fa piao.

I'm not sure if there's a good reason for the title for this entry, but as I opened this create-a-new-post-window I carefully unwrinkled a receipt for cell phone minutes. We collect all our receipts / fa piao's and tape them to sheets of paper and send it to HR to have our taxes reduced. It's funny how it works here. At home in the U.S. we get tax reductions for giving donations, and here we get tax deductions for spending on ourselves.

Thanksgiving.

There really are so many things to be thankful for. I know sometimes it's easy for me to look at what I lack...to feel the twangs of emptiness and envy toward those who have close family or significant others nearby. It's on the holidays when I feel it the most...the nostalgia. I seriously love my family too much...I'm madly in love with my family. At the same time, I rarely talk to them. When I do, it's as if we never parted...because I rush them and dismiss their sentiments unconscientiously. Only my family really knows the horrid sort of person that I am.

Anyhow, I've gotten off topic. I wanted to say that as much as I thought I didn't have anything great or significant to be thankful for other than the cliche food, shelter, and clothing, God sorta threw something at me in order to make me praise and thank him for who he is.
As I walked into the apartment for the churchy people Thanksgiving dinner, I tried hard not to let disappointment show on my face as I looked about at the unfamiliar faces of those who seemed old...or rather older than me. Then I spotted a familiar man, my brain registered the face but not a name. This was the Chinese man who I shared the reason for my faith in Christ with. This was the guy who knew nothing about Christ and wanted to know why I believed. This was the very guy that listened intently to every word that I said and read a Chinese book about Christianity that I had given him. I hadn't seen him since August, and here he was at a Christian Thanksgiving gathering. Later in the evening I approached him and asked him who invited him. With his broken English he told me who invited him, then he proceeded to thank me for the book I had given him and that he had started reading the Bible with some Christian friends. Gosh......that was sorta really neat. I really think he's been searching...and he's on the brink of accepting this faith. And I feel like somehow I was a little piece of this puzzle in building this bridge between him and God--somehow it gives some significance to my seemingly meaningless not so significant humdrum life. I exaggerate...but still it felt like a blessing to witness and a blessing worth thanking god for.

mm. thank you god. because truly. you're good.