I went to the dentist again on Sunday to begin the first step in my root canal. First I had to have a resection done on the gums surrounding my bad tooth. The most painful part of that was the needle which applied the anesthetic. I didn't really feel anything after that. There was quite a bit of blood though. I neglected to tell the dentist that I'm anemic. Turns out it was really a problem. My blood wouldn't clot up after the surgery. I sat there for about 30 minutes waiting for it to stop bleeding, but every time the dentist removed the cotton, I'd start bleeding again.
He put some medicine in my tooth to help regulate the bleeding and then put a temporary filling over the open tooth area. I have to keep it like this for a week. He told me no exercise and no excitable food. I had to get him to clarify what he meant by excitable foods and found that this means hot, cold, or spicy food. He said these things could cause the bleeding to not stop like I need it to.
He's scheduled for me to return on next Sunday to get the root canal and filling done on my tooth. We'll see how that turns out. There's an 80% chance that it will work, but that 20% margin is just too big for me to feel totally happy about the procedure. I actually just wanted him to pull the tooth out, but he convinced me to try the surgery anyway. I've been praying about it, so I guess I'll just leave it in the Father's hands.
First Day
For our meeting, no one showed up in the morning, but we had two people come at night. Katherine, a new girl that I met at English corner, showed up. I've been chatting with her for about 3 weeks about coming and finally she made it. I was happy to see her. Of course, Frank also came. There was a marked change in Frank from last week to this week. He's really accepting of what we teach. He also seems to understand many things on a deeper level. He's realized that the Word requires very deep thought, and he's doing the mental work to understand it. When Katherine had questions, Frank even explained some things to her. It was good to see him take the information we're teaching him and give it to someone else with some of his own examples to prove it.
We had an interesting discussion. For our studies with Frank, we've been going through the stories starting at Genesis and working our way up. We did the creation, the sin and fall of man, and the first murder. Frank is making great progress to understand the way that the Father views man. I'm so proud of him. Hopefully he continues in this way.
Katherine struggled to accept these ideas. She has been forced for many years to believe in science as if science is some sort of religion. We explained to her that science is not a religion any more than English or math is a religion. It's just a tool for gaining knowledge. It doesn't teach you how to be a good person or how to treat other people.
She said that she does believe in the Father, but the thought of true belief in Him scares her. I guess for some people it is very difficult to let go of the concrete things and place your faith into something that you can neither see nor touch. Even though we have this sort of faith everyday, people cannot accept it when it has to do with the Word or the Father. If it has to do with working all week and trusting that you'll get paid on Friday, the assumption that you'll definitely wake up the following morning, or looking forward to some event that hasn't yet happened, we all place our faith in something that we can't see or touch at the time.
Anyway, I'm glad that Katherine came. I hope that she'll return. She seemed very happy. She was supposed to bring a friend, but I think her friend flaked out on her. It was very brave of Katherine to come by herself in the dark to the home of foreign people. I have to give her credit for that. Most Chinese would not do this without a friend.
World English Institute
Colonel's student, named Morning, has been doing some WEI lessons. WEI is run by Dick Ady and is basically a C.O.C. run program. People volunteer their time to grade English lessons which present ideas from the Word. Morning has completed two lessons up to this point. Colonel said that he's not sure how well she understands the vocabulary in the lessons, but she seems to get the English grammar well enough.
She hasn't really done enough lessons to get into the meat and potatoes of the Word, but everyone has to start somewhere. We ask that you will lift her up to the Father and ask the He guide her as she studies. I do believe that she will make progress.
Distressing News From and Old Friend
I've been talking with one of my Chinese friends from Jingzhou. She was very close to our family when we lived there and I try to make contact with her at least once a month. Her name is Alicia and she had a baby about a year ago. Since that time, her husband broke his ankle, the family has gathered a bit of debt, and she is struggling to attend the meetings in her area because of her young daughter. She had stopped attending for a while because she felt her child was a distraction to others. I did my best to explain how she can attend the meetings and just step out when the baby is about to be upset. Then come back again later once the child has calmed down. It's frustrating, but I think most moms who attend meetings have been through this difficult time.
Well, today I got a message from Alicia that is a bit distressing. She said that she feels she can't control her life and that everything is messy. Without knowing many of the details I can almost guarantee that the first problem is that the Father is no longer a priority in her life. Most of us have been there where we feel totally out of control, mostly because we were never in control to begin with.
Anyway, I told her to shoot me an email about it. Her English isn't so great over the phone, but she can write English very well. Again, I'm not sure on exactly what all the issues are, but I am familiar with a lot of them because Colonel and I used to "counsel" her when we were in Jingzhou. Please talk to the Father on Alicia's behalf. She needs for her husband to become a believer and she needs to set a good example for him and her daughter. It's difficult to do this if you stand alone as she does. Ask the Father to give her strength and to help her see clearly the steps that she must take to draw nearer to Him. He is the only one who can clear up the mess in her life (or any of our lives).