What Makes You Healthy

Nanasi & Megan (a few months ago)

I always know I’m in for a lot of listening practice when Nanasi comes to visit. She loves to talk about her problems and share stories, to the point that it is sometimes hard to get a word in. Sometimes when I do get a word in, I feel like she is just smiling and nodding at the things I say rather than really listening. She likes to pretend that we believe the same things, so rather than recognize our differences she will affirm my beliefs (as if they are hers too) even when I know she doesn’t believe them and even if she has just gotten done saying the exact opposite. It is her way of shutting down a conversation or debate that she doesn’t want to have.

This week was a typical exchange. Any conversation with Nanasi usually includes her cataloguing her health complaints. She is overweight (like many older women here) and has lots of back problems. She’ll tell me all about her pain and what actions aggravate it.

Kids & Megan exercise

This time she told me what the solution is… “I need a man,” she told me.
At first I wasn’t sure the connotations of that phrase, but soon she made it clear in both suggestive and explicit terms what she meant. She is twice-divorced but in order to really be healthy she would need to start having “married relations” again.  Apparently it has all sorts of medical benefits—including relieving back pain.  To prove the veracity of this claim she told me a story about a widow who had all sorts of health problems but who resisted getting remarried. She suffered and suffered—refusing to get remarried because men were not worth the trouble.  One day she finally gave in, found herself a man and voila, healthy! All her aches and pains were gone! 

I didn’t really know how to respond to this story.  I can say with certitude that a desire to improve your health is not a strong enough reason for marriage, but  I focused on reminding her that God is bigger than any health problem and a better healer than any man. (Smiling agreement, nodding, “amen, amen, very true”—not listening.)

Later the conversation took a turn. Nanasi looked at me with a scowl and asked, “What’s happening to you? You’re losing weight.” It was obvious that she didn’t approve.
“When you came back from America [in 2017] you were looking fat, but now look at you,” she sighed, so disappointed in my slimming, a deep scowl still in place. 

Nanasi looked at me expectantly waiting for an explanation for my weight loss. I talked about the fact that in the US everyone cooked for us and took us out to eat, so we ate a lot. This she understood, islanders always feed visiting family well. But then I also admitted that I had been exercising more for the past year and that exercising was helping me get strong and healthy. The disapproving scowl returned, “That is why I don’t like exercise!” she said with some real heat and conviction, “It makes you lose weight!”

Rainy season begins- kids play on wet porch

For once Nanasi was willing to disagree with me! Neither of us convinced the other of the competing merits of weight gain versus weight loss, (nor on methods for reducing back pain).  It was a funny coincidence that Tom and I had just been looking at photos from 2017 that day. We were lamenting the weight that we had put on during our months in the US and hoping that we could avoid the customary US weight gain on our visit this coming year.  We’ll see how it goes…it will be hard to say no to ice cream. 

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The election day passed without incident. We don’t think many people actually voted as no opposition candidates were running.  Our teammate arrived back safely today to Clove Island. We’re excited to have her back. Tom had a good time of study with his men’s group— they hit on something that resonated with the men and challenged them to change their behavior. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
This is the second week of long-distance consulting for the translation project— pray for stamina, for good internet connection, and productive and clear communication. Megan is going to be participating in a highly-recommended online workshop. The workshop will be live-video conferencing with people in Africa, Europe and America— pray that the internet connection from the islands is fast enough for Megan to participate fully. Since it is connecting people from so many countries it will actually be nighttime for us— pray that Megan can stay awake and that our kids will be okay putting themselves to bed (Tom teaches classes most nights). There has been lots of sickness on the islands right now and it has been effecting our family and many of our friends— pray for healing and good health. Pray for our teammate as she transitions back to island life and reconnects with her island friends. Tom is still working on having the proverb calendars printed for the islands— it has been a long and frustrating process with the local printers. Pray they get printed this week and that they would be a blessing.