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| One final holiday activity- decorating cookies! |
Language
We’ve made a great deal of progress in language, both individually and corporately. It has been exciting and encouraging to see our three new teammates from this year take on the task of language learning and succeeding. Megan and I have also seen advances in our language, whether it’s leading study groups or times of prayer in the local language, we see our understanding continue to grow. We can share more deeply then we used to and can speak with friends on deeper subjects. Maybe one of the greatest parts of language learning has been learning to tell the story of the 2 Kingdoms in the island language. This has been a great joy! But even more widely, we have seen translation work move forward in leaps and bounds this year. It’s been a lot of hard work, but the work is paying off as we are starting to see more materials and even songs come into use in the local language.
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| Our daughter at wedding event |
What an exciting year this has been for English teaching! Our own team of available English teachers was greatly reduced in size, but we have seen islanders take up the reins and English programs spread greatly. It has been exciting for us to share our teaching in more advisory and training roles. This even included a teachers’ workshop organized by islanders to encourage change within the school system! What a wonderful thing to be a part of. We have continued to work hard on improving our English curriculum, we’ve opened an office for people to come and learn about our group, and we help out with lots of English classes, including two English Clubs that are very well attended and give opportunities for great relationships and discussions.
Team
Have we ever told you how blessed we are to have such a great team around us? We started as three. Tom, Megan and our old teammate. We were soon joined by another woman who has brought so much laughter and joy as well as a strong work ethic to our little team. We waited many months, but since November we have been enjoying the energy, vitality and faithful service of our two newest members, two young women from the States. We have fun together. We pray together and we work together. Our team days are a wonderful mix of learning, encouragement, challenge and fun. We’re looking forward to a short termer with us next month from Madagascar!
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| Some of our old neighbor kid friends! |
One thing that doesn’t seem to be lacking here is relationships. We know so many people. Sometimes relationships can be tricky. We’ve had our fair share (and often told you about it in our blog) of dealing with money issues, kids on our porch, going to wedding after wedding, helping neighbors give birth on the living room floor, and generally trying to figure out what people expect of us and how to be seen as generous, loving, wise, hospitable people in this culture. But there’s another challenge we face: going deeper. It’s a tricky business because you often don’t realize your friendship has moved to a new level until one day you realize, as your friend shares their troubles with you, that they’ve let you in. It’s only then you realize that the previous weddings, hard interactions, or “conversations about nothing” have led to this moment. We’ve been blessed to see many relationships go deeper and to share the hope that we have with people who are hurting. In this past year we’ve participated in gatherings of the truth. We’ve seen teammates share the story of the 2 kingdoms with a bus full of people. We’ve seen women gather in fellowship and people pass through the waters into the light. We’ve had opportunities to join in holiday celebrations and share the reasons for our celebrations as well. We have much to be thankful for.
Prayer
As you know, we always end our blog with Prayers Answered and Prayers Requested. We have seen so many prayers answered! We are thankful for good health, generally. The children have not been sick much and we have been spared from most illnesses. Though Megan cut herself with a sharp knife, and a teammate had an aerosol can blow up in her face while burning trash, both are fine. Megan’s back, though still an issue, has been manageable and we hope to resolve this problem of cysts in the new year. Throughout all our travels (even returning to Africa in a snow storm) and the travels and arrival of new teammates, and visitors, it all has gone surprisingly smoothly. We have asked you to pray for our team and we have seen our team grow from 3 to 6. The unity, mutual respect and multiplication of our work has been wonderful. We asked you to pray for our kids at school this year, and they have done far better than we expected. We are especially thankful that our 7 year old son asked for the kingdom of light to come into his heart. We asked for prayer about getting visas and visas have come through. We have 4 colleagues engaged to be married and dedicated to work on the islands. Finally, we have asked you to pray for Tom’s friend Sterehi who has been separated from his wife all year. In speaking with him this week, Tom learned that they are getting back together. There is power in prayer!
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our two teammates made it safely to mainland Africa for vacation and the one got her passport renewal paperwork turned in at the embassy. They seem to be having a good time. We made it through a crazy week of wedding celebrations! We feel like we were there when we needed to be and that we were good friends. We had a disagreement with some colleagues that had to be sorted out over email (not a great medium)— we are thankful that we have found unity and resolution together despite the limitations. Sterehi is back with his wife— this is a big answer to prayer!
PRAYERS REQUESTED
We are traveling on Sunday to the big island and then on to mainland Africa on Monday so Megan can seek medical treatment for her ovarian cysts. She has an initial appointment and probably redo tests previously done in October, but the current expectation is that she will have surgery to remove the cysts. Tom had a final study time with the group of men he has been meeting with— multiple of them are thinking through some difficult questions. Tom will go back on Thursday to encourage them one more time before we travel— pray for good interactions, good reflections and that these men would find clarity and truth in their reflections. We are making preparations to have a short-termer from Madagascar join us in February— we are very excited to have her! Some of the details and logistics have been complicated, pray for good direction for all involved as decisions are made and plane tickets are bought. Our newest teammates travel with us to mainland Africa for a 3 week orientation for new workers. They are anxious about leaving the islands right after having formed good contacts and started good routines— pray for a great time for them and that they will come back to the islands refreshed and encouraged and ready to jump right back in!
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