Third prayer: God loves me, God cares about me

As I said in the last time, I returned to my small school to continue my study. Life was still stressful, but I was a much happier person then. There was something changed inside me, I liked to read bible, and liked to go to church; I still had a lot of questions, but it did not bother me that much any more. Looking back, I think I already became a believer, but it was such a gradual 量變 progress that I could not pinpoint a date when 質變 happened. There were not much dramatics events except I did experience a miracle once.

I could not remember the date nor the month, only remember that I was living in my host mother’s house. Mama D. is a Catholic lady, she loves all the Chinese students there, and we all love her. She let me moved into her attic, so that I could save some money on rent.

One day, I felt sever toothache, 我照鏡子可以看到我的牙齦外側上長了一個膿包，甚至有一個白色的膿頭。Mama D. 建議我去學校的附屬牙科醫院，那裡由實習學生治療，診費減半，而我是本校學生，再減半，也就是只要一般牙醫收費的四分之一。I went there, and they checked my tooth. But my English was so poor, I did not fully understand those medical terms they used; I only understood that it would cost me more than $600, and it took about 6 months to completely cure it. $600 was about 2.5 month salary for me, and I really could not afford it. So I said I would wait until when I went back to China. What I meant was that I would rather spent the money on an air ticket to go back to China to fix it, but they thought I was going to fly back to China very soon. So they let me go without giving me any pre????ion.

The toothache was periodical, it hit me again when I arrived at home. There was nothing I could do except start to pray. There is a saying “牙疼不是病，疼起來真要命”，所以我想我當時禱告一定很虔誠。:) After that, I found a medicine，福建漳州特產片仔癀，which my mother gave me when I left China. 我刮了一些片仔癀粉，調成糊，塗在患痛的地方，就趕去上課了。

That night, when I went back to home after an exhaust day, I realized that I had toothache earlier in the day, and I realized that I did not feel much pain and almost forgot about it. So I looked in the mirror, and found the 膿包 was almost gone, and only tiny white spot left to remind me where it was. I was very sure that is a miracle to me. I was overwhelmed by thanksgiving for it; I was overjoyed knowing that the GOD not only exists, HE actually loves me and cares about me, in another word, we could have personal relationship with HIM.

Looking back after ten year, I understand what was the cause for the toothache, because I experienced the same problem twice in the years after. Before I left China, I knew the medical bill in US would be expensive, so I went to a dentist to fix all my teeth. 有一顆牙的牙管神經沒有抽乾淨，時間長了就發了炎，因為上面填住了，就向下發展，在牙齦上長了膿包。If it’s not very serious, you can still open the top, redo 抽牙管神經,重新補牙。If it’s very serious, 就要從牙齦開刀，從外面進去，切除發炎的部位。Both options are very expensive.

This miracle cured that tooth, and kept the problem away for about three or four years. About two years after I got a job, that tooth had the same problem again. I choose to remove the tooth, because my insurance would not cover it, and I would have to pay about 1500 to cure it using first option. (I planed to “plant” a tooth when I got chance to go back to China, but I did not have enough time last time I was back). Last Nov., I had same problem again on another tooth. Luckily, the nerves in that tooth and nearby one were completely killed, thus I did not feel much pain. So I waited until this year to fix it using second options, the cost was a little over $2000; this time my insurance cover most of it, and my co-pay was $185.

I know some of you might say it’s the medicine I took cured it, and some of you might say it is just 巧合. Some of you might say it’s not repeatable, otherwise God should cure my teeth in the two later incidents.

Please give me some time to share my thought on these later, after I shared all four prayers. It’s late at night, I will stop here and continue some time later.

Have a good night and Godly night.