Bombs and Bibles

English conversation had just gotten out. It had been a good night with 13 people sitting around the table and lively conversations. Even so, I was feeling drained. The day had been full with school, meetings, and an especially long English group.

As I sat on the train, the conductor came on the overhead speaker explaining that there had been a ''serious problem'' at the Stegerwald Siedlung stop (where I live) and that everyone would have to get off of the train because the entire line would be shut down. After a moment of frustration because I was carrying a heavy box filled with Bibles which I would now need to carry several kilometers home, it occurred to me that it might have been a bomb. Just that day I had read that briefcases filled with explosives found a couple of days earlier were purchased in Köln. Although it would never stop me from riding the trains, it is often in the back of my mind.

As I sat chagrined at my petty concerns about having to walk home, a man began a conversation with me. I was surprised. In Germany strangers almost never speak, or even smile, at one another in the trains. He asked me what was in my closed box. I explained that they were Bibles and why I had them. After a few minutes of chatting about our differing beliefs, he asked if he could have one of the Bibles. Just then the conductor came back on and explained that children had cut the power lines at Stegerwald, but the problem had been fixed and we could continue our journey. Huh.