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 量变 progress that I could not pinpoint a date when 质变 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, 我照镜子可以看到我的牙龈外侧上长了一个脓包，甚至有一个白色的脓头。Mama D. 建议我去学校的附属牙科医院，那里由实习学生治疗，诊费减半，而我是本校学生，再减半，也就是只要一般牙医收费的四分之一。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，疼起来真要命”，所以我想我当时祷告一定很虔诚。:) After that, I found a medicine，福建漳州特产片仔癀，which my mother gave me when I left China. 我刮了一些片仔癀粉，调成糊，涂在患痛的地方，就赶去上课了。

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 脓包 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. 有一颗牙的牙管神经没有抽干净，时间长了就发了炎，因为上面填住了，就向下发展，在牙龈上长了脓包。If it’s not very serious, you can still open the top, redo 抽牙管神经,重新补牙。If it’s very serious, 就要从牙龈开刀，从外面进去，切除发炎的部位。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.