G'day from Australia!
Before I start, let me just say that it feels very weird sitting here in Australia, knowing that I'm on the internet and it's most likely NOT going to die while I'm mid-sentance! Ah, the joys of the West! Being 'home' is feeling quite surreal at the moment, and the reverse culture shock isn't what I expected. Aside from being exhausted non-stop since my arrival, I'm having a great time, though to be honest, it is quite overwhelming seeing everyone.
I was asked a few times in the last few days about how 'Banladesh' happened as an event in my life, and I realised that there are some people who aren't privvy to the details leading up to the upheaval a few months ago.
When I was in my final year of University/College (call it what you will), I started exploring the idea of heading overseas to teach. In my mind, I was looking in places like England, America and Canada, places where language would not be an issue, and I could live a fairly comfortable life. After many doors opening and then closing (in some cases, repeatedly), I decided to give up the idea, as God obviously didn't want me to leave Australia (Oh, how little I was aware of at that time!). I applied for jobs around Sydney, and even interviewed for a few, but no job came up. Casual teaching seemed to be the natural path to take... Except that I HATED casual teaching. I hated not knowing what was happening the next day, and as a generally organised person, it stressed the bajeebus outta me, not knowing what was coming next. Therefore, I did what I swore I would never do, and took on more hours at the local Coles supermarket to give me enough money to cover basic expenses such as my car and insurance.
Knowing that Coles wasn't a long-term option for me, I started looking for teaching jobs abroad, and I ended up honing in on Canada for some reason. I was looking on a Christian schools website for Canada, and there was a link to a website called 'mission teach'. Feeling a definite poke (which I fully intended to ignore, by the way) from above, I clicked on the site and discovered that there is a need for Christian teachers all over the world (though apparently not in Australia!). My thought at the time, being poked so hard from God that there were almost visible bruises, was 'I can always post a profile and then ignore it'... I'm certain God was laughing at me!
Within 8 hours of posting my details, I had reponses from 5 schools. Woah! This gentle nudge was God telling me that I was "leaving on a jet plane"... The only thing to decide was which destination was going to be the right one. God made things very easy from that point onwards, showing Grace International School as the only school worth pursuing. Everything fell into place, and even before my skype interview, God made it clear to me that I was headed to Bangladesh. Of course, I tried to be stubborn. If memore serves correctly, I tried to defy God by NOT preparing for my interview. I remember saying to Laura (half an hour before my interview) "I havn't prepared for this interview, I don't WANT this job... If God is sending me to Bangladesh, he's going to have to work a miracle". Well, after a (to me) brilliant interview, I knew God's answer - "haha, you tried to buck the system... You're going to bangladesh anyway!".
This, and other proof of my stubborness thwarted by God, is a true testament to God's amazing plan, his unceasing promisses of faithfulness and the blessings he gives us even when we don't deserve it.
So now, here I am, back in the house where it all started. I'm surrounded by family and friends here, and all the little comforts I grew up knowing... And you know what? I'm missing Bangladesh!!!
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009
"Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end."
G'day from Australia!
Before I start, let me just say that it feels very weird sitting here in Australia, knowing that I'm on the internet and it's most likely NOT going to die while I'm mid-sentance! Ah, the joys of the West! Being 'home' is feeling quite surreal at the moment, and the reverse culture shock isn't what I expected. Aside from being exhausted non-stop since my arrival, I'm having a great time, though to be honest, it is quite overwhelming seeing everyone.
I was asked a few times in the last few days about how 'Banladesh' happened as an event in my life, and I realised that there are some people who aren't privvy to the details leading up to the upheaval a few months ago.
When I was in my final year of University/College (call it what you will), I started exploring the idea of heading overseas to teach. In my mind, I was looking in places like England, America and Canada, places where language would not be an issue, and I could live a fairly comfortable life. After many doors opening and then closing (in some cases, repeatedly), I decided to give up the idea, as God obviously didn't want me to leave Australia (Oh, how little I was aware of at that time!). I applied for jobs around Sydney, and even interviewed for a few, but no job came up. Casual teaching seemed to be the natural path to take... Except that I HATED casual teaching. I hated not knowing what was happening the next day, and as a generally organised person, it stressed the bajeebus outta me, not knowing what was coming next. Therefore, I did what I swore I would never do, and took on more hours at the local Coles supermarket to give me enough money to cover basic expenses such as my car and insurance.
Knowing that Coles wasn't a long-term option for me, I started looking for teaching jobs abroad, and I ended up honing in on Canada for some reason. I was looking on a Christian schools website for Canada, and there was a link to a website called 'mission teach'. Feeling a definite poke (which I fully intended to ignore, by the way) from above, I clicked on the site and discovered that there is a need for Christian teachers all over the world (though apparently not in Australia!). My thought at the time, being poked so hard from God that there were almost visible bruises, was 'I can always post a profile and then ignore it'... I'm certain God was laughing at me!
Within 8 hours of posting my details, I had reponses from 5 schools. Woah! This gentle nudge was God telling me that I was "leaving on a jet plane"... The only thing to decide was which destination was going to be the right one. God made things very easy from that point onwards, showing Grace International School as the only school worth pursuing. Everything fell into place, and even before my skype interview, God made it clear to me that I was headed to Bangladesh. Of course, I tried to be stubborn. If memore serves correctly, I tried to defy God by NOT preparing for my interview. I remember saying to Laura (half an hour before my interview) "I havn't prepared for this interview, I don't WANT this job... If God is sending me to Bangladesh, he's going to have to work a miracle". Well, after a (to me) brilliant interview, I knew God's answer - "haha, you tried to buck the system... You're going to bangladesh anyway!".
This, and other proof of my stubborness thwarted by God, is a true testament to God's amazing plan, his unceasing promisses of faithfulness and the blessings he gives us even when we don't deserve it.
So now, here I am, back in the house where it all started. I'm surrounded by family and friends here, and all the little comforts I grew up knowing... And you know what? I'm missing Bangladesh!!!
Before I start, let me just say that it feels very weird sitting here in Australia, knowing that I'm on the internet and it's most likely NOT going to die while I'm mid-sentance! Ah, the joys of the West! Being 'home' is feeling quite surreal at the moment, and the reverse culture shock isn't what I expected. Aside from being exhausted non-stop since my arrival, I'm having a great time, though to be honest, it is quite overwhelming seeing everyone.
I was asked a few times in the last few days about how 'Banladesh' happened as an event in my life, and I realised that there are some people who aren't privvy to the details leading up to the upheaval a few months ago.
When I was in my final year of University/College (call it what you will), I started exploring the idea of heading overseas to teach. In my mind, I was looking in places like England, America and Canada, places where language would not be an issue, and I could live a fairly comfortable life. After many doors opening and then closing (in some cases, repeatedly), I decided to give up the idea, as God obviously didn't want me to leave Australia (Oh, how little I was aware of at that time!). I applied for jobs around Sydney, and even interviewed for a few, but no job came up. Casual teaching seemed to be the natural path to take... Except that I HATED casual teaching. I hated not knowing what was happening the next day, and as a generally organised person, it stressed the bajeebus outta me, not knowing what was coming next. Therefore, I did what I swore I would never do, and took on more hours at the local Coles supermarket to give me enough money to cover basic expenses such as my car and insurance.
Knowing that Coles wasn't a long-term option for me, I started looking for teaching jobs abroad, and I ended up honing in on Canada for some reason. I was looking on a Christian schools website for Canada, and there was a link to a website called 'mission teach'. Feeling a definite poke (which I fully intended to ignore, by the way) from above, I clicked on the site and discovered that there is a need for Christian teachers all over the world (though apparently not in Australia!). My thought at the time, being poked so hard from God that there were almost visible bruises, was 'I can always post a profile and then ignore it'... I'm certain God was laughing at me!
Within 8 hours of posting my details, I had reponses from 5 schools. Woah! This gentle nudge was God telling me that I was "leaving on a jet plane"... The only thing to decide was which destination was going to be the right one. God made things very easy from that point onwards, showing Grace International School as the only school worth pursuing. Everything fell into place, and even before my skype interview, God made it clear to me that I was headed to Bangladesh. Of course, I tried to be stubborn. If memore serves correctly, I tried to defy God by NOT preparing for my interview. I remember saying to Laura (half an hour before my interview) "I havn't prepared for this interview, I don't WANT this job... If God is sending me to Bangladesh, he's going to have to work a miracle". Well, after a (to me) brilliant interview, I knew God's answer - "haha, you tried to buck the system... You're going to bangladesh anyway!".
This, and other proof of my stubborness thwarted by God, is a true testament to God's amazing plan, his unceasing promisses of faithfulness and the blessings he gives us even when we don't deserve it.
So now, here I am, back in the house where it all started. I'm surrounded by family and friends here, and all the little comforts I grew up knowing... And you know what? I'm missing Bangladesh!!!
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