The night before…

It’s the night before my flight back to Southeast Asia. My bags are packed… exactly 50lbs (or 23kg) plus my carry ons. Packing your life into 50lbs bags is difficult. What makes the cut? What do you need? What can you live without? Remember you’re moving to a place that doesn’t have all the amenities of America. The things you have grown accustomed to over the past year aren’t necessarily going to be accessible over there.

So, I start making lists and putting things into piles. I go through my room trying to figure out what I need to take with me, what I want to take with me, and what I don’t need (goodwill pile and storage pile). I wish I could say it was easy, but it’s not.
The needs are obvious, clothes and toiletries. The wants are a little harder. There are foods you want to take for those days that you just miss home. There are games you want to take so you can have fun with friends. There are items others have asked you to bring because they can’t leave the country to go home due to covid. So you pack it all, or at least all that you can fit into the number of suitcases you decided to take. I will say this is the most suitcases I have taken at one time (but less than 5). Partly because the country is still on lockdown, so one suitcase is dedicated to things for quarantine/lockdown. Also, it is looking like this stay will be longer due to travel restrictions.

So my bags are packed and I ready to embark on this adventure! God has orchestrated all the plans and the door is open. Leaving is going to be so hard. I am going to miss people like crazy! But I am so excited to get back to Asia and do what God has called me to do! I know that things are going to be different, the world is different. But, God is at work and I pray He uses me to do His will and share His love with the people in SE Asia.
Thank you for all your prayers and support on this journey!

SURPRISE GRADUATION

I didn’t realize until I watched SGN’s graduation episode (watch here if you haven’t seen it) that I was considered a 2020 Graduate. Yep! I officially completed my Masters Degree in Education! What?!?! This 2.5 year journey has come to an end. To be honest, I didn’t think anything of it. I was just glad to be done and have that Masters Degree under my belt. I was excited to get my diploma, but I had no plans of celebrating. But my friends had a different plan!

On May 16th, my friend invited me to go for brunch at one of our favorite cafes that is a 10 minute walk from my apartment. Of course I said yes! I mean good food and good company, also you gotta eat :). I did not expect anything! We walked to the cafe, talking about our latest book reads and the week back to school. As we approached the cafe, there was nothing out of the ordinary. We started walking up the stairs and I saw some of my other friends. I was so confused, this was a random group of my friends. Friends from various places: school, TeachBeyond, girl gang, church. These were my friends, but they didn’t really know each other. And they were all dressed up. I asked what they were doing there and they just smiled at me. No one would tell me what was going on. I WAS SO CONFUSED. What could they possibly be doing? I finally realized I was the only one that didn’t know what was going on. So I started racking my brain, my birthday was a month ago…. we already did the whole good-bye thing…. what else was there?

Everyone kept asking, do you know what is going on? And for the life of me I couldn’t think of why everyone was there. I didn’t know. Then I heard it. From the third floor, the musical notes of pomp and circumstance floated down and I realized, OH! This is for my graduation. I couldn’t believe it. All these amazing people came together to give me a surprise graduation! Here came the tears. As I walked up the stairs, I was awestruck, that my friends would do this for me. They had everything. They made banners for the commencement exercise and even made me a diploma (because the real one was sent to my parents’ house in America). The had an entire program that included a commencement address, a time of worship, scripture reading, a graduation video, presentation of flowers and diploma, and a valedictorian speech (I was valedictorian of my class of 1 here).

So much work went into this plan and I was overwhelmed with the amazing love of the family of friends God has given me here! I cried tears of joy at the showering of love. It was a great surprise. I am still amazed that they had been planning it for a couple of weeks and I had no idea! They did a great job! And I am so glad that I got to celebrate this major accomplishment. I didn’t realize how much it would mean to me!

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.