Coronavirus

All over the world at the moment all the news programmes are talking about the coronavirus, although in Kansas there has been only 6 people confirmed who have it and 1 of those has passed away from it.

This week I received quite a few emails from work about the virus, what we needed to do with the children and ourselves to make sure the school/daycare did not get it, such as washing our hands and making sure the children are washing their hands, coughing into our elbow, tissue and not our hands and the protocol if they had to close the school/daycare, I will get paid for 5 days that the school/daycare has to close but anything after this I will not unless I have accumulated hours that I can use so otherwise unpaid leave. This is why for so many people here they need to go to work so closing the businesses and having people stay at home could have a severe effect on peoples financial, physical and mental wellbeing as they will not get paid for being off work and how will they pay their bills.

I also received a couple of emails from World Gospel Mission (WGM) regarding volunteer trips that were being taken, any trips to countries on the Level 2 and Level 3 health list they would not advise you to go, if you do and something happens you are on your own, the money raised for your trip could be used for another trip within a year or you can give to another programme or person. This got me thinking and praying, I really want to go to Kenya to the Baby Centre, what should I do? Should I postpone the trip not because of the virus in the sense of flying, my plan is to go home to Northern Ireland for a few days before flying to Kenya but what if they close the border in Northern Ireland or if I reach Kenya and they close the borders there so that I cannot be back to work in August. So I kept praying and emailed WGM. The next day I received another email from WGM saying that all trips that were planned in April have been cancelled. I waited for a reply from my email which came a few days later saying that at the moment my trip is still going as planned but I could postpone it for next year if I wanted to, they are continuing to monitor the situation but they will probably know more about the June and July trips at the end of next month. I have decided to wait and pray. I am trusting in my Heavenly Father that if he wants me to go this year that he will work it out, His way and plan is best. At the moment in Africa there is a polio epidemic although it is not in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania, I checked yesterday and there are 3 people with the coronavirus in Kenya. I checked today and Kenya has closed it borders to people from countries that have the virus so at the moment I definitely would not be allowed in.

This week the majority of the schools in the Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas areas are off for Spring Break, I was to be off on 19 and 20th and was going to drive down to see my father in law. I was really looking forward to it as was my father in law and step mother in law. I received an email last night from work stating that our school would be closed for the whole week and that if I visited certain areas in the USA while off work that I would have to do a 14 day self quarantine before I returned to work.

I contacted my Father in law, chatted to him about this and that I think it would be wise for me not to go as I cannot go through Illinois and I didn’t want either of them to get sick from any germs I may carry. This was disappointing as I was really looking forward to spending time with them and having a girlies night out, which wouldn’t happen now anyway as they have closed all restaurants, cafes and bars in in a lot of the states.

It was lovely to be able to roll over in bed and have more sleep this morning,when I woke up I relaxed by reading, did some business via the phone that I needed to do in Northern Ireland but haven’t been able to do because of the time difference, some cooking and cleaning. I was also watching some Who do you think you are episodes and most importantly chatting with my family at home.

The verse below keeps running through my mind, so I am going to keep trusting in my Lord, I do not need to fear, he is holding me and will never leave or forsake me.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct your path.