Jury Duty

Fun at Children's Museum with friends

The first letter arrived while we were still on Clove Island— jury duty!  I thought I’d check a box saying, “I’m not in the country” and I’d be excused. But when I filled in the application, the words next to the box said “I will not be in the country for the entire year.”  I couldn’t check it—all I could do was request a postponement.

I picked a date in the fall, mid-October— but then my back went out.  There was no way I was going to be able to sit for up to 6 hours a day (as the website informed me I would).  I wasn’t making up the pain. I really couldn’t do it. Doctors could attest to it. Excusal from jury duty seemed imminent!  I contacted the juror call center and talked to a lady on the phone.
“Is this a permanent condition?” She asked as if she’d definitely heard this one before.  Could you be able to be a juror in a few months?”
Caught again! Yes, in a couple more months hopefully I’d be able to sit long enough to be a juror.
“But I’m going to be traveling a lot and then we’ll be leaving the country?” I offered.
“Okay, so what are the latest days you will still be in MA?” she asked, unfazed by my international jet hopping.
“Late January. But I can’t postpone again, they only allow one postponement.” I reminded her hopefully.
“Oh, that’s no problem,” she reassured me, “I can do that manually as long as it’s within a year of your original jury duty date.”  Great…

So that is how I ended up with jury duty on January 25th. A reminder came a week before with a questionnaire, my juror badge number, and a warning that failing to report for jury duty was a crime and you could be fined $2000.

The police officers at the court building were all very courteous and friendly, and at 8:30am they started the orientation. There were a bunch of announcements, explanations by a police officer, a superior court judge came and greeted us, and finally we watched a video about the history of trials by jury.  Everyone from officer to judge to video reminded us of the joy, privilege, and reward of
“serving” on a jury.

I was struck by how often they talked about “serving”. Again and again they avoided the word “duty” and chose “service”.  But it did not feel like serving.  Sure, we were there helping the justice system function.  But I usually associate “serving” with actually wanting to be helpful, not being forced to help.

Our kids are chosen to come on stage at museum

I looked around at my “fellow-servants”.  It was obvious that most people did not seem happy to be there and were just hoping that they would be dismissed as soon as possible. There were a few exceptions—a few who seemed interested and even eager to “serve” and in other circumstances I might have been one of them—content to “serve” and see justice at work.  But for those of us on a tight schedule—which appeared to be most—we were more duty-bound than “service-oriented.

I had to wait until after 3pm to be interviewed in front of the judge, attorneys and defendant in a multi-day criminal trial.  I explained my nearing departure, but the judge countered with, “You will still be in the country next week when the trial begins, won’t you?” Yes… So the questioning continued.  Finally I was asked to stand outside the courtroom waiting to hear my fate.   About 2 minutes later an officer of the court told me I could go home. I was free!

As I left the building a couple more signs, thanked me for serving.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Megan didn’t have to do more than a day of jury duty. We’re glad that in the midst of busyness we’ve been able to reconnect with different friends— schedules coordinating last minute. We were able to share with different groups this past week including a large group on Sunday— we hope many will be praying for us and the islands in the coming months. Our teammate on the island has had encouraging things to say: women are meeting together, English teaching is taking off, local language projects are progressing.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We’re in our last full week on the islands. Continue to pray for our final days, for the logistics, for our transition, for our kids. Our teammate on the islands has been having back spasms— pray for wisdom and healing.

Unshoppable

Boys shopping trip

As our time in America draws to a close and we start gearing up to return to our life on Clove Island, we often find ourselves shopping.  Neither of us likes shopping, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. 

We’ve lived on the islands long enough that we’ve built up a store of the basics.  So our packing is more finessed these days.  We have a pretty good idea of what’s available there, and so we bring back those things which aren’t.  You might be surprised to learn that one of the things we bring back is clothes (especially for the kids).  And this has nothing to do with fashion!  It has to do with quality.  If there is one thing that is not available to us on the islands it is high quality manufactured products.  This is true of everything from clothes to toys to computers.  Yes, you can find clothes, toys and computers on the islands, but you can’t find anything of quality.  Island products (often imported from China) have an extremely short life span.  Sadly enough, the cheap quality of products probably costs islanders more money in the long run even if they pay less upfront.  All islanders know that if you want something that will last  you have to buy it off island. Then there are the few things that you can’t find on the islands at all even low-quality versions— like certain medicines, toiletries, spices, food treats.

Now our shopping is a bit peculiar because often we are buying things now which we hope to be using for the next 1 or two years.  The result is, we are sometimes find ourselves buying in bulk.  And that’s how we find ourselves at stores like Costco, BJ’s, etc.  We appreciate the sizes, prices and quality of products we can get from these types of stores.  But at the same time, it’s a bit odd, as the very concept of a store of this magnitude is almost unfathomable for many islanders.  The biggest shops on Clove Island are no larger than the average US convenience store (about 2500ft2, most are even smaller).   Yet, many of the U.S. bulk stores can take up 150,000ft2.  That would be like the entire deep water port of Clove Island (where all manufactured goods enter the island)  opening for business.  They simply have no categories to put these stores in.

Of course, it’s not just the bulk stores.  Hardwares stores, Car dealerships, restaurants, malls, movie theaters, even gas stations all tend to be on a scale that simply boggles the imagination for islanders and yet, we go about our American life thinking nearly nothing of it.

Reading in CA

If anything this kind of shopping is becoming obsolete for Americans. Why go all the way to a store when you can just shop from home? Online shopping and home delivery would be nearly miraculous to a place like the islands.  Have you ever thought about how incredible it is, that with a few clicks of a button you can actually find, buy and have delivered virtually anything you can think of?  On the islands people don’t even have credit cards! There are only a couple places on the islands where you can even use one. Not to mention the fact that you’d never trust something of value to the postal service and something like DHL is so expensive, it would be unthinkable.

No, on the islands, shopping still means going to the little hole-in-the-wall store right down the road, often greeting the people that work there by name, seeing what limited supply of products they have, getting just what you need for that day and walking home. And you know what, in some ways we’re looking forward to getting back to that.  

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Megan’s grandfather is back home and doing better. Megan’s mom will travel to the midwest this coming week to be with them. We made it safely back to the east coast! It was a long day but all the travels went smoothly. Some extended family was up for the weekend to celebrate the baby shower for Tom’s sister (she’s due in March). It was great to celebrate this new life together with all of them.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We don’t like the shopping and logistics of getting ready to return to the islands. Pray that we would be diligent and organized in chipping away at the things we need to do so that we still have time to sleep in the final couple days. Megan has jury duty on Wednesday— it doesn’t come at a great time for us. It is possible that they’ll contact her on Tuesday evening and that she won’t have to go, or she could be stuck there for multiple days— pray that she is excused from going at all or that at most it is just a single day commitment. We’re getting excited about returning to the islands and reuniting with our colleagues and island friends. Please start praying now for our transition back and for all our dear friends that they would be walking in truth and light.

Reconnecting

By SF bay with Megan's mom

One of the great things about coming back to the States is reconnecting with people and communities that have meant a lot to us, both in the past and in the present as God has continued to guide us on this journey in Africa. We’ve been blessed by having groups of people standing behind us, praying for us and walking with us throughout.

But there can be something bittersweet in the reconnection— because we realize how much has changed, how long we’ve been away, how much life-together we’ve missed with them. There are the obvious changes of individuals and families— kids have gotten bigger or aren’t even kids anymore, jobs have changed, people have moved.   But there are other kind of changes too.  Some people have gone through hard times and we weren’t there to walk with them.  Some people have embarked on new and exciting journeys and we only get to see them after the fact.  In short, life brings change, and we haven’t been along for the journey.

We were struck recently by how much the different faith communities we hold dear have changed since we’ve been gone on the islands. They are all very different (we’re thinking of at least 6 different places and groups). They’ve had changes in leadership, caught new visions. Old friends have left, new people have come. There have been new agreements and new conflicts, new bonds and new scars in relationships. At least it seems “new” to us because we haven’t been around, to the community the changes are old news. They don’t even notice the differences that to us stand out so much.

New favorite activity- mini golf

We started to wonder where we would have fit into these communities if we had been with them through the challenges, transitions and conflict.  Where there was conflict, would we have been involved in it?  Where there were new ideas and new life, would we have engaged it or fought it?  Would we have been excited? Offended? Hurt? Inspired?  We’ll never really know.  What we realize is that each of these communities are like family to us.  Think about family.  Sometimes you know a loved one is struggling and wish you could help in someway.  Sometimes you just watch with pleasure and cheer them on in their triumphs.  And sometimes you just don’t know what’s going on with them.  But wherever they may be, we love them.  And so we find ourselves seeing our “families” again after many years.  We don’t know all that’s gone on with them, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.  We are committed to loving them, even if it is often from a distance.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We’re thankful for our time in California and for the good rain they got to help the drought. We’re so thankful the opportunity and time we’ve had to reconnect. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Megan’s 94 year old grandfather is in the hospital with kidney problems. He had to have surgery yesterday. Pray for Megan’s aunts, uncle and mom as they try to ensure that her grandmother and grandfather get the care and support they need (both now and when he’s out of the hospital). We leave California tomorrow morning for the east coast. Pray for safe travels back to the east coast and for our final days in the US— we leave for Africa on Feb 10th.

Back Problems

Our daughter starts cooking lessons with Megan

“It’s your decision,” the neurosurgeon concluded with some reluctance.

We were looking for his real opinion, so Tom pushed, “So if we asked for surgery, you’d do it?”

“I wouldn’t want to,” he said right away. As we continued the conversation, it became clear that he didn’t recommend surgery for my back. He was hesitant to give a definitive recommendation because of the special circumstances but even with those considerations, he wasn’t comfortable with surgery. That was the answer we were looking for, he was the third specialist to not really recommend surgery (though most were hesitantly noncommittal). But after the third time around, we saw it as a “no” to surgery.

Getting consistent advice has been difficult. My back problems started seriously in early 2013. That’s four years ago now. The primary thing we have learned since then is that LOTS of people have back issues! People have come out of the woodwork commiserating with my pain and sharing their stories of back pain and treatment. It is like being part of a special club.  Once you’ve joined the “bad back” club it seems you find members everywhere!  We have felt a lot of love from all the people who have shared the things they’ve learned from their experiences with back pain.  But in joining that club, we’ve also learned that back problems are varied and complex. There are muscles, nerves, discs, bones, joints all interacting together. Even two people with herniated discs will have different mitigating factors and respond differently to treatment. One person will talk about how wonderfully one form of treatment or exercise helped them while the next person will warn that that very same course had made things worse! We’ve done different types of PT, stretches, massage, heat, ice and injections…surgery is an untested road.

So we’ve met the conclusion of “no surgery” with mixed feelings. Having surgery was going to be difficult to fit in, potentially expensive, not to mention the possible complications of surgery. But surgery had at the same time seemed like a definitive action, a step that could stop the pattern. But ultimately my symptoms have improved too much. (That’s a good thing, right?) I’ve healed to the point that I don’t have any of the indicators for surgery anymore (though I’ve had them at multiple times in the past years). The good news is that my back responds (if slowly) to physical therapy, so we continue the slow road forward toward recovery. 

Megan and her brother open birthday presents

With pain, it would be nice to know there will be an end to it, but in life, we don’t always have that luxury.  For me, the end of the road is still unknown. We’re hoping it is a road of healthy, pain-free living. But we trust and pray knowing that God’s grace is sufficient for us even in uncertainty.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful for our meeting with the neurosurgeon— he took his time and was very thorough. We were confident that he understood the different circumstances and he gave his clear opinion. These were not assurances we felt after our other specialist appointments so we are thankful for that. We got to video chat with a couple interested in joining our team— it was a good conversation and we’re excited to see how things progress! We had a good time connecting and sharing with the groups on Sunday! Megan and her brother celebrated their birthdays!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We’re starting to feel the squeeze of there being only a month before we return to Africa. We still have over a week in CA and then the rest of our time will be in MA. Pray that we are good about working on our to-do lists, realizing some things will take longer than others. Pray for continued healing for Megan’s back and that we can proactively come up with ways for her to stay healthy and fit once we return to the islands. Continue to pray for our new team that is starting to take shape— that it would be the right people and that we would have unity.

New Year, New Blog Design!

Enjoying family in CA!

It’s a new year and we’re looking ahead to a new term of service on the islands, so we thought we’d follow our tradition of archiving our old blog posts and giving our blog a new look. Don’t worry our old blogs are still around. In fact they go all the way back to our days preparing go to Chad in 2007— over 500 blog posts in all!

Even as we archive the old, we hope we’re still learning from our past experiences. At the same time it is a chance to look ahead at what is coming up new. And in fact, we are looking forward to  quite a bit of new.  Here’s some of the things you can expect to hear about in 2017 and the years ahead.

A new term:  We will be returning to Clove Island to begin a new term of service (until 2020).  So that means you can expect new blogs, newsletters, stories and prayer requests, full of new challenges as new things happen in the world around us, as our kids enter new stages of life and as we learn new lessons about God, ourselves and others.

A new team:  Even now we are finding out about possible new members to join our team.  We know from experience that each new team member brings a new dynamic to team life, decisions, discussions and conflict resolution. We hope to have many new members join us on Clove Island to bring new help, new hope, and new life to our island friends.

Kids still reveling in their Christmas presents!

A new curriculum:  As a team we try to constantly sharpen our skills and grow deeper in maturity and effectiveness.  One of the ways we do this is by reading and discussing different books and studies.  We are in the process of creating a new curriculum for the next two years or so.  We are still in the planning stage, so if you have a book you think our team should be reading, let us know!!!

A new house:  You may remember us writing a blog a long time ago about finding ourselves a new home to rent.  We found the home before we left, but we are excited to move in and make a new house a home.  Of course moving means new opportunities, new neighbors, new friends, and new daily rhythms.

Now it won’t be all new,  we are still committed to living among, helping, and serving the people of Clove Island.  We are still committed to growing in wisdom, language, culture, and hopefully maturity.  We are still committed to writing our blog every week so that you can be aware of what’s going on in our world.  We are still committed to working with a team so that we all might learn, grow and check one another.  And we are still committed to being thoughtful in our personal and public life as we live with and serve the people of Clove Island.

We hope you’ll come along with us and keep us accountable to all we’re committing to as we continue on this great new adventure!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our teammates of the small Vanilla island have continued to clash with officials about getting the contract for one new colleague to get his visas, but meanwhile the police have extended (way beyond normal limits) his temporary visa and have renewed another family’s annual visas. We’re thankful for this favor with the immigration office even as tension with the governor’s office continues. We’ve heard about another person interested in joining our team! It has been encouraging to see increased interest. Our colds are getting better— thanks for praying.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Megan meets with a neurosurgeon on Thursday to discuss her back. We’re hoping to get clear guidance about whether surgery is in her future whether in the short or long-term. We have the chance to communicate with some potential teammates this week— pray for a good time of discerning on both sides. We have the chance to talk to a large group on Sunday, plus a few small groups— pray that we would lead those times well as we share about the islands and the power of good news!