31 Days since Returning Home (April 2020)

On March 17, 2020, Kristin and I returned home in Chiang Mai, Thailand from Valleta, Malta via Doha and Bangkok. Despite a little hiccup with Turkish Airlines, we were able to come back home via Qatar Airways without much hassle. How grateful we were! When we left the Mala Airport, it was pretty empty.

Looking back, it was only a month ago, but a lot has since happened, all in conjunction with the COVID-19.

The COVID-19 has spread like a wildfire throughout the world, having affected more than 2 million confirmed cases and more than 145,000 deaths.

But, the pandemic has become particularly serious in the U.S. and Spain for the past month. On March 25, the statistics were:

As of April 16, the statistics have changed like this. The numbers of confirmed patients and deaths in the U.S. surged ten times and 37 times, respectively. Very alarming...

Thailand
It is hot with the day temperature hovering between 36 and 41. Moreover, the air quality is bad. Very bad. Usually at the top of the cities of the worst air quality. Once it exceeded 300.

A couple of airports remain closed in Phuket and Ko Samui. Most of non-essential businesses remain closed, including shopping malls, until April 30.

Foreigners and incoming international flights are not allowed to enter the country until April 30.

Korea
Korea received negative publicity initially when the country was aggressively testing and taking actions against the confirmed patients. It is known to have flattened the curve. A great achievement.
But, the country remains cautious and no one can say that it is fully under control. Anyway, once ranked at the second after China, Korea has been pushed far down on the ranking.

In the midst, the country went through a National Election for the Parliament. The governing party made a noteworthy victory, leaving concerns for many conservatives.

USA
The US was somewhat lukewarm in responding to the COVID-19 threat and has shown a dramatic surge in both confirmed cases and deaths. Still 30,000 people are turning positive with the virus and 2,000 people die a day with New York leading the statistics. To put it into perspective, the US saw 34,000 soldiers died during the 3-year Korean War. To date, probably for the past two months, the US had 35,000 people dead.

The US government has taken a swift fiscal and monetary action not to see its economy go into recession. Congress and the White House enacted the CARES Act amounting to US 2.2 Trillion dollars and the Fed released another 2.3 Trillion dollars. Thanks to their prompt action, the stock market tanked 35% and made a V-curve bounce to a level now with a 17% drop from the February high. But, the recession is inevitable with businesses closed, unemployment benefit claims soaring and international trade on hold.

Trump talks about reopening the economy, but governors resist. Trump delegated the authority to the governors. Testing kits are in shortage.

Spain
Spain was also slow in responding to the COVID-19, but took decisive action with the nationwide lockdown, now more than 33 days and counting. Despite the action, Spain remains the second-worst country globally after the U.S. People

SfK Ministries
SfK Ministries is not a charitable organization, making grants. But, the missional businesses were suffering too much with their own cash flow problems and also the unmet needs of people in their community.

So, SfK made Emergency Relief Grants to 7 businesses in 7 countries so that they may use the fund freely to meet their own needs or the needs of people in the community. Below is a photo received from Nairobi, Kenya.

SfK Life in-person board meeting scheduled for May has been canceled.

For the coming few months, we will focus on accelerating the development of online training platform development to accelerate.

Our Family and Friends
When the COVID-19 affects my own friends and family members, its grip becomes more real. Joseph Choi's mom contracted the virus and passed in New Jersey.

Robert Oh's wife showed the COVID-19 symptoms of vomiting and was tested, waiting for the result.

In the midst, Amanda has sent us a pleasant news. She is pregnant! Already into 8 weeks. The time is a bit challenging, but I could become a grandpa in November.

Joyce said that she was interested in buying a house when the market is down and the interest rate is low. Good thought. But I can hardly believe that she may get into a $600,000 debt to buy a small house although the payment is within her affordable range thanks to the low-interest rate below 4%. She said she was thinking of January or February next year.

Easter
In April, we observed the Passion Week of Jesus Christ, Good Friday and the Resurrection Sunday. We have observed them all at home, but His profound love was piercing our hearts more deeply than before.

Our Life
Since we returned home, we both caught a cold. Initially, we were alarmed but felt reasonably confident that it was a cold and we have been slowly but steadily recovering. I still have residual coughing, but I think it is because of allergy. Kristin still takes Tylenol and decongestants.

I set the 4 R's as the guiding principles for my life at home for the next few months: Rest, Restore, Reflect and Refocus.

• Rest - I have travel fatigue from constant traveling for the past few years. I really need to rest. 
• Restore - Chronic fatigue has damaged certain body parts and functions. Excellent home foods and adequate sleep will surely help physically restored. Also, I need to restore my spiritual and mental health through bible memory, daily devotion, and bible meditation. 
• Reflect - While I am in pause, I need to reflect on my life journey to date to make sure I am in the right direction. I need to praise God for all blessings, improve on all mistakes, and repent all wrongdoings on my part.
• Refocus - Only after I reflect on my life journey, I can refocus well to finish this life well. Learning plays a pivotal role on top of thoughtful reflection and I am making good progress on this front. I hope to have a renewed vision, clarified mission, and sharpened focus for the life remaining. 

I am immensely enjoying Kristin's home foods while we stay home. I am deeply grateful.

It is totally unpredictable to imagine what might happen in the future, even in a few months, and it is useless to plan too much. But for now, I move on to prepare for the future to come, when it comes, with my daily, weekly and monthly routines, plus special projects of learning about videography for online training and potentially future vlogging. Lord willing. - Jeffrey

Lock-down Update - Chiang Mai, Thailand (April 1, 2020)

Since we returned home on March 17, we have stayed home, except a few times we had to go out to take care of the essential business, such as groceries, 24-hour reporting, auto insurance.

Since we returned home, Thailand stopped the entry of all foreigners into the kingdom. Lockdown and curfews are implemented gradually.

Globally, the US has reported more than 180,000 cases with almost 4,000 people dead. Itlay has also reported more than 100,000 with more than 12,000 people dead. Donald Trump has issued a warning that the upcoming two weeks will be tough and the social distancing order is extended to April 30. Korea will implement a 14-day mandatory quarantine requirement for all travelers that enter the country. Many developing nations have already shut down their airports and implemented lockdown or shutdown. It cannot be compared to the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, but the scale of this pandemic is truly global and deadly.



It is quite unfamiliar to me to stay home for months. Previously, my stay at home was pretty much a resting and recuperating stop before the next stop. This time, it is different.

So I have come up with some daily, weekly and monthly routines, plus some projects that I would do when time permits or as needs arise.

Daily routines

• Bible memory
• Daily devotion - a time of prayer
• Daily workout
• Nal-Gi-Sae - Rev. Dongho Kim's daily devotion
• Studying Spanish
• Shalom Bible Study (SBS)
• Daily learning via The Great Courses Plus - Currently, I am learning on four subjects: 1) Great Inventions, 2) Sacred Texts of the World, 3) America and World Economy, and 4) Customs/Cultures of the World
• Sharing "grace" and "knowledge" with Kristin
• Dishwashing
• Cleaning emails
• Walking when the Central Festival shopping mall opens up again

Weekly routines

• Worship
• Ground floor cleaning
• Talking with 2-3 members of SfK MB Community

Monthly routines

• Updating personal financial statement
• SfK Newsletter
• SfK Life Board Update
• Joybells America Board Meeting

Projects

• Watching movies via Netflix
• Merger and Acquisition between Joybells, Cconma, SfK Korea
• Emergency Relief Grant to SfK MB Community members
• SfK Life Board Meeting
• SfK Korea Board Meeting
• Nanuri Board Meeting
• On-line training
• Writing blog posts

Whatever the circumstances may be, we all can get the most out of them. It is wisdom. - Jeffrey 

COVID-19 Pandemic Update (March 24, 2020)

he COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand globally. Its expansion trend changes from nation to nation every day and I am documenting the situation to remember more clearly later.

Today is March 25 and we are supposed to have completed the 14-day quarantine period after we left Spain in light of its rapid spreading of the coronavirus. Both of us are not showing the apparent symptoms of COVID-19. But I have caught a cold with sneezing and runny nose.

In Thailand, from midnight today, all foreigners cannot enter Thailand, except the diplomats. In other words, borers are closed as some of the countries openly do. Also, there will be a curfew from 7 PM to 7 AM until April 30. All Thai nations entering Thailand must complete the 14-day quarantine period. Gradually but surely, Thailand has followed the suit of many other countries. Naturally, airline schedules are canceled often.

India ordered a complete lockdown for all people of 1.3 Billion for three weeks. Cities are locked down and people work from home. Streets are empty. The US has seen a dramatic increase in the number of confirmed cases and Spain has seen an astonishing rate of deaths compared to the confirmed patients, let alone Italy that has experienced the highest fatality among COVID-19 patients, even higher than the official Chinese reporting of the death.

Some numbers as of March 24 are:

• Confirmed cases     436,481
• Closed cases           131,532 (including recoveries of 111,889)
• Active cases            304,949 (including serious cases of 13,267)
• Death                        19,643

US Statistics are:

• Confirmed cases      54,996
• Active cases            53,832
• Deaths                           785

As of March 24, the US was ranked the third in the number of confirmed cases, after China and Italy and the first in the number of active cases. The Senate and the White House reached a $2 Trillion deal for economic stimulus. The FRB announced an indefinite purchase of commercial papers as well as government-back papers to inject liquidity. The stock market has tanked over the week to 10 days, losing 30%.

Many countries are short of health workers to handle the growing number of patients, Moreover, some of them are also contracting the virus to be sick and not to be able to work.

No light seems to be seen at the end of the tunnel at this point.

Below are some charts that I saw in TIME magazine based on March 17 data.

On a bright side, however, Italy is reporting a slowdown in new confirmed cases; S. Korea appears to flatten the curve; China is reporting no new case in Wuhan, the epicenter of this pandemic.

President Trump is hoping to reopen the US economy by the Easter defying dire warnings of health experts. Oh well...

We keep going on our knees to God with sincere repentance and keep praying for God's forgiveness and mercy, particularly to the health workers, and to people in the poor countries without reliable infrastructures. - Jeffrey 

Travel Halted due to COVID-19, World (March and Onward)

I started my 4-month travel journey on February 1, 2020. At that time, the COVID-19 or the novel corona virus disease was still a serious issue only in Asia, mainly in China and Korea, probably also in Singapore. It was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. It was then introduced to be a killer virus. Soon afterward, people downplayed it and predicted that it will disappear when the heat comes around. WHO was still short of calling the crisis a pandemic. Thus, it was making mistakes and sending wrong signals to the world.

I traveled to Sri Lanka for a week and drove around the island nation without a problem. At that time, Sri Lanka had one Chinese tourist patient confirmed to be positive with the COVID-19. Other than that, people were not concerned at all about COVID-19.

I then traveled to Kathmandu Nepal for a week and had no problem. Nepal had only one patient then. I was lecturing for the whole week and at times I had meetings over breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, I spent time with the graduates of SfK MBA BCT Kathmandu 2019.

My journey made an overnight stop in Muscat Oman where no one was found to be ill at that time. I was there for less than 24 hours, but my brief visit was quite productive with a rental car that allowed me to drive to the places of interest.

I continued my travel to Lahore Pakistan for a week, where no COVID-19 patient was identified during my visit. I stayed at a local residence interacting daily with people who attended the training and the host family over daily breakfast and at times dinner.



Thus, I continued my travel to Tbilisi Georgia for several days, where again no patient was identified. I spent time with a graduate of SfK MBA BCT Irvine 2018. We had a brainstorming session about what he was going to do for his missional business.

Then, I traveled to Madrid Spain on February 26. At that time, Spain started seeing some patients, but primarily in Costa del Sol and islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Madrid seemed to be without any patients and no one was taking the COVID-19 seriously. No one was wearing a mask and people were not even talking about it. The Spanish officials were downplaying it very much.

On March 1, Kristin arrived in Madrid for an overnight stay and the following day we traveled to Valencia by bus. We stayed there for 10 days. While we were staying in Valencia, the situation in Europe was getting worse every day. Italy was the worst country, followed by Spain. But, Spain's problem was primarily in Madrid. In Madrid and Valencia, no one was wearing masks and we could not wear them either.

We left Valencia on March 11 for Malta. While we were staying there, the situation in Costa del Sol was getting worse along with Madrid. The number of patients in Costa del Sol accounted for 70% of all patients in the Andalucia Autonomous Community.

I had to make a decision about whether we should continue our travel. After a discussion with Kristin, we made a decision to stop all remaining schedules and return home in Thailand.

After we made the decision, European nations began to take aggressive actions to stop the spread of COVID-19. Spain issued a decree similar to martial law, locking down all residents in Madrid, except for essential trips. Madrid turned out to be the epicenter of Spain's COVID-19 pandemic. Our decision was made timely and correctly. As a result, all airports were getting empty as travelers come to halt all over the world.

We purchased flight tickets from Turkish Airways and we went to the airport. But, alas! Turkish Airways check-in counter staff told us that we could not transit Istanbul unless we have completed the 14-day quarantine period in Malta after we left Spain on March 11. I thought it was harsh.

As the second option, we bought the tickets from Qatar Airways to transit Doha to go to Bangkok two days later. In the worst-case scenario, we were thinking of staying in Malta for an additional 10 days. But we were concerned about potential lockdowns or airport shutdowns that could happen in any place and at any time.

Fortunately, we were able to travel through all travel segments and arrived home on March 17. Praise the Lord! It was the first time that we felt grateful for just letting us fly for the flights we paid for.

At any rate, we ended up canceling our trip to Tunis, the return trip to Malta and to Valencia, a road trip to Malaga, a 2-week timeshare stay in Costa del Sol, a trip to Casablanca, Morocco tour with Gate 1 (they have already suspended the tour with full credit for a future trip.), travel to Cairo Egypt, and travel to Thailand where I was supposed to attend two conferences. But, FBA Forum has been canceled and BAM Congress has been postponed to 2021.

Also, Amanda postponed her wedding that was supposed to take place on May 30 and I had to cancel their honeymoon trip to Tahiti, French Polynesia.

I need to make a lot of calls to cancel the reservations and make persistent follow up on previous cancellations and mistakes made by the airlines and/or travel service providers. It is a lot of hassle. But, it is so good to be home.

Meanwhile, so many people continue to be getting sick, more than 250 thousand, and also many people die, more than 10 thousand, as of March 20, 2020. I have not seen anything like this in my entire life. The magnitude of geographical impact (Now WHO has called it a pandemic), the speed of spreading, the strength of contagiousness are all unprecedented.

For the first time, the US has increased the overall overseas travel advisory to Level 4, meaning "Do not travel." The government is planning to give cash to all low-income citizens. Businesses are closed and the streets are empty. No one can predict how things will develop. Uncertainty and anxiety are rampant among people.

But as a believer, I need to remain in God's peace or Shalom that no one in the world can know or give. Shalom is not an absence of war, but an active presence of peacefulness in perfect harmony with the Creator God no matter what the circumstances may be. What would be the worst outcome out of this COVID-19 pandemic? Getting sick? Hospitalization? Dying? Whatever the outcome, we believers are looking beyond this life into the eternity that God has promised for His people.

Also, I believe that we need to repent before God. It is God's wrath against humanity for its defiance against Him. It is a warning that His patience is drying up. Without our repentance, His wrath may be poured out on us and the Day of the Lord may come. We need to seek God's forgiveness and mercy, but first we need to repent with a sincere heart. Oh Lord, please be merciful to us.

I do not know whether I will be able to travel again and if so when. But I will wait for His guidance in His time. - Jeffrey

Harbor Cruise, Valleta, Malta (March 2020)

To the Hop-On Hop-Off Bust Tour, a Harbor Cruise was added as a bonus, but I thought it was better than the bus tour. It was indeed superb. The views were fantastic and we did not have to suffer from the strong wind and traffic jams.

The boat we rode was small but cute and colorful.

The cruise took approximately 90 minutes but visited almost all creeks as well as main harbors.

One of the spots we passed through was a ship that was used for filming the cartoon movie Popeyes. Now it is a restaurant. In fact, there is Popeye Village in Anchor Bay where Paramount Pictures and Disney Pictures established their movie sets to film the movie. But, they were abandoned in 1980 and the village still attracts tourists year-round.

I could easily figure that tourism is an important source of Malta's GDP. But it accounts for only 25% of its GDP. The remainder comes from the manufacturing of high valued products like electronics and pharmaceuticals primarily for exports, filming, and maritime services. I learned that Gladiator, Troy and World War Z were filed in Malta recently. Also, Malta's per capita GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity was known to be around $30,000. Wow! We passed by industrial structures and shipbuilding docks during the cruise.

We saw many condominium buildings built all over the island, even in a remote area like the mouth to the harbor. I am not sure if it is a good idea.

We could have visited two other islands of Malta, namely Gozo and Comino. To visit there, we should take a boat like one below and travel for two hours each way and spend an hour or so in each island. We chose not to. Perhaps next time.

Our stay in Malta was short, but we thoroughly enjoyed the scenic views and cozy ambiance of the cafes and restaurants located all over the island. Definitely, we could stay longer and surely we will consider coming back. - Jeffrey