Confirmed

It would be an understatement to say that deciding whether or not to move to HK was a big decision. In order to ascertain whether or not this was where we were supposed to be, we prayed for closed doors, of which there seemed to be none. It was smooth sailing from the moment I first sent in my resume.

Second, we asked for some sort of confirmation that this was the right descion. As if having our own personal neon sign hanging from the sky saying “go,” confirmation came in the form of not one, not two, but five relational connections. All of these we discovered after we signed our contract. The last one we discovered after we arrived.

1. Rodney Carlson: Sara Carlson has been my photography business partner for the last six years. Sara's cousin Rodney taught at ICS ten years ago.

2. Grant Franke: Julie’s boss at Sherman Hospital in Elgin has a young friend –Grant Franke- who teaches somewhere in Hong Kong. Turns out, Grant and I are on the eighth grade team together. He is in the room across the hall from me.

3. Maria Postma: While not related to my cousin Barry Postma, Maria went to school with him and was close friends with the girl Barry would eventually married. Maria was supposed to stand up in their wedding, but had a scheduling conflict.

4. Calvin College –where Julie and I both graduated- is a small college graduating just 900 students a year. ICS is a modest-sized K-9 school with just 70 teachers on staff. None-the-less, three ICS teachers are Calvin graduates.

5. Ruth Pifer. Ruth Pifer went to public school with my cousin Betsy (VanNoord) Marvin in Jackson, Michigan. Ruth is also a first year teacher here at ICS and my across-the-hall neighbor on the seventh floor.

We've only had a chance to meet a fraction of the staff. I look forward to seeing if there are any more two-degrees of seperation.

Kevin Bacon, eat your heart out.

-Jack

Picture: Annika, her Bible teacher Mr. Grant Frnake, and friend