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.