What does ministry from a distance look like?
Masks are mandatory in Singapore.
Hi WBC Friends,
We haven't been more than 1km from our flat in 70 days. Every day, it's 30 degrees (C) with high humidity, but swimming pools aren't open. It can feel like we are living and working on top of each other in our small living space (~600sqft).
Despite these "developed world" challenges, we have much to be thankful for as we are emerging from a formal lockdown period in Singapore.
Here's a snapshot of what real life has looked like for our family the last few months.
The Good
- We've eaten all our meals together as a family for 70 days in a row.
- Although we could only go out for about 30 minutes a day for exercise, we've been able to enjoy after dinner walks and bike rides along a nearby canal.
- Lots of time to enjoy board games as a family.
- Opportunities to press into parenting well as a team.
- Reading the book of Romans together as a family.
- Lots of sibling play time.
The Bad
- Trying to help the kids with their Chinese language learning when you don't speak Mandarin.
- Unable to go deeper in friendships with people at our condo and church.
The Ugly
- Heath had a severe allergic reaction and needed to go to hospital by ambulance.
- There was a period early in lockdown where our marriage felt like, "never more physically close, never more emotionally distant."
- Weekends... without the structure of school and work there were clashes of five different wills.
We are thankful that restrictions are slowing lifting and this week our kids returned to finish their last two weeks of school before summer break.
We had hoped to return to North America this summer to visit our friends and family but that's practically impossible at this point and so we are disappointed with that loss.
Despite the challenges of lockdowns all across Asia, we are seeing God at work. We'll send a separate email later this week with some highlights of our recent ministry work.
WBC Friends, thank you for your continued friendship and partnership.
P.S. Amongst all the division in the world our family has been enjoying the various renditions of "The Blessing" from Singapore, Canada, Zimbabwe and Latin America.
Photos below:
- Heath's allergic reaction sent us to the hospital
- Indoor market day was delicious
- Daily walk/ride after dinner
