“This has been the weirdest experience of my life,” said probably everyone ever right now. The best way I can describe this COVID-19 bologna is like waiting in a “twilight zone”; We are stuck somewhere between day and night. Typically twilight lasts about 2 hours a day, but hypothetically speaking, this extremely unexpected turn of events has created 4+ weeks of twilight and counting.
If you’ve been following along the wild adventures of my time at YWAM, you’ll already know that COVID-19 is the reason for the twilight season, let me tell ya. That little booger’s put me not in Mongolia or Brazil like originally planned, but right back home. Though looking at the big picture here, yes God is the One who’s orchestrated my happenstance and brought me home for safekeeping. I’m very grateful I’ve returned and shown zero symptoms over the last four weeks even though I traveled through the tourist hot spot that is Hawaii just days before their first confirmed cases in Kona.
So this is my update to the world: I’m alive and well, and here’s how YWAM things turned out.
In my last blog, I wrote how the core leadership of YWAM instructed all students to fly home in respect to the State of Hawaii’s quarantine restrictions. In doing so, we were to finish outreach by ourselves at home and then officially graduate.
This is news I’ve not yet announced, since this awry quarantine has really taken a turn for the weirdest. YWAM announced that outreach (also now termed “homereach”) was no longer mandatory, and that all students will graduate on lecture phase alone. Homereach would only be an option, for which was listed about 50 hours of requirements to be met a week. If a student decided not to do homereach, they’d graduate and be refunded the amount paid toward their original outreach fees.
After just three days of being home, the restrictions in my hometown prevented me from executing any of the homereach ideas I actually planned to do already.
Because of that, I decided to graduate without outreach and save whatever funds returned for when travel bans are lifted so that I can participate in some sort of mission’s trip in Mongolia, Korea, or otherwise. (If you’re wanting more details about this or have inquiries about refunds, please feel free to reach out via social media!)
So anyway, it’s been four weeks since I returned home and I’ve already washed my dog, painted my closet, hand-washed two vehicles, read a few books and painted a picture of the stars. I’m quite insanely bored, and nothing would be better than to get a job to put my mooshy brains to work again, but it’s not a great time to get out there, is it?
Just how weird has it been for you to navigate through this COVID-19 bologna? (I call it bologna to cope, but I do take it quite seriously.) It has been quite a journey for me, to think I moved across the US to go on this amazing outreach in Asia to end up…being right back to square one in Texas! And not being able to travel? It really stinks for an adventurer. Like stinky bologna.
But I know this time of waiting is actually really important, not just for me but for the whole world. It’s like a big reset button, you know? After the twilight passes, we can rest and recover, and then a new day begins. Until that time comes, we just gotta wait. And I’m the worst at waiting.
But I remind myself every day, and so I will remind you: God is on the move even when we are not.
Signed,
Allison the (Will Adventure Again ASAP) Adventurer
