Beijing Tour Day 2

Today’s pace was much slower, thankfully. We attended a Chrisitan church in Beijing. There were all nationalites present, however it is only open to foreign passport holders. We had to show our passport at the door in order to be allowed in. During the fellowship time we heard people say they were from Africa, Hong Kong, Wisconsin, and Canada. It was very emotional for me when I looked around and thought “this is a very small sample of what heaven will be like.” Luckily for us the entire service was done in English and the pastor was from Wales. There is not a traditional church building so they rent the theater of the Sheraton Hotel for services. After church we went to a Jade factory and store. More of a store than a factory. After lunch we drove out into the country and visited the Great Wall.
There were about 5 peaks on the section that we were able to climb. I made it through about the first 2.5 and then made a terrible mistake. I turned around and looked back, which was really looking DOWN. I have never thought of myself as being afraid of heights but my stomach sure was. So, I went down and David continued to climb. The climb up is not nearly as intense as the climb down. The steps are variable heights and it’s hard to judge how far to step. Several people in our group did make it up the 5 peaks but they were very sweaty and exhausted when they returned.
After a Peiking duck dinner we went to a Chinese acrobatic show. It was amazing. We saw 14 girls on one bicycle. It kept reminding me of some Dr. Seuss book I read to the kids, about stacking different amounts of people on different types of bikes. I was glad we were able to go. During the intermission we spotted a group of Chinese babies and someone said, “hey, they all have white parents!” So we mobbed them trying to see all their babies. They were a group of 6 couples from Spain who had just received their babies on Monday. They were all happy and smiling. It was a good sign for tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the day we meet Mia and we are so excited. I will add pictures of this day later