To my seatmate, returning from Tim and Aileen's:

Hi, my name is Barbara, what is yours?

My name is Lemy.

Are you from Toronto?

Yes, I came here sixteen years ago from China. I came to study and never went back.

From mainland China?

Yes.

So you grew up under Communism? And atheism?

Yes.

Did you know anything as a child about the Chinese church or Christianity?

We studied other religions in school. I remember learning about...the man they talk about in the Christian book...What's his name? Let me think...Jesus...

What is it like for your family, living in a Christian society?

Many Chinese people start going to church. My mother-in-law goes every week.

Why is that?

I think they have never thought about things enough. They easily believe in religion. (He is a scientist)And it is a good way to meet people.

A man I admire said that Communism is, in ways, a Christian heresy. For instance, it theoretically treats man as valuable, valuable enough that he should be delivered from mistreatment. Why should he be valuable if he has not been given value from outside himself, from a creator? Why else could he be considered more important than an animal or any other living thing? His value is borrowed from Christianity... Also in Communism, there is deliverance from slavery through the shed blood of the bourgeoisie, the oppressors. In Christianity, we are delivered from spiritual oppression through the blood of Christ, through his death for us...

And we continue to talk...

How I love to see who sits next to me on a plane...

To be continued!