Unexpected Blessings

(So you all know, I am not intentionally leaving out paragraph breaks. For some reason when my writing gets published, it takes them away. I don't understand it, but it is very frustrating.)

These past few weeks have had their ups and downs. The heater at school has decided that it wanted to produce substantial amounts of carbon monoxide along with the heat for our building. The temperature has dropped finally in Korea too leaving it somewhere around 0 degrees C and below. Needless to say school has been quite chilly since last week. The students and staff have been exposed to considerable amounts of carbon monoxide which resulted in major headaches and other side effects. Please pray for wisdom as the owner of the building and workers try solve the problem as they attempt to fix the system.


There have been some major blessings in the past few weeks as well. Open positions at my school are posted for the 2006-2007 school year. If you were to check out the web page you would see that my current job is listed as needing filled. Do not fret. This does not mean that they have fired me or I am being deported or that I quit. This simply means that for next year (and however long I am here after my initial contract) that I have my ‘dream’ job. Next school year I will be teaching high school English and a Speech and Drama class. That’s right! I GET TO TEACH BRITISH LITERATURE AND THEATRE!


I have really been shown the importance of waiting on God’s timing for things. I am not the most patient person a lot of the time. I have been shown that multiple times since I’ve been here (hence the job teaching middle schoolers). The position for next year is a true blessing and testament to God’s grace. It has shown me that if I follow what He wants me to do (event though it may not be my first choice) I will eventually be blessed with the things that I desire.


He has also shown me this through financial matters. It’s not easy being on a missionary salary, living off the economy in a foreign country, and saving money for plane tickets home twice a year. It is especially frustrating when you do not have a set date that things like rent come out of your pay (it is around the first of the month but you never know exactly which check it is coming out of). With this in mind, I did some much needed shopping for things around Thanksgiving and left enough money in my bank account to last me until my next pay. When I went to the ATM to withdrawal the money I needed I realized that my account was so low that the machine would not allow me to take money out. That was Wednesday of last week and I’ve had to pay for expenses since then too. Today after the final bell of the day rang, my friend Laura (who was the head volleyball coach) came and gave me money that was from the school as a ‘bonus’ type payment for coaching. This could not have come at a better time. I owe my roommates money (since we’ve had things we’ve had to pay for since last week) and I hate owing people money. Now, I can finally pay them back! What a blessing.