Oh New Jersey

Last week while I was sleeping on the ride to New Jersey to see the in-laws, I woke up via bladder-call and the first thing I said was, "I need to pee!"  Thankfully, a rest stop was only 1 mile away, and we turned into the Grover Cleveland rest area.  I ran in to the women's restroom and came out, ready to take over driving and enjoy the rest of the time with Burton.  However, when I came out, Burton was talking to some Chinese kids who looked like they had come straight from China.  Turns out, they were!  One of the kids had followed Burton into the bathroom, stared at him while Burton was using the urinal, then stood next to him while Burton was using the sink.  Finally, he asked, "You Chinese?"

So began the side adventure of second languages, miscommunication, and the Good Samaritan.

Briefly, these guys were coming from Houston, TX (me: Where?? chinese kid: "Yao Ming! Yao Ming!") on a bus to NYC.  Apparently, halfway up the NJ turnpike the bus driver demanded an additional $1000 to take them to NYC.  When these two Chinse travelers refused to pay the exorbitant amount, the driver threatened them with a stick and forced them off the bus.  And so when Burton and I found them, they were stranded at the Grover Cleveland rest area with a nothing but the clothes on their backs and hope for a Chinese person to pass through.

Because they spoke broken Mandarin and Burton's Mandarin is a bit rusty, the whole ordeal took a long time.  We communicated with one of the Chinese kid's cousin in NYC who said she would send a Chinese cab from Chinatown to the Grover Cleveland rest area.  In the meantime, I figured I had an opportunity to tell them about Jesus.  So I pulled out my GoogleTranslate, and I typed:
"Have you ever heard of Jesus Christ?"
This kid reads the Chinese off my phone, and he nods and says "Yes!" with a thumbs up.
"I am a follower of Jesus Christ."
No response.
"Jesus loves you and China very much."
"Yes, ok." with a thumbs up.
"Do you go to church?"
"No."
"When you go to NYC, find a church that can teach you about  Jesus."
"Ok!" + thumbs up.
I couldn't tell how genuine he was about all this, but his companion had long turned away in disinterest.

Finally, the cousin calls Burton on his phone and tells him that no one will go down to NJ.  Then...you guessed it.  She asks us to drive them up to NYC.

EEP!  The first thing I thought was, "Holy cow! How can we trust them?!" But then, as I prayed and thought more about the situation, I was convicted about the Good Samaritan Story.  Isn't our situation exactly applicable?!  Differences in culture, risking our lives to help, giving over and beyond our financial and time obligations, etc.  Jesus, in his short ministry on earth, spent time telling the parable and it was meaningful enough to be in the Bible.  What would you all have done?

Well, when Burton told her that he wasn't comfortable doing that, she quickly apologized and we searched for alternate solutions.  Eventually, we found a local honest taxi company (which was actually pretty difficult to find) that would take them to the home of the cousin in NYC.  We made sure they would get to NYC without any problems and made sure that the taxi driver wouldn't take advantage of them.

Before the two travelers left, they profusely thanked us, and Burton and I told them the best way to thank us would be to find a local Christian church and to learn about Jesus.

"OK!" Thumbs up.