Eric's Beijing Diary

Sunday evening. Sitting in my motel room here in Zhengzhou. I am going to be teaching an extension course at the Zhongyuan Institute of Technology for teachers who are working on graduate degrees. Some of them are teachers here at the Institute, and some of them are high school and middle school teachers in Zhengzhou.

I had my first class yesterday afternoon. I asked my students if they knew where I could find a church here in Zhengzhou. They did some searching on the Internet, then got on their cell phones and got some information for me. This morning I hailed a taxi to head to the church they had pointed out to me on the map. To my surprise, the taxi driver spoke English. That's a first. I handed her the information the students had written down for me. She had never actually been to the church (most cab drivers are not good at finding churches), but she was very helpful. She said, "My mother believed God." She got on the radio to get some information, drove to the general area, then found a police officer and got specific instructions.

Standing room only. I saw a group of the faithful sitting right outside the church listening in. I stood with them for a few minutes until someone came and got me and took me around to the other side of the building where there was some extra seating space in the front row. It was a nice service, but it really did make me appreciate the translation service provide by the Haidian Church in Beijing.