07/23/20 MISSION TRIP TO CHINA #11 — Late one evening, we boarded a train for an all-night ride. Our team members were widely separated (I don’t know why) and assigned “bunks”—short benches on the sides of the cars, stacked 4 high to the ceiling, each with its own short blanket and tiny pillow. Fortunately, my bunk was on the bottom.

Across the aisle from me a young couple boarded. Only the top two bunks were available. The husband was berating and shoving his wife, trying to push her roughly up to the top bunk. She was struggling and crying out. When I gestured to him, trying to volunteer to trade bunks with her, he turned, growled at me and shoved me back toward my bunk.

The train was basically in total darkness—no lights in the cars whatsoever. Apparently my feet were sticking out into the aisle, because every time the conductor passed by he hit my ankles with his “stick.” As I tried to get to sleep in a near-fetal position, suddenly some uniformed “officers” shined flashlights in my eyes, grabbed my arms and escorted me many cars away. They began “interrogating” me in a small room with a painfully bright light. It wasn’t going too well—none of them spoke English and I didn’t speak Chinese. But they took great delight in passing around my passport and making fun of my picture. Eventually one gestured and bellowed angrily—I thought he was ordering me to leave, so I did. Stay Tuned!