Plans Change

Hi Everyone!

Spring is almost over and summer is ready to begin! People all over the US are looking forward to the end of the 2019-2020 school year with a new level of anticipation. Our long struggle to follow through with this emergency improvised schooling system is nearly done! Phew.

How has COVID-19 affected us?

In February we were completely focused on schoolwork, praying for friends of friends in China, and working through the administrative phase of planning a summer missions trip to Japan.

In March, we enjoyed attending the World Evangelism Conference at DTS (you can view the main speaker here). At the same time, we were beginning to wonder if we should consider keeping our kids home from school if the virus started to spread in the Dallas area. We never had to make this decision, as by mid-March the seminary had decided to go online for the rest of the semester, and by the time spring break arrived for our kids, it looked like the Dallas Independent School District would make the same call.

At first, we were happy to have more time together as a family, and fewer challenges juggling the kids’ school, our school, and work. We even got to present some research we had been doing through an online portal! Which was great in some ways and very challenging in others. At the same time, it was looking like any missions opportunities would have to be postponed until a later date.

At the beginning of April, I was still kind-of enjoying staying at home more and was still vowing to be less busy once “normal” life resumed. By mid-April, we learned that TEAM was officially canceling all short-term missions trips for the summer.

Now at the beginning of May, I’m realizing how important our schedule was for motivating us to get out of the house and giving us opportunities to connect with other people. The governor of Texas is bound and determined to begin “opening the state” this month, but most organizations and businesses around here do not yet feel safe returning to anything considered normal operations. School officials are even talking about continuing social distancing guidelines at school in the fall, and our summer seminary classes will all be online as well. It looks like life won’t be returning to normal anytime soon, so how can we cope with social distancing in the meantime?

Because trails and parks (not playgrounds) are still open here, we are trying to remember to go outside when possible. I also got a TRIPOD! for my camera, and I’m excited to try out more dawn, dusk, and night-time photography using it. But none of these ideas help me connect with people, something I am sorely missing during this season.

So I would like to try something new:

Discord – Discord is an application for chatting through text, voice, and video. We have been using it for connecting with friends for years, but now it has matured into an excellent alternative to Zoom, Facebook groups, Slack, etc., and we would like to share it with you. It is free, ad-free, and just overall has a pleasant nondistracting user experience. You can join the chat online, though downloading the application for your computer is much better, and they even have an app for your phone (because, of course, they do).

Join our server here: https://discord.gg/qRT5fjr

We have different text channels for Bible study, prayer requests, gaming, and general chat. It’s new, so it might be a small group for a while, but we would love to hear from you! And then you can have the bragging rights of joining before it was cool! (Except don’t brag, that’s not nice )

We’re studying Acts (and some epistles) this summer for a class, and we’d love it if you would read along with us! I posted the reading schedule and you can post encouraging comments and questions!

Do you do online gaming? What games do you play? Join us!

Do you like anime, manga, manhwa, art, culture? Come discuss with us what you’ve learned from viewing the art of another culture! Has it challenged you? What have you learned about the source culture? What have you learned about your home culture? Do you like Naruto or Sasuke better? Come join the discussion!