On January 29, the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, Beihai Church in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region held a thanksgiving and praise worship service in the local dialect.
With over a hundred years of history, the church has a service in the "Beihai dialect" on Sundays and other gatherings in order to meet the needs of local believers, especially elderly congregants. The dialect is a Cantonese language in Qin-Lian areas.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, believers attended the festive gathering dressed in holiday attire, and greeted each other with blessings for a new year of grace in the Lord, with hope for spiritual growth and new harvests in the year ahead.
During the praise gathering, the church choir performed songs such as "Joyful Life" and New Year’s hymns in the familiar and down-to-earth Beihai dialect.
Alongside the praise service, there was a thanksgiving celebration that featured a "Lucky Start" song-guessing game and a red envelope giveaway, which included cash. More than 350 participants joined this joyful event, which lasted more than three hours. In the end, three believers won the grand red envelopes.
(Originally published by the Gospel Times, the article has been edited under permission and the author is a believer at a church in Liaoning.)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
