From the Mainland to HK Island

After a week in Beijing, the Tedders made their way to Hong Kong for meetings and worship leading with some good friends. On Friday night, Mark Tedder and Jeff Caylor lead an evening of prayer at Island ECC. The evening had a focus on praying for mainland China and Mark was able to share some songs from The Door. Jeff Caylor, originally from Colorado and an artist on The Door, is now the worship leader at Island ECC on Hong Kong Island. The Tedders and Jeff were able to explore Hong Kong together in their free time. Above is a picture taken on one of their adventures.

On Saturday, Mark and Carrie taught a worship workshop at Island ECC. Worshiplanet, the non-profit they spearhead, is a worship-equipping and training ministry.

Sunday morning, the Tedders lead worship at The Vine on Hong Kong Island. They ended the weekend with an afternoon service at The Vine, where Tom Read leads worship. Overall, the week in Hong Kong was a time of reconnecting with Asia-based friends and an opportunity to encourage the Church in Hong Kong with worship from the mainland.

Beijing: An update from Carrie

The past 72 hours has been a real Beijing Blur. But a good one!

On Friday Mark & I scheduled back-to-back coffees with friends. It was so wonderful to catch up with their lives. Then Daniel hosted a drop in party for us Friday night. We had SUCH FUN. Chinese worship leaders & musicians, friends from the BICF, new babies, my language teacher, and even our former driver, Xiao Wang, were in the throng. We trashed Daniel's apartment but had made memories in the process.

Saturday we lead worship all day for BICF's spiritual life conference. The speakers for the event were Stuart & Jill Brisoce. We knew from working with them before that the day would also be a very restorative for Mark & I. And it was! Wonderful, wonderful subject matter of 'walking in the spirit'. Another bonus of the day was getting play with Beijing's best bast player and our semi-adopted son Timon from Dominica. 

Sunday was filled with services, conversations, dim sum, and a praise rally. But our biggest news from the weekend was an expected but none-the-less thrilling phone call from our son Benjamin. He's engaged! Yes. Ben & Megan are officially heading towards marriage. We are SO excited for them and thankful beyond words. We'd been anxiously awaiting the 'she said yes' phone call and was relieved to get it. Even if it came smack in the middle of a worship song!

It's now 5am on Monday morning and I'm up before the guys. Which, if you really know me, you know all glory belongs to jet lag because I'm usually the last one up! In 4 hours we catch the train to Hong Kong. So I'll be blogging again once we arrive in southern China.

Briscoes in Beijing

Stuart and Jill Briscoe, founders of the media ministry Telling the Truth, will be in Beijing on February 14th to lead a conference at BICF. The conference is simply called the Spiritual Life conference and the Tedders will be leading worship throughout the day.
If you're in Beijing and are looking for something to do on Valentine's Day, head down to the Zhong Guan Cun campus of BICF for this incredible one day conference. Tip: There's now a Zhong Guan Cun stop on the light blue line (Line 4).

Radio Envoy

Mark was recently interviewed by Radio Envoy about his time in China, the recording of the Door, and the transition from being a drummer to a guitarist.

Listen to the interview here.

Back to Asia

It's time again to jump on a giant United airplane for 12+ hours and head back to Asia! Dreams of kung pao chicken, $4 foot massages, and vibrant Chinese markets swirl in the Tedder's minds.
Mark and Carrie Tedder are getting ready to head back to Asia on February 8th for a small tour of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Bangkok.
Mark will be leading worship at a conference in Beijing, as well as their China home church of BICF.
Then the Tedders will head down to Hong Kong and lead worship at Island ECC, where their good friend Jeff Caylor is the worship leader.
Finally, they'll fly to Bangkok for some meetings and back to Colorado in late February.
Please pray for approval of The Door by the Chinese government for distribution within China, for safe travels and opportunities to reconnect with Asia-based friends along the way.

Humanifesto

I want to be a grace guerilla
no longer a chameleon of karma
the time has come to stand out from the crowd.
I want to give forgiveness a fighting chance of freeing me
I want to live in love
and live it out loud.

I want to drink deep of the foolishness of wisdom
instead of swallowing the wisdom of fools
I want to find a source in the deeper mines of meaning
to search out the unsearchable
to invoke the invisible
to choose the truth the TV hypnotists aren't screening.

No camouflage
no entourage
no smoothly fitting-in
I want a faith that goes further than face value
and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin.

I want to be untouched by my possessions
instead of being possessed by what I touch
to test the taste of having nothing to call mine
to hold consumption's cravings back
to be content with luck or lack
to live on water as well as on wine.

I want to spend myself on those I think might need me
not spend all I think I need on myself
I want my heart to be willing to make house calls.
Let those whose rope is at an end find in me a faithful friend
Let me be known as one who rebuilds broken walls.

No camouflage
no entourage
no smoothly fitting-in
I want a faith that goes further than face value
and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin.

I want to be centered outside the circle
to be chiseled by a different seam
I want to be seduce by another story
and drawn into a deeper dream
I want to be anchored in an undiscovered ocean
to revolve around an unfamiliar sun
a boom box tuned to an alternate station
a bullet fired from a different gun.

No camouflage
no entourage
no smoothly fitting-in
I want a faith that goes further than face value
and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin.

-Gerard Kelly on The Door CD/DVD

An Introduction to the HuLuSi

The instrument used throughout the song "More Of You" on The Door is the hulusi ( 葫芦丝) . A free wind Chinese traditional instrument, it originates from the Dai ethnic group in China's Yunnan province. The words 'hulu' mean 'gourd' and 'si' means silk, because of it's silky sound.

A gourd windchest attached to bamboo reeds, this instrument is distinctively Chinese, although variations can be found in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand.

It's not uncommon to see an older Chinese man outside his shop in China playing the hulusi. It is said that originally the Dai men would play it to express their love to women. Gourds and bamboo creating silky sounds...not a bad way to woo.