The Far Road and the Bluejay

The coronavirus has continued its rampage across the world, infecting thousands each day. It is fairly clear that this is becoming a global epidemic. It breaks my heart to imagine the daily struggle of those working in the medical field, those infected and suffering with the virus, and the grief of their loved ones. We continue to hear about new cases of infection in the communities of some of our friends. We’ve also heard that a nearby suburb-village of our city has been sealed off due to several cases of infection. Thankfully, the government responded quickly and decisively to contain it. With new cases emerging in the area each day, it seems that the return to “normal life” remains in the obfuscated future.  

Several weeks ago, Katie saw an announcement online from the regional education office; it announced that school would resume on March 9th. A few days ago, she saw another memo indication that school would not begin on that date, but instead was put off until further notice. Walking around the school, we see evidence of this. Yesterday, we saw teachers, workers, and guards sorting student text books and stuffing them into mail pouches; they were mailing the textbooks to the students. We know that they have been conducting classes online all throughout China for several weeks, and this move tells me that the students will not be returning to school anytime soon.


In the meantime, we have been spending considerably more time within the school walls. Katie has been having produce delivered to the school, rather than us going out to supermarkets. We’ve also posted a daily to-do list on our wall that includes: devotional time, reading time, exercise time, cleaning and organizing, and work productivity time. I have found it slightly difficult to knock out everything on the list. We haven’t been wasting time either; we have been talking about having a movie night here for over two weeks, but just haven’t had the time. Even with literally all the time in the world right now, I still find it difficult to do some of the things that I didn’t have time for before. Those things are destined to never be completed unless we make them a priority, which we have been.

We have been spending some time walking around the school quad. It’s great to be able to see trees and be out in nature. Twelve parks just opened up in our city, but you have to register and set up an appointment to visit them. We are fortunate to have access to nature whenever we want here in the school. 

I’ve been using the time out there to watch and take photos of birds. There are a lot more birds out there since there are far fewer people around. I’ve even seen some new ones that I haven’t before. They are a bit shy, but I did get some photos of a few of them.


Asian Magpie (Pica services)


Long-Tailed Shrike (Lanius Schach)


Chinese or Yellow-Billed Grosbeak (Eophona migratoria)

Light-Vented Bulbull (Pycnonotus sinensis) and White Wagtail (Motacilla alba leucopsis)

 Although it looks like we may be here for another month, I am looking forward to seeing how God uses this time to develop us and continues teaching us about rest.

 "The sharp thrill of seeing them [killdeer birds] reminded me of childhood happiness, gifts under the Christmas tree, perhaps, a kind of euphoria we adults manage to shut out most of the time. This is why I bird-watch, to recapture what it's like to live in this moment, right now.”
― Lynn Thomson

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