Risk Assessment

First African friend- fed Tom lots of questionable food!

 When we first moved to Africa, we lived in a remote village.  The people there were extremely poor and most were uneducated.  Basic hygiene was not a known quantity for many villagers.  Washing hands, safe food preparation, even clean water were things they did not think about.  Their daily reality did not really include things like germs.  But in our home we knew about them and we took proper precautions.  We filtered our water, washed our dishes and our hands, and fully cooked our food.  

We sought to protect ourselves from known risks, but at the same time, there were many factors we could not control.  We could not really control the freshness of the meat we were buying at the market and how many thousands of flies had already landed on it before we bought it.  We could not control the insecticides people may or may not have been using to produce their vegetables.  We had limited control of food preservation since we had no refrigeration.  And we certainly couldn’t control the situation when we were invited to a neighbor’s home for a meal.  In those situations we were stuck accepting food fraught with risks and we needed to learn to make risk assessments:

- If I drink that cloudy water, I might get sick.  If I don’t drink it, I might offend my host, but I might not.  Maybe I could explain something to them…
- If I refuse to eat the food they are serving me I will surely set this relationship back.

Looking back on the past ten years in Africa, we start to realize that we have learned to make these risk assessments almost constantly:

• That plane looks like it’s about 90 years old, but if I refuse to get on it I will never make it to my destination.
• This taxi doesn’t have any seatbelts, but I’ve been waiting twenty minutes for a taxi already
• A boat trip would be fun, but they don’t have any life vests.
• Sending our kids to the local school is good, but they practice corporal punishment.
• This cut is serious and should probably get stitches, but I don’t trust anyone at the local clinic to do a good job.
• Our teammate has been sick for over  two weeks.  Should we wait it out longer or put her on a plane to send her to a place with better medical care?
• There is political tension and soldiers on the streets.  Do we evacuate the country or hold out in our homes?

Getting out with masks!

The list could go on and on.  And in case you think there are easy answers to any of the above, there are not.  Each answer has depended on the people involved and the situation.  For example,  even something as simple as a boat trip involves many factors.  Is the boat staying near the coast or going out to sea?  Do the individuals on board know how to swim or not?  Are they strong swimmers or weak swimmers? In Africa we are often forced to assess risks. Just making the decision to go and live and raise our children in Africa was a risk assessment and we have three guiding principles to help us weigh and manage risks.

First, every person and situation is different. We can’t fall into the trap of assuming that because one person made a decision that everyone else should do the same.  On the islands, we live there year-round and one of our main purposes is building relationships with islanders. So I might risk eating questionable food and getting sick for the sake of a relationship.  But if a doctor came out to do surgeries for a week. I wouldn’t want her risking her ability to do surgeries for the sake of a meal. Families often make different decisions than singles. It can be easy for the risk-takers to look down on those that are more cautious as not being adventurous enough and it can be easy for the cautious to look down on risk-takers as foolhardy, but we have to resist the temptation to judge and recognize that situations and personalities are different.

Second, reduce risks when we can. Some decisions are easy and don’t cost us anything more than a little time or effort. These are no brainers. We don’t take needless risks. On the islands, if we see a big angry crowd, we turn around and go the other way.  Why?  It’s a simple thing to do to reduce risk.

Third, live for others.  It shouldn’t be just about our wants and desires, our own comfort or safety. Sometimes living for others means that we value a relationship or the work of the Kingdom over our own safety. Sometimes living for others means we take more risks, but sometimes living for others means we are more cautious. Sometimes we are more careful because we are setting an example for others who can’t take the same risks. Sometimes our actions effect others and put them at risk, so we have to let them help make the decision for us. On the islands, we work as a team and so we often have to decide as a team (with our varying levels of cautiousness) what risks to take.

Since the start of COVID, we have seen everyone from government officials to schools to churches to families and individuals doing this same kind of risk assessment.  It has not been easy and people have made very different decisions.  Some have felt the need to play it incredibly safe, going beyond the recommended guidelines.  Others seem to not even acknowledge that there are risks and seem determined to go about life as normal.  

But we have seen some beautiful examples of people living for others in this pandemic—those that have put their lives in danger for the sake of helping and serving others. We applaud these sacrificial risk takers. There are those who have sacrificed their desires and comfort to live for others by following guidelines and playing it safe, realizing that it isn’t so much about our health but the health of others in our household and community.

Our birthday boy!

Constantly assessing risks is draining. We know when we’ve been in crisis-mode on the islands, it is always such a relief once the crisis is over and the risk-levels stabilize. So we look forward to this global crisis passing. Let us not give up hope, but press on and do the best that we can with the risks.  

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our teammate made it safely to the US- thanks for praying. She will do the required self-quarantine and then join her sister’s household. We were able to call and check-in with our remaining teammates on Clove Island. We are encouraged by how they are weathering these strange times and we are also encouraged to hear how God has opened opportunities for them to share with islanders. One teammate has gotten to study with a new island sister (who has been very bold in her own sharing) and her family. Our youngest turned 8! We’re so thankful for him and all the ways he makes us smile!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
One of our teammates has had a chance to go deeper with an island friend. She confided in our teammate that she is pregnant but the father is denying the baby is his and they are not married. Pray for our teammate as she walks with this new friend during this hard time. One of our colleagues that has been waiting to get off the islands is booked on the first commercial flights reopening on Aug 19th, but she has to get a COVID test to fly. Pray that she would be able to find a way to get the test and that the flight would run. Keep praying for our pregnant colleague that is due to give birth on the small island on the 20th— pray for a smooth and easy birth with no complications.  We are headed back to the East Coast this week via car.  Pray that our road trip would go smoothly and safety both on the road and from COVID.