I waited for three years after I graduated college mainly to make myself more marketable and at a better place for when I did seriously pursue teaching internationally. I had school loans to pay off and I wanted to complete Safe-T & ADEPT (in order to acquire my first continuing contract), whist getting some real in-class teaching experience.
With the achievement of my permanent teaching certificate, after completing three years of teaching in northern South Carolina, I felt the time was right. In November of 2016, I began the process of applying to international schools around the world. I spoke to schools in South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Austria, Panama and more! It was a long and uncertain process, but I learned so much about myself and was reminded how excited I am for the Lord’s calling on my life.
Finally, after pages and pages of written applications, hours of Skype interviews, hundreds of emails, months of prayers (and more tears than I care to admit), the Lord opened a door and I fell in love with a series of international schools in China.
On Monday, April 24, 2016, I accepted a position teaching Middle School level English Language Arts and Drama. I am SO THRILLED… and more than a little terrified. The school where I am teaching, in the Shandong Province of northern China, boasts students from almost 30 different countries and staff from over 10 different countries. I’m going to be teaching and working in a place that culturally is a beautiful snapshot of heaven. The thought of that gets me beyond excited.
Moving to China is going to bring about A LOT of changes and I’m know I’ll be blogging more about many of them in the coming days! I hope you continue on this journey with me and cover me in lots and lots of prayer!
SPECIFIC PRAYER REQUESTS
- Spiritual preparedness
- Acquiring my VISA and all the paperwork that goes with it on time
- Packing up and getting rid of things here (I’m already overwhelmed, haha!)
- Finances for U.S. storage of things I can’t take with me yet
- I've gotten approval to bring Benji (my wonderful little dog) to China with me, but the finances and paperwork that go along with that process are daunting. Big prayers that I can bring him as soon as possible.