Xiuxin is an amicable blog. Simple template (blogspot, not my favorite template source), a tidy side bar with relatively few links, no about page and posts dating from August, 2003.
The blog is titled “What a Beautiful Day!” and from the brief blog description (“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray……My dear Lord, everything’s beautiful in you!”) you realize it’s the type of blog to belong more inside a “Christian” category, than in a “Personal” one. After reading a couple of her entries, I found out my initial impression was right: God is the catalyst of her life and her blogging. I must take time out to say that I’ve read many a Christian blog and most of them are not the type of blog to appeal to non-Christian readers. Christian blogs are usually very “niched”, being of interest to those who share the faith. This blog however, I found to be different, more universally appealing.
The author’s name is Susan and she’s a mother of three. She’s married to an Australian she met in China and in her posts, her family is described as truly wonderful. Reading through her archives, I discovered some interesting facts: she was converted during the 80’s (a good account of her conversion can be found in one of her older posts), she then joined an underground church (but was turned over to the police) and she even participated in the ’89 Tiananmen movement. The post where she tells the story of how she met her husband is also good reading.
Now, all of these things would be great to read of in an “about” section, but in order to find them, I had to do some serious archive digging (not an easy task considering she has a rather large archive). So, this is definitely something Susan should work on, an “about” section to get the reader familiarized with these interesting aspects of her life.
Probably, the most important characteristic of Susan’s blog is the passion with which she writes about her relationship with God and the daily struggles and self-discovery process this implies.
Those who share her faith will undoubtedly cherish her blog. She achieves true Christian wisdom in some of her posts and in others, she is able to encourage all those who seek God out. But should the reader be non-Christian, I’m sure he/she would find many posts worth reading (if only Susan had links to get to them). It’s the nature of Susan’s topics, which makes the blog appealing to a broader audience.
I found this blog to be quite inspiring. If Susan chooses to work on such details as making some of those interesting life posts available to the reader (through links for instance) or creating an “about” section, then the blog would surely kick off. In any case, this is one Christian blog I truly enjoyed.