Three months after our original plan, (but the exact date for God’s plan) we will be boarding a plane in Greenville, SC to move to Hong Kong. Can you sense the excitement? We are SO ready . . . well almost. There are quite of few little details to work through, but we are mostly completely ready to start the journey. Here are a few details:
- our original flight was from Greenville to Chicago to San Francisco to Hong Kong, but the San Francisco to Hong Kong leg was canceled
- The new plan is Greenville to Chicago to Frankfurt (GER) to Hong Kong
- We leave Greenville at 5:45 pm Thursday and arrive in Hong Kong at 3:50 pm on Saturday (3:50 am Saturday morning your time) . . . 34 hours in all. Tired yet?
- we have a really tight connection in Chicago to make our flight to Germany. Please pray for no delays arriving in Chicago from Greenville.
- Once we get to Germany, we have an 11-hour layover before we board for Hong Kong.
- There are five of us traveling: Tiffany, Annie, Jonathan, Chester, and I. Who is Chester? Chester is Jonathan’s cello that will have a seat on the plane next to Jonathan. Chester is allowed 2 checked bags and a carry-on! Yes!
- At last count, we will have 12 bags to check (we get 10 free). We plan on getting to the airport 4 hours before our flight in order to give plenty of time for the check-in process.
- Tomorrow we will all (minus the cello) get a Covid test in order to prove to Germany and Hong Kong that we are negative for the coronavirus.
- Once we land in Hong Kong, we will be tested again and have to wait (up to 8 hours) for the results at the airport or a facility close by.
- After a negative covid test at the airport and receiving our tracking bracelets, we will be transported to our hotel where we are required to quarantine for 2 weeks. We are not allowed to leave the room for the entire 2 weeks (see the segment below for our plans to stay occupied during quarantine).
We are required to bring a ton of paperwork in order to be accepted into HK. Please pray for wisdom and smooth transitions.
Praise for God’s Provision
It has been a wonderful privilege to watch God take care of every need each step of the way. Below is a small list of how He has taken care of us in this transition:
- Faith Baptist in Taylors provided their mission home for our family to stay since January 2019 (total of 20 months).
- Hong Kong is an expensive place, but the Lord has allowed us to raise 94% of our needed support.
- 48 churches and 28 individuals giving every month to meet our needs – immensely humbling; Thank to you to every church and individual helping us in this way!
- Needed to raise at least $25,000 for our transition fund and God’s people gave $32,000. Thank you to all who helped with this!
- We recently sold our suburban for the price we were asking and the buyer has allowed us to use the suburban right up until the very end
- Wonderful recovery from hip replacement surgery. I’m doing everything normally other than running/playing basketball. That will come later. 🙂
- Over 1000 people receiving our email updates every week
- Many, many people supporting us in prayer through all of this transition to Hong Kong
Quarentine Quest
What in the world are we going to do for 2 straight weeks stuck in a hotel room? Thankfully we will have two rooms that adjoin, but still . . . that is a long time in a hotel room. And, we will be trying to get over jet lag at the same time. We have a plan! Here is a list of the kinds of things we will be doing to stay occupied:
- Tiffany, Jonathan, and Annie will be working on homeschooling
- we have scheduled 2-3 times each day for exercise . . . all in the room
- reading a missionary story out loud together
- Board games (settlers, rook, qwixx, iota, and others) will happen each day
- each of us will have a leisure reading time set aside each day
- food will be delivered to our room (from a variety of places) 3 times a day
- we are hoping to do a little bit of work on mandarin
- there will be more time than normal for personal prayer and bible reading each day
- Facetime with the family
Prayer Requests
- Negative results from our Covid test tomorrow and a negative result from the Covid test when we land in HK
- Smooth travel connections and no delays
- Good use of our time and godly patience with each other during quarantine
- Abbie in her first week of college at Maranatha.
- Sarah student teaching history at Riverside High school in Greenville and working at Chickfila in the evenings
- Nathan finishing up his senior year at BJU and working at Chickfila in the evenings
- Jonathan, Annie and Tiffany with homeschooling in HK.
- Finish up the remaining needed monthly support. We are very close to being 100% supported.
- Island Baptist Church (Pastor Johnson) in Hong Kong.
- We recently started renting a new space for our church. Pray for the renovations.
- Pray we will be creative in what we are allowed to do to minister to the church family. We are anticipating not being able to meet together completely until 2021.
- Pastor Johnson as he starts into teaching 3 university classes (all online) for 2 universities in Hong Kong.
- Prayers for the camp in November – we are expecting close to 500 4th, 5th and 6th graders. We are very unsure if we will be able to have this camp. Wisdom needed.
- Please pray we will be able to find just the right apartment when we get out of quarantine. We are looking for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with close to 1000 square feet in the Tung Chung area in Hong Kong – close to the airport and close to where our pastor lives.