Just What I Needed

Today was our first wedding anniversary, so I just want to write a short entry to say how much I love and appreciate my wife. She really is an incredible gift of help from God for me – I absolutely cannot imagine being here without her. We had only been married for three months (and known each other less than a year) when we flew to China to begin our lives here. We’ve been here for nine months now, and there’s no way to describe how much we’ve gotten to know each other in that time, and how much I’ve really learned I need her. She’s killing herself to learn the language and help grow our church, even though she’s in a lot of pain sometimes. No to mention that, like most guys with more ideas than sense, it takes a lot of maintenance to keep me running – and she takes way better care of me than I deserve.  

But in all that, I have to be most thankful for her attitude. Lots of people do these kinds of services, but their hearts are drenched in bitterness as a result. They’re angry, resentful, and proud. And there’s plenty to complain about here. But somehow, through plenty of stressful circumstances, she keeps a spirit that encourages not discourages me. What’s the opposite of “continual dropping”?  

At tonight’s service, some of the students had gotten us a cake and some cards. D., the recovering-near-J.W.-convert did one of the nicest things for us. She must have called twenty or so students that are back in their hometown with their family right now and wrote down a message from them for is in a little notebook, as kind of a card from everyone in the church. Then they made us leave pretty soon after our service, as we’re normally there for about three hours after the service finishes. Anyway, just a blog entry about a couple things that I’m extremely thankful for.