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.

Strange Times

January 21st was the last day before the Lunar New Year holiday. I didn’t think that would be the last time I would get to see the students at my school.

I had it all planned out. I thought through the entire plan for my leaving the school when I handed in my resignation in November. This place has been such a big part of my life, that I wanted to make sure I left well. After much prayer and discussion, I decided that the end of February would be my last day. That would give me one month to get my things together to leave my home for the past five years before heading to the TeachBeyond conference in April then heading to America before beginning the new adventure in July. However, my plans didn’t factor in the coronavirus.

At the beginning of February, we learned of the coronavirus and the country jumped into action. The virus that was running rampant in China, had come to this country. There weren’t many cases, but there was enough unknowns that caused fear in parents. The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health decided to close school for the week by extending the Lunar Holiday. This was a shock to teachers as there was not a lot of information about the virus. Schools jumped into action by providing online learning and cleaning and sanitizing everything.

As the week continued, rumors started going around that school was going to be canceled the next week as well. Other cities had already closed for the next week, but we had to wait until Friday evening to learn that we would be extending the holiday for another week. School being closed for another week, without an increase in cases, didn’t really make sense and we complained. There was just not a lot of information. Teachers were missing students. We didn’t prepare to say goodbye to students for longer than the week and a half holiday. Now we were going on three and a half weeks.

Each week, the expectations that next week would be the week we would go back would be crushed Friday evening when the city would extended the holiday yet again. Soon school was canceled for the entire month of February (if you’re keeping track that makes 5 and a half weeks out of school). My heart sadden at the thought that the students that I have watched grow over the past five years would come back to school and I won’t be there. They wouldn’t even know that I had spent the past 4 months thinking of how I would say goodbye to them; how we would shed tears and share memories. I feel robbed at the opportunity to say goodbye to the students that have been a big part of the reason I came here.

The school staff did plan a sweet farewell party for me on my last day, 28 February, 2020. We played American Football with the staff. I love the opportunity to play sports with our staff, it is a great time of fellowship and team-building. Then they arranged a photo booth and sweet farewell videos for me in our gym. I loved the opportunity to spend time with staff that I have built relationships with. They also offered me the chance to come back to school when the students come back for a final farewell.

As March has come, the school closures continue. The news just came that students will be out of school until the end of March and school are preparing for the long term (end of March makes 9 and a half weeks out of school). The rest of the world has also caught on to the school closures as well as businesses are starting to close. I started to come to terms with not being able to see the students before I leave.

Every day I hear about schools closing in America and other countries banning travel for the next 2-4 weeks. I had planned to leave at the beginning of April to head to the conference in Europe. However, the conference was canceled. Then flights to Malaysia were banned. And now its not looking promising for flights to America. So I have paused travel plans and I am just taking it one day at a time.

These are strange times. But during these strange times I will continue to trust in the Lord. I know that He has orchestrated the next adventure as a Head of School. My plans for the summer might be changing but I put all my trust and plans in the hands of the Lord. I am thankful for the extra time to spend with my community here and I am praying that students will come back to school before I have to leave the country. But I know that there will be an opportunity for me to come back even if I don’t get to say goodbye this time. This country and these people have a special place in my heart. God is continuing to fulfill His promise of providing homes all over the world.

pictures in order from left to right:

1st row: ponchos on motorbikes, making nem and my other favorite foods with some amazing people, the trip to Bat Trang Pottery Village, Playing football with the staff

2nd row: lanterns in Hoi An with friends, farewell photo booth group picture, my empty desk at school, Sunday Fiesta for Woman’s Day at Salt N Lime

3rd row: Long Bien Bridge, Recycled trash, Office staff goodbye dinner at 4ps, some of my favorite girls from work

Company Trip

​Last weekend, the company that owns my school invited all of its employees on a trip. We went to this nice hotel about 4 hours from our school. The hits has the largest pool in the country! And it is super beautiful and the ocean is just on the other side. It seriously looks like a picture from a magazine!

The SamSon resort! It was like stepping into a picture!  

We were only there for Saturday and Sunday, but it was so much fun. Spending time with my coworkers outside of work was such a blessing. They are so much fun! When we got to the hotel and saw the pool we couldn't wait to get our swimsuits on and go swimming! But our staff didn't want to get in until after 4pm because the sun wouldn't be as hot (they are afraid of getting darker, basically the opposite of every American!). So Jen and I went for a swim at the beach. We played with one of our students whose mom works for another part of the company.

Our staff minus a few. Ready for an awesome weekend! 

At 4, our staff joined us. They asked us to teach them how to swim. And they chose the ocean to be the first place they tried. LOL. I taught one of them how to float but the rest kept getting scared by the waves so I suggested we move to the pool.

The staff at the Gala dinner.  

After swimming we went to a Gala dinner. I didn't really understand everything that was going on but everyone was laughing and it was fun to spend time talking with our staff about random things. After dinner we played some games and one was a fashion show where we were given some materials and we had to make an outfit. Our staff decided to make a bikini and our male PE teacher was the model. Let's just say it was hilarious!!!

PE teacher dancing and showing off his bikini. 😳 

The next day we spent some more time in the water. Some of the staff were getting the hang of swimming and really enjoying the water (many are scared of the water). We also had an amazingly delicious American breakfast. My stomach hurt so much after it, but it was so good. I can't wait to go back to America and have breakfast :) LOL.

We ended the weekend with a 4 hour bus ride back home. By the time we got back, I was ready to be surrounded by English for the rest of the night. Trying a understand a foreign language takes a lot of energy!

I love the staff at our school! I am so thankful God has called me here!!!