Happy Easter!  He has Risen!  We were all up early this morning (6:30 wake up calls) for devotions and breakfast (7:00)on the bus at 8:00 for a quick ride across town to attend a Chinese Church (see pic) for Easter Sunday.  The church is 90 years old and full to the brim for Easter Sunday. 
 
We arrived at 8:20 and praise and worship was already going when we arrived. The sermon started at 9:00 and he was still going strong an hour and a half later – Greg would have been impressed :-).
 
With praise and worship and the sermon all in Chinese it was difficult for some of our youth but it was definitely a cross cultural experience. Nothing like starting our Missions Trip worshiping with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Lunch with the members of the congregation and the youth gave us a chance to practice their Chinese and share their testimonies.

After lunch we drove to the center (see attached pic), where we will be spending the next 3 days working – painting, cleaning, and building. The center is a home for 20 or so autistic children who (due to prejudice in China) are not part of the local school system.
 
The center is a lifeline for families with autistic / mentally disabled children – they provide in-home support/coaching, classes, etc. We spent the first hour or so hearing testimonies of the staff, who all expressed that they experience God's love thru working with the children – something we (as leaders) are praying for as our teens work and serve the same kids this week.
 
After touring the center and planning out our work for the next 3 days we got back on the bus for a quick tour of downtown Jinan. We went to a beautiful park and let the kids hang out for a while. Some of the boys played "Ninja" – standing in a circle – I think they had a crowd of 30 people or more watching the foreign teens play around.  It is nice and cool – around 10C – wonderful dry weather.