If all goes to plan in about a months’ time, Ben and Tabea will be moving to another area in Asia-Pacific. They are very excited about this prospect. A month ago, it seemed hopeless as the number of covid cases were still high and their Asia-Pacific national co-workers had not been able to move to this new area because of travel restrictions. Now their co-workers have moved, which is a great encouragement.
Ben and Tabea are hoping to move at the same time as an American family. There are a few hoops that both families need to jump through regarding vaccines and covid tests but the fact that it is even possible under these circumstances is a big deal. They have wanted to move for over a year now, so they cannot really believe it is finally happening. One piece of paperwork that might delay their move is their youngest child’s passport; it is still being processed. They are thankful for all their co-workers.
Most of their days are full of language learning. They are very thankful that recently they have been able to have face-to-face language sessions again instead of trying to study using Skype or Zoom; it really makes a big difference. They are thankful that their youngest child is starting to sleep through the night without a feed, which helps with tiredness.
Ben has been teaching himself some programming skills and one of his recent projects has been to make simple language learning software that fits their learning workflow very well. It is still a work-in-progress as he does not have that much time to work on it, but he hopes to complete it fully when they are on home assignment. It will be useful for other language students joining the field and, who knows, maybe other fields too. So far, the time Ben has spent learning to code seems well invested. It is starting to pay off and become a very useful skill especially for automating everyday tasks on the computer. It has also helped with boredom during the covid restrictions.
Pray that the paperwork is complete in time for them to move next month (October), that there are no other hindrances, for the goodbyes to those they have come to know in their present location and for safe travels.