COVID-19

No 2020 blog would be complete without mentioning the impacts of COVID-19. In a few ways, our lovely adventure through this year has been changed from the “original plan”. But what does that really mean? Only that His plan has continued to proceed unhindered. As it is written in Isaiah 22:22 and repeated in Revelation 3:7: “what He opens, no one else can shut; and what He shuts, no one else will open.” The door to Israel was clearly announced as a priority for us in late 2019 and, although there were times in 2020 where the door was literally closed to everyone who wasn’t Israeli, the timing of His plan for us did not significantly change in spite of the worldwide pandemic.

It will be hard for us to rewind the cogs back to March 2020 and adequately explain all the things that we experienced. However, the thoughts we had and the things we felt then are similar to what many of you went through as well. Part of this blog entry is more of a journal for us to remember in the years to come all the things that happened. Even now, some of it fades from memory. There will be some sentences in this post that you read and immediately think of as “old news.” Those are likely the spots that we chose to write just for us.

In mid-March 2020, the President declared a State of Emergency due to the coronavirus disease. This worldwide plague that was just a brief headline in November – December 2019 became a real problem within just a few short weeks for America. Aaron had taken a four-week sabbatical at his place of employment (an awesome perk for employees who had served ten years at the company) and was preparing for his first day back. He took the day to head to the mountains with his dad for one last day on the slopes before going back to work. The next day – while he’s back in the office and getting back in the groove – the news announces that Colorado’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 has arrived in Summit County which is where Aaron and his dad were skiing the day before. All Coloradoans who were in Summit County over the past few days were encouraged to quarantine, so Aaron notified his supervisor and prepared to spend the next two weeks working from home in quarantine.

Meanwhile, I was starting to experience the hectic and uncharted waters of COVID-19 at the City of Littleton (where I worked). We were in the middle of our annual audit, preparing for our auditors to arrive on-site. In a normal audit season (February – April), I would work 60-70 hours a week for two or three months. On top of that, this year we were told to prepare to all of our staff to work from their homes with barely a 24-hour notice. We were scrambling for meaningful ways for employees to stay connected, engaged and be productive as well as ensuring that they felt safe and continued to stay physically, emotionally and mentally healthy. Payroll laws were changed and needed to be analyzed, understood and implemented quickly. And since I worked in the finance department, my team was also tasked with figuring out how this pandemic would affect the financial future of the City and how we would need to adjust our spending in the near future (read “impact the livelihood of our co-workers”) to offset the negative impacts of lost revenues.

Within just a few days of the President’s announcement, our normal routine was upended. We could only leave the house for groceries or work. I was in the office no more than two days a week and Aaron was told that he would be working from home indefinitely. We had to find a new way to work, a new way to spend our non-working hours, a new way to work in close proximity and tight quarters, and a new way to engage with people whom we were used to seeing face-to-face. We had to find a new way to worship, a new way to learn and a new way to serve.  

During this time, our world changed. Shelf-stable foods and meat were being rationed at the stores and you couldn’t find toilet paper, hand sanitizer or disposable masks anywhere! Entire countries shut their borders. Travel, tourism, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, parks, museums, and churches closed down. Cities prepared for significant loss of life. Families were having to say goodbye to dying family members over the phone, through closed windows and via online video chats. Many elderly who did not have the technical skills to communicate via online means and many who did not have internet were suddenly disconnected from their family and friends. Families lost their children, their sisters, brothers, parents, grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncles. We started wearing masks everywhere, checking temperatures twice daily and using more hand sanitizer than we could imagine. We stopped hugging, touching or being close to others in an effort to stay safe and keep our families and friends safe.

In the middle of the chaos, we realized a few things immediately:

1. We needed our jobs in order to fund the trip to Israel in the manner that we strongly felt He was telling us it was to be funded. And, in the face of nationwide unemployment spikes (the unemployment rate went from 3.5% in February up to 14.7% in April and the number of Americans who have lost their job is estimated near 50 million), neither of us had lost our job.
2. Since the pandemic impacted the way that we all live, it also impacted the things that we value and our openness to course-correction. People around us became more focused on the people they love than the things they owned. Many of us who needed to see things in a different light and make life changes were given the ability and the mindset to do it.
3. Although international borders were closing and travel, even locally, was severely restricted, we could tell that His plan for our year had not changed or been deferred.

And so, we continued to make plans and set wheels in motion. We realized that travel to a kibbutz that specializes in tourism was no longer an option. We met up with the family who would become our host family in a virtual meeting and a few things were confirmed for both us and them. This was the first post-COVID outbreak “yes” we received in response to our needs to travel and stay in Israel.

In late May, we turned in our resignations from our jobs and both received approval to continue working until mid-August. In June, Israel announced plans to re-open its borders to tourists in late August. That timeline was no surprise to us as that’s exactly when we were planning to leave the U.S. and come to Israel. We continued forward, buying plane tickets and sending a deposit to our host family. We booked the UHaul and moving companies for the weekend of Independence Day, and completed the move with no trouble. In mid-August, after our long month of saying goodbye to Colorado and all the friendships we had built there, we headed to Missouri.

On our drive out to Missouri, our host family contacted us and said that is was looking very unlikely that we would be able to travel to Israel on a three-month tourist visa at the end of August. This meant that we would need to complete the paperwork for a volunteer visa which requires a trip to an Israeli Consulate. This would allow us to enter Israel and probably result in a delay of less than a month of our previously planned date. We were shown great favor through this time. We completed the visa paperwork within a week (including getting new passport pictures taken, a special trip to the doctor, and new health insurance), had it reviewed by our pals in Israel in two days, received approval to pick up our visas in three days and, 48 hours later with visas in hand, were ready for our trip to Israel.

Our arrival in Israel ended up being only one week delayed from the original plan. In less than a week of our arrival, Israel announced a nationwide lockdown which will begin at 2 pm on Friday, September 18 and last for at least three weeks. During this time, travel will be restricted, businesses will be closed, and we will only be able to travel 500 meters from our Israeli home. We are praying for a swift healing in this nation, for the number of cases to recede and for those in Israel to be awakened to a new zeal for their Messiah during these times. We strongly believe when Messiah comes, He will choose a time during the fall feasts (known to many of our friends as the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.) That is the time of year that we knew we were to be here and here we are.

It is clear to us that He opened a door, very briefly, for us to enter the Land and that He has shown us favor in many ways – not the least of which was ensuring our prompt journey to the Land so that we could participate in the things He is doing here. We are now waiting for Him to make Himself more real to us than He has ever been. And waiting for His purposes to be revealed to us so that we can complete the tasks He has reserved for us here.