Return to School Delayed!

So, as the scene unfolds on media, so also our circumstances are changing. Peking University, our Beijing employer, has informed us that the start of the semester is being indefinitely delayed. It was to have started on Feb. 17 and our tickets are for Feb. 11. We were told not to cancel our tickets yet, but it seems inevitable. There is discussion about conducting classes online, which I suppose can be done from almost anywhere. (Rick is contemplating how one can teach oral English with required oral presentations online. Haha)

Personally, I am finding this delay very hard to accept. After this long ‘vacationing’, I am quite ready to return to my home and hold still and unpack. I am ready to return to my very meaningful work. But then I have spent most of today realizing what an ungrateful wretch I am. The Lord orchestrates it so that we are out of harms way, and do not have to go through the uncertainties of lock down, lack of supplies, and maybe even evacuation….and instead I am complaining. Convicted today.

However, an additional problem is we have no really good place to go to stay here in the States for any extended time. We love our family and friends, but sincerely do not want to actually live with them with no end in sight. Soooo, I guess maybe we will just head out adventuring again, like we did 3+ years ago when we left Panama. I had been thinking fondly of that trip even before we left China and all of this happened. Would love to see some of the people we missed last time. We do not know how much time we have, though. Nor how far afield from our take off point in SC we should venture. It is all up in the air and we are just waiting. Would you mind if we came and saw you overnight…suddenly? I promise that we are not infectious. Haha. The whole thing had barely begun when we left China 4 weeks ago. Additionally, a big request. Does anyone have a small, small house trailer we could borrow? Small enough for a Dodge Caravan to pull? That is rather a big request, but I thought I would throw it out there anyway.

Please pray for us, but of course, more importantly, pray for the people in China and worldwide who may be struggling because of the new coronavirus, both directly and as collateral damage. (How does the economy survive when businesses are closed and nothing much is going into or coming out of an expanding lock down area?) And for the church as it struggles to be salt and light in the midst of this crisis.