One Julie, Two Joyce's and Too Much Juice

So, today was Thursday, and I woke up excited to see my friend, Julie, who was coming over for breakfast. Most mornings, I just take my time getting ready for the day, without too much pressure. I usually have the apartment to myself, and it's a good time to talk to friends and family, or surf the net. But this morning was different and fun. Julie has been in Taiwan for 9 years, and she's getting ready to head back to the states at the beginning of next year, so she and I are processing together. I enjoy her a lot, and am so thankful that God orchestrated our meeting at the English fellowship on the first Sunday I was here a year ago. For breakfast, (cause I know some of you will be interested) I made breakfast burritos (complete with Trader Joe's salsa I "smuggled" into the country) and fresh mangoes. Good times.

At the last possible moment, I dashed out the door for work, hopped onto my scooter, and began to listen to Joyce Meyer's sermon, as I do most days on the way to the job. She was on a roll today, talking about how all of us have the fruits of the Spirit in us, but some of the fruits haven't yet been developed so we can't see them. As she was talking about this, a huge tanker truck rambled at a pretty fast pace right out in front of the scooter in front of me, and we all (there were others near me) had to stand on our brakes to avoid hitting him. I was incensed...once again at the utter selfishness of some of the drivers in the TW. Surprising myself, I showed no outward signs of my inner rage, but kept scooting toward work and listening to Joyce. Not long after this, Joyce said, "So, you have all the fruits of the Spirit in you...love, gentleness, self-control, patience..." and on she went. I was pondering these things and agreeing with some of her thoughts, when I was approaching a light and a car just about ran me off the road so he could get two feet in front of me and only to be stopped by the red light. I could not help myself (at least that's what I told myself) and I reacted with some outter rage. I got next to his window and stared through it shouting, "Was it worth the two feet? Just so you could stop at this light? Huh? You almost killed me, and for what?" Then I scooted around him, went the four cars ahead of him and was with the rest of the pack when the light turned green, way in front of him. I heard Joyce say, "You have patience, but it just needs to be developed in God's dark room" about the same time I heard the car I had told off peep it's horn at me from back in the line. I had to smile at the irony and timing of such events, and then feeling some conviction, had to ask God to forgive me (and pray that the guy wasn't a member of my church. Isn't that awful?

Well, after all that happened, I realized I had an extra couple of minutes so I stopped to get some tea at the tea/juice shop I like. Since I would be at work late today, I bought two drinks for the day, one grapefruit green tea, and one milk tea. I scooted on down the road, and when I walked into work, there was a grapefruit green tea on my desk, a frequent but unpredictable gift from one of my co-workers. Wow! Now I had three. It's so hot here, it's not that difficult to drink that much tea in a day, and by tonight I had them all down. There are few breaks in our schedule for using the bathroom, and often when we do have a break someone else is in the toilet, so I don't always get to go. I've sort of adjusted to this, and tonight I didn't really notice that I needed to go.

After work, my co-worker, Cara and I went out for a light dinner with another co-worker Joyce (both Chinese girls) because Joyce will have her last day at Kang Ning tomorrow. We talked a lot about how disappointed she was with the leadership of the school and how she had been treated. Her English is quite good so she was able to express herself pretty well. She told me that she had done her best so she had no regrets, just that she didn't feel things had gone fairly for her. I was able to encourage her a little bit, I think. After we shut down the TGI Friday's, we were standing out in the parking lot and I realized I needed to go to the toilet, but there was nothing around. Then, Joyce started kind of doing the pee pee dance, and I said, "What's the matter Joyce? Are the mosquitoes gettin' ya?" She said yes, and we continued to say goodnight. As I was getting on my scoot, I looked at Joyce again and she was laughing and dancing around and she said, "Oh, I have to pee!" I started laughing then too and knew I better get home soon. For those of you who are jumping ahead in this story, thinking that I wet myself, I want to quickly assure you I did not, but I will say, the potholes were more torturous than normal on the way home tonight!

I'm excited for this weekend. Apparently, my new co-worker, Ryan, is a big basketball fan, and he found out there was a game this weekend in our town between two teams made up of retired NBA players. Clyde the Glide and Scotty Pippin were a couple of names he dropped, and I'm sure there are others I'll know. So, Ryan and his girlfriend, Liz, me and my roommate, Ryno, and two of our other friends, Amber and Sarah, are all going to the game on Saturday. Should be a blast.

Well, that's the update from my end of the stick. As always, thanks for praying!

Until next time,
LC from the TW