The New Guy

Island rainbow

Imagine you’re helping out with a youth group and a new kid shows up.  He says he’s just moved to town from another place and shares his beliefs with you openly.  What would you do with him?  Most likely, you’d be rejoicing, inviting him to every event possible, and hoping that he will be a new positive influence and encouragement to the group.  Now what if it turns out that he’s not what he says he is and that actually he is a difficult kid who needs a lot of love and mentoring.  What would you do then?  Most likely you’d be thankful for his interest, invite him to every event possible, and hope that the kids in the group would be a positive influence and encouragement to him.

At this point you might be saying, “So what?”  What’s the point.  But this hypothetical episode reveals a situation of freedom and trust that is not present in other places.  Here on Clove Island, we must be more circumspect.  What is their motivation? Can this person be trusted?

Case in point:  A few months ago we heard through the grapevine that a guy who was living on one of the other islands had moved over to our island.  Our friends over there gave us his number and they gave him our number. They gave a good report of him.  A few weeks later, we talked on the phone once and then we didn’t hear from him again.

Unfortunately this is all too common.  It is difficult to know what motivates someone’s heart, why did they initially befriend a foreign worker.  Do they care about money, learning English, networking with foreigners, gaining wisdom, gaining job opportunities?  Any of these and more could be a reason for befriending us.  And we have learned from long experience now that friendships do not transfer easily.  We also find that islanders may present themselves differently in different places.  They may live a very different lifestyle in a place where they are known as a student versus the place where they are known as the first son of So-and-So. Maybe this guy was a friend of our friend over there, but things may be very different here.  So when he didn’t get in contact again, we thought, “Oh well, I guess nothing is going to come of that connection.”

Preparing for breaking-the-fast feast

But then, after not hearing from him and giving up on him, we suddenly got a call from this guy.  And he wanted to come by and visit.  So just two weeks ago I came to meet Yakub.  So we sat and talked, I liked what I heard.  He told me some of his story—about his life, and his work.  He seemed unassuming and not interested in getting things from me.  He did seem to know a lot of foreigners—which made me wonder.  But at the same time, he didn’t talk about the things they did for him or anything along those lines.  All in all, he seemed like the real deal.  So with prayer and trepidation I invited him to some events.  This is no small thing.  We do these things cautiously and carefully for the good of all involved.  It may seem strange, but it is important in our situation.  Our group is small and one bad apple can ruin the whole bunch. Not just with a bad attitude but with a bad report.  So, in a sense we need to play the role of bouncers even as we play the role of bridges.  The funny thing is, Islanders can smell a rat a lot faster than we can.  We do our best to introduce slowly, but we often see quickly whether it was a good idea or not.  This gets to another important factor—just how inadequate we are to do this job.  Despite our many years of living here, we still lack the understanding of cultural nuance to see things as islanders do.  We simply need wisdom and discernment beyond our own capacity.  Another reason why we pray about these things and hope that we don’t make decisions in our own strength.

The good news is that Yakub seems like the real deal.  He was warmly welcomed by the group.  In fact, one of our brothers is full of joy because Yakub lives near to him.  This brother has been asking for a long time to have another brother nearby for mutual encouragement and growth. He was practically beaming as he talked about how God had answered his prayer by bringing Yakub.  And so we look cautiously and optimistically to the future.  It’s not an easy thing to be both bridge and bouncer, but then again, it’s a problem we’d love to have a lot more often!

Mid-feast

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had our big breaking the fast meal on Saturday evening. We are very thankful for all the help received from an island sister. There were 21 adults and 17 children! It went well and we had a time of prayer and sharing together afterwards. We are thankful that Yakub has connected well with other islanders here. We are thankful that Elewa’s husband is doing much better. He is out of bed and in much less pain. He came to the feast on Saturday and thanked and blessed us all as “true friends”.  We’re thankful for our teammate and former teammate who both had birthdays this past week. We are blessed with many great co-workers on the islands. 



PRAYERS REQUESTED
Our short-termer was supposed to arrive on Saturday but he still hasn’t made it! Once he got to Africa, the airlines started changing flight times and he missed his connection to Clove Island. We’re thankful to some fellow workers who have been able to take him in, but please pray for him that he would remain in good spirits and arrive well on Tuesday. The biggest holiday of the year will most likely be on Wednesday (though possibly Thursday). It is a day of greeting and blessing all your friends and family (and kids are given candy). Pray that we can use this day to shine light and blessing as we interact with all our friends and connections. The month of fasting was a great month for islanders on our island praying and gathering together. Pray that it would continue! Megan hasn’t been feeling well for the past few days— pray for healing.