Hiccup??

Well, we have a little story for you all. It all started back a few days ago when we made our trek back from the north of Thailand (Chiang Mai) to Bangkok. We chose to spend a little extra money in order to fly back in one hour, rather than take a 14 hr bus ride. We based the decision on needing to get to the South Korean Embassy in Bangkok as soon as possible because we had one final step for our work visa's, which would take a few days to finalize.

After walking through the city with our large backpacks and very tired feet, we finally found the Embassy only to find that we could only apply during particular hours of the day, which had we had already missed that day. Bummer! We shrugged it off and took the skytrain early the next morning back to the Embassy. We sat down and filled out the necessary application and drew our number to wait our turn. Thankfully we were there early to be the first ones. We handed through our applications, photos, passports, visa issuance numbers, and the required fee to the lady sitting behind the glass window. We felt so much excitement as we were finally able to receive the required stamp we needed on our passport in order to teach. This was the easy part! Or so we thought...

The lady returned to us with all of our documentation and in broken English told us that we have to go back to the States to do this step. We asked her to repeat herself because we were hit with instant shock. We had been told by our director in Korea that we would have no problem getting our final stamp at the Embassy in Thailand. He has even had even had teacher's do this step at this same Embassy. We tried to prove the Embassy wrong, which obviously didn't go over well. We were in a mode of panic, desperation, defeat, and confusion. I kept thinking "God, what is going on? Why have we come this far only for this last step to be rejected? Would it really be worth it to fly home and then back to Korea?" Our minds were clouded with all sorts of questions.

We returned to our hotel with the feeling of defeat. While I napped, Nathan stepped up and got ahold of our director in Korea. Our director felt terrible as he had told us that this part would be no problem and here we were stranded in Thailand with a plane ticket to Korea but unable to board it because then for some reason our entire application process would be canceled if we entered the country without our required visa. Our director was insistent that we not give up. He recommended that we go to either Guam or Hawaii in order to straighten everything out as these were the closest options. He deliberated with his authority and they offered to pay all the extra cost that is incurred for this rabbit trail. Wow!

I finally awoke from my nap only to be told that we have to go to Guam. My first response was "Where the heck is Guam?". I had heard of it, but never in my life would have imagined going there. So there we sat in shock as we let it sink in that we would have to be flown to Guam to straighten everything out. We booked our tickets two hours later and then flew out of Bangkok two days later. We still kept looking at each other that entire day and just saying "What the heck just happened... we're going to GUAM!"

Apparently, Nathan, being a man of connections, knew a pastor in Guam who used to work at the church in Seaside, Oregon when Nathan was in youth group. He contacted him and they were more than gracious to host us and feed us for the week we would have to spend here. We then spoke to three different individuals at the Korean Consulate in Guam to verify that our dilemma could be sorted out here.

We struggled with not knowing if this was God closing a door, or if He intended for us to go to Guam all along. It was definitely the more stressful and discouraging days that Nathan and I have faced, but yet it has been turned into such a huge blessing. We got to go to a tiny tropical island, stay with a pastor and his family, solidify our work visa's... for close to free!

So here we are... in Guam and enjoying the island life style until we fly to S. Korea on Feb. 24th. Both Nathan and I are VERY ready to get there and to finally settle into our little spot there. We've LOVED our last 5 weeks of travel in Thailand, but we can't wait to get started in our life there and the adventure that it will be.

We never would have chosen for this complication to take place, but God is ministering to us here through the family we are staying with. They have showed us so much generosity and have such a healthy sense of family, which has encouraged us. We are so gracious that we are still able to make our way to Korea even when hiccups do occur. We're constantly reminded that we so often have no idea where we are headed or what God is doing in our lives, but we feel such as strong sense of provision as we have chosen to step out in faith. We're about to celebrate our 6 months of marriage... woohoo, and I already marvel at the adventure God has taken us on in such a short time. I can't wait for a continued life with Nathan Pogue with God leading us into so many unexpected blessings.

"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

With love,

Nathan and Chelsea