From Sascha and Andrea Fankhauser in Manila
After more than a year back in Switzerland, we finally made it to Manila again. What a journey!
We applied for a travel exemption. The only thing we could do afterwards was wait. With our Swiss passport, we are used to traveling wherever we want to, whenever we want to. But not this time. That was a completely new feeling and made me think about all the refugees who can’t go wherever they want to. Never. Because they were born in the “wrong” country.
This time of waiting and not knowing whether we will plan our next season in Switzerland or in the Philippines was a big challenge. We tried to live in the present and take life day by day. We are not used to that. We are not used to not making plans. We can learn a lot from our Filipino friends and neighbors in the community – a lot of them just take life day by day because too many times before, plans did not work out or something unexpected happened.
Finally, we got the travel exemption and booked a flight to Manila. Unsure whether it would really happen, we started to organize our trip back.
Two days before our departure, Switzerland ended up on the Philippines’ Covid “red list”, so we were not allowed to enter the country. Once again we had to learn to give up control and to trust, that there might be another (better?) way. And finally, there was a way to go back.
And now we are curious what God wants us to learn next.
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