What do you do when...?

Tom with police friends

Imagine the following scenario.  Someone came into your house without your realizing it, rifled through your belongings, took all the money they could find, and left.  When you realized what happened.  What would you do?  How would you handle it?  You’d probably begin by calling the police, right?  911?  It’s a little different on the islands.

About a week ago, this very thing happened to some of our teammates.  What should they do?  Since there is no 911 on the islands, it becomes a game of who do you know.  Our teammates came to us and we put our heads together and thought about who we could call.  Before long Tom had called a police officer who was a former student.  That got the ball rolling, but then we thought to call one of our English program administrators.  He has no connection with the police, but he is well connected.  He made some phone calls and soon we not only had the police involved but also the gendarmerie (sort of a rank up from normal police officers).

But that is not the end of things, because before long the neighbors found out, and the neighborhood has it’s own way of dealing with crime.  Do you have $3?  Someone asked my teammate who had just been robbed—the irony was lost on the neighbor but not on us.  What’s the money for?  To make a public announcement.  So off we went to the center of town to a small building next to the town’s main mosque.  A wire ran up from the room to the loud speakers that sits atop the minaret.  As the neighbor fed the announcer the details, the theft was proclaimed to the entire neighborhood!  As details that we might consider private echoed around the neighborhood, the subtle undercurrent of the announcement said, “How shameful that our English teachers who help our town have been robbed.  Let’s find the thieves!”  On the walk back to the house everyone had a piece of advice or a word of encouragement or an assurance that we would find the thieves and that “What happened is not good!” 

If only it were to stop there, but this was just the beginning of the process.  Why?  In the islands we have the dual problem of a tight-knit community—so everybody knows everybody and everything that goes on—and corruption—so everybody might know what’s going on but that doesn’t mean anything is going to be done about it.  What has followed has been a great ordeal for our teammates:  Multiple trips to the police are required because you have to find the police officers who are trustworthy and they only work on certain days.  While we try to speak truthfully about the situation, we see rumors and lies both intentional and unintentional spreading through the community (they can identify the thieves, they have security cameras, etc.)  Families have accused families leading to fights and feuds of a tangential nature, but still requiring time, energy, and mediation.  Suspects have been brought forward, but no one is sure he is guilty and there is little evidence beyond the fact that “everybody knows this guy is trouble.”  The police want to flush out the culprits with cunning psychological pressure tactics while the neighborhood simply wants to find the guy and beat him up.  It’s a horrible mess. 

On her way home for sports

So we’re left to wonder…how do you find justice in it?  How do you offer forgiveness?  How do you even know how to stand in the light when all around you seems to be muddy, messy, darkness?

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Even in the midst of trouble there are things to rejoice about.  Though they might have had opportunity, computers and important documents like passports are all accounted for.  We are thankful that we are a team and so no one has to go through this kind of thing alone.  We got our visas very easily and quickly— we give credit to our teammate who helped follow-up with the appropriate offices. Our gathering about English teaching went well. We had a great weekend with some of our colleagues and friends and they made it back safely to their respective islands. Our short-termer’s orientation and homestay went well (her host family wanted her to stay longer!). One of our island brothers who happened to be in a nearby country when he suffered a medical emergency (details not clear, might have been a heart attack)—  they say if he had been on the islands he may have died.  We thank God he was in the right place at the right time.


PRAYERS REQUESTED  Pray for our team and our teammates especially as they navigate this quagmire of good intentions and corruption.  It is moments like these that we are thankful that we do not work in our own strength.  Our teammates have done so well, but it is certainly disturbing to know someone has been in your house and gone through your stuff.  Not to mention the continued trips to the police that are yet to come to an end.  Pray for a peace that passes understanding, a freedom from anxiety, and the words of our Helper to come to them in every situation.  Pray for our short-termer who is settling into life living with our teammates and learning language for the next few weeks— pray that we would know how to support her well and that this experience would be a good confirmation for what her future holds.  Pray for translation work as it gets going again after a few week break.