For an atheist country, China sure prays a lot!

phic CHINA Praying for Rain

As an avowed atheist country, China has a surprising history of public prayer. Not prayer to the God of Hebrew-Christian-Muslim tradition, of course. But prayer, nonetheless.

THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN

The Temple of Heaven is the place where emperors of the Ming and Qing (that Q is pronounced “Ch”. So say Ming and Ching.) Dynasties prayed for good harvest. It’s a beautifully-decorated, round, three-tiered structure set on a three-tiered base of walkways. Praying for a good harvest was a solemn duty of emperors, China being notorious for its floods and droughts, with the lives of millions of people dependent upon the right amount of rainfall.

FUN AND GAMES AT THE ECHO WALL

Our tour group passed through the Gate of Attaining Virtue (I didn’t feel any more virtuous afterwards, but maybe it takes time.) and we proceeded to the Echo Wall. This is a fun place. It has another round temple at one end, smaller than the Temple of Heaven, with a large compound surrounded by a circular, smooth wall. Scott and Derrick, our two guides, had the women go to one side of the compound facing the wall and the men go to the other side, facing the far side of the wall.

On the count of three, the women shouted, “Alo-ha!”. We waited, but didn’t hear an answering “aloha” except what was shouted down to us from the temple lanai by a couple of guys just trying to be friendly. And they weren’t even in our group.

Then our two groups met in the center. Our men said they heard our aloha echoing back at them, and then they answered us—but we never heard it. Ah well. Reminded me of my computer. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Has a mind of its own.

A walkway goes from the temple to the far end of the wall, signifying the great distance between heaven and earth. Our guide said if you stand on the paving stone closest to the temple and clap your hands, you get one echo. If you stand on the second paving stone and clap, you get two echoes. And so on. That didn’t work very well either. I think the large number of sightseers milling around the courtyard defeated the echoes.

CIRCULAR MOUND ALTAR

Then we went to the most interesting place (to me) in the compound, the Huanquitan, or Circular Mound Altar, also known as the Terrace for Offering Sacrifice to the Heaven. Again, emperors came here once a year at the winter solstice to make an offering. It was built in 1530 and renovated in 1749 (Gad even the renovations are old, at least by American standards!) It reminds me of Borobudur in Central Java, Indonesia: circular, broad, like the terraces are covering a hill.

Our guide told us that once there had been a terrible drought. It hadn’t rained for, maybe a couple of years (I forget the exact details). Crops had failed. Food was depleted. People were starving by the thousands. The emperor vowed he would pray until the rain came down. He mounted the steps to the altar and stayed there, praying earnestly, for several days. This guy took his job seriously! At last the gods or spirits or whatever heard his prayer, took pity on China, and sent the life-giving rain.

People still pray here, especially at the winter solstice, and especially when there is a drought.

STATUES FOR OFFERINGS

China has a number of statues that were made as offerings (bribes?) to spirits. For instance, on the bank of Lake Kun ming hu, reposes a Bronze Ox, cast in 1755. On its back, just in case the water spirit didn’t get the message, it explains it’s for the purpose of “Flood-tamng.”

Shanghai also has a couple of shi-shi dogs on the banks of the Yellow River, reputedly for the same purpose. Judging from the number of floods through the centuries, though, I think the statues were not as successful at flood taming as the modern-day dam building.

EMMA AND I PRAYED

Emma, my traveling companion on many missions trips to Thailand and once to Russia, prayed a lot with me, too. In fact, my prayers had started a couple of years before the trip.

For thirty years, I’d been taking small teams to northern Thailand, trekking to isolated villages, teaching in Bible schools, praying for sick or troubled people, mostly telling people that God loved them and that Jesus was stronger than the spirits who were terrorizing them.

One year, I distinctly heard the voice of God tell me, “Pass the torch.” So I proceeded to encourage others to go to Thailand without me. Through our church (First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu) this was successful. Medical teaching teams, construction teams, Bible teachers, and English teachers began to go on a frequent basis, cooperating with PAOT, an indigenous tribal Christian group.

Then I asked, “Okay, God, now what?” And he answered one word. “China.” He didn’t say, “Go to China,” just “China.” But I’m an insatiable traveler and chose to interpret His directive as involving a trip.

Our church was advertising a trip to China in our Sunday bulletin, so I made an appointment with Kelly, our outreach/small groups person, to sign up. She said the trip had been canceled for lack of interest. Now what?

Don (my husband) and I had been volunteering in Chinatown for a couple of years, helping kids with their homework after school. Located in The Chinese Cultural Plaza in Honolulu, the Canaan Community Gospel Center helps immigrants adjust to America while spreading the Gospel in a largely unreached area. One day its director, Pastor Lai, announced a trip to China, the Hong Kong/ Shenzhen area. Aha! That must be what God wants me to do!

But that trip fell through, too. I wondered if God’s plan for me was simply to stay in Honolulu and help out in Chinatown.

CALLED AND ACCOUNTABLE

Then, while studying Blackaby & Skinner’s workbook, “Called and Accountable,” I felt a new urgency. Perhaps it was time to explore another option. Time was short. I felt China was getting closer and closer to world domination and that if that were true , then it was important that it be a Christian nation. Maybe I could simply go as a tourist and turn the trip into a prayer walk.

I called Emma and she was delighted.

So that’s what we did. Every morning and evening we prayed aloud together, praying for each other, for the people in our tour group, our tour directors, for the leaders of China, and for the Chinese people around us—most of all, the Chinese people. Sometimes in the middle of sightseeing, we’d pray silently. We had asked God for His Kingdom to be represented in us, that everywhere we went (including on the tour bus) we would reflect his love and grace, and that every place our feet stepped would eventually become Kingdom territory.

So my trip became two-fold. I was researching for a book I’m writing, FINDING COURAGE, for middle school kids about a girl who is adopted from China by a family in Denver. I needed to see the part of China she came from, to get the right flavor for that part of the book. And I needed to go there as God’s prayer warrior. Emma and I had a meaningful prayer trip. I hope God is pleased.
Next: Terracotta Warriors