Happy Hour

Depending on when you were born, and how much world news you’ve watched in years gone by, you may have gotten the impression that China is made up of people who all dress alike, want to conquer the world and certainly do not have values like Americans. I’d like to share our recent experience with you that sheds a different light on the people of this nation.

Nextage is labeled as the 2nd largest department store in the world just behind Macy's in New York City. It's ten stories tall. They even sell automobiles! We were looking for something much more mundane, a coffee maker. Yes, that's right, we have caved-in to our taste for a cup of fresh brewed coffee in the morning. I've tried four or five different kinds of tea. But after drinking coffee this many years, I've decided that tea is no substitute. Besides that, Daisy, one of Debbie's employees told us that tea is what the old people drink. Young people drink coffee!

Out of the mouths of babes!...

After shopping we met another Oklahoma native for early dinner. Her driver, Michael, also joined us. We chose to meet at 4:30 p.m. because it was Friday, and if we had waited until 5 or 6 P.M. traffic would have been extremely bad. We had the restaurant almost to ourselves. The waiter asked us what we wanted to drink and reminded us it was "Happy Hour." When our Cokes came we talked and laughed and eventually realized that the restaurant had almost filled to capacity.

The "Happy Hour" for me was talking to this 29-year old driver who was born and raised near Shanghai. He had learned to speak English over the past two years. We talked openly and candidly about his hopes and dreams. Because of his experiences in life, he thought that there had to be better ways of being successful and helping this nation he loves than just “living for yourself”.

He told me that he lived in an apartment that he purchased with the money he saved. His father had helped him to literally build out the inside of the apartment, i.e. all the cabinets, wiring, plumbing, etc. When he purchased the apartment, he purchased an empty cement shell of rooms. Everything else he had to either build, or hire someone to build. He and his father had done all the work. He loved his parents very much.

When we spoke specifically of dreams one of his involved a small kindergarten school that met close to his apartment. He said, if these young children could be taught to think properly, to have dreams, and to learn how to move toward those dreams, then perhaps they would be better people when they grew up, and would in turn influence their children. "Dreaming without doing is not good," he said. A scripture came to mind. "Let us be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." - James 1:22

I sat amazed at what I was hearing. He had no formal training, yet, his thinking was spot on. I told him that he had given me a great sense of hope for China.

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." - Proverbs 23:7

Some things are taught and never learned, and some things are revealed and never forgotten. Yes?