Staying in Touch with Islanders

Tom on phone

This morning as I was working with our youngest on his handwriting, (Thankfully, our kids are not new to the world of homeschool.) suddenly I was getting a call. It was from the islands!  One of our island friends from the English Club wanted to video chat.  So for the next 10 minutes we talked in a mixture of broken English and the local island language, catching up on each other’s news.  There was nothing remarkable to report, but just the fact that we were having the interaction made me marvel at how things have changed!

When we first lived on the islands, once a week we spent an hour at a little internet cafe to send/receive our email and post our blog with one small picture.  It usually took the entire hour to complete those two tasks.  A lot has changed in the last ten years. Technology has moved fast.  Now the islands has a 4.5G network, and though it is expensive, the connection is relatively strong making global communication a real possibility.

I can remember the first time we came back to the States after over two years on the islands (2011).  Not many islanders had smartphones (and we didn’t either!) and calling was so prohibitively expensive that it was almost a given that no one would call or expect us to call them in return.  I do remember one well-off friend spending the money to call us.  The phone call was short and consisted mostly of, “I’m fine. How are you?” before they hung up.  Not very satisfying. Ultimately we had to accept that being off-island meant not being in contact with our island friends.

Our second time coming back (2016), we were forced to join the smart phone world.  (The islands had not made the shift yet, but in the States it was already virtually impossible to buy a non-smart phone, unless you wanted a “senior phone” with giant buttons.)  A few of our more tech-savvy island friends were excited to send us emails or messages, usually just a single line or two saying hello. But again, most of our island friends were not contactable.

Brothers hang out with appropriate distance

These days most islanders in our city have a smartphone or have access to one via someone in their family.  Now, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger are very popular and widely used across the islands. So it means we get a lot more messages.  Most of them are just checking in on us.  “Are you okay?”  Many of them are afraid for us.  They hear about the coronavirus outbreak in the US and worry that we are in danger.  So we get a lot of good advice: “Stay inside.” “Don’t leave your house.” “Wash your hands.”  We thank them and tell them to do the same.

Money is still a limiting factor for keeping in touch.  We have many island friends who we would love to hear from, but our messages go unseen and unanswered, usually due to a lack of funds.  When a typical islander gets paid the equivalent of $5 a day, spending 20% of it on internet data is quite extravagant.  I’m pretty sure my video chat this morning was my friend taking advantage of a rich neighbor or relative’s wifi.  So while the possibility of communication is now there, with many of our island friends the separation remains. 

Thankfully we have teammates too.  When I couldn’t get in touch with my good island friend, I was still able to ask a teammate to check in on him.  For all the technology sometimes you still need someone there (in person) to make contact. Ultimately we know that there is only so much connection we can have from this great a distance. Islanders don’t have deep conversations over the phone, so anything beyond the superficial will have to wait until we are back there and can see people face to face.  Because even technology (as great as it is these days) has its limits.

Ready to hunt for some eggs

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We thank God for the wonderful reminders this past week and weekend of Easter for His unfailing love, how He meets us in our suffering, how His sacrifice covers all, and His new life provides us hope and redemption. We are thankful for our continued health and the ability to be in touch with loved ones over the holiday weekend. We know that on the islands small groups gathered together for the holiday weekend. Chat groups have also been formed so that the island brothers and sisters can encourage one another. We were able to have good meetings with a couple small groups this past week, sharing about what is happening on the islands. The technology is wonderful. The app is ready and out there ! The one that will make the first parts of the Word available to Clove Islanders in their own language. Pray that it would get lots of use!



PRAYERS REQUESTED
Continue to pray for the islands—they continue to say there are zero cases of COVID but no testing is being done and this past week the head religious leader for the entire country died from pulmonary complications with no mention of COVID among the island press. The funeral had all the islands’ head officials together (not practicing social distancing) for the funeral, though they did try to limit the number of mourners. We continue to pray. Our kids will do their standardized testing requirements this week. Usually we would have someone else proctor them, so pray that even with their mom and dad administering them that they’d be able to keep focused and get them done. Tom’s seeker group is supposed to be making contact this week with the island brother with whom Tom connected them. Pray for that growing relationship.