Thanksgiving

Our team by the Thanksgiving table

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone.  We hope you were ale to enjoy your holiday with family and friends.  We ended up celebrating on Friday this year because of schedules, but that did not dampen our joy.

We have a tradition of writing out the things we are thankful for in the previous year for our Thanksgiving blog.  Even more goes into our Thanksgiving book, but we always share some of the highlights right here.  It has not been an easy year, but we still have much to be thankful for:

We have a great team!  We have said goodbye to some members this year, but we were blessed by them when they were here and we have continued on.  Currently we have only two teammates, but they are amazing women. We are blessed to call them teammates, friends, sisters, and aunties.  What a joy it is to serve with them, be challenged by them, and to learn and love with them as we serve here together on the islands.

We have great kids!  It seems like everyone is gaining or losing teeth these days.  The youngest and oldest have new molars coming in, while our middle one has lost so many teeth in 2018 there is hardly a picture this year where there isn’t some kind of gap.  All signs of growing up.  We are so happy to see them doing well in school and learning.  Reading skills have had a definite increase this year!  As well as the fun we are having going on hikes and swimming and now even karate!

We got half a pumpkin just in time to make pie!

We work together with great people!  We are not the only people on this island with a heart for the islands.  We work with some great people here on this island.  We work and pray with island brothers and sisters.  We talk to, pray with, and learn from colleagues on the other islands too.  There are times when working with others can be hard, but we are very thankful for the unity that we have, may it increase!

We’ve had some great visitors this year!  Our short-termer from Madagascar joined our team for just one month, but we were enormously blessed to have her.  Others have come through for shorter visits, but each visit has encouraged us.  There are great people out there, looking to serve with heart, soul, mind, and strength and we are thankful for the ones we get to meet.

Yum for Thanksgiving pie!

We get to do some great things!  It may not seem great to everyone, but we think seeing English programs grow, seeing translations happen, seeing people hear the story of 2 Kingdoms, seeing people studying the deeper truths, seeing spiritual growth in ourselves and in those we work with are all amazing things.  We are thankful for them.

We are thankful for a great light shining on these islands!  I wanted to write “we live on a great island” but I felt that would not be true.  For though there are great things about this place and people, there is also great darkness here.  But a great light is shining in this place and one day it will be transformed and then we will say with confidence, “We live on a great island!”  But until that day we will rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation and be steadfast in prayer!  I hope you’ll pray with us.

P.S.  We have great people on our support team!  If you’re reading this blog, then you are probably one of our support team.  We love and depend upon you to continue in this work. We cannot do it without you.  So often we see the fruit of your encouragement and prayers. Thanks for all that you do for us.  We are thankful!

We didn't eat turkey, but Tom saw some (a rare sight here)

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had great day celebrating Thanksgiving— we even found pumpkin so we could have pumpkin pie! We had an encouraging meeting with brothers and sisters on the islands, sharing what they had recently learned at a seminar. It was nice to see them learning and challenging one another.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
The consultant checking is going smoothly, if not as fast as they hoped. They still really hope that they can finish checking the first book. Pray that they would continue to work well and would have peace about how much they are able to finish in this second week of work. We were invited to a neighborhood wedding but after one event learned that the bride is only 13 years old! This is not not a common practice on the islands, but not unheard of either. Pray that we would be able to respond in ways that challenge people in our neighborhood to think and question such practices.
We’ve heard that there is a sick sister on the big island that needs to seek medical care abroad. Pray that she would find healing and the needed funds for getting care. Continue to pray for the political situation. Not much has changed and we anticipate the tensions to lead to unrest again whether in coming days, weeks or months.

The Harvest is Plentiful

The other side of the island

It has been a dream for some time to see another team come to our island.  In particular there have been great hopes for a medical team to start on the other side of the island.  The medical needs here are great.  For several years, we have prayed and hoped and surveyed and encouraged, but still we wait for a team.  Last week we were joined by some colleagues who have been doing medical work on the little island.  They had come to do their own survey—another shot at the medical team.  We are the ones with the most experience on Clove Island and we are quick to help out in any way we can.  So that’s how I found myself (Tom) chauffeur and guide along with another teammate for a handful of days last week.

Here were some of my takeaways from the time:

Car trouble

I’m glad we don’t have a car! I discovered that I don’t really like driving on our island.  We don’t have a car, but we rented one for the survey (one of only two cars advertised for rent on the island).  I don’t mind the city driving, but driving over crumbling roads with enormous potholes or a strip of asphalt only wide enough to accommodate one car going in one direction—not “Fahrvergnügen.”  Plus there is the pain of cars breaking down and needed parts rarely being available. Thankfully the rental car only broke down once and island mechanics were able to improvise with what they had even though they didn’t have the part. Overall, I am glad to walk, take a taxi or sit on a bus.  Sure there is greater freedom with a car, but is it worth it?  After two days driving around the island, I’d say no!

Photos thanks to S.P.  on survey trip

Five years of English teaching means we know lots of people. It didn’t seem to matter where we went, or what kind of establishment we were in, even on the other side of the island—somebody there always knew us.  “Teacher!” We would hear it over our shoulder all the time, and turning around would be a student from years gone by.  They may have forgotten most of their English, or they may be eager to show how they can still use it, but they’re happy to see us! In Africa it is often about “who you know” and it certainly helps to know someone when navigating a new place. So we are excited to see medical work get going here, but English teaching still opens lots of relationships.

You can do a lot by just showing up.  We did the whole survey without making one official rendezvous.  We tried to call and set up some meetings.  We tried to go and come back at one office, but none of the official meeting plans seemed to work.  It was much more effective to just go and meet people and talk.  Could you imagine trying to tour a hospital in the States without an appointment?  Here, we tried to make an appointment. Failed.  Showed up anyway and were welcomed into every area.

There is so much opportunity. One thought struck me more than any other as we toured around the island.  We spent a good deal of time in a number of towns and villages.  We walked the streets and talked to people many people.  All the time the surveyors were asking themselves, “Where is the right place for a medical team?”  But I found myself looking around and thinking, “We could put a team here.” 

Exploring a town

We moved to the next town and I thought, “We could put a team here too.”  We drove past three large villages and the thought occurred to me, “You could spread a team through these villages.”  By the time the survey was done I had seen three or four strong places where teams could be formed.  Imagine, three or four more teams!  Imagine the impact! Imagine the possibilities!  We went looking for a place to put a medical team, but I saw opportunity after opportunity.  It was an “Open your eyes, the fields are ripe for the harvest” moment.  If only we had people to fill those teams and leaders to lead them.  If only this island could be filled with good people serving and loving islanders, not only in one place, but in four, five, six places.  Imagine the island filled with teams of people reaching out to help islanders. This place could be deeply effected.  
The harvest is plentiful. The opportunities are there.  If only more were willing to come.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Last week we asked you to pray for better relationships and people being more genuine and open in their communication with one another.  Although many problems still persist, we have seen at least one breakthrough in communication with brothers and sisters which is very encouraging.  We are hope that it is the start of something very good.  May it continue.  The survey trip went very well.  They were able to talk to many people and logistics went well.  (we are thankful that the rental car only broke down once!)  The language consultant had a rough trip getting here, but we are thankful that she has arrived and was able to get a good night’s sleep last night.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
The language consultant will be here for two weeks.  They hope to cover a lot of ground.  Pray that it goes well and for clear communication.  It’s Thanksgiving this week!  Pray that we would be able to share a blessed day with our team and bless others as we give thanks to God.  At the same time, there is a big local religious holiday this week and extending through the month.  Pray that even this could be used to open hearts up to a search for truth.  May we be sensitive to those who are searching.  One of our teammates is getting ready to leave on home assignment in mid-December.  Pray for her preparations this month. 

Being Genuine

Megan with good friend on big island

A number of years ago when we first came to Africa we were challenged to be genuine wherever we were and with whomever we were talking. That is to say that we don’t make ourselves to be a different person with different people, but to be always who we are. It could be easy when you are living abroad to portray yourself one way to people back home and portray yourself differently to the people you are living among. Forget whole groups, you can paint yourself in different lights as you move from an individual person to person. It becomes less about who you really are and who you think people want you to be. Whether in nuanced or truly deceitful ways, we see that the temptation exists for all of us not to be completely genuine. It is a temptation that strikes many: ourselves, colleagues and islanders.

The temptation to be less than genuine for islanders is very strong because culturally, lying is often not considered wrong if it gets you what you want. For example, we’ve heard islanders admit to lying about their age or background to get scholarships abroad.

Islanders don’t trust each other very much. They are very suspicious of each other’s motives and often assume the worst. We don’t want to be plagued by this same mistrust, but we cannot deny that we have to be careful with islanders and try to decipher their motives for coming to us. What do they want from us? They may be telling us what they think we want to hear in order to get what they want.

There is also the temptation for islanders to misrepresent the truth—not for selfish reasons, but in order to honor or please someone they respect or care about. Islanders may know what we are hoping for and so they give us the impression that our hope is happening to please us.  They don’t want to disappoint people. This is especially a problem with foreign investors or people who only come for short visits. We have seen islanders go to great lengths to deceive a foreign visitor with the idea that great things are happening on the islands when in fact nothing is really happening.

Hot Season coming, means fruit is in season!

The temptation is there for us and colleagues to do the same thing. Won’t supporters be more excited to invest if they think that big things are happening on the islands? Maybe we can just omit the struggles and failures and only tell the encouraging stories? Maybe we can say things in a vague way that, while not quite lying, gives people a different impression than reality? In our group on the islands we try to send our newsletters and updates to each other, so we can keep up-to-date with each other, but also to provide accountability, to make sure we are not being disingenuous with people.  It sometimes happens that someone will write a newsletter that sounds happy and upbeat when we know they’ve had a horrible month filled with struggles and disappointment. So we challenge each other. How can people truly support and encourage you if they don’t know the truth about what is going on?

There are also subtler temptations. It isn’t about lying exactly, but there can be a temptation to make light of things that are serious or make a big deal about things that are minor. Or romanticizing events or downplaying difficulties. This can be a real temptation with our blog. How do we write an interesting blog each week? Some weeks do we end up making a big deal about something that isn’t? Other times do we skip over something significant because it doesn’t sound good or we’re blinded to its significance? Sometimes there are concerns about confidentiality or general security that inspires us to be too vague or gloss over events. Or sometimes we are just worried about our audience misinterpreting things. We can’t give them all the details, so how do we shape their understanding?

For example this past month with the unrest on our island, there was a double temptation. First there was the temptation to describe events with a dire or dramatic flare because we want people to be concerned so that they are praying for the situation. But there is the second temptation to downplay the realities and leave out significant details because we don’t want family back home to get upset and demand our immediate evacuation. In this situation, we tried to stay honest, but we probably leaned towards omitting details so as not to overly alarm people.  But now that the danger is over, the temptation to dramatize the retelling returns.

This whole issue of authenticity and portraying oneself genuinely and honestly has actually been a big crisis for our greater group on the islands lately. There have been a few difficult situations where islanders and colleagues have apparently been giving false impressions to outsiders or to us. We hope that they have had good intentions and will be willing to come clean but we know coming clean isn’t easy. Especially for islanders in an honor and shame context, it is hard to confess and admit to deceiving people.

We just saw Ma Imani this week while we visited the big island. She was pretty worked up. “They haven’t called me for a long time. Then a visitor comes and they are calling to say we’re having a meeting. Why aren’t we always meeting? Why do we only meet when there is a foreign visitor?” We shared her frustrations and asked her what she thought should be done. She came to the conclusion that we needed to pray and that she didn’t want to be a party to deception.

Our family enjoying pool on big island

So we pray and try to ask ourselves in what ways are we not being authentic or completely open about who we are, what we do or what is happening. Feel free to push us and ask!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our friend has made it back to the islands. He missed one consultant checking but has made it back before the second round this coming week. We had three days on the big island this week both to connect with our leadership but also to have some vacation time. It was nice to relax a little after a stressful month. We were thankful to see Ma Imani and know that even though she is frustrated with others that she is doing well. She is very thankful for how God saw her through her surgery and we are thankful that it seems like she has been a good encouragement and challenge to others while she has been on the big island.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for the issues mentioned in the blog, especially for those positioned to give accountability to those who are not being honest and genuine. Pray for the potentially difficult conversations that may happen and that people would be willing to repent and grow in transparency. We are currently hosting and participating in a group doing a vision trip on the other side of our island with the idea of having another team start there. Pray for the next two days that they would make the right connections, see the right things and have unity and clarity about how to move forward.  On Sunday, a consultant comes to do two weeks of checking for the language project. Pray that the consultant would make it here safely and that everyone involved would be healthy and ready for a productive two weeks.

Our Island Grandma

Koko and our son (old photo)

We wanted to introduce you all to our island koko (the island word for grandmother). But first, you need to understand that the house where we rent is part of one plot of land that was split among six sisters. Our koko is the mother of those six sisters. She is originally from the old downtown, but after she had 6 daughters, her husband bought this plot of land. It is customary for parents to give each daughter a house and there just wasn’t enough room in the old town. When the koko and her husband bought this plot of land it was just a field among other fields for growing food, now it is the center of a busy neighborhood without a field in sight.

The koko’s daughters have done well. All have married and had kids. All studied off island where they went on to find jobs and settle down. Her daughters come to visit regularly, but the koko lives alone with a Malagasy woman that has been paid to stay with her. Her daughters’ homes all have renters or distant relatives living in them.

Often we see Koko coming to our back gate. She opens the latch and steps into our house. She always has a warm, calm smile. She greets us and pours out blessing on us with every visit. Often she will take her leave right away,  making her small, slow steps back to her house. Koko doesn’t remember well. She has good days and bad days. Sometimes she will come and greet us and then 15 minutes later, she will come back with the same greetings and claim that she hasn’t seen us at all that day. So sometimes she comes to say hello multiple times a day. We’ve made sure to tell the kids that they need to greet her with the same level of politeness and respect each time, even if they’ve already done it that day. She is very sweet and she loves our kids. Whenever we ask the standard greeting, “Are you well?” She will answer, “When I see you, I’m well,” with an affectionate smile.

Megan testing proverbs with Koko

It just so happens that our team is trying to collect some island proverbs. Our teammate had some that she wanted us to test with friends (to see if they were well-known, if they were said differently and if people understood the meanings). At first I didn’t know if Koko would be a good person to test with. Older people tend to know the old proverbs but depending on how lucid Koko was, I didn’t know how she would do. I told the team I’d try and that very afternoon Koko walked into our kitchen. After our normal greetings, I grabbed my phone to look at the list of proverbs. I started to read the proverbs to her slowly. Most of the time she took over and finished the proverb before I could and then launched into a long explanation of its meaning full of explanatory stories. At first I thought we’d just do a couple. But instead of taking her leave, she asked to sit down and we went through the whole list. Whenever she recognized the proverb her face lit up.

It’s sort of wonderful the way these proverbs connected us.  It gave us some common ground and a feeling of good will.  In between proverbs, she would smile at me and say, “You really want to learn the island language.” It didn’t seem to matter that I’ve only ever spoken the island language with her, learning proverbs (island wisdom) meant I was really learning. We got to the end of the list and Koko asked if there were any more.  She clearly could have kept going—enjoying every minute of it.  But when I said no, she returned to her regular conversation.  She spoke about her family and her daughters and where they were and what they were doing.  Very soon she was repeating information, telling me something she had only just told me. Shortly later, she said her routine leave-taking phrase, “I came to see you all, but now I’m going.” She smiled her normal contented, good-day smile and walked slowly out the back gate to her house. She’ll be back soon. : )

Our son and his lego monuments

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The language project consultant checking went very well.  Most everything cooperated and they made great progress.  We continue to have good conversations with neighbors and friends.  The group that Tom meets with continues and the time is usually fruitful. Pray for dreams and visions and light to shine.  Kids school and homeschool continues to go well.  We never want to take that for granted. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please continue to lift up the friend who was supposed to help with this language check who is still trying to get back to the islands.  Pray that he would be able to travel soon so as to be able to love and support his pregnant wife.  Although things are peaceful now, the situation is still very tenuous.  We hear reports of people being arrested and we even know of a few acquaintances who have fled the country.  Pray that peace and stability could be restored and for humble, servant leadership.  Everyone on our team (including us) is taking a mini-vacation this week.  We are all headed off to different islands to visit friends and find some time to relax.  Pray that the time, though short, could be rejuvenating, and that everyone’s travels would go smoothly.