Sorting through the Past

Dumpster arrives

This past week we finished the major overhaul of Megan’s parents’ garage. It’s a spacious garage with lots of overhead storage space, so that means that forty years of storing has passed without them really having to sort through and get rid of stuff. Boxes of memories, things that could be useful, things that were once useful and randomness.

Living on the islands we don’t own our own houses, so every 3-4 years we go through our stuff when we are heading to the US for a few months. Plus islanders aren’t timid about asking for useful stuff if they think you aren’t using it. As we were leaving this time, we had lots of requests for stuff. Theoretically we are just lending things, but on the islands everyone knows that when you lend something you may never get it back. So it means that we don’t accumulate as much, nor do we have the ample space to store stuff for years and years. Instead we see neighbor kids wearing our kids’ old clothes, semi-broken appliances being put to good use and our old well-loved toys in the homes of our friends.

Lite-Brite fun!

So in our island life, we don’t have the kind of discoveries of things like we’ve had this week. Items coming out of boxes that haven’t seen the light of day for decades. Old toys from the 80’s like Voltron, Transformers, Lite-Brite, Cabbage Patch Kids, Rainbow Bright and Strawberry Shortcake. Leftovers from previous generations like an old army phone from World War II, wigs from a great-aunt, the typewriter from grandma and the anagrammed luggage from grandpa. Not to mention the yearbooks and old photos galore. Then there were the unpleasant surprises like the tent that smelled like something died inside it years ago or treasured mementos that were rotting and disintegrating.

Old wigs!

Then the big questions— what to keep, what to throw away and what would be of value to someone else? We’ve put things on the side of the road and seen items scooped up, we made donation runs to Goodwill, but we also filled a small dumpster with throw-away items. Some decisions were easy, others were hard. In some ways, the fact that things had already been saved for 30-40 years made it harder sometimes. I may not remember a piece of art or writing assignment, but the fact that it was lovingly stored for so long makes us feel a little heartless to just throw it away now. How much weight should sentimental value have and how do we limit how much we keep for the sake of sentimentality?

I wonder how sentimental islanders would be in a similar situation. They don’t buy and sell homes so they have lived in the same locations for generations. They don’t tend to have photos so they value and treasure those greatly. We’ve even seen them faun over photos of people they don’t even know. Hence all the requests by strangers to take our photo and even people asking to take and keep photos of our extended family (people who have never even come to the islands).  So yes, they do get strangely sentimental about photos. But for other items, they usually prefer new to old. They want to display their wealth by having stuff with that shiny, just-bought look. Plus there is the reality that most products imported to the islands are of such low-quality that nothing lasts. Toys rarely make it a single week, let alone long-enough to be passed to another sibling or the next generation. Same with imported clothes, accessories and electronics. Also the climate isn’t kind. The humidity and sea air mean that mildew and rust usually ruin stored items eventually.  Maybe they just don’t have much to get sentimental about.

Getting full!

When we go back to the islands, we’ll have to ask around and see if our island friends have anything left from previous generations. My thought is that having lots of old things won’t be very common, so whatever they do have would definitely hold a sentimental value. Here in the US, we find ourselves with so much old stuff, we just can’t be too sentimental, unless we want to drown ourselves and the proceeding generations with boxes and boxes of stuff, so every once and awhile we have these purges. We sort through the past, we laugh and remember, we share old memories and we let go of a lot. The process may be hard and tiring at times, but ultimately it feels good. We feel less burdened with stuff and the past has been remembered…until another 30+ years?


PRAYERS ANSWERED
We’ve been enjoying some days off with Megan’s parents and brother. It has been nice to give the kids some fun experiences aside from staying-at-home fun! Our teammates have been working hard on the app to make the story of the flood accessible to islanders in their own language— it’s almost ready and looking good!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
A colleague on the islands had been able to reserve a ticket to leave the islands in early August but her flight was canceled and it was confirmed that international flights to/from the islands have not opened yet. It also may be necessary for travelers to get tested for COVID before traveling (something that may be difficult from the islands). Continue to pray for all those that are waiting to travel, for patience and wisdom in making plans. Our teammates on Clove Island are considering what it would look like to reopen our office and restart English classes— pray for wisdom about how to do that well and safely. Pray for an island sister who is having trouble with her colleagues talking bad about her to her boss— pray that she can respond with love and truth.

Unforeseen Blessings

Quality family time- homemade pizza

It is easy to get discouraged these days.  COVID-19 has made 2020 feel like the year that was cancelled.  Some of us have experienced great sorrow and grief, sickness and fear, and others have not.  But everyone has experienced loss.  Schools cancelled, graduations cancelled, vacations cancelled, celebrations of all kinds curtailed or cancelled—everyone has experienced loss.  It has been a strange time for us to come back to the States, but like so many difficult times we can choose to rejoice, we can choose thankfulness, we can look for the blessings. 

Normally our time in America is busy, involving lots of travel, lots of visits, lots of face to face time with many, many people.  Clearly COVID has done a number on all those plans. Originally, we had planned to be on the road for more or less two months with some short visits with family interspersed.  We had also hoped to spend some quality time (like 3 weeks) in a couple of places where we could be available for unplanned gatherings at coffee shops, the church, playgrounds, and parks.  All of this has been curtailed.

As many of you know when COVID first hit, everyone hunkered down, and so did we.  We didn’t leave Massachusetts and Tom’s parent’s house for almost 2 months—the same amount of time we had planned to be traveling.  When we finally came to California to be with Megan’s family, it was more or less the same— staying at our parents house and “meeting” with people online. As society has learned more about the virus and people have grown more “comfortable” with social distancing, we’ve all come to realize that we can still visit each other—outdoors, with masks, at distance, etc.  So some visits have happened, but we can count all of them on our fingers. So not nearly as many as we would normally have.  Just like the rest of you, we’ve learned to use zoom and to connect with people in virtual ways in lieu of face to face.

Mom & Son date

But with all of the challenges of this time, we feel that we must acknowledge the unforeseen blessings.  There have actually been many for us.  To begin with, shelter in place has greatly changed the tenor of our visits.  Instead of short visits with lots of people we have had long visits with a few people, and it is a blessing.  As much as we regret our inability to see so many face to face and share with them the things we have learned from living on the islands, it has been a blessing to go deeper with a few.  It has been a blessing to our families who have gotten to really know their grandchildren—not just the hyped up, vacation version, but the bored, silly, grumpy, happy, content, lazy, just hanging-out versions too.  The same goes for our kids getting to know their grandparents.  COVID has taken away a lot of celebration and outings to restaurants, museums, amusement parks, mini-golf courses, movie theaters, etc.  But in stripping all those things away, it has meant for quality time with those family members.  Our kids have learned that America is not all kids’ meals and fun outings (a.k.a. land of constant vacation)—but a place where normal life happens, and for that we are also thankful.  It has been a blessing to be with our families and love them even through the “you’re driving me nuts” stages of communal living and to have those deep connections that extended time together fosters.

Hike

We are also thankful for the chance to have community beyond our family too. So we’re thankful for video-gathering apps like zoom that have made that possible.  Because of zoom there are certain groups that we have had a chance to join that would never have been possible in our normal visits to the US.  One of those groups has been a small group on the North Shore of Boston. If COVID had not happened, most likely we would have visited this small group a few times.  One of those times would have been devoted to sharing about the islands.  The other would have been a chance to say goodbye before we headed back to the islands.  But because COVID caused this beautiful community to go online,  we were able to join them early on. We shared about the islands, and then kept attending because we could.  It didn’t matter that we were hours away (and now thousands of miles away). Zoom meant we could join the group from wherever we were.  They have accepted us and gotten to know us and we have gotten to know them.  As strange as it is, even though we have never met many of them in person, they have become community to us and we’ve gone much deeper with this small group than we have with a group in the US for a long time.  Similar opportunities have also arisen for Tom to join a men’s group and for the kids to join online youth groups.  We realize that the online nature of these groups is unique and hopefully temporary, but without the current circumstances we probably wouldn’t have been as integrated into community as we have been.  It has been an unforeseen blessing for us.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” says the Sage.  We thought this was going to be a time for visiting, traveling and meeting new people.  Instead the Lord has given us this time to settle, stay and go deeper.  So we accept this time for what it is and remember the commands to rejoice and be thankful.

PRAYERS ANSWERED

Our teammates (who had COVID symptoms) are feeling better after about two weeks of being sick. Thanks for praying. We continue to be thankful for our health and the blessing of friends and family. Tom’s long online conversation/debate with our island friend has ended for now— pray that our friend would continue to seek the truth. We continue to be thankful that the islands don’t seem to have been hard hit by COVID. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
We only have a few weeks left in CA, pray that our remaining time here goes well, especially as Megan’s dad has the next couple weeks off and we have the chance to have some fun together. Continue to pray for our colleagues that have been waiting to travel, some waiting to  leave the islands, others waiting to return. So many plans for the coming year have fallen through, we are left wondering if we should start fresh and consider new directions for our work as team leaders on Clove Island. Not sure what that would mean, but pray with us that we would not cling too tightly to our old plans but be open to new ones. Continue to pray for new workers for the islanders— both from the West and from mainland Africa.

Travel Plans in the Days of COVID

At least we can still travel by bike!

“Due to the huge amount of calls at this time, none of our staff is available to speak to you.  Please call again later.  Goodbye.”  A click, and then a dial tone, and our attempt to secure plane tickets is thwarted again.

This is not a great time for travel.  Stay at home orders are everywhere.  COVID-19 is spiking in nearly every state of the US and we’re seeing new spikes in parts of Africa and India. One travel website has a helpful map of travel restrictions by country, but it is equally disheartening. Most of the world is closed and the few countries that remain open leave the rest of the world wondering if they do so out of necessity, ignorance or hope.

In the midst of this we hold onto hope that things will open up eventually. When we came to the States (just as COVID was hitting) we had roundtrip tickets. So we still have our return plane tickets back to the islands—or we sort of do.  Last week we got an email from SwissAir letting us know that there had been some changes to our flight schedule and asking us to click if we would agree to them.  We scrolled down to check the change.  Sure enough, our flight to Zurich had changed by a day—but our flight to Africa…it was gone!  No flight at all.  We let SwissAir know that we could not agree to this flight change, but that was as far as we got.  Swiss Air simply doesn’t have flights to Africa at this time.

Biking destination- ice cream!

Later that week we spoke to our teammates on the islands.  The islands are one of many countries that have closed their borders with only hints and rumors of when they may plan to open them again.  Added to this are the rumblings that the country could stay closed for reasons other than COVID.  Closed borders mean greater control of the country, and word on the street is that the Islands’ president is going to keep the borders shut for as long as he feels it is useful.  So even if we were able to get that illusive flight to Kenya, would we be stuck there?  Unable to connect to the islands? 

So it is our hope to return to the Islands.  It is our hope to do so in September.  It is our hope to reunite with our teammates and welcome new teammates to our team with the coming of 2021.  And yet, we see that we must hold onto our plans loosely, for COVID has changed everything.  It is our hope to travel back to the East Coast next month, but we are finding difficulties there too. Phone lines are busy, flights are cancelled, and States are changing their recommendations almost daily.

All of this leaves us in travel limbo.  It is normal for us to plan and make plans.  It is also normal enough for those plans to change—by a day or week.  But this is a new level of uncertainty because it’s coming from all sides.  How do we plan for the unknown?  Many of you can relate.  We have friends who are pursuing new jobs, buying a new home, planning weddings or switching schools, but with so much uncertainty hanging over them. We’re all in this unknown together. So we make tentative plans, we hold things loosely, we pray, we hope.

Ready for a streamed gathering on Sunday

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our son is feeling all better now— thank you for your prayers. We got to have a distanced visit with an old friend from college and got to meet his wife and children for the first time— we are thankful for the connections we are able to make in spite of the pandemic. We have been able to help sort and organize Megan’s parents’ garage (they’ve lived in the same house for 40 years)— it is nice to have projects and to feel helpful. There have been several encouraging stories from the islands about islanders seeking, reading on their own and asking good questions during the lockdown.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our colleagues on the islands as they follow-up with these islanders that are seeking truth. Two of our teammates who are still back on Clove Island have been sick for the past week (possibly with COVID). They are monitoring their condition closely, please pray for full and quick recoveries. We found out one of our longtime island neighbors who we call Ma Riziki has a cough— pray for her healing. Pray for us as we make plans- especially where they impact others. Tom has been working on some writing projects- pray for wisdom about what to do with them once he’s finished.

Testing Negative

Hope you had a fun 4th of July!

It started last weekend when we noticed that our son had a rash all over his stomach and back. It wasn’t itchy. He didn’t have a fever or any other symptoms, other than possibly a little headache. We had just had our first distanced visits with other families since coming in CA and were outside all day playing, so we figured he was reacting to something and maybe dehydrated. 

The following days the rash got worse and so did his headache. His appetite decreased. Then on Tuesday morning he woke up with a high fever. Now the symptoms of rash and fever are present in a number of non-COVID illnesses, but in the middle of this pandemic we had to consider COVID as a possibility, which pushed us to action. We isolated our son to his room (moving our other son to live with our daughter) and decided only one person would enter the sick room being careful to disinfect afterwards. We got our sick son comfortable with medicine and some books. We dutifully notified the families we had seen over the weekend about our son’s fever.

We weren’t really worried about it actually being COVID. While a possibility, the likelihood was very low. But as long as it was a possibility we had to react appropriately for the sake of our friends, family, and parents. We knew isolating our son was going to be difficult but necessary in our multi-generational household (especially with Megan’s dad being a working doctor).

Water Balloon Fun for the Fourth

So how to rule out COVID? All the drive-by testing places that were nearby could take up to a week to give back results. Working in Megan’s dad’s hospital network, we could get results quickly but at first glance it looked like you had to get an in-house doctor’s referral. 

We waited on hold for a long time on the network’s COVID line (remember we’re in the middle of an upsurge) to be told that the first tele-visit we could have to get a testing referral would be in two days! Fast forward through a couple more times waiting on hold and we were told that we could go to the testing site without an appointment and with just a hard-copy outside referral and they would test us (a fact they don’t advertise). But we could have him tested that day, if we could get a doctor’s referral. So we ended up getting a virtual appointment with the pediatrician all the way back in the Boston area whom we had just seen. She was able to see us within hours!

By the time we got the emailed referral from the Boston-area doctor and bundled up our sick son into the car, it was the afternoon. The testing site didn’t know what to do with us at first- not only did we have an outside referral but from over 3,000 miles away! But eventually we got the test (our son didn’t appreciate the swab up the nose much).

Getting to hug again!!

Next there was the wait for the results— up to two business days. We hoped it would be less. Two days of keeping our son at 6 ft away while he started to feel better and wanted to leave his room, play, interact with everyone, was hard! Sometimes it felt like he was being punished for having gotten sick.

We were all expecting a negative result and so part of us felt like the cautiousness was going overboard, but it wasn’t just about us. It was for others. If it did end up being COVID, we needed to be able to say that we had acted responsibly. We had to consider not only our comfort level, not only the comfort level of our household, but the greater community.

This pandemic has really highlighted the need to think as a group, the need to put others’ needs and comfort levels above our own, even if that means sacrificing our own freedoms. There are lots of situations where we may be called to place our freedoms aside for the sake of someone else- just like Paul talks about in 1 Cor 8. On the islands that means we lay aside the freedom to dress as we might want or to eat/drink what we enjoy. In the US it has been all about following guidelines for social distancing and wearing masks. For our son it meant laying aside the freedom to touch things outside his room or give anyone hugs. We shouldn’t deny that these are indeed sacrifices and sometimes difficult, but the needs of others and the health of the community make it worth it.

About thirty-six hours after my son’s swab test, we got the test results— NEGATIVE! The first thing we did was give lots of hugs.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are very thankful that our son is feeling almost completely better (still some tummy troubles) and was negative for COVID. We are thankful that Megan’s brother made it safely from southern California and has joined the household. We are thankful that from all reports COVID hasn’t been hitting the islands as hard as feared— what an answer to prayer! Our colleagues’ meeting with expats on the French Island went well. An island sister on the small island gathered other island sisters together at her own initiative and expense—a very encouraging development. We’ve heard that Ma Imani continues to share openly and that a children’s group she is helping with is reaching out to lots of island children.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Today is independence day on the islands— we continue to hear rumblings of instability and indications that the president has been using the health crisis to shore up his power. Continue to pray for freedom from injustice and corruption on the islands. A colleague couple on the small island has had to make the hard decision to have their first baby on the islands. They had been hoping to go to one of their home countries but flights haven’t opened up and she is too far along now. Pray for a safe and health delivery, with no complications. Pray for peace for them and for their families off-island who are worried for them and sad to miss this event. Pray for us as we continue to talk and pray with one woman who has been interested in our team— pray that it would be clear to all of us whether we are a good fit for each other.  Pray for our son’s full healing— not sure what he had but he was pretty sick for a few days and his tummy hasn’t settled yet.  Pray for us as we start looking at our timeline— our flights back to Africa were canceled and we are now having to reconsider our original dates and plans. Pray that we would have wisdom about what decisions to make now and what to hold off on.