An Adventuresome Day

So I woke up this morning planning that tonight I would blog about my first week back in Korea, but then today became adventuresome.J

All round it has been a lovely day. At my new school we do not work on Fridays. (Happy happy, joy, joy!) That being the case I organised to see three of my favourite people in Korea, morning coffee with one, lunch with another and early dinner with the third, and it was a great time of sharing and catching up with all of them.

Then I started my journey home again, and that is where the day became adventuresome. I knew which number bus to catch, and I thought I knew the stop, so I duly jumped on the bus when it came, and discovered, about the same time as my phone went flat, that I was travelling in the wrong direction and heading out into the country on a bus that was apparently planning on making a tour of all the small towns in the vicinity.

My first thought was to jump off the bus, cross the road and catch the same number going back in the opposite direction. My second thought was to ride the bus and see where it went. I followed the second thought.

After half an hour my common sense caught up with me and I did exchange buses for one heading in my desired direction. But before I did I got to see some lovely little towns (minuture versions of Seoul), and now I have a plan that on my next free Sunday I am going to spend the day jumping on and off that bus and exploring each of the towns from here to the end of the line and back. By free Sunday’s I mean, a Sunday where I am not already promised to someone else for the day – or maybe I can talk someone into accompanying me on my adventure.

It was a small adventure but it was fun. For a report on my first week back in Korea you will have to read again tomorrow night. 

(PS I did not take the photo above, it is just an awesome picture of a Korean bus that I found on the web, that's not the number I was riding either.)

Thoughts on Job

Yesterday morning I was reading the first couple of chapters of Job and I had the following thoughts ...

It was not God testing Job, it was Satan testing Job. God allowed the test because He knew that Job could pass it.

Tests come into our own lives for two reasons:
1. God is confident that we can pass, so He allows Satan to test us.
2. God wants us to see what is in our own hearts. Like Hezekiah, if we fail the test then we can see our own weaknesses, rebellion, lack of faith, etc. And if we pass we see that we are drawing close to God in love.

We never have to fail a test. We can pass every time because God willingly supplies our needs by His grace. We just have to have confidence in God and accept.

Then today I was reading the third chapter and I had more thoughts :-)

From vs 25 – 26: The test Satan brought to Job was the very thing that Job was afraid would happen. This test forced Job to face his fears. Satan thought the test would break him. But God knew it would strengthen him.

Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego??

So I was wondering what I should call today's Blog, 'The Future Revisited', 'What I'm Doing Now', or perhaps 'Where's Wally?' as suggested by one friend. ;-)
I settled on the above just because it amused me.

Anyway the purpose of today's blog is to update you on my journey and future plans.

So where am I? Australia.

Did I plan to be here? Ummm, No!

How did it happen? It's a long story ...

So we all know that about 6 months ago I left South Korea and came home to New Zealand. I've been looking for work ever since. There have been many false starts, jobs applied for, jobs offered, jobs I've turned down, jobs I've accepted and then had fall apart for various reasons. I have been aimed at many countries around the world; Korea, Poland, America - twice, India, Africa, I've even interviewed for jobs in New Zealand (knowing it would mean giving up adventuring), but somehow none of them ever came together. Now finally I have a job, signed the contract and everything. :-) Not  going to tell you where though - not until I get there, because I don't want to have to retract again if this one doesn't pan out ... but I'm pretty certain it will. ^^

So Australia - notice it wasn't on the list of countries listed above, haven't applied for any jobs here.

Now, about 4 weeks ago I was house sitting for a friend in Auckland and out of the blue I received an email offering me work. It was in response to some inquires I had made to a friend of a friend about a job they had mentioned in passing. They passed on my interest, and on the strength of that I got the job. Is a good job, maybe not the best of the best, but it does have wonderful hours, it is something I haven't tried before and it leaves me with lots of time to do my own projects.

Started the process of applying for visa's, bought my tickets to fly based around the time my new employer needed me to arrive and then things happened to slow the visa process down. When I booked my ticket the first leg of my journey was via a 4 day stop in Brisbane to see one of my favourite people tie the knot. (Lovely day, happy happy, joy, joy, etc.)

It became apparent that the visa process would not be finished before I flew to Brisbane, but it could be finished in Sydney, and the second stop of my journey just happened to be Sydney. So what was supposed to be a stop of an hour and a half while I changed planes and headed out into the big wide world again has become a 3 week stop while I wait for my visa to finish processing.

This has turned out to be an unexpected blessing, I have gotten time to spend with some more of my favourite people who I did not expect to see this trip, and currently I am staying with some wonderful friends, and spending time at my university searching out articles, and getting advice and starting to work on my thesis. One of my many goals for this year is to finish my Masters!!!!! Hence this stop has actually turned out to be very well timed, I get to use the library and talk directly to the people who can give me the best help - so much better than trying to do that through emails.

I'm not entirely sure of my dates, but I think I'll be back in Sydney in about a weeks time (say the 15th to the 21st - ish) to finish the visa process, so if anyone has an empty bed they'd be happy for me to inhabit, or a hankering for my company over lunch or dinner or coffee/hot chocolate then drop me a line and we'll see what can be arranged.

Anyway through all of this, I can see God's hand, He is in control - although if I'm honest I have to say that I have wondered/doubted, during those times when yet another job has been added to the list of 'Places That I Didn't Get To Go To.' But He is leading - even when we don't know where. We just have to trust and wait, all will be revealed in due course. At the right time, when He knows that we are ready.

As for the dream of the African School, it will happen, we are still working on it. ^^