Relief at the Right Time

Hey again!  So its only been a week, but I felt like I need to share this story.  Just a heads up though, its not really going to be like the other two. 

So this week has been a lot different than last week.  I have been doing a Journey to the Heart retreat in Douliou City that is mandatory to attend before I teach.  Basically, it gets you to focus on your relationship with God.  I actually was able to spend this week with some of the friends I made at CI in Taipei: Mary, Damaris, Emily, and Trey.  

As the week has been coming to a close, everything has just been becoming more stressful and tomorrow we will all be separating and I will have to begin the meeting people stage all over again. Also, as an introvert, I have just been overwhelmed because all we have been doing all week is spending time with each other, and I had been in need of time to "recharge."  Not to mention, the future looks very daunting because I have no clue what to expect next week.  

Now this may be strange but I thought of writing this post after going to the mall here in Douliou.  I was actually going to get a mosquito net...now let me explain why.  Ever since the first night at here at the school the mosquitoes at night have been getting progressively worse.  To avoid them, because their only really bad at night,  is hide as much as myself as possible under the comforter.  However, the temperature here is warm causing everyone to sweat to death under the covers.  Even when I did hide as much of myself as possible, my face was still exposed! The problem is you cannot just go to sleep because you can hear them buzzing near your ears and feel them landing on your face!  As a result, my face looks like it is going through the puberty stage all over again, and it really itches.  In fact, last night was so bad I when into the bathroom shower area with my comforter and slept on the floor because there were no mosquitoes in there and it was a lot cooler.  So I resolved that I would get a mosquito net for tonight just to keep my sanity.  Honestly when we all arrived at the mall, I was had this fear I would not find one, very silly of me, but the fear was there.  I headed straight to the sheet section of the store but couldn't find them, so I went to a store employee and asked if she spoke English.  She sad no, and I thought do not panic just be creative.  So I used very visual hand motions and she got this "OOOOHHH" look on her face and motioned me to follow her.  She led me right to the mosquito nets and I thanked her in Chinese.  For about 5 minutes I just stood there staring and I just thanked God for bringing me relief, and in that moment I knew God was going to get me through the next week.  It seems like a lot to get out of a mosquito net, but I knew God was telling me "do not worry, I'm in control."  

On a side note me and my friends Emily, Trey, Damaris, and Matt, all felt like celebrities on the way out.  A random mother with two kids stopped us and asked to get a picture with all of us.  I thought that was a bit strange, but Matt explained that we will get that a lot here because we are American and Taiwanese love Americans, unlike a lot of other countries.