Trips Blog

by Nancy Fox

In Shanghai on Tuesday, October 23, we met with six of the top leaders of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), which is the official Protestant church (a single denomination) in China and the largest Protestant body in any country. In Jiangsu Province alone (where we have spent most of our time), there are about two million members. The “three-self” element is drawn from what was new Protestant mission thinking around the end of the 19th century, that newly planted churches should be self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. That approach was shown to be highly successful in Korea and was embraced by the Chinese church after foreign missionaries were expelled in 1949 and the re-opening of churches following the Cultural Revolution. Because of this three-self emphasis, the Protestant church in China is truly Chinese.

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by Laurie Denham, National Presbyterian Church, Washington DC

October 21, our group split the day between Jiangyin and Suzhou. Those of us in Suzhou spent most of the day at Lion Mountain Faith Church with the delegation from University Place Presbyterian Church (UPPC) in Takoma, WA. We arrived at the church to discover they were having their annual rummage sale to benefit the surrounding community. As we entered the sanctuary, I immediately observed a wonderful diversity of age and socio-economic status in the congregation. This is a church that truly serves their community.

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By Julia Sensenbrenner, for the team

On October 19, we left Nanjing and drove to Suzhou, where we visited Dushu Lake Church and enjoyed a delicious dinner of Suzhou specialties. We marveled at the beauty of the church, opened in 2010, with its commanding statue of Jesus and beautiful stained-glass windows, including many by He Qi, a Chinese artist who trained and taught in Nanjing before moving to the United States. We enjoyed meeting Pastor He and Pastor Thomas, two of the four pastors of the church, which offers three worship services each weekend, including a Sunday afternoon service oriented toward young people.

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by Dale Keller, First Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, NC

The Outreach Foundation Mission group visited two important Nanjing Christian centers on October 18, 2018: The Amity Printing Company and the Jiangsu Theological Seminary.

Amity Printing Company:

God’s Spirit is hard at work at the Amity Printing Company. Our group was warmly welcomed to the company, briefed on plant operations, toured the print operation, and hosted in an employee lunch dining room.

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Day 2 in Nanjing 

Ten bleary-eyed new arrivals joined the Outreach team for our second day in Nanjing. They had arrived in Nanjing well after midnight from their long trip but were determined not to let fatigue stop them from seeing what God is doing in China.

Our first stop was Sheng Xun Church, a beautiful, 5000-seat church located in a new area of Nanjing which was the site of the 2013 Pan-Asian Games and the 2014 Youth Olympics.

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Jeff Ritchie, Mission Advocate

We arrived in Nanjing early Monday evening and were greeted by another long-time friend of The Outreach Foundation, the Rev. David Shi (Chinese name: Shi Li). David got us checked in and deliciously fed, then told us to get a good rest so that we could enjoy the Jiangsu Theological Seminary 20th anniversary celebration the next day.

When we arrived at Jiangsu Seminary Tuesday morning, we saw parked cars and buses line up and down the street leading to the seminary. Something was about to happen!

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Days in Harbin, October 12-15

Reflections by Jeff Ritchie, Jimmy and Lynne Quinn, Choon Lim and Juan Sarmiento 

Five of the sixteen participants in the 2018 Outreach Foundation trip to China began their trip with a four-day visit to Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. Harbin was the place where most of the early Outreach Foundation trips to China centered on. For four of the five travelers, this was a homecoming to people who have become like family. For Juan Sarmiento, Associate Director for Mission of The Outreach Foundation, it was his welcome to the family.

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