News:

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it. -Steven Wright

Main Menu

Would You Live outside the US of A?

Started by (R.I.P.) YooperYankDude, March 16, 2010, 02:49:41 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

(R.I.P.) YooperYankDude

So for those of you who do live in the US of A... would you ever consider going somewhere else...?

Why?

Is there someplace that appeals to you more than another?

What would you do if God called you to go somewhere, but because of fear of the unknown or some other reason, you feel unable to...

Does God still use large fish to swallow people?   :updown:


Feed The Bachelors 2010

nicolejoy

Ok so I'm not American, I'm Australian - but I'm living outside of my home country, in Hong Kong. I think living oseas is an awesome experience, it allows you to have more of a "global perspective" and you learn a lot about other people, other cultures, and yourself really... I've been living here for 3 1/2 years now. Sometimes I love it, sometimes not so much. But I do know it's been one of the best things I've ever done. I'm a much better person because of it, I think...

If I could choose where to live though, HK wouldn't be my top choice. Maybe somewhere like Hawaii... or France... I dunno. Even Singapore, I prefer to Hong Kong... but I know that God directed us here and so here we are!!

(R.I.P.) YooperYankDude

Thanks for sharing!

Could I ask what prompted the move?


What is it that your doing there?

Did you learn the language before you went there?


What kind of adjustments have you had to make that are different from living in your home country?


Yes, I am inquisitive in nature...



Feed The Bachelors 2010

MelodyB

Have you slapped that one dude from Indiana with a pie in the face today?
 

SippinTea

Quote from: YooperYankDude on March 16, 2010, 02:49:41 PM
So for those of you who do live in the US of A... would you ever consider going somewhere else...?
Absolutely.

Why?
Missions work is the first thing that comes to mind. But I certainly wouldn't be opposed to moving outside of the US for other reasons, too... like a business reason or something along that line.

Is there someplace that appeals to you more than another?
Sure... I would love to live in Europe someday. Or Russia, perhaps. Or Canada even. Not so keen on the idea of South American countries or Africa.

What would you do if God called you to go somewhere, but because of fear of the unknown or some other reason, you feel unable to...
I'd like to say I would go anyway, and trust Him to supply where I lacked. But I suppose one never truly knows until you're faced with that situation.

Does God still use large fish to swallow people?   :updown:
Somehow I think He could still do that. *grin*

:beret:
"Not everything that is of God is easy." -Elona

"When you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything." -F. Chan

"A real live hug anytime you want it is priceless." -Rachel

sunlight

what she said... *points at the previous post*
  :attackhug: Be full of hugs!

upcchris

 :( I am such a homebody...I love my home country and feel uncomfortable away from it for a substantial amount of time. When I was in High School we lived in Greece for seven months...it was before we came to the Lord, so it wasn't for missionary reasons. And I was homesick almost the entire time...I couldn't really enjoy it much because I missed Australia too much...I dunno....there were times while being over there that I loved the time....three month long holidays for example. But the funny thing is, I thought I'd be happier when we went home...but things changed over here and took some adjustment also. I think that if I were called to do missionary work...despite my homesickness, I'd like to think I'd go.....or a big fish actually might swallow me. :o

To live....Australia....there's no place like home and no matter how far or how wide I roam, I'll always call Australia home....other places may be nice to visit, but not to live...the only reason I'd travel o'seas for a substantial amount of time would either be for a round-the-world trip or for missionary work.
Television is proof the people will look at anything rather than eachother

Life would be so much easier without hormones

Of all God's creations, humans are the only ones with enough imagination to be bored

Humans are fallible, and they unreasonably expect everyone else not to be

Tina~Chris

nicolejoy

Could I ask what prompted the move?
Well my husband was born here but grew up in Australia. His family migrated to Australia when he was a child, but his parents are now divorced and his Dad is back in Hong Kong. We'd visited Hong Kong a few times when we got married and the first time I HATED it, didn't like it at all!! Not really because of the place, but because of the "family obligation" stuff that we had to do at the time.

One time when we visited, I started to feel that maybe God was directing us to move over here - but we'd previously talked about it and neither of us wanted to live here. But I mentioned it to my husband and he felt the same way. There's a couple of reasons why we felt to move here:
1) to be near my father in law, he has little family over here. Also he's not a Christian so we hope we can be more of an influence on him here than if we were back in Australia.
2) to help out the church a bit, we go to a small Chinese speaking church. It's quite "immature" even though it's been here for a while. Most of the people are under 25 and don't really understand the bible that well. We're a bit older and "stronger" in our faith
3) even just on a selfish level (although this isn't the reason why we moved here), the take home pay after tax is about double what my husband would be making in Australia. It's a great opportunity to save up for a house for when we go back to Australia. We should be able to afford more/better because of our time here in HK...

What is it that your doing there?
Well my husband is working, I've had a daughter here and am pregnant with our 2nd, so I'm mostly wife/mother/housekeeper at the moment! We're both quite involved with the church as well. I play piano and share every now and then, my husband is on the worship leading team and he preaches a bit too.

Did you learn the language before you went there?
No - I did go to classes once I got here. HK is pretty English speaking, you can get around with just English, everyone understands at least a bit... But I would love for my Chinese to be better. My husband does speak though, since he was born here. Although people can tell he's not "local". His reading isn't that great either.

What kind of adjustments have you had to make that are different from living in your home country?
The main thing is just being used to being away from family and those support networks. Because our church is smaller and more immature, sometimes I feel like spiritually, I don't have much support. It can be lonely, although since my daughter was born, I've made some really good "mum friends" but most of them are not Christian. I am close to some of the girls from church, but our life stages are so different, none of them are married yet, let alone mothers...

One of the other big adjustments is getting used to living in a big city. There are no houses, just apartments. Ours is only 780 square feet - but that counts our share of common areas as well, so in reality it's probably only 650 or something like that... Storage is an issue, I've thrown out soooo much stuff just because we don't have room to keep it all. We don't get much time to enjoy the outdoors, it's rare to be able to walk on grass because there's not much around, and that which is around is purely decorative, not for enjoyment purposes. My 16 month old daughter has only once walked on grass in Hong Kong, that was an hour away at a farm that we went to way out in the middle of no where.

One of the positive things about living here is that travel is so much more convenient. When we go on vacation, we HAVE to leave Hong Kong because there's not much to do here, so since we've been living here, we've been to Europe (it's much closer to here than Australia!!), also been to Thailand twice, Malaysia, Singapore, Shanghai...

I do manage to get back to Australia at least once or twice a year so I still get to see my family at least... but I'm in airports and on planes a lot and it loses it's excitement after a while!! My daughter has been on something like 14 planes already... (16 months old)...

RainbowJingles

1. So for those of you who do live in the US of A... would you ever consider going somewhere else...?
Yup.  Sure would.

2. Why?
Because I realize that the USA isn't perfect, and that other places can indeed have great appeal.
AND if God leads me somewhere, He will place a love in my heart for that place.

3. Is there someplace that appeals to you more than another?
After visiting Australia, I have realized that there are other places in the world that are just as awesome as the US where the need for Godly people and churches are great.  I've pondered a couple tugs I've felt toward other places, as well.  I have no idea what God may do someday, but I pray that I will listen to him and never run in the opposite direction of His calling (see question 5).  I *did* totally fall in love with Australia.

4. What would you do if God called you to go somewhere, but because of fear of the unknown or some other reason, you feel unable to...
Pray and stay still until God released me, because God doesn't call the qualified.  He qualifies the called.  He doesn't always look at someone who is "able."  He uses the "foolish" things and the small things (think rock v. giant and jawbone v. Philistines) and the weak things, and the things that seem like they don't really FIT or "belong" in places (think Esther).
Normal?  Comfortable?  Those concepts often become the enemy of our calling.  I'm of the opinion that God just might laugh when we cite them as excuses ("but it's not ~normal~, God.  It's not ~comfortable~.").
As for fear...  God doesn't work in fear, so I would pray that God would take away the fear and renew my love for Him.  There is no fear in love.  Perfect love casts out fear.  If the love for God is greatest, then fear will eventually run out the backdoor.

5. Does God still use large fish to swallow people?   
It's pretty unlikely, I'd think, but possible.  Most people make themselves miserable enough with guilt to make up for all the seaweed and stomach acids and such.  Of course, if there's a serious lack of conscience going on, or an active going in the OPPOSITE direction, God may have to resort to drastic measures like that. 


Scott

Since Herr Obama became President moving to another country has often been on my mind. New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Tahiti, Grand Cayman.....
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." (Vader)

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf (Orwell and Churchhill)


The Never Ending Battle

(R.I.P.) YooperYankDude

Quote from: Scott on March 19, 2010, 04:58:34 AM
Since Herr Obama became President moving to another country has often been on my mind. New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Tahiti, Grand Cayman.....

LOL... Your not the only one!  :lol:


Feed The Bachelors 2010

SippinTea

*raises hand* Me three. And Chris would make four. Err, 6 - sort of. ;)

:beret:
"Not everything that is of God is easy." -Elona

"When you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything." -F. Chan

"A real live hug anytime you want it is priceless." -Rachel

(R.I.P.) YooperYankDude

Quote from: SippinTea on March 19, 2010, 03:31:58 PM
*raises hand* Me three. And Chris would make four. Err, 6 - sort of. ;)

:beret:

Sounding like we should all head somewhere for a out of the states GP meeting...  :lol:


Feed The Bachelors 2010

RainbowJingles

Down Unda!  Let's all go see Chris, and schedule a layover in HK on the way!

The Cold Water Kid

Quote from: Scott on March 19, 2010, 04:58:34 AM
Since Herr Obama became President moving to another country has often been on my mind. New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Tahiti, Grand Cayman.....
Matthew 21
28"What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.'

29" 'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30"Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go.

31"Which of the two did what his father wanted?"
      "The first," they answered.

In my opinion these two sons could represent the Democrat and Republican party. The Republican Leaders say "I will, sir", but then they don't do; the Democrats say "I will not". Is one better than the other? We ought to stop criticizing Mr. Obama and start praying that he will go further than the Republicans do now: not only by saying "Yes" to God's Word but actually performing it.  :twocents:

(R.I.P.) YooperYankDude

Ummm... interesting take on that one... you are of course entitled to your opinion...  :-\


Feed The Bachelors 2010

upcchris

Quote from: RainbowJingles on March 19, 2010, 04:52:55 PM
Down Unda!  Let's all go see Chris, and schedule a layover in HK on the way!

Yay!!! :great: :clap: :bustamove:
Television is proof the people will look at anything rather than eachother

Life would be so much easier without hormones

Of all God's creations, humans are the only ones with enough imagination to be bored

Humans are fallible, and they unreasonably expect everyone else not to be

Tina~Chris

(R.I.P.) YooperYankDude

Quote from: upcchris on March 20, 2010, 12:52:13 PM
Quote from: RainbowJingles on March 19, 2010, 04:52:55 PM
Down Unda!  Let's all go see Chris, and schedule a layover in HK on the way!

Yay!!! :great: :clap: :bustamove:

As long as she take us to some of the local sights... wonder if you can stargaze on top of Ayers Rock...   :thumbsup2:


Feed The Bachelors 2010

sunlight

  :attackhug: Be full of hugs!

Amelia Bedelia

my boyfriend is interested in moving to costa rica... it seems to be the IN place among some libertarians wanting to get out of the US and avoid the tanking economy.  He wants us to go visit and check it out this autumn.  I've talked to a friend with experience there and she didn't think it would be a bad place to raise a family so I'm not entirely against the idea.  I don't like the idea of being that far away from my mom but tickets to Costa Rica are sometimes cheaper than destinations within the US so it might not be bad.

So yeah, I'd move because of the US economy if I thought the trade offs somewhere else were better odds than sticking it out here


The Purple Fuzzy

If you go to Costa Rica, a gal I've known forever is a missionary's wife there. :)

upcchris

Quote from: YooperYankDude on March 20, 2010, 01:09:36 PM
Quote from: upcchris on March 20, 2010, 12:52:13 PM
Quote from: RainbowJingles on March 19, 2010, 04:52:55 PM
Down Unda!  Let's all go see Chris, and schedule a layover in HK on the way!

Yay!!! :great: :clap: :bustamove:

As long as she take us to some of the local sights... wonder if you can stargaze on top of Ayers Rock...   :thumbsup2:

Well if ya'll are coming to Syd...we'll all need to take another plane up to the NT. (I think that's where ayers is...it's really sad how much about geography I've forgotten since I graduated)
Television is proof the people will look at anything rather than eachother

Life would be so much easier without hormones

Of all God's creations, humans are the only ones with enough imagination to be bored

Humans are fallible, and they unreasonably expect everyone else not to be

Tina~Chris

RainbowJingles

I'm guessing there's some great stargazing to be had in Wollongong or somewhere between there and SYD.

Of course, we could always be the Beach Combers there, too!

The Cold Water Kid

Quote from: Amelia Bedelia on March 20, 2010, 01:32:58 PM
So yeah, I'd move because of the US economy if I thought the trade offs somewhere else were better odds than sticking it out here
Couldn't have said it better myself.

nicolejoy

You know, the bad thing for US citizens is that you guys have to pay world-wide tax. No matter where you want to live in the world, you've still gotta pay tax to Uncle Sam (although it is reduced, obviously)...

As Australians, when you declare non residency (minimum of 2 years), you are not taxed at all on your foreign income. I like that!! Hong Kong has very low tax. One year, we payed a flat rate of about 1-2%, then last year it was only 4% or something. I can't remember exactly...