Covid-19 (this is real...)

Today, I found out that there was a case of Coronavirus in a nearby town, and all schools are shut down for three weeks. Also, today we got the keys and took the kids to our new house. What big changes!

It is…nerve wracking? To do both of these things together. Relocate, resettle…and go through a pandemic?

But then my wife and I started talking. “What if we were still missionaries?” I often said to myself (but not to her…but she knew…) that we were in a precarious place. If one donor left…we could be OK. But a big donor? That could ruin us. If several left at once? We could go bankrupt. Really. Fortunately, our donors were separated by distance and were not linked other than through us. One danger that we both knew of (my wife knew more than I, I see it now) is my parents. Imagine if I had pulled away then! They would have spread rumours and sabotaged us. They are doing that now, but it doesn’t matter. Not financially, anyway. But now…this. With the upset to the global economy, there is no doubt that at least some of our donors would end up losing their jobs, and have to discontinue support. Likely, more than once at a time. Also, the university would close. What would my ministry be? And we just sold our house last summer. Imagine if we had waited? Imagine trying to sell our house now, in a big college town? In a town with international connections? Perhaps the virus is already there. Perhaps many industries will be affected. Certainly, nobody will be in the mood to buy a big country home. 

Wow, did we ever dodge a bullet!

But it was not just luck. We knew that we had to come here. We just knew it. And…the industry in this town…is linked to a mineral that always gains value when turbulent times hit the global economy. Bad times are good for our town: it has always been this way. And God has brought us here…and we bought a house here…at just the right time.

Just like God brining Jacob to Egypt, to live in Gosen (on a topographical map…that’s the green part at the end of the Nile river…about the only green for thousands of miles around)…to survive the seven years of famine. God has brought us here. We are so grateful!

We just knew we had to leave. But we couldn’t put our finger on why. We were listening to….to God? Yes, to God. But also, to our gut. Is that an unspiritual thing to say? Different readers will have different answers. 

There is another interesting thing. A few weeks ago, I had a very disturbing dream about being on a ship, and hitting turbulence. The ship’s scientist came and told us (with a very grim look on his face) “There will be a lot of turbulence ahead.” He explained that it would not be from seismic activity, but from atmospheric activity. 

At the time, I thought that this might mean that my wife would be very sick — perhaps even have cancer. [note to reader: we've been to the doctors, and there is no reasonable cause for concern in this regard] As I was having this dream, she was having an extremely severe migraine. But now, I am quite sure that there had been a series of storms, some caused by seismic, and some by atmospheric pressures. The seismic pressures were internal pressures: sickness, moves, etc. But atmospheric is from things outside of us. 

…like Coronovirus? Was this a sort of a prophetic dream about the hard times that we will need to “weather” due to this virus, and the things that will happen in our world because of it?

If so, is this a dream from God, or from my “gut”? I tend to think from the latter, but I wouldn’t rule out the former. These have been strange times, and I would not put it past God to give me a prophetic dream right now. 

Strange times, but good times. And God has brought us to a safe and a good place to weather out this storm. The God who has taken us this far will see us through. 

Amen.