As the time draws ever nearer

I sit on my bed, at my in-laws home, my brand new Macbook atop my lap. Ferial is getting ready for our last dinner with her family. Nine bags and many hours later, we're nearly finished packing. It's just now starting to sink in, this thing that we're doing. We've said good-bye's to all our friends, and had one last harrah. It's a fearful thing to do, to uproot ones life and board a rocket. By this time tomorrow we will be soaring through the atmosphere. When we land, we will be 16 hours in the future, in a country where very few people will speak our language, amidst a vastly different culture than our own. These are things which make me nervous, but also excite me to no end, new food, new sights, new sounds...

We recently found out that while our semester doesn't begin until September, our company has been planning this entire time that if we should arrive early (which we are), that we (I) would take over for the classes of a teacher that is leaving on the 16th...! On the contrary, we have been planning that in the event we should arrive early (which we are) it would just be that much more time we would have to adjust to new food, new culture, new city, new apartment, new time-zone, new job, new church, new we live in another country now!!! Granted, this really isn't that big a deal. However, it does make me uncomfortable. Reason being, I don't like the idea of me, Johnny-no-teaching-experience, walking into the classroom of a seasoned veteran, and taking over his job for the last 2 weeks of the semester, with students who are used to a certain way of teaching and have this be my employers' first impression of me as a teacher. I would much rather have this opportunity to get really good and prepared for the first week, and take what I learn in preparation for that to be utilized in the rest of the semester. I don't want to have to be teaching classes, and then coming home trying to figure out where to keep my toilettries. We thought coming early would give us the chance to have our apartment all set up, and ready complete with all amenities, before we had to worry about the burden of a teaching schedule. I don't think I am being too unreasonable here. I am not asking for anything off the wall. I just want to start my job on the day I was supposed to. Simple, right?

I have been encouraged by a wiser person than I, that instead of putting my foot down and standing my ground, it is an often better thing to put ones head down, in humility, considering others as better than myself, and politely explaining my position. In his experience you can get much further with this sort of an attitude, and piss a lot less people off in the process.

Please be in prayer with us, regarding all these things.