOTO AVAILABLE