Towards the end of my Freshman year at MLC, I was given the opportunity to go to China through the “Daylight” program. On May 12, the day after my exams, I took off for Beijing. I had a ten-hour layover in Vancouver, so I explored downtown Vancouver. Before I knew it, I was back on a plane bound for Beijing.
Upon arrival, I was greeted by my host, MLC alumnus, and longtime Friends of China member, Mike Lidtke. I was carrying a travel bag stuffed to the brim with an additional backpack at the corner of the most chaotic intersection I’d ever seen. What was a legal two-lane road somehow had turned four cars wide. Red lights seemed to mean absolutely nothing to most drivers. It took me 30 seconds until I realized Mike was trying to flag a bike down for me. Mike spoke Chinese as effortlessly as he did English, and soon I had a QR code scannable bike ready for me to ride. “Follow me,” Mike said. “Dear Lord, help me,” I prayed.
Somehow we made it back home alive, but I needed a half-hour breather to get my heart rate back down. Because of the time difference, I wasn’t too tired. Mike told me he was meeting with two Professors at Peking University to have a Bible study and asked if I wanted to join him. Soon we were biking to Peking University. When we arrived at the entrance, two Chinese service members, armed with ARs, told Mike we weren’t allowed in because we were foreigners, but Mike spoke to him in Chinese, and the officer said Mike could go in, but not me, Mike still pleaded, and eventually, they let me in. If only they knew what we were there for.
That Bible study, although I could only understand when Mike translated for me, was the most incredible I’ve ever been a part of. The Professors and Mike spoke in a whisper and were always watching the front door.
After the Bible study, Mike invited me to play tennis with a guy he’d been canvassing. I played tennis in the middle of Beijing, with nothing but high-rise apartment buildings insight. After tennis, we headed back to the apartment. Mike had an appointment, so I decided to ride a bike (several bikes per block are QR code scannable) to the Bird’s Nest. I was so excited to see it that I called my dad on my way there. Ten years prior, we had been screaming at our living room tv as Usain Bolt set the Olympic Record at the very place I was about to be. Dad couldn’t talk long since he was teaching. When I finally saw the Bird’s Nest, the sun was just setting behind it. You couldn’t have written a better fairytale ending. I wandered around the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube and further down a mile or so where the torch was. There was a group of jump ropers performing with a large group gathered. I went over to watch, and as soon as they saw me, they all asked me to join them, being the only foreigner there (foreigners are really cool in China). Little did they know, I used to spend hours a day losing weight by jumping rope. I busted out all my tricks, took a bow, and left with a roaring audience.
Talk about a good first day in China, no?
A day or three later, the rest of my MLC group showed up (one girl named Kaitlyn, and our supervisor, Angie Scharf). We met with the missionary in China (now in WI), Pastor James Enderle, his wife, and his son. Throughout that week, they took us throughout Beijing. We saw places like Tiananmen Square, Mao’s Mausoleum, the Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, The Summer Palace, and of course, the Great Wall of China. (We did the Badaling section)
After spending a week in Beijing, we took a bullet train to Hangzhou, a small suburb of Shanghai with 10 million people. My host in Hangzhou was Chris Dean, a 2017 graduate of MLC and former DEX member. We did most of our mission work in Hangzhou. Towards the end of the trip, Chris and I snuck into The InterContinental, a five-star hotel shaped like a sphere.
After a week in Hangzhou, I had to head back to Beijing to catch my return flight back to the States. I just about missed the bullet train because Chris and I could navigate the Chinese train station for the life of us, and of course, no one spoke English. Luckily, the lady at the gate allowed me to board, despite being two minutes late, and I made it to Peking International Airport safe and sound.
I had a 22-hour layover in New York City, so I decided to make the most of my time. I saw just about every attraction in the city. All in all, I walked 25 miles through four Burroughs; I got a lot done that day.
Finally, my bus to take me back to the airport arrived at Times Square, and soon enough, I was back in Chicago. I slept for a few hours and woke up to surprise my then-girlfriend, Brooke Newton.
