I’m back!!! This last month we were in China. My team and I spent 5 nights sleeping on a train in total and traveled to three different areas. After all that traveling I must say that we are all very tired. I found it difficult to be in a country where I could not freely talk about God. We mainly wanted to protect our contacts and the local missionaries in the areas we were at. I have many stories that I would like to share with you but below is just one. It is very long but I could only shorten it so much. This is traveling World Race style.
Our day started at 4:30 am. My team and I walked from our hotel that we slept in for about 7 hours and walked to the train station. At our arrival to the train station we realized we still had to wait to board. As we sat there with our huge back packs still attached to us local people would walk by and blatantly stare at us. No one was discrete. A group of high school students proceeded to pull out their sketch pads and sit right by us and sketch us. One girl stared directly at my profile as she was sketching. All I could think of was how awkward this was. I felt like we were in a museum where people would walk by and stare and then talk about what they were looking at. As the gates were opened to board the rush began. Everyone walked incredibly fast trying to get on the train first. For us that was not so easy. Not only did our backpack weigh about 45 pounds, but we also had a pack on our front with souvenirs in our hands. As we got on the train to our sleeper car the area we were in was pitch black. We struggled to find places for our backpacks and to find our beds. Finally, I was able to lie on my bed with my feet propped up on my backpack on the end of my bed. I laid there ready to get some much needed sleep. Then suddenly I heard the very loud noise of people talking on a microphone in Chinese followed by very loud music. I felt like the speaker was right next to my ear. So I proceeded to just lie there and rest since sleep was not going to happen. Our train ride was mostly an uneventful 26 hour journey. We all sat on Marks bed during the day because you could sit up only in his bed. The girls’ beds were very short and claustrophobic feeling because they were on the second and third level. We also met some very nice people on the train like a college student who spoke English, two men very interested in Lauren’s journal, and a couple from the most recent hotel we stayed at. Then, we finally fell asleep on the train and arrived at our next destination at 7:15 am.
As people were shoving their way out we were trying to get our backpacks on and grab all of our stuff. Apparently, we were taking too long because the staff of the train started to grab our stuff from us and pull us towards the exit. Outside it was still dark and a lot colder than where we had been. Coats were purchased just for the trip. We still had about a 3-4 hour bus ride remaining. Unfortunately, we had no clue where the bus station was. All we had was a piece of paper stating where we wanted to go in Chinese. Many people tried to help us. There was a huge language barrier and sometimes we had a bad feeling about what they were saying. We walked down the street a ways towards the direction people were guiding us. We came to a bus with four men outside that tried to help us negotiate a deal with the bus driver. We thought we were set because the bus driver said he was going to where we needed to go and it was decently priced. We piled on the bus and relaxed in our seats. We traveled for about 20 minutes when we arrived at a stop. A man was speaking in a language we did not understand and pulling, “I mean literally pulling”, us off the bus. He was directing us to another bus and telling us to leave our backpacks behind. We were very confused but firm on the fact that we were not leaving our bags. After a lot of body language of us pointing to our bags we were able to grab them and move to the next bus. Why had we changed buses and where were we headed to? We had absolutely no clue what was going on. The second bus was very crowded and freezing. People were smoking cigarettes right beside you and we kept on stopping to pick more people up. Then, suddenly, the bus stopped and we were pulled off again. We were guided to another bigger bus. After we packed our luggage under the bus we boarded and realized there were not enough seats for us. The same man who kept pulling us off the buses proceeded to move young men into stools in the middle of the bus and placed each of us in a seat. The third bus was much warmer although people continued to smoke and flick their cigarette butts on the ground. About 2 hours later a fight breaks out in the middle of the bus. We had no clue what the fight was about but it was between a 20 year old boy and a 70 year old man. Fists were flying and people were yelling and pulling them apart. That lasted about 20 minutes. Once that issue was settled we all relaxed in our seats for the rest of our journey, or so we thought. As we pulled into a bus station we were instructed to stay seated. We all took turns using the bathroom which was actually just a trough with short walls and no doors. 5 minutes into our stop we were instructed to change buses again. We were reassured many times that we were traveling in the right direction and all of us had a peace about what was going on. As we started our fourth bus journey we stopped to pick more people up. Now this is when we all felt like we were traveling to another planet. The people that walked on the bus looked as if they walked right off the set of the Last Samurai. We all looked at each other and were in true culture shock. They were all very friendly and their children were adorable. We gave the children some candy and in return their parents gave each of us oranges. It is impossible to describe what we were seeing. I felt like we had traveled to the 1800’s. We drove in a circle around the town a couple times before we headed onward. The rest of the way we stopped many times to pick up more people. Exhausted and ready to end the day we finally arrived. Our contacts were at the bus stop and grateful we were well. What was to be a 3-4 hour bus ride ended up being over 7 hours.
The entire trip all of us would continually talk to God and ask for his guidance and protection. Our prayers were answered. Maybe our trip was more difficult than it should have been but we have all grown from the experience. We could not have done it on our own strength.
