The Journey

Last week was quite the adventure in getting to and from church.  Me, Bridget, Steph and Emily got up really early Sunday morning to try to catch the 6:00 bus headed to Nanjing.  We ended up leaving a little late so we knew we were just going to have to take the 6:30 bus, but since our town is so small, we found ourselves with no taxi's driving the streets so bright and early.  We ended up having to walk to the bus station, but it was about a 45 minute walk.  We barely made it in time for the 7:00 bus.

When we arrived in Nanjing we got on the subway we realized how close we were cutting it to making it on time.  On any normal Sunday we would have been fine, but I was scheduled to speak!  So as we got off the subway we saw it was 5 minutes to 10:00 (church starts at 10).  It is usually about a 15 minute walk from the subway, so to save a little time we decided to take a taxi. We told the taxi driver the name of the hotel, not realizing that there are at least 10 Jinling Hotels in the city.  We get dropped off at the wrong one, on a different part of town and scramble to get another taxi. By the time we finally arrive at church it is about 10:35 and the speakers have already started.  The branch president gets up and announces that the final speaker is a brother in our ward.  He then passes me a note that says "Are you sister Smith? If so, I am sorry we didn't think you would make it, so you will be our first speaker next week."  This was totally fine with me, I just felt ad for the inconvenience for them. Anyways, we finished church and it was great.

After church a group from our program were going to a free museum about the Chinese Massacre.  We decided we had plenty of time until the last bus left to our city, so decided to go with everyone.  When we got to the museum, the line was a 45 minute wait, so we decided to just walk the outside so we didn't push it on time. It was very interesting to see the monuments of such a tragic time for the Chinese.  The four of us girls decide we should probably head back to the bus station.  We take the subway and end up at the wrong station, but it wasn't much of a problem.  We just hopped on one of the cheap inner city buses that takes you to the other station.

When we arrive, we wait in line and are talking about how sometimes it is so hard to communicate our city to the ticket people.  A young man behind us overheard our conversation and spoke English.  He started talking to us and telling us how he wants help with his English because he will be moving to Florida at the end of the month to go study.  He then told us that he could help us get our tickets to make sure we don't have any problems.  This was so nice of him, so we let him help us.  Now there is something you should all know about China... a lot of their cities sound the same!  We live in a tiny city named Yangzhong, and there is a city not too far called Yangzhou which is a fairly big city.  We explained very carefully that we live is YANZHONG, but to many that would not makae since, there should be 4 american girls in the big city, not the smaller.  Also another side note, our bus tickets are always in full chinese characters, so we don't know how to read them.

I'm sure you can see where I am going with this story right?  Yes.  we all get on this bus that this kind man got us tickets for and decide we are all exhausted so all take a nap.  We awake only to find we have stopped in a city 3 times the size of ours at a bus station filled with 5 times the amount of buses our city has.  W run off the bus in a panic, but in slight relief to see Americans!  We run and the explain to us we are in Yangzhou, not Yangzhong.  They help us go check to see if there are anymore buses to our city that night, but the next bus was not leaving until 7:30 in the morning. The Americans then point us to a nice hostel that the recommend staying at. We call our schools and let them know the situation and that we will not be able to make our morning classes.  We then proceed to check out the hostel and it is very nice!  We are ready to purchase it when they ask to see our passports.  Me and Bridget pull ours out, when the two other girls pause and realize they don't have theirs.  The lady then kicks us out and tells us that it would be against the law to let  us stay there.

So here we are on the streets not sure what to do.  We contact Spencer, our amazing instructor and he said he will try to figure things out and call us back.  We decided is time to say a group prayer.  We step off to this little ally and not even 10 seconds into the prayer, Spencer calls letting us know that a couple in our branch lives in Yangzhou, and are on their way to pick us up and let us stay with them for the night.  We are so relieved.  When the husband comes to pick us up, we are so grateful.  He then tells us that he is going to drive us all the way home!  Seriously the nicest man.  He then says these great words, "I've never been to your city, so this should be an adventure." And an adventure it was.

The journey should have take about an hour and a half, it took 6. :)  We started down this road where we asked for directions and a kind Chinese man told us to drive to the end of the road and on the left there would be a gravel road, and "if our car fits, we can go".  Yes, it was a bike path, but we went down it anyways, into the woods :).  We then came to a giant pile of rubble where another man told us to go down this other road, which led us to the majority of our travel, the 3 hour Chinese maze.  It was literally a maze that we got stuck in forever, but don't worry we eventually escaped and after many more hours arrived home at about 2 in the morning.

This man was so generous and patient with us.  I am so grateful for him and for our safe arrival home.  Surprisingly, with all of the craziness happening, we never once were really frightened or mad.  We all just felt peace and a protection over us the whole journey.  I believe it was the Lord blessing us after out dedication and sacrifice in making the trek to church each week.  It is a long journey, and a lot of money to get there each week, but it is so worth it.  It is what I need and I would be so lost each week if I didn't have the opportunity to go.  It isn't easy getting there, but I wouldn't trade going for anything.  I love the people and I love the Lord. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to meet here, because it wasn't always available.  It's so important to take advantage of the blessing we are given being able to meet each week.  We still aren't sure why we had this crazy experience, but I know that it makes me appreciate the "easy access" we have to going to church each week in the states.  I have had it so easy, where the farthest I have ever had to travel to church was about 10 minutes each week.  We are more blessed then we realized in America.