Missionary Life
Missionaries live exciting lives… Right? They jet around the world to exotic lands. They have very few of the problems experienced by ‘real’ people. Wait…. What? Traveling halfway around the globe during a global pandemic is an exhausting reality for many missionary families.
Because of COVID restrictions, our delay in the USA was much longer than we anticipated. After waiting 11 months to get back to Thailand, we can manage just two more weeks … right? That is our mentality right now as we are starting day 2 of quarantine in Bangkok.
Our journey to Thailand started on Monday the 15th as we flew out of Dulles around 8:30 PM. The airport was completely empty and it felt like ours was one of only a handful of flights going out that night. As we waited, we chatted with another man who happened to be a local pastor who was traveling to preach in Pakistan.
After the initial 12-hour flight, we had a 3-hour layover in Qatar before the final 6-hour flight to Thailand. The flight to Bangkok only had about 25 people on it. Pretty much everyone was lying down with a whole row to themselves. Gabriella slept for most of both flights, however, Luca was up for most of the flight to Bangkok. He is a very active crawler so not being able to move around was pretty tough for him.
We arrived in Bangkok at around 7 AM local time. As soon as when we exited the plane the officials checked all of our documents and our temperatures. After moving all of our carry-on luggage from the plane to that first checkpoint, Chris tested warmer than they wanted. They made him sit in front of a giant AC machine for 5 minutes before testing him again. Thankfully Chris’s temperature was within the limit this time, otherwise he might have been sent straight to a hospital to be watched and monitored.
After the first checkpoint, our documents were checked 3 more times before we got to immigration. There was a slight delay because we were entering on a new visa while our old visa was technically still active. We had to do this because our old work-permit which was attached to our old visa had expired and therefore we could not keep using our old visa even though it was technically active. This isn’t something that usually happens so it just took a little while longer to clear up the confusion. After finally clearing immigration we collected our luggage and met the driver who was going to take us to the quarantine hotel.
We arrived at quarantine at around 9 AM and had to fill out some more documents and take our temperature again before they showed us to our room. Thus ends day one of our 14-day quarantine. During the quarantine period, we report our temperatures twice a day and must have two negative COVID-19 tests on day 5 and day 11 before we are allowed to leave. If we test positive for any of the two tests we will be sent to a hospital for an additional 10 days.
Overall, we are doing well. Everyone is pushing through jet lag and waking up at random times throughout the night. Doing this with two young kids is definitely a different challenge. After the preparation for the trip, the massive rush of paperwork, documents, and travel, we are just trying to use this time to prepare ourselves emotionally and spiritually as a couple and a family before we complete the travel to the city where we serve.
Chris and Sarah S serve with GlobalGrace in Thailand