The Land of Eternal Summer

After I posted this, I was encourage by notes from many of you saying that you were praying for us. Living as a leaf in God's wind is. . .well, how shall I put this. . . unpredictable. If you had told me in January that we would be living in an apartment right now, I would have laughed at your imagination. But, here we are. If you had told me a month ago that we would be moving out of the apartment in just a few short weeks, I would have laughed at the joke. But, here we are!

After our house sold in only two days, an unheard of thing in the current housing market, we began earnestly seeking God's face about where He was leading us. After making application to a few places, we interviewed and were offered a position in Singapore. For the next two school years, Joshua will be teaching computers at a Christian International School. It is hard to believe, but we will be leaving the US and flying to Singapore the latter part of July! We are excited about this opportunity. God opened the door before us and all obstacles were removed. It has been reassuring to see His hand in our lives.

A little about Singapore. . . I have affectionately dubbed it "The Land of Eternal Summer." The lowest recorded temperature is only 65-degrees (for those of you who need a break from the snow and sleet of Colorado, Washington and Texas, feel free to come visit us next winter). Singapore is an island city-state on the southern tip of Malaysia. It lies very close to the equator and is only a little over 200 square miles. That isn't a very large amount of space in which to squeeze a population of 4.5 million people--thus the high rise apartments and office buildings that dominate the urbanized area of the island. Everyone who has been to Singapore comments on how clean it is. . . so clean that even chewing gum is not allowed in the country (my guess is that although there are no chewing gum stains on the sidewalk, there are 4.8 million people with less-than-fresh breath!) Not only is Singapore one of the cleanest counties in the world, but it is also very serious about obedience to the law (perhaps you remember the incident that made national television a few years ago regarding the caning of an American hoodlum who will now think twice about spray painting BMW's in Singapore) and has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to tell you about Singapore once we arrive there, but that's a good start for now.

Although we are excited to GO, we are not excited to LEAVE. It is difficult to say goodbye to friends and family and all things familiar. I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am to be living in a day and age when technology gaps the miles and even the farthest reaches of the earth are as close as your computer screen. That makes the leaving less difficult.

Please be praying for us as we coordinate our move. Specifically, pray that I would not become bogged down with the details and physical exhaustion of an international move and that I would keep my eyes on the goal of glorifying Christ even in the littlest things. Pray, also, that Josh would be able to utilize these last few months at his current job to shine Christ's light. Pray for an easy adjustment for Caleb (it's a 15 hour time change and a 21 hour flight. . . not exactly a fun prospect with a baby!)

I will be writing more soon, but I wanted to update everyone. This has been an extremely busy couple of weeks and I know the next few will even more hectic.