My Year In Review - 2010

"Are you only going to blog once a year?"

My sister Wendy asked me this question after my last published post and I had to laugh. I started a couple of other entries before this but never published. 2010 has shaped up to be a good year. 'Don't think I would have thought so in late summer.

I started the year working as an Integration Analyst-Consultant for MercuryGate International, a Transportation Management Software company, and unexpectedly lost my job in mid-summer, just in time to coordinate my parents' move from their home in Durham, NC, where they have lived for over 33 years. My parents now live 5 minutes away for me, in Cary, NC which is quite convenient, though friends warned me that this could cut into my personal freedom. So far, it's going okay.

I had an impressive crop of tomatoes this summer and some issues with tomato-eating caterpillars. Hybrid tomatoes really yield a much bigger crop than the traditional varieties.

I played tennis regularly with Peach Tennis leagues and with the Triangle Tennis Enthusiasts Meet-up group. Occasionally, I'll go swim laps at the Morrisville Aquatics Center or at the fancy indoor facility, the Triangle Aquatics Center on the East side of Cary.

Earlier in the year, I was still connected with the Wichek single's life class at www.pray.org (Providence Baptist Church) but I felt the Lord was leading me to get involved with a church closer to my home in the Morrisville-Cary area. In recent months, I've been attending www.goodhopechurch.org. I still try to stay connected with the singles ministry at Providence but I started 2011 by formally requesting to transfer my church membership from Providence to Good Hope Baptist in the Cary-Morrisville area.

Other highlights of my year included having guests from Massachusetts, visiting Emerald Isle, NC and Chincoteague, MD, participating in a Habitat for Humanity fundraising Bike Ride through Durham, and accompanying a well deserved young lady to her college graduation because I knew her parents could not be with her.

My family gathered together over Thanksgiving where I got to meet my cute, ready to start crawling, 6-month old Californian nephew Andy, and see how his brother Alex had grown so much bigger. I also completed my first year on the Board of Directors of my neighborhood Home Owners Association and taught two math classes for ITT Technical Institute in the Fall.

In December I went on a short-term Missions trip to Serbia with Providence Baptist Church. Serbia is in Eastern Europe, bordered by Romania, Hungary, Croatia, and Bosnia, among other countries, in the area between Poland, Russia, Germany, and Italy.

Providence Baptist has been partnering with KES, the Christian Evangelistic Center at Backi Petrovac, Serbia, for over 10 years. The Center is an hour North of Belgrade, Serbia. There we helped to distribute Samaritan's Purse, Operation Christmas Child Gift Boxes. The Serbians call them "Christmas Love Packages," a very fitting name.

In some of the towns we were told these were likely the only presents the children would receive for Christmas. It was a real pleasure to meet the committed, warm Christians who served with the ministry there and to get to know something of their culture, the mix of people groups, Slovakians, Serbians, Hungarians, gypsys? and others in each town. I thoroughly enjoyed the very gratifying trip and it certainly helps me to appreciate the things we take for granted on a daily basis. If you are intersted, you can see my complete online album of photographs from the mission trip here: http://picasaweb.google.com/pattyweipei/SerbiaDec2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXkru3lwsKKiwE&feat=email#

May 2011 bring Peace, Joy, Blessings, and Prosperity to You and Your Loved Ones!

Patty Cheng
Morrisville, NC 27560 (between Raleigh and Durham, NC)
Email: pwcheng@nc.rr.com