I flew into Minnesota on March 24 . . .

. . . and boy were my arms tired! All that flapping! :-)

On the plane, I met a really strong Christian named Phil. He leads a Bible Study at a big church south of Minneapolis. He had witnessed to hundreds of non-believers, and so he was very comfortable talking to me about my faith issues. It's not like everything got solved right away, but it was very encouraging, and sometime later I hope to visit his church.

My plan in Minnesota was to stay with my friends Shira and Tyson for a week, until I could move into my own place. Shira was in my research lab at Caltech (the Mayo lab), and Tyson's her husband. They wouldn't be able to pick me up, so I was to take public transportation to get from the airport to their house. Fortunately, the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) have a great transit system. On their webpage, you can even enter in your starting location and destination, and the system will figure out which buses you should take! So, I felt fairly prepared: the plane would land in Minneapolis around 8 pm, then I would take bus A, transfer over to bus B at 8:30 pm, and arrive around 9:30 pm at Shira and Tyson's house.

Unfortunately, my plane was delayed a bit; I arrived maybe at 8:45 pm. I then got on bus A, and I got off at the transfer point to bus B. However, after awhile I realized that bus B would not be coming: its last run for the night had been at 8:30!

Fortunately, I saw that I could walk to another transfer point . . . a couple of miles away. So I started walking . . . with my two suitcases and my backpack . . . and it was dark and cold, with lots of snow still on the ground . . . and I was clearly in an--urban--area.

As I'm dragging my suitcases through the urban jungle, one of them is behaving like a shopping cart that doesn't want to go straight. I'm moving slowly, and I'm not having much fun. I start going up this long, dark road with not much street lighting, and this compact car drives by, slows down, and comes to a stop a few yards ahead of me. A tall man steps out and says, "You need a ride?"

I got in the car. I would never berate someone for *not* getting in the car, and I did (and still do) let my imagination give me certain doubts. However, for me, I felt it was important to trust this person, to give him a chance. I knew that, in a real sense, my physical life might be at stake. But I do not want a worldly fear to prevent me from relating to others. That is how I interpret how my faith should be, according to the Bible. We can discuss this over e-mail more if you want to.

So I was a bit scared, when the guy came over and starting putting my bags in his car, seemingly a little too eager to help me. And when I told him where I was going, he said he knew exactly where that was. I also had fresh in my mind some of those horror movies in which people disappear from roadside truck stops. His car was small and dark: anything could be in the shadows of the back seat, the side compartments . . . .

The guy's name is Don. Turns out he's a Christian! We talked on the way, and he told me about his wife, his testimony, and his church. The name of his church is Evergreen--same as the church I went to in LA! (No relation, however.) Don drove me all the way to Shira and Tyson's place, and he offered to take me to his church. (I'll probably visit soon-ish.)

When I look back at the incident, I can see how off our judgments can be. If there were someone intent on doing bad, sure he might drive by at night and seem a little too eager and say he knew where to take you, even if he didn't. His car would be full of shadows. But if he were just a Good Samaritan, he would do exactly the same things! And of course the car was dark--it was at night! If I saw someone who needed help, I would be eager to help him just like Don was! Maybe Don was scared that *I* might be dangerous!

My only real regret is that I think my fears sort of paralyzed me into either trusting or not trusting. If the same situation were to occur again, I would probably tell the stranger my fears right away, and then I would ask for some sort of good faith action. Like maybe I would ask to use his cell phone to call Shira and Tyson first. Or maybe I would insist on praying first, or talking to him more first. Or having him promise first of his good intentions. I would be better at setting my Boundaries. :-) Anyway, I'll definitely get a cell phone soon, if at least for emergencies.

So my arrival in Minnesota was quite the adventure for me, physically, mentally, and spiritually. I met two cool Christians out of the blue. It certainly seemed like someone was watching over me. And the next morning, Saturday, I would visit Shira and Tyson's Jewish synagogue!