In I don't know how many years... SJCAC didn't have a Christmas Eve service. I didn't realize how much I would miss it. It's a personal tradition to have some type of service or mass on Christmas Eve. I was a little taken off guard to a point... I didn't know how to find a place to worship.
Went online. Typed the typical search words "Christmas Eve Service San Jose" or "Chinese Church Christmas Eve Service." I even wanted to take the kids to a Southern Baptist Church and watch some African American choir truly truly sing and worship!!!
In the end... we ended up going to River of Life church in Santa Clara. The one Chinese Megachurch in the bay area. And oh my was I impressed. No wonder they're a mega-church. No wonder they've sucked so many SJCAC-ers out of uhm... SJCAC.
Punctuality -- I got there at 5:59PM for the 6PM service. And on the dot... they said, "We're at capacity. Service is starting. Please sit in the overflow section." They started on time!!
Overflow -- the amount of seats and number of people in their overflow section was greater than the entire SJCAC Christmas Night. Not a competition... but embarrassing!!
Accents -- their English, even the pastor translating for Pastor Lau into English, has a heavy Chinese accent. That's almost the norm there. To speak with perfect American English, is the minority!!
Lack of YA -- just like SJCAC... there's a huge lack of Young Adult (or C&C). I guess all the College and Careers are hangin' out at the American Mega-churches (Abundant Life).
Creativity to the Max -- the Christmas Service turned out to be a Christmas Variety show. But they were so creative!! "Stall Walls" -- a parody of Star Wars of Luke and Leia trying to find the true "Force." Three Wise Men from the East - 東方三才子 where the three wise men are 魯子，孔子，孟子. Lao-zi who admits his philosophy is "lousy". Confucius who says his philosophy is "confusing." And Menicus who confesses that his mom moved three times for real estate reasons!! Hilarious!!! Puts our CNY performances to shame!!
Candlelight / Glowstick Service - every Christmas Eve has it... the candlelight service. But ROLCC was smart enough to prepare green and red glow sticks for the kids. Brilliant!!! (pun intended)
The Legendary Pastor Lau -- I never knew him... but I guess he was the former SJCAC Mandarin Pastor. And for whatever reason, he left SJCAC. Look at him now. Man... he was charismatic. He's a short, fat and balding Chinese man. But he had charisma. And his wife. You don't want to mess with her. I guess "chosen ones" from the Lord simply oozes with the aura.
General Population - A lot of mainlanders. No wonder this church is booming. It's totally capitalizing on the mandarin population. They have a small English and Cantonese congregation. Where are all the Cantonese people going.....?
Cantonese Population in Bay Area - in my search for a Chinese Church, it was pretty fun to find all these Cantonese churches outside of SJCAC. Makes me wonder... makes me think... should I go explore? Just to see? What if I see what I like.. I don't come back????
The one thing that irritated me.... was when I was the first in the overflow section. I stood in the front row and stood up to worship the Lord. About 5 minutes later... the Overflow section started filling up and then an usher came up to me and asked me to sit down. I was pissed!!!! In my best Mandarin, I said to him, "敬拜神不是應該站起來的嗎??" The usher had nothing to say but, "不好意思!" People!! We're here to worship God.... worship our Lord and Savior... not to watch a show.
Nui-nui loved it. And I hope to instill in her... that every Christmas Eve, the Leung family will find a place to worship our Lord.
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