So, What's The Plan?

Every day things change. The virus COVID-19 is spreading across the global and impacting daily life. Praying for everyone to stay safe and healthy during this time.

Life here is new every day. There really is no use in planning past today, because it seems like everything can change tomorrow. So I trust God to lead the way each morning and some days that is spending time with co-workers or friends and sometimes it is just spending the day working on graduate studies. God is at work, even in the midst of the unknown and chaos. Keeping calm and speaking life and proclaiming the Lord reigns, helps encourage and uplift those around us.

A lot of people have been asking about my plans and travels. I want to give an update:

All my flights have been canceled. I am still waiting to see if it was approved to get refunds. Praying for refunds as it would be nice to have that money back. I have given the worrying over the refunds to the Lord. Proclaiming that He is provider and that I will be taken care of with or without a refund.

The US government has set a Global Travel Advisory Level 4 which means DO NOT TRAVEL. It has been a complicated couple of days trying to decipher the emails from the U.S. Embassy. The embassy has said that people traveling abroad should return to America and those living abroad should stay. If you choose to stay, you need to plan to be there for an indefinite amount of time. “Indefinite amount of time” is a little concerning. However, after much prayer, conversations, and answered prayers, I am going to stay for a longer time.

Answered prayers:

• The school has approved for me to keep my residence card until it expires August 20. This gives me exactly 5 months in the country. This is important because the government here has stopped issuing new visas.

• My landlord has agreed to let me stay in my apartment past April 11th and I can pay monthly. I don’t want to pay 3 months at a time, because I am not sure what will happen in one month.

• We still have access to food at grocery stores and delivery options. There is word of a potential full shutdown, but I feel safe and confident in navigating the city with many contacts to survive a shutdown if it occurred.

Conversations

• Traveling to America could be difficult. Since there are no direct flights from here to America, it means that I would have to transit in another country. Some countries have completely closed their borders to incoming foreigners and transit. So I could leave the country get stuck in another country, be sent back, and feel like the real-life movie of the Terminal (stuck in an airport indefinitely).

• Quarantine. If I go back to America, I will have to self-quarantine or be quarantined depending on what happens while in the air (The flight is 24-36 hours to get home which means that many things could change while in the air). If I am quarantined and don’t have access to WIFI then I would be unable to finish grad school (which I only have 5 weeks left!!!). Also, I don’t have a place to self-quarantine in America. Self-quarantine means staying away from everyone (including family and friends) for 14 days.

• Infecting others. I don’t have the corona-virus, but if I was to contract the virus during my travels, I am cautious about affecting people close to me that are high-risk. I am not worried about the virus, but I don’t want to affect my loved ones that could be high-risk if they contract the virus.

• The emails from the embassy say that if you live in the country you should stay put, do not travel unless necessary. It is not necessary for me to travel due to having a home here and a visa.

• Living. Since I am no longer working at my school, there is no extra income coming in. Trusting in the Lord during this time, my finances are in His hands. Growing my faith in Him. Thankful for my supporters that have supported me here in Vietnam the past 5 years financially and prayerfully. :) These are strange times and God is provider of our needs in all circumstances. The cost of living is lower here, so it makes sense to stay here than move back to America (I do not have a job in America either).

So… what’s the plan?

• THERE IS NO PLAN…. taking each day one-day-at-a-time. :) Trusting and believing that God has my life in His hands. I am safe and taken care no matter where I am.

• Praying about God’s direction for me, about how to be a light during this time to the people here, as well as the plan for moving to Malaysia.

• Keeping an eye on the borders of Malaysia and America. If the borders of Malaysia open, I will go there to begin my new assignment

• Finish my last 5 weeks of grad school (last day April 25th).

• Continue slowly packing up my apartment. I had gotten through a lot of my food as I was planning to leave in a week or two, but I had to go grocery shopping yesterday for my extended stay :).

Thanks for thinking about me during this time. Your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated. I am praying for everyone during this time. I know that the times are strange and there is a lot of uncertainty, but the Lord is still on his throne. He is our provider, our protector, our defender, our healer, our peace, our comfort, and so much more!

Spending time with chosen FAMILY here, with pizza delivery. Thankful for amazing community during the corona-virus pandemic.

You is Kind, You is Smart, You is Important

Sorry it has been over a month since my last blog post. There has been so much going on at school. School has taken up most of my life here. I get to work around 7am and then get home around 7pm. Once I get home, I continue working on school things. There is just so much to do. Since my roommate and I are the only full time English teachers that have returned to our school, a lot of people look to us for answers. I don’t mind helping the foreign staff figure out how to plan and give insights for teaching, but the jobs given to me are beyond what I came here for. So far this year I have helped come up with routines and procedures for our whole school to operate, help rearrange the school schedule, made a supervision schedule, changed the supervision schedule, and changed it again because there is always something that doesn’t work for someone. It is really hard to make everyone happy at our school. Sometimes I feel like it is my job to make sure everyone is happy, but I am learning that I am going to have to let some things fail in order for change to happen.

All these extra jobs and tasks have caused a lot of different feelings that I didn’t have last year. Last year, even in the midst of tension and unease, I knew this was where God called me. However, this year it has been very difficult. The devil has definitely attacked my mind. I have questioned whether I am supposed to be here or not. I have felt purposeless, unwanted, unnecessary, and many other feelings. There have been many nights I have wanted to book a flight home the next day, because I couldn’t see my purpose here. Many tears have been shed, just wanting to go to something familiar and stable. But God reminds me in his gentle yet firm voice, I am called to be here. And I am reminded of this quote from The Help, “You is Kind, You is Smart, You is Important”. I am kind; I care about the school and the people in the school. I want to see it succeed. I am smart; I have good ideas and I have something to offer here. I am important; I have a role to play here.

God has called me here. He never said it was going to be easy to move across the world and help start a school, but he did say he would never forsake me! Even in the darkest of times the one thing that carried me through is knowing God is with me and feeling the His presence. His constant reminder that I am meant to be here has kept me here. I am learning more and more every day. God is teaching me what my limits are. He is teaching me to set boundaries. He is teaching me to trust him. He has it all in his hands. There is nothing that surprises God! And I am constantly learning of his love. I am a beloved daughter of the King. He will never forsake me. There is nothing I can do to make him love me less. I desire to be pleasing to Him.

 “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, Let me walk upon the waters, Wherever You would call me, Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, And my faith will be made stronger, in the presence of my Savior!” (Oceans – Hillsong)

Oceans always seems to be on my mind and speaks to my life. God lead me where you want me to go. Guide my steps so that all I do points to you and for you to be the only explanation for what I am able to do. Help me to have faith in you even when it can be hard to see the good in the day. Thank you for your presence in my life every day and in every step I take!

Please pray for me as I continue to set boundaries and trust in God’s plan. Pray that I learn how to say no, even if that means that something doesn’t get done. Pray for the school that we will listen and follow God’s will and plan. Pray for our foreign staff, as everyone is tired and trying to learn how to navigate a bilingual environment. Pray for our national staff, as they are just as tired and exhausted but have no one to turn to as they are not Christians. Thank you so much for your prayers! They truly make a difference!!! 

What a Week!

So... everyone is okay... but this week has been one for the books. 

Last Wednesday, my roommate and I were taking our teammate's daughters to our house so that they could go look at apartments. They met us at school and we were going to walk the 5 minutes to our apartment. We got about 50 meters from school and the oldest girl was hit by a motorbike! So we had to call her parents to come meet us and then we met them at the expat hospital. She is ok, just some scraps and bruises but it was so scary! We have ran it through our minds so many times and we can't explain how it happened. It just doesn't make sense!

Then on Friday, my roommate and I bought motorbikes! Yes! We bought motorbikes! Something that was the next step in the process of living here. They are both used but in good condition (or so we were told). Then we found out on Saturday that my roommate's bike wasn't working correctly. It would turn off while driving after 5 minutes. NOT GOOD! Mine did well until Monday. On Monday, my bike wouldn't start. COME ON! So we called the guy who sold them to us and he came and fixed them and now they are working great! Praying that they continue to work great!

Also on Monday, my roommate fell on her bike trying to get away from one of our guards at our apartment. There is this one guard, we call him "debt collector", who always stops us and makes us pay him to leave our apartment. Also he smiles really creepily at us and laughs. It is really annoying and uncomfortable. So she scraped her knee a little bit when she turned to fast and the bike fell over. Then I was trying to pick up our motorbike parking tickets so we didn't have to deal with the debt collector guard. The building manager told me I needed to pay the water bill as well as our parking tickets. So I went to the apartment to get money. When I went back he was printing the parking tickets, but he wouldn't let me pay for them. So I stood in the office for 45 minutes before he would let me pay. While I was waiting he would say something and I didn't understand so he would just say it louder and faster (which is not helpful!). So I called one of the translators at school so that he would just take my money and let me go! 

After I paid our water bill and parking, we had maintenance come to the apartment to look at the air conditioner that is leaking water. So he comes up and looks at and then says he will come back Friday. UMMM NOOO! He then said he would come on Wednesday. By this time, I was done with the day! I didn't want to be here anymore. I wanted to leave but I know God has me here for a reason! I can say that as I was walking to my room to cry I could just feel the presence of God surround me and hold me. He never said it would be easy, but He did say He would never forsake me!

So Tuesday was a new day! My motorbike started and I made it safely to school and to pick up my friend and do some work. At lunch I was taking my friend home and I had a small accident. A boy on a bicycle stopped right in the middle of the road, so I slammed on the brakes but my bike is so big and with a friend on the back it was too heavy and I couldn't keep it up so we fell and slid on the ground. I scraped up my knee (now my roommate and I have matching scrapes). Thankfully, I didn't hit the boy on the bicycle and my friend was ok! The boy on the bicycle felt so bad, but no one was hurt. Except for the blood running down my leg. My friend bandaged me up at her house and I went back to work, so it couldn't have been that bad!

I swear it felt like those 5 days were 3 months. I didn't think so many bad things could happen in such a small amount of time. Good things happened as well. We went to the waterpark with some of the young adult ladies. We had a cookout dinner at our friend's house by the lake. We went to Pizza Company for some of the best pizza in town. We picked up one of my favorite people from the airport! We had Indian food :). Our full time English staff is finally in the country! 

If this week has taught me anything, it is that I should continue to trust God and not lose faith even in the midst of the storm. Bad things happen. Becoming a Christian doesn't give you a pass to a problem free life. The devil doesn't like you. So he is on a mission to steal, kill, and destroy. Our language nurturer came over on Monday and we read Luke 8:22-25, the disciples thought the storm was going to kill them and Jesus was sleeping. They wake Jesus up and He rebuked the storm and everything ceased. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given (Ephesians 1:20-21). Even in the midst of the crazy storm of things God still reigns above it all. He is still the provider, protector, the loving Father. 

Please be praying for me and my roommate and our entire English team at school. The evil one is present and on a mission. But so are we! We are on a mission from God to reach the people of this country. I will leave you with something our pastor (who is also our principal) said on Sunday, Satan goes about like a roaring lion, but he's a mortally wounded one! He has already been defeated!