Continuing my life journey and how I was led, Part 6 deals with our experiences in South Korea. It is another part of an upcoming book or website section entitled Divinely Led.
Part 6: Teaching in Korea
God’s Help with the University Catalogue
This story deals with God’s help with the university catalogue and how I was provided with both helpers and the time to produce a quality product.
Our boss, Gail had mentioned several months into our teaching that an international evaluation committee was scheduled to come to KNU toward the end of that semester. The Korean professors were busily translating information from their areas into English. Fellow teacher Louise and I were to edit their information and get it ready for the committee. The translation should have been ready for editing by the end of March that year.
March came and went. The professors were translating but it was all taking longer – as happens with most things we plan. Then SARS struck and international travel ground to a halt. The Evaluation Committee also cancelled their plans for the time being. (All things work together for good – Romans 8:28.) With that news, the translation effort also stopped – after all, so it was thought, there was no more rush.
Although I was not aware of the size and complexity of the project, I instinctively felt that we would need all the time we could get and then some. I felt the translation should be completed as soon as possible so we, the editing team, could get working on it. So Gail asked her husband Bill, the university President, to encourage the professors in that vein.
Sometime in May, Gail handed me almost 340 pages of material and said “they” wanted it done in three weeks. At that time the Committee had not yet rescheduled their visit. It didn’t take me long to realize that three weeks was a totally unrealistic and impossible target date. I subdivided the job into steps and parts and projected a time closer to four months – till September. It seemed like it could be done by then if several of us worked on it in addition to our classes and more intensely over the summer break.
So, for four months, Louise and I spilled a lot of red ink over the pages, while Heather, another fellow teacher, worked very hard to put our messy edits in. She probably had the hardest job of all of us and I will forever be grateful for her perseverance in adversity.
After the summer, we realized that more work and time was needed to produce a quality product, and the new target date was set for the end of the semester in December. I am amazed and grateful how God provided the capable people and the time. I am indebted to Hope, Heather’s sister, for the way she took over the typing after the summer and brought the project to its “preliminary version” stage. She was always cooperative and provided a lovely “service with a smile.”
With the preliminary version completed, I still felt the catalog needed a major reorganization and streamlining to make it a good product, similar to catalogs of other universities. I was planning to do it during the spring semester of 2004, hoping that I would again be given fewer teaching hours for that purpose. I felt a little overwhelmed when I was scheduled for eight classes. Gail wisely advised me not to panic but wait and see how many of those classes would actually materialize. And again, God went ahead – in the end, half of my classes were cancelled as not enough students enrolled.
So, after more than a year, the catalog was completed. It was a big project – even a little overwhelming at times. At the right time, God sent to the university capable typists in the two sisters, Hope and Heather (who left at the beginning of 2004) and a fellow editor in Louise (who had the time in 2003 when her help was essential, but was no longer available for editing in the spring of 2004.) I am also grateful for Gail’s wonderful help and support in this project – she was there when she was most needed. And when we were all stretched to the limit, God even sent “small” helpers in Rand, Will and Jean to push us over the hump.
The Committee was rescheduled for the fall 2004 and the catalog was ready. From this experience, we can be encouraged that whatever situation we find ourselves in, God will always be there and provide for our needs even when things seem impossible. To him be the glory!
For other information on divine leading, see Spirit Helpers and Guides
Here is a short reflection on being divinely led.