Getting There

Washed out road from storms

How do you measure distance?  In miles, minutes, kilometers or hours?  In the islands we feel a great tension between distance and time.  For example:  It’s about 50 miles from one island to the next and 80 miles from Volcano island to our Clove island.  By plane it takes less than 30 minutes.  But what if the airlines aren’t running?—the workers are on strike, or the planes are away for maintenance, then the distances are much farther.  By boat it can take 4 hours, 6 hours or 8 hours, depending on the boat and the weather.  And then the boats don’t go every day, so you may have a wait multiple days to cross those 80 miles.

This same phenomenon of shifting distances is much more prominent on the ground.  When we first arrived on the island, a drive to a village 5 miles to the west took about twenty minutes.  But a drive to a village 5 miles to the east took up to an hour.  Why?  The roads.  The road west used to be in decent condition—we’re not talking highway quality, but a road you can take at about 30 mph for good stretches of it.  Thus 20 minutes.  But going east the road was a mess.  Whole stretches of the road looked like a BMX race track.  As it climbed the mountain, the overloaded taxi buses would slow to a crawl.  With frequent stops to pick up and drop off occupants, the 5 mile trip could easily take an hour.  After awhile your mind adjusts.  “Village East is far.  Village West is close.”  In reality the two roads are equidistant, but with road conditions, one is far, one is close.

Crowd checking out road damage

How strange that this past year our world has reversed.  This last year, at long last, they repaved the road going east.  Now you can zip along in a taxi at a breezy 30—maybe even 35 mph and arrive at your destination feeling like you’ve hardly traveled in a hot, over-stuffed, uncomfortable taxi bus.  Towns that used to seem so far away at 10 or 15 miles away—Now they are accessible and easy to get to.  For a time it felt like the whole island was shrinking.  You could get where you wanted to go so much more quickly.  Those towns on the other side of the island, started to feel accessible.  Then rainy season came.  It’s washed out a good chunk of the road west!  Taxis now cling to a mud path which winds between a cliff of scree and a gaping hole to the sea. The western road has become the slow road.  Time to readjust our thinking. Village East is now close.  Village West is now far.

Our daughter creating things

We often talk about our lives as journeys. This is definitely true of people figuring out what they believe. For some the journey is fast— they hear, they understand, they accept. Others have lots of obstacles along the way. Some may not hear, some may not understand and for some the hardest leg of the journey is from understanding to really accepting and believing something. It reminds me of something a teacher of mine once said about the distance between the head and the heart!  It is another distance that can be long or short depending on the terrain. There are things that we know in our head that we don’t believe in our heart.  But it’s not about the distance, it’s about the road conditions.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The visiting doctor arrived safely yesterday and we are thankful for our teammate that has helped to arrange tours at the big hospitals and a chance to learn more about medical work here. Our new teammates had a first meeting to study with their interested friends and it went well. Our team has had the sad responsibility to grieve alongside three different island friends that lost loved ones this past week.  This has lead to some opportunities to share. One islander recently took a special swim to mark a changed life. We rejoice.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for all those on a journey of acceptance.  We know a number of people who are making this journey even now, but the road conditions are never easy.  Pray for road conditions to improve!  Our team will be traveling to little Vanilla Island for an all islands team conference.  Pray that this could be some good bonding and growing time for our team, that the conference would go well, and that we would be inspired and learn a lot. One island sister has been pressured by family and received thinly veiled threats. Pray for her that she would have strength and peace.