Waiting in Motion

A couple months ago, a good friend of mine was encouraging me when I was feeling particularly nervous about coming to Taiwan. Her words of wisdom? “Don’t doubt in the dark what you knew to be true in the light.” She was right of course, I was having a hard day with leaving, and it was no reason to doubt God’s plan when I knew this was where He wanted us.

Except, I didn’t know this was where He wanted us.

We knew we wanted it, and we knew that God loves to bless His children, and really, He wasn’t exactly stopping us. He had certainly made the whole thing possible, and we never really felt like it wasn’t what God wanted, but all in all, confidence in this being “God’s plan” was something I struggled with in my own heart. But still, we went, because really, the idea of not going seemed unbearable.

And God blessed us immensely. He blessed us with 2 wonderful, busy, stressful weeks of seeing so many loved ones before leaving, He blessed us with a beautiful and relaxing time with great friends in San Diego before a long flight, and He blessed us with 2 of the best and quickest (although longest) flights either of us have ever had.

And then we landed.

And we were immediately met with fear, anxiety and at times (at least for me) complete regret. The first two days here were especially difficult. We felt isolated, alone, and outcast. We knew no one, had no idea where we were, what we should do, how to speak the language, or how to go about getting jobs. We began emailing schools and trying to find ways to spend our time. It was all about making it through a long and difficult day only to realize we had no idea what to do for the next.

But God is faithful. And in those two days I felt his presence and comfort more assuredly than I have in a very long time. We were overwhelmed and anxious and stressed, but we never doubted God’s presence (and that act of faith alone was clearly from God Himself). He would provide one of us strength when the other was overwhelmed to the point of heartache. He would show us beauty in the times Jon and I would smile or laugh together. We’d see someone wearing a Cardinals hat or an Indians jersey and get to talk baseball briefly with a stranger. We’d see foreigners and laugh when they saw us and there was this unspoken greeting of familiarity. We’d be excited about understanding subway stops and feeling like there was at least one part of the city we were starting to get. And God gave us things to look forward to, most of which never worked out like we wanted, but they were ways to get us through the day. And every time we walked away feeling like nothing had been accomplished, we’d stress and we’d struggle, and then God would show us something else to focus on.

The latest example was Sunday afternoon. After an underwhelming church service that morning and still no guidance or plans for our stay, we ended up in a coffee shop where a group of foreigners and natives alike met every Sunday at 3pm to talk English and socialize. But of course, no one showed, and since we had our afternoon free again, we decided we’d try another church we had heard about through another couple on a Kaohsiung forum.

And that was clearly where God wanted us.

There are not words adequate enough to describe the overwhelming love and support we felt by the end of that night. Within 4 hours, we walked away with a church, a job interview for each of us, a ton of advice, friends, and more joy than we thought possible after those first few days.

We had our interviews Monday followed by demonstrations and job offers on Tuesday. We’ve been blessed with friends left and right having us over for dinner, taking us out to lunch, and even meeting us at the hospital just to help us figure out the whole process for getting our physicals for our new jobs. It’s been incredible.

In five days, I have been blessed to experience God and learn more about Him personally than I have in a very long time. He was, and is, ever present, ever comforting, ever loving, and ever faithful. He is all that is good. Words like “Father” have never meant more to me than they do at this very moment, and I have never been more sure that this is exactly where God wants us.