Needless to say, (but I’ll say it anyway!) the tasks at hand in preparation for the next year of my life seem mountainous. However, in my mind, this race has already begun. It’s such a delicate line to walk between preparing for the future, and maintaining a focus on the now. Yes, the countries I’ll be going to are in need, but so are the people in the country I am already in. It’s the same story anywhere on the globe, and its not necessarily about where, but rather, I believe, when; and here’s the big one- how?
Amidst fighting feelings of exasperation, discouragement, or feeling like maybe I’m not ready for this, I wonder if not now, then when? It is times as these, I rejoice in conformation!!! God knows, I need a lot of it.
“You know Krystle, the more I live, the less I believe in coincidence.” Spoken to me a little less than month into my time here in Korea, these were the parting words of the only other foreigner I worked with (and really even knew) at the time. Her decision to leave my school was sudden, and unexpected. My co-worker had become Muslim a few years prior, studying abroad in Cairo, and I just so happened to come to Korea during the month of Ramadan. A holiday of prayer and fasting during the day, and feasting in the evening, it was during this time that my co-worker decided to take the hijab, or head-covering.
Korea has long been a country fairly remote from the rest of the world, in part due to their mysterious isolated northern neighbors. In recent years, Western culture has hit the country in a big way, and encountering foreigners is not such the oddity that it was just a mere decade ago. With this tremendous clash between desperately trying to hold on to tradition, while at the same time trying to assimilate to the West, my very Korean school just did not know what to do about my co-worker’s new look. (Most likely, however, this would’ve been the case at any school.) Neither of us were tremendously shocked, but disappointed was probably the better word. After all, how could you be too surprised, in a country where you must attach a photo to your resume?
Rather than fighting it, my co-worker saw this as the right time to move on. I was sad she was leaving, but her words kept echoing in my mind…While at the time this idea of “no such thing as coincidence” was a fairly new idea in my mind, I couldn’t agree with her more.
It’s a little hard to believe that I’ve been here almost two years, and even harder to believe that I’ll be off to my next adventure in just over three months. If I weren’t a Christian, I would say, that my time living abroad has been magical. Coincidence… magical.. No. I know better now. I know these now as “Divine appointments,” and I praise God for every single one of these instances of conformation!!! These roadsigns of Grace are gifts to help us move forward; propelling us toward the Divine’s destiny for our lives! They serve to let us know that yes, I am on the right path. It is my great joy to share these with you! That you too, may be encouraged!
So in closing, I’d like to share with you one such instance. Yesterday, I had the fairly unexpectedly, but tremendous blessing of meeting with a world race alumni, miss Christie Albaugh. Now working at an orphanage in the Philippines she fell in love with during her time on the race, she was on an Asian tour with some of the other staffers. Her (I believe) last stop- Seoul. And what do you know, she *happened* to be staying with a dear friend and co-worker of my brother! ! ! As we were talking I remembered that upon searching the site months ago, I had come across one of her blogs before. I even made a note of it, because it had really helpful tips on what to pack and what not to pack! What a slightly surreal experience that here I was now standing next to that same person, chatting as my brother’s students did a tae-kwon-do performance, and his co-workers rocked out on the guitar singing old rock covers!
God is GOOD! (Oh and if you’re curious about that list, here’s a link to it…Packing FAQs– Thanks again for this, Christie!)
Though we didn’t spend a tremendous amount of time together, the little bit that we did chat, it was nice to be able to ask questions and get some first hand responses. I was so blessed amidst all of my recent stress and anxiety, to hear a first hand account of The World Race experience.
What are the chances, I wonder? Pretty high, when you choose to surrender your life…
~Grace and Peace~
