“I can’t believe this is happening again!” Carly’s words echoed in her empty apartment. She skimmed the email from her team leader a second time.

Due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, the government has implemented a strict lockdown. You will need to remain in your apartments except for …

Carly glanced at the scant list of exceptions. Over a year into the pandemic, things in her country of service had finally started returning to normal, and now this. She made it through the first lockdown partly thanks to the companionship of her roommate … but that ended when her roommate returned home to Canada a few months earlier.

Jessie is a 36-year-old global worker in Central Africa. She is a wife, mother of three, and actively serves in her community. Jessie loves getting to pour her heart into others, but struggles at times to balance serving as a wife, mother, and friend.

One day, Jessie came home after serving breakfast to children in the community, teaching literacy classes, and helping a couple work through marital disputes, to find that her son had broken a lamp and scattered pieces all over the floor while the babysitter was in the bathroom.

"Why don't you slow down and take a breather?" Susan asked as Dave walked in the door, his sweat-soaked shirt sticking to his body.

"I can't really afford to sit down right now.” As Dave shut the door behind him, the hot desert air seemed to recede as the atmosphere of the house returned to a comfortable temperature. “I just came from Abdullah's house to help patch his roof and now I have to prepare for the men's Bible study tonight and finish my sermon for tomorrow.”