Tim Ulmer, a former staffer for Illinois House Republicans (where I met him) taught English in China for a year.

He has written a book on the experience, which is not yet published.

McHenry County Blog is going to serialize the chapter on his experience at Christmas.

Here is the next installment:

A Chinese Christmas Carol, continued

The entire class’s reaction was remarkably surreal.

It might be the closest thing I’ll ever experience of what it might have been like for the apostles to experience the Holy Spirit at Pentecost:

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. —Acts 2:1-4

If I was directing it in a movie, the white lighting would dim before raising with a solid blueish-gray tint.

Next, everyone was motionless, frozen, except that their eyes looked from one person to another; something like lasers darting between one another’s eyes!

They seemed to be communicating with some kind of telepathic hi-tech fiber-optic inhuman laser scan sort of way.  It didn’t frighten me, but it was astonishing!

It may have lasted only five to fifteen seconds, but it felt more like a minute to me.

I didn’t dare talk about the manifestation afterwards, to see if anyone else experienced it.

That was not just because it might be over heard by Communist ears, but I was also afraid I’d rob them of any progress I’d made in helping them see God, and write me off as a fruit case.

I do not know if the change in the room’s ambiance was felt by anyone else, or if it was simply a personal message from God to me, alone, assuring me that it would be alright to speak.

Then it ended as suddenly as it started.

Without saying a word, Bruce rose from his chair, closed the classroom door, and locked it so that no one could walk in unexpectedly.

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More tomorrow.