Before I did this, Milly one of the two scholars, treated I and some other friends to dinner, and then I helped her look for Oregon Postcards and buy cleaning supplies. I am afraid I was much more helpful with finding the postcards than I was the cleaning supplies. It’s amazing, for an American, how little I know about how to take grime off of ovens/stoves. Although God was good and I finally found some good steel wool pads that you simply wet and they did the trick. However, I do know exactly where the Oregon Souvenirs can be found in the large Fred Meyer department store. Milly had been previously told by the persons working at Fred Meyer they didn’t carry postcards, and as I walked her to the small section of Oregon paraphilia she called out to me, “The stationary is this way!” But being a proud Newberg resident (and also because I get gas points by shopping there), I puffed out my chest and led her back to the home décor where there, sure enough, tucked at the end of the isle, were the small racks of Oregon souvenirs. Thankfully they were on sale, and Milly ended up buying around 200 postcards for her students and her daughters classmates. It took quite awhile just to get this done as we had to count them all out by tens; she wouldn’t listen to my advice to just grab the whole shelf of them. But, having lived overseas I know what it is like to try to get the perfect souvenirs and this without going over budget. I’m so thankful to the many students and friends living in China who let me drag them around town to help me with my last minute souvenir shopping. It certainly gave me more empathy and a willingness to help Milly as we carefully counted and picked pictures of beaches, mountains, and cities.
Because of my experience living overseas, I know too that helping them meant I was signing myself up for a long evening. But this is why I did it. I knew these two ladies would be up all night trying to finish things up. And, a month prior, when I was still working a the clinic, I would have never been able to help them clean, knowing that I had to get up early the next morning. But since giving up my hours to make money, I have been able to use these hours to make something deeper. And it was certainly worth it. That night, as I was taking her home to her apartment after dinner which she had treated me and some other friends to for the very last time, she told me that I and another friend are like two angels. I told her that it’s not just me helping her, but that it’s a whole lot of people, thousands of people, who pour into me so that I am able to help her. And, that it is because God loves her. She started to cry. I think she was mostly crying because she is leaving, and I didn’t feel led to say more, but I held her hand.
I finally finished helping the scholars at 12:30am. It had been a wonderful night of getting to know Milly more over deep cleaning the oven and fridge. I also met her husband over wechat (a social media app from china that always you to do facetime). He hadn’t been able to visit her this year in America because he works for the government and can’t travel overseas, but Milly told me he had heard about me because her daughter talks about me.
Another blessing that night was that because the scholars had no where to put the food that was left in their home, so they gave it to me. My income has recently dropped, but the food the scholars gave me added up to be a couple of boxes full of nonperishables and three trash bags worth of food for the freezer and fridge. Receiving the large amount of extra food was very well timed, and I know who timed it.
As I said goodbye to the scholars' little girls they grab me and wrapped their little arms around me and tried to climb me like a jungle gym.
Goodbyes are part of life, but it’s a wonderful thing to know that you have been a part of bringing someone Life.