April 24, 2007

To China or not to China, that is the question...

Greetings from Morris! I'm back at it, full throttle for the next 2.5 weeks. Yesterday was the job fair. It went well, I got better at selling myself in 30 seconds, and I even had a couple of impromptu interviews. Come Lord! We drove back to Mo-town yesterday afternoon and stayed up until 3:30 am last night catching up with friends. The perfect way to spend an evening before our 8:00 am class this morning. :) Gotta' love it! Job hunt is still going strong, but there is something very pressing I would like some opinions on.

It's another discernment issue. My really good friend Sara (from UMM) just finished her student teaching at Burnsville High. Short version: one of the teachers she collaborated with has been working with schools in China to put on an English summer camp. It takes place in the month of July and they're in the process of selecting their summer staff. She's going. Bottom line? They've pretty much asked me if I would like to go to China for a month and teach English to students over there. In fact, it's a highly desired position (there are only 10 spots), and they've reserved a spot for me to go. The cost of the trip would be somewhere between $500 - $1000, including room, board, airfare, and some other expenses. We have to cover our visa, spending money, and very little else. A month... in China... for just that?!?!? It's a pretty sweet offer.

But, I'm already going abroad in May. Could I really go to China as well? Money is an issue: I would probably end up writing letters looking for people to sponsor me to teach. Time is also an issue: can I afford to be out of the country for another month of my job hunting time? Pretty much all of it is online, really. It's more a matter of interviewing in July. There's probably other factors as well, but my brain only got that far.

I need some advice. What do you think I should do? The Lord brought this to me... it is quite literally the opportunity of a lifetime. But, just because it's an option doesn't mean that I am supposed to do it. My heart is in it. I really think that I can raise the money and stay on top of the job hunt from abroad. I think that it would be extremely beneficial to travel to a non-Western European country and bring what I learn into my classroom. Plus, it's teaching... in my specialty area! So, please help me out and leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail. God bless and I'm very anxious to see what y'all think. I would like to make a decision by the end of the week. Come, Lord, make Your Will clearly known to me.

1 comment:

Bill Reinhardt said...

Do it!! Great opportunity; right in your area... employers LOVE somebody with experience, especially where the experience stands out (e.g. teaching English in China!) You may be able to job search in China, but realistically it would be tough (much of it is phone calls and networking and that's going to be tough/time-consuming elsewhere. But I think that the experience is well worth the risk of putting the job search off for a month. If you can cover the costs (or write letters for grants -- which employers also like to know about you) and rely on God's grace to see you through a whirlwind jobsearch in July; you'll be sitting pretty. God bless! -Bill