Adventures in Public Transportation

I was taking the bus in Taipei city last night, just minding my own business. I had earphones in, and finally got a seat about halfway through the trip. There was a teenage girl sitting next to me, and after about 10 minutes she tapped me on the shoulder and showed me her cell phone. On it, there was a message that said something like:
"Hi, what is your name? Can I make a friend with you?"
I was a little confused at first, so I just looked her. I wasn't sure if this was a message she received and didn't know what it meant, or why she was showing it to me. Finally I asked if she had typed it. She nodded. I tried to chat with her a bit but she didn't really speak English, so I spoke with her in Chinese. I invited her to bible study, gave her a card, and fortunately, it was almost our stop. After I got off, she followed me a little ways, and I said "bye-bye" in a very friendly voice, phone in hand as I was meeting someone and needed to call them. Then she asked "Do you have a cell phone number?" I hesitated, not really wanting to give my phone number out to a stranger, but also not able to lie since I was holding my cell phone in my hand at that very moment. I thought it would be too mean to give her a fake number, so I finally gave her my number and said goodbye.
About 15 minutes later I got a text message:
"Nice to meet you. Is it ok if I call you to practice my English?"
I replied that i am very busy, but would be happy to talk to her if she came to the class next Friday.
What would you do?

Comments

  1. WOW! Well I don't think I could judge the situation being outside it and not in your shoes. There would be so many factors that I would have to evaluated before I could make a decision like that. But I think you did well. You don't want to let some crazy clinging person into your life but also try to build bridges with those who need to hear the Gospel message.

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  2. I think I would have done what you did. Who knows what it'll turn out like... You have shown her kindness and she sought you for no reason (other than that you speak English). Jesus did that to all kinds of people....

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  3. I had a similar experience a couple of years ago. http://built4glory.blogspot.com/2005/11/adventures-in-grocery-shopping-i-went.html
    Maybe it's the same girl.

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