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We move on Thursday!!!

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.