I raised the lid to my suitcase, revealing the stacks of Bibles. And as I did, I had my first puzzling experience with the Chinese Communists. The customs officer did not touch a thing in my suitcase. She looked at the Bibles for a moment, then raised her eyes: “Thank you, sir,” she said, with the ever-present smile. “Are you carrying a watch? Do you have a camera?” No reaction at all to what she had seen in the suitcase. She was 20, perhaps 25 years old. Was it possible that she had never seen a Bible? That she had no idea what it was . . . ?
