Hope, Peace, Joy & Love

The four themes of advent

For those of you that don’t usually celebrate Advent— it is marked by the four Sundays preceding Christmas. Each Sunday has a different theme- Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. In our family we usually celebrate advent by reading different stories each night from creation through to the story of a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem. But each Sunday we highlight for the kids how these different stories and the story of Christmas is about God bringing hope, peace, joy and love to humanity.

Hope, the promise of a bright future even when the current realities are hard.

Peace, the calming of fears even in times of uncertainty.

Joy, the inner triumph and soul contentment that cannot be shaken by anything of this world.

Love, the embrace of one who has given everything freely and lovingly to make us his own.

Our English Club gathering!

We had our annual English Club Christmas party on Wednesday and we always get lots of questions. Islanders generally haven’t been exposed to Christmas much (except for scenes in movies and stories from islanders who have visited other countries).  As they look around our house decorated for the holiday, we naturally get lots of questions like, “What is that called?” “Why do you have that?” So we end up explaining stockings and ornaments, snowmen and reindeer. But ultimately these are not the most important things for them to understand. It is the more abstract ideas of hope, peace, joy and love. They can’t be fully encapsulated in a few words, but on Wednesday we told stories, we sang songs and tried to explain the ways that one simple birth made these abstract concepts reality.

The next day we had a very different gathering. It was the same room with the same decorations. But instead of the mix of English students, it was a group of women dedicated to understanding the real reason for this holiday. We studied the story in the local language. We all shared our observations and input. We marveled at the command of “do not fear” from the angel and then marveled again at the peace and joy that descended on those who received the good news. We thought about what it would be like to be a woman in this culture, pregnant before marriage and what the message of “do not fear” would mean to her. Then we questioned why the baby would be born in a stable of all places. Until one woman rejoiced at the idea that in his love, he had become accessible to all, even to the lowest of us. At the end, earnest prayers were lifted up in a mix of languages and we went away with a firmer grasp of that hope, peace, joy and love available to us.

Acting out the story: Mary on the donkey

They were both Christmas gatherings. Both included singing and discussion. Both gatherings ended with some snacks and socializing. And we had a good time at both. But the first was a group of people primarily interested in the English language and the culture of English-speaking countries. Most were students who came because we have knowledge they desire. The second group wasn’t there for us or anything we could give. They were there to celebrate and discover knowledge available to all, but only found by some, the promise and richness of hope, peace, joy and love. 

May we all find these amazing gifts this Christmas season.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had a wonderful Christmas day yesterday celebrating as a family and with our team. Our kids finished their exams at the local school and are already enjoying the break from classes. We finally had the women’s gathering that had been postponed for several weeks— it went well and was an encouraging time. Our English Club Christmas party went well and was well-attended. After much suspense and drama, our teammates’ visas came through!  Our downstairs neighbors are feeling better. We have an appointment with a doctor in Kenya and a place to stay. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
This past week was exhausting and we’re feeling tired. Pray that we can have some restful days while still getting the things done that we need to do. One of our old neighbors is marrying off her daughter next week and wants us to be involved. The problem is that she isn’t a great communicator and isn’t clear in her expectations. Help us to be good friends to her and know when we need to be where. Two of our teammates are traveling today to mainland Africa for vacation— pray for safe travels and a relaxing trip. One of them needs to renew her passport while she is there, pray that the logistics for that go smoothly. Tom wasn’t able to do the final study with the small group of men, so he will do it this Thursday. Pray for a good meeting and that they would continue to gather on their own even after this initial series is finished.

Season Confusion

Kids showing their snowflakes

We’re confused. December is always a confusing month on the islands. The house is decorated for Christmas. We are listening to songs that talk about cuddling up against the cold and venturing out into the snow. There is a snowman on our window and the kids made snowflakes to decorate the table.  But it is HOT and HUMID! We drink a cup of water and our bodies thank us by quickly delivering glistening layer of fresh sweat. We’re melting, but that is what December is like on the islands— not the weather that we associate with Christmas when growing up in the US.

But we’re confused for another reason too. We always thought (after several years on the islands) that December and January were supposed to be the horribly hot and humid months that are waiting for the torrential rains of February and March to break the humidity and bring some relief to the stifling heat.

But this December has been full of torrential downpours! There is no waiting until February this year— we’re already in the middle of full-on rainy season weather!

The seasons on the islands have never been very clear to us and we ask islanders about “normal weather” for any given month we always get a different answer. The islands have basically two seasons: rainy season (known in the local language as Kashkazi) and dry season (known in the local language as Kusi).

The clouds come to us from over the hills

I like the sound of the word Kashkazi. It sounds chaotic and kind of crazy which helps you remember that it is the season of periodic cyclone winds and storms, dumping water on the islands. The problem is asking when it is— some say February/March, others say November, other December. The real answer seems to be that Kashkazi is all the way from November through at least March. It is all Kashkazi and like its crazy name suggests you can only expect it to be unpredictable. You can have long periods of heat and humidity with just occasional rains and afternoon showers and then you can be hit by a solid week of water pouring from the skies.

I must say that the rains have helped us get into the Christmas season more. The winds whip through the house in anticipation of the downpour soon to follow. Sometimes it almost feels “cool” and while it is a long way from “let it snow” weather, at least we can have a fun afternoon inside playing with the kids and singing, “let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.”

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The rest of the language workshop went well and thankfully everyone at the workshop was feeling better and they were able to get through the material they wanted to. Our new teammate is feeling better after her tummy bug. Our new teammates have been blessed by 4-6 of language helpers each! This is a huge blessing and encouragement as they learn language (people usually struggle to find one good language helper).  Thanks for your prayers about kids coming over to pray.  The situation has gotten a lot easier lately.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Continue to pray as we try to figure out the details of our trip to Kenya— we had a hiccup this week when the doctor we were figuring things out with realized she can’t do the surgery  because of scheduling problems. Pray that housing and appointments come together for that time.  The women’s gathering is finally going to happen this week— pray that it is a good time and that many women come to study and encourage one another. Lots of people on the islands are sick—we got to pray for our sick downstairs neighbors yesterday— pray with us for quick healing. One of the people sick is the man who is supposed to process our teammates’ visas— pray he can get back to work so that our teammates can get their passports back (one is supposed to travel the day after Christmas). Tom has been meeting twice a week with a group of men to study the Kingdom of Light.  The sessions have been going very well.  They will finish the sessions this week and then take a break, but pray that it is only the beginning.  This Wednesday is our English Club Christmas Party.  Pray that this would be a time to deepen relationships and share about the true meaning of Christmas— pray for similar gatherings around the islands.

Kittens on the Porch

Mommy cat & kittens on claimed corner of porch

Our island has a very large cat population. They aren’t pets. No one feeds them when they are hungry. No one takes them to the vet when they are sick. (Are there even vets here?)  Many cats don’t make it to adulthood. Those that do tend to be thin and battle-scarred. The nights are full of the noises of cat fights  and because no one spays or neuters the cats, there are always kittens around.

You may think us heartless, but more than once we have found small bedraggled kittens by our house. We could easily have adopted them, but we’ve always resisted the urge. Cats are tolerated for their rodent catching abilities, and maybe even for good luck, but islanders don’t treat them as pets. We’ve had several teammates and colleagues who have taken cats on as pets.  islanders seem to find this very amusing, but don’t seem upset by it, but many have also seen cats die (from fights or disease) or have been burdened with kittens that they can’t find homes for.

For us, we don’t mistreat cats, but we’re not going to adopt any. In our opinion, it is better if they learn to take care of themselves and if they make it, they make it.

We’ve had a lot of rain this week. After the first few storms, we noticed a young mother cat and two kittens by our gate. By the end of the week, they had settled onto the ratty old mat that sat under a table in the corner of our porch. We’re curious how long they might stick around, but for the moment they’re making life kind of interesting.  We’d be hard pressed to kick them out (they would most likely just come back anyways) and we have to admit, the kittens are cute. One is mostly black, the other is calico (which we’ve been told repeatedly by the kids means it is a girl—apparently only female cats are calico…)

The kittens

Aside from enjoying the normal sort of kittens antic that you might expect, we’ve had a few interactions that are worth mentioning.  It began the night after they arrived on our porch.  The mother cat would leave the kittens on the porch to look for food and they would of course meow for her return when they got hungry. Late into the night we heard one of the kittens meowing and meowing.  It was like an alarm.  Finally Tom got up to see what the problem was.  Wow, that kitten was loud.  It almost sounded like it was in the house.  But Tom looked around and didn’t see anything.  The meowing had stopped as soon as he entered our daughter’s room (whose room opens onto the porch near the cats).  Tom returned to bed and the meowing started again just as loud. Next Megan went in and she saw it, a tiny and scared kitten inside the house near the window.   It immediately ducked for cover behind furniture. It took waking up our daughter, getting a broom and fishing it out from under a bed with it hissing and swiping at us before Tom literally pushed it out the door, back onto the porch and back to its mama. Finally it was quiet and we went back to bed.

After that incident, however, the kittens seemed to decide that we weren’t so threatening. They stopped hissing as much and even let us pick them up.  We’ve had to pick them up a lot this week because although we don’t mind them taking shelter on our porch, we don’t want them peeing on the cushions out there. So we’ve been regularly taking them off of our porch furniture and putting them back on the ratty old mat in the corner.  Since we moved in, we’ve always propped the porch cushions up at night so stray cats won’t pee and poo on them (which happened our first weeks here).  So the other night, I grabbed one of the cushions to put it up and remarked— “Did this cushion get wet? It’s so heavy.” It wasn’t wet, it was full of kittens.  They had wiggled their way inside a hole in the cushion cover.  I’m not sure if they could have gotten out without us.  We had to reach in and put them back on the mat. 

We decorated for Christmas!

Well if we’ve suffered some inconvenience from this new arrangement, they have also suffered some. Our youngest loves animals and we’ve caught him unintentionally terrorizing the kittens a few times. I came out on the porch to see my 5 year old with a  bucket, picking up a kitten by the tail and unsuccessfully trying to get him into the bucket. I quickly told him to put the poor kitten down. He did and it ran for its life. Then I looked down and saw the other kitten crouched in the bottom of the bucket. We’ve told our son to stop tormenting the poor kittens.

So all and all, it is almost like we have cats right now. No, we haven’t adopted them. No, we’re not feeding them.  No, we’re not welcoming them into the house. But they are welcome to the safety and refuge of our porch. We’ll see how long the kids resist naming them.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Ma Imani’s mom is feeling much better. The package from our family arrived!! It was sent in September— so it took its time but it got here before Christmas! Thanks for praying. This is one of the hottest months of the year, but we’ve had a lot of rain which has made it feel cooler than normal. The consultants for the language workshop arrived safely and they were able to cover a lot in the first week of teaching.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
A lot of people are sick right now. There have been several people involved in the language workshop that have been sick or distracted by sick family members— pray for health and freedom from distractions during this second week of the workshopOne of new teammates was hit by a bad tummy bug—pray that she won’t be discouraged and will regain her strength quickly. Also there is a bad flu going around hitting lots of people. Pray for health and healing all around! Pray for us and our new teammates as we work on getting their longterm visas and try to track down their landlord to fix some problems in their house. We’re working to finalize our plans to go to mainland Africa in January (where Megan will most likely have surgery)- pray as we work out logistics and schedule with doctors there.

Open Homes

Tom with some kids at an event

We want to have an open home. It is even one of our team values that our lives and homes will be open to islanders. By open home, we mean available, we mean accessible, we mean welcoming. Islanders can already be intimidated to visit a foreigner so we want to make it as easy as possible.

Part of having an open home is very literal. We literally keep our door open. An open front door in island culture tells your neighbors that you are home and that people can visit. A closed door means either you are gone or don’t want to be disturbed. Sometimes a very close friend will knock on a closed door, but often times islanders will just see the closed door and leave. Since visits aren’t usually announced ahead of time, we keep our door open from breakfast until we go to bed at night. And people come— some to say hello, some to ask questions, some to ask for help, some to hang out, some to use our library, and then there are the kids that come to play.

Most island kids don’t have many toys, so kids will come to play on our porch. We’ve encouraged it. We want kids to feel welcome at our house. But it isn’t always easy. Island kids aren’t always easy to love.  Some of the lessons have been hard. When our kids were babies, it was hard to welcome the kids with runny noses and covered in dirt. At our last house, it was hard to welcome the kids because they always came in huge disruptive packs.

Kids coming onto our porch

Now we’re learning some new lessons. It started with some little kids from our street. They don’t listen. We tell them it is time to go home and they don’t go. Or they leave for 2 minutes and then sneak back up when they think we’re not looking. These kids are mostly little, 5 and under, and very cute. They usually scurry away quickly when we catch them. Eventually they seemed to learn that when we asked them to leave, they couldn’t come back, but another problem began. Without us knowing it, as they left they would close our door behind them. We would go whole afternoons without visitors only to find that our front gate was closed! We caught the kids at it and told them not to, but that didn’t stop them from doing it again. Finally we found some wire to stop them from closing it.

Then there came a kid we’ll call Nunyi. We had seen him around before. One look and you can tell that he isn’t like other kids. He is usually unkempt and dirty and will yell and grab at people. If he was an adult we would assume he was mentally ill, but he is just a kid (maybe 7 years old) and neighbors have confirmed that he was born that way. No attempts are made to educate him. Few attempts are made to control where he goes or what he does. One day Nunyi showed up on our porch and we let him play. Our kids were scared of him but we quickly learned that we didn’t need to be scared of him.  As he played on our porch we saw a big smile on his face.  He was loving it! Nunyi acts like a toddler.  Most of the time his words are unintelligable, but his desires are simple and clear— he wants to play, he wants to eat, he wants someone to watch him ride the scooter! 

The problem is when we have to ask him to leave. Nunyi won’t leave. He flat our refuses. The other kids scurry away but Nunyi digs in his heels. Most of the time we have to physically drag him off our porch— not a fun experience. We know the island solution— they would beat him. We can almost see it in his eyes.  He smirks and waits for a raised hand or switch before he’ll respond. We refuse to hit him. One of our friends threatened to get Nunyi’s uncle because Nunyi is afraid of him (probably because he beats him). Another neighbor saw Nunyi playing on our porch and immediately told him that she was going to call the police and that they were going to come with their guns to get him. Islanders wouldn’t let strange kids play at their house, especially not a kid like Nunyi. So that is why we want to let him play o our porch, we want to show him love, but it is hard when it always ends with us having to physically force him to leave. Some islanders have stepped in and helped take him away, but their solution to us is always the same— “close your door!”  But we don’t want to close our door!

Kids playing before an event

We want to have an open home… so instead we begin the difficult task of trying to set boundaries for kids who have never had boundaries, getting kids to listen to instructions who have only ever listened to a raised switch, trying to show love to kids that seem bent on pushing the limits. God grant us patience and may we see them with His eyes.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our new teammates had a great week staying with an island family in a village— the family was kind and welcoming, the weather was cooler up there and they had a lot of cultural experiences. They continued to have great attitudes. Our visitors from Asia have come and gone. It was nice to get to share with them about life and work on the islands— now people in Asia will be praying for us!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Ma Imani will have to stay on the big island until January— in the meantime she caught Dengue fever (which is going around the big island right now). She has recovered but continue to pray for her and her daughters. Also pray for her mother here on Clove Island who has been very sick. A big two-week long workshop has started on our island for the language project. It is long days. Pray for perseverance and good concentration for the participants and that they would get through all the material that the outside consultants wanted to share. We are possibly going to have a short-termer from a neighboring African country join our team— our organization has never had someone from this country work with us—pray for wisdom as the organization considers what the process will look like to have her join us. The next few weeks will be busy! Pray for good rest and endurance for us.  Also, a little thing, family sent a Christmas package to us a couple months ago— pray that it arrives for Christmas! (Mail on the islands is not reliable, some times packages make it in a few weeks, sometimes it takes months, sometimes they don’t make it.)