Jinan - Day 2

It was Sunday and our hosts in Jinan took us to church. As our taxi pulled up in front of the church, we were greeted by deacons in orange T-shirts and welcomed to the church.

Inside the sanctuary, we were escorted to an empty pew to the side of the platform. Since the church was already rather full, I conclude that the pew must have been reserved for us. They were in the middle of a hymn sing, practicing the hymns that will be sung during the worship service, which started about a half hour later.
 

It turned out that we had arrived on the Sunday of the year when they do baptisms; 160 new converts were being baptized that Sunday. These are some of the candidates awaiting baptism.
 

We understand from Judy that baptism can be by either sprinkling or immersion; in this case it was by sprinkling.
 

This retired pastor, Hui Zhen Wang, did some of the baptisms.
 

A view of the sanctuary from the rear. I would guess that there were about 1,000 people in the worship service, but that is purely a guess.
 

We had a chance to talk with the retired pastor, Hui Zhen Wang, after the service; she was a delightful lady.
 

The church was taking a group photo of the newly baptized converts, so I grabbed this photo of them posing on the stairs.
 

That evening we were invited to a banquet with the president of Shandong Institute of Education; it was held in this restaurant near Jinan. With the lighting on the building, it was quite an impressive sight in the evening twilight hours.
 

Can you imagine being greeted by this crew of lovely ladies as we entered the front door of the restaurant?
 

In the middle is Professor Li Qing Min, President of Shandong Institute. To his left is Liu Ming, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office. Behind him is Michael Wang, who is the Assistant Director of Foreign Affairs and head of the Summer English Program at Shandong; we work closely with him and with Cookie ( between Bob and Michael Wang), who is Wang's assistant.