A Follow Up to Yesterday.... Please Read!

First of all... All I can say is WOW to the flood of email encouragement that hit my mail box today.... I had over 100 emails!!!!! Thats an all time record for me.... We weighed our decision carefully for several weeks and from the way the Spirit was moving here to call all of our supporters to pray on our behalf...we are even more confident that while our stay there was short... it was all part of His plan....

That said.... in no way do we rejoice or boast in the fact that we know there are hurting people as a result of our decision....We know that there are angry people..In many ways we ourselves are hurt and angry... We NEVER ever dreamed when we returned in February that this would be the outcome, but Jesus was not surprised.... and HE is still in charge... Time did not stop, the earth is still spinning and His ways and plans are still at work....

Out of the 100 plus emails I received today, I did receive one that was not so encouraging.... It was from a person who does not even know us nor the missionaries... but he/she had many questions.. The email does have a harsh tone... My purpose here is NOT to publicize or defame the person..But there are some questions that he/she had that may be some of the very questions you may have, but are scared to ask.. This is best way to clarify to the masses about our thoughts in making one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.

Below is a copy of the mail...with the name omitted...

Hi Jed,

After reading your blog, I am left to wonder what happened. I thought you guys knew that being in a mission field, there would be "many many unforeseen, uncontrollable, and seemingly unchangeable circumstances..." Did you not know that?

As a professional teacher myself, I am inclined to ask if the head of the school as well as your students and their family knew that you were leaving. It just seemed so abrupt, and from the tone of your blog, it seemed like you left "quietly" - however do you mean? Did you get fired?

As a teacher, I hope they did know because as teachers, we made a commitment to be professional in all our dealings whether publicly or privately. More importantly, in your position, you represented the American school system, as well as being a Christian missionary.

What set you guys off? Culture shock, parents/students attitude? I am quite interested.

1. The first question was "did we not know about the 'circumstances?' " - Yes, we knew about life over seas... we are by no means experts, but had experience living in the Deserts of Africa in a Mud hut with MANY MANY MANY daily life difficulties, and we were prepared for that. Part of dealing with those difficulties is having a GREAT missionary support team will there....

2. Did the head of the school and students know... The head of the school was notified via email, the students were not notified because they did not need to know... Many times teachers leave schools and students are not notified as to why they are leaving.. That is part of maintaining a healthy and nurturing environment... They don't really need to know... The parents were then notified by the school board as would be the normal procedure here in the states regarding a teacher leaving... It is not the teacher's responsibility to notify all of the parents when he/she is leaving a school and to explain why. We felt that the school board could handle it the most diplomatically.

3. Our departure did seem abrupt to you our readers I am sure.... but not to us...and to those we had contact with on a regular basis... Matt and I had struggled for weeks because many things were just not right... It seemed abrupt to many of you because we tried to be the " good missionaries" we were supposed to be and not inform all of you of all the unnecessary details.

4. Were we professional/ did we get fired?.... NO, we were not fired..we did nothing to be fired for.....and we strived to handle the situation as professional as we knew how for the well being, safety, and integrity of the ministries for all involved... We are still attempting to that here by being as honest as we can, while being sensitive that many of our readers are our very own students, parents, Filipinos, Americans Financial supporters, etc.

5. Culture Shock/Students Attitudes.... I am so happy to answer this part and tell you that our leaving had NOTHING to do with the Filipino culture nor our students' attitudes.... WE LOVED IT AND THEM!!! We loved everything from the Jeep... to Larsien's....to Ayala.....and to the Filipinos...We loved our students and hope for nothing but greatness for all of them.... We regret more than anything that we felt the need to leave without contacting all of them...but it was the best thing for us to do considering the circumstances.... Our goal was to make the least negative effect possible and we did what we thought was best....

All this said.... We are home... and it is time to move on..... There is no time for regrets.... no time judgement... This will be my last post about all the events and the reasons for our departure.... Tomorrow its back to me being the silly, encouraging, funny, outgoing person I LOVE TO BE!!!!!!

I realize that many of you will sign on for the last time right now, because my day to day musings here in the states might not be as interesting as a bumpy jeepney ride, or a chicken intestine video. Thank you so much for being part of my life for a brief moment... Please feel free to come back often and check in with me.... and in the words of my namesake.......

"Yall come back now ....Ya Here!!!!"