November 10th

Samuel Yang’s birthday (maybe 11?), our godson. Also remembering the birthday of Martin Luther. This morning, the usual. Up at 6:30, a hurried breakfast down the street at the steamed bun shop (same breakfast as yesterday), and then back to the hotel.

The driver arrived, said goodbye to Michael, and with Ruth and Pr. Chen, left for the Changsha high speed rail station. They left me off at the front entry. Then I proceeded to pass through the first checkpoint, sent my luggage through xray, and headed for gate A10 where my train would board in about one hour.

Resorted to using my first squat toilet (my joints are not usually agile enough to use those toilets comfortably – again, more than you probably wanted to know). Picked up some snacks, and headed to the McDonalds to pick up a cup of coffee (haven’t had any for two days). Good brewed coffee! Then sat down to enjoy some snacks with my coffee.

The train was 4 minutes early so all of the passengers had plenty of time to board. This is maybe a “super express” since it only stops once before we arrive in Shenzhen. I’ll have some time to read.

The three hour train ride went quickly. I got off, found the purple line subway, took it to the green line, got off at Bao’an Stadium and walked to exit C where I was almost to the Vandercook apartment complex. Easy as pie.

Murphy, a young man, introduced himself to me on the subway. He works for an export company that sends technological things all over the world (computers, cameras, etc). Had a nice conversation. In fact, he stayed one station farther than his, just so we could talk. Before getting off the train, he made sure that I had his card.

It’s nice to be able to talk English easily. I’m sure that the evening will be spent here in the apartment relaxing and preparing for tomorrow.

This little boy was not feeling well, so his grandmother kept him close to her all day.

A family of new friends.

All ready for lunch

This is the church where I'll be preaching tomorrow evening.