The Sunny Side?

Most people around the world have been pretty down on the year 2020. 2020- the year of COVID, the year that wasn’t, the canceled year,  for many the year of loss, isolation and disappointment. 

Peeling potatoes for Thanksgiving

We’ve shared in our frustrations with this past year, but then comes Thanksgiving! While some may have reasons to complain because their holiday plans were upset this year, in the spirit of Thanksgiving we are called upon to rejoice. 

So on Friday morning as we prepared a Thanksgiving meal (we’re sure it was still Thursday somewhere!), we set our screen saver to all pictures from 2020 and remembered together the sunny side of this year. 

Chicken (not turkey) ready to be prepped

We really had a pretty amazing year, especially considering the circumstances. People ask how our time in the US was and we usually say “strange”. Strange because it wasn’t what we had expected or even hoped for when we planned our time in the US. Strange because COVID restrictions and stay-at-home orders made for weird and new dynamics.  But we look at the photos and can’t help but be overwhelmed by all the cool experiences we were still able to have, the family we were still able to see and the travels we still managed to do safely in the midst of a pandemic. Now the photos never show us what we had hoped to do instead, or the people we didn’t get to see, it only shows us what happened and everyone we did see. Just the shift of focus to what we actually accomplished and skipping the disappointments, made it so easy to rejoice over 2020.  It was a cool year. 

It was a year where

- we welcomed a new teammate

- we watched our kids grow and mature

- we got to travel to the US for over six months

- we got to spend significant time with all our immediate family

- we got to take a road-trip across the US

- we got to go to some national parks

- we got to see some extended family

- we got to eat some new foods

- we ate good ice cream on multiple occasions

- we went on lots of outings, picnics and bike rides as a family

- we saw new islanders make life changing decisions

- we saw old island friends step into new leadership, encouraging and mentoring others

- we had fun adventures on all our kids’ birthdays

- we had close encounters with lots of animals (domestic and wild)

- we saw a lot of friends that we haven’t seen in years

Our Thanksgiving feast

We read that list and it looks like a good year! Sure, it doesn’t talk about the masks and distancing, all the interactions limited to Zoom calls, or any other frustrations, but that’s not the point. The point is remembering the good and being thankful. Something we definitely find ourselves needing to be reminded of and something that is good for our soul. So let us rejoice, let us look back on this year with Thanksgiving. 2020- a year of lots of fun and blessings! 

PRAYERS ANSWERED

We are thankful for 2020. We are thankful for a good Thanksgiving with our teammates enjoying each other and yummy food, and for the chance to video chat with family back in the US. We rejoice in Tom’s opportunity to share extensively with a new islander who showed up at our house asking deep questions. This young man also returned to go with Tom to study with the group of men that Tom studies with and the newcomer seemed to connect well with the group and empowered the ones that Tom has studied with to take the roles of sharer and teacher. Our colleagues were able to make it back to the islands with their newborn! We haven’t heard any updates from our island sister on the small island who was facing opposition, but we’re assuming no news is good news at this point.

PRAYERS REQUESTED

Please pray for our teammate. In the wee hours of Sunday she was awoken by excruciating pain in her torso. We eventually were able to discover that she has a kidney stone. She (accompanied by our other teammate, who is a nurse) went to the big island this afternoon (Monday). Please pray that she can get follow-up care soon on the big island and have a better understanding of the situation and whether she will need to travel to mainland Africa for treatment. Pray for a decrease in her pain which right now is only controlled with IV pain meds. Pray for our sons as they restart local school this week. Local school is a source of some anxiety for both of them, though they do enjoy having friends there. Pray that our younger son in particular will remember French quickly and that both of them would not be anxious but would actually enjoy school. 

For fun here are our kids entries into our Thanksgiving Book (the book where we write everything we are thankful for each year that we started before we had kids).

Our daughter wrote she is “thankful for the lemon meringue pie on my birthday, family, parks, playground, dressing [my baby girl cousin] and [my doll], playing boats and cars with [my little boy cousin], having my hair done by [my aunt], learning piano with Grandma, playing word games with Gram, good food, legos, ‘scare in the night’ and good books. Thank God!”

Our older son said he is “thankful for being able to see family even though there was COVID, taking that really cool road-trip, for the Radical Road-trip games, I especially liked the Grand Canyon and I’m thankful I thought to make a dino field guide and Notebook of Doom. I’m thankful that I am who I am.” 

Our younger son said he is “thankful for all the nice time with family, seeing them longer than we were supposed to, for the dino hunt for my birthday, playing on the slide at Grandma & Grandpa’s, on the swing chair in California, and with [my little boy cousin} and [my baby girl cousin]—she’s so adorable, and for my Voltron.”

Reproducibility

Arriving at one of the exam locations

The taxi bus rattled along, slamming over pot holes that sent us bouncing and knocking like beans in a jar.  It was 8 o’clock in the morning.  We were half way to our destination and we were already late.  We had left at 6:30, but the taxi bus didn’t get going until after 7 but to be fair, they don’t really follow any kind of time table.  They take as long as they take. So as they stopped, taking their time loading a carpenter and his 5 boards of plywood on the roof, there was no use complaining.  I sent a note off to the people at our destination letting them know of our progress.  They didn’t seem upset in the slightest.  We would get there when we got there.

In our line of work, we talk a lot about the importance of reproducibility—that whatever we do needs to be reproducible, so that it can expand, be copied and grow beyond the scope of the original work.  We have been hard pressed to see this work out better than it has with English teaching, and we have learned many lessons from this successful program.  

As we bumped along in the taxi bus, I thought about the place we were going to visit. Two years ago, a teacher whom we had trained and who had been living in the capital returned to his village on the far side of the island.  He started a small English program with the help of some friends and took a number of students up through our three levels of curriculum until their English was proficient.  A year after starting his program, he contacted us about doing a teacher training.  So last year, he organized a bus to bring ten “teachers-in-training” up to the capital twice a week for the teacher training program we were running.  We had a great time getting to know these smart students and teaching them how to teach English.  But at the end of the month we said goodbye and they went off to the other side of the island, with the hope of expanding the program.

In the van between locations

Finally the bus pulled up to our destination, an hour later than we meant to arrive. We were greeted by a host of proud teachers all with smiling faces, excited to see us.  As I looked around at all the familiar faces, I realized that though we had never visited before, we had trained nearly every teacher in the program.  They were so excited to see us there and to show off all they their hard work.

We had not really been in touch with them for nearly 8 months.  We had done nothing else to help this program achieve it’s goals beyond some training. Anything they had achieved was done by them, without our help.

We had three English centers to visit.   The original program having expanded from one village to three.  In each location we were greeted by close to 40 students, all of whom had been studying at various levels.  We were there to help administer exams.  If the teachers have or have not taken to heart and put into practice what they learned in the teacher training, the exams will reveal it.

“How did that last student do?”, a young teacher asked me, trying to hide a grin, with eyes sparkling.  

“She was excellent.  The best student I’ve had today, though they’ve mostly all done well.”  I told her truthfully.

“That’s great.  She is my sister!”  She told me, with obvious pride.  “My two sisters, my uncle, and my cousins are all studying English here.”  It seemed the whole family had caught the English bug.

Despite the two hour bus ride, we had a wonderful time visiting this program.  And as we bumped our way home, I thought about why this program managed to be so successful.  True, there is the great desire to learn English, and our easy-to-use and easy-to-reproduce curriculum that we give away freely.  All that is needed is a classroom and some sort of blackboard. But what else helped a program like this flourish?  Good training was important.  They knew what they had to do, how to do it, and had some valuable practice.  But there’s more to it than that.  We didn’t do it for them.  We left all administration in their hands.  They took responsibility from the beginning.  They collaborated and formed a team of teachers.  We’ve seen it time and again— one teacher on their own is never successful, but by raising up other teachers a program can survive and thrive.  

Relaxing after exams

When we go to monitor and encourage, as we had done this day, it is so encouraging to see our model so successfully reproducing itself.   There’s no way any of us would be taking that long, bumpy road on a regular basis to teach people in those villages. But we didn’t have to- we reproduced ourselves and sent them out to expand the work.

As we look forward to a new team of workers starting on the other side of the island in 2021, we hope that we can again provide the training and equip others to carry on the work in a place too remote for us to reach, but this time it will be a purpose greater than just English teaching.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
 The trip to the other side of the island was a great success and has deepened our acquaintances with many people there that we did not have before.  May it lead to fruit.  We continue to be thankful that COVID doesn't seem to be a huge issue here at the moment. There is no mask-wearing and little testing, but we aren't hearing about people being sick and there aren't suspicious cases at the hospital.  The former worker’s visit went very well and was an encouragement to many.  We were finally given a date for the start of school—next Monday (the 30th)! Islanders are having dreams that are inspiring them to share more openly with their families. Pray that their boldness would lead to changed lives!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
One island sister on the small island had a kids program at her house with singing and teaching. Her village has gotten upset and she is worried about the repercussions, of being questioned or even being arrested. Pray that she would have peace and wisdom and that she would see her needs being provided for no matter what happens. A young sister from our island now finds herself on the big island, pray that she could get connected with other sisters there and grow during this time. Our colleagues who work on the small island are trying to make it back to the islands with their newborn, but flights keep getting changed. Pray that they can make it safely this week. Island school will start next week. Please pray for our boys, especially our youngest. When we left in March, local school was becoming more stressful for him and he has forgotten a lot of French since then. Pray that school would not make him anxious and that he would have a good and patient teacher this year.

Making Decisions

We’re not very decisive people.

Side of the island where health team will start

We have more than one mildly-embarrassing story of us hemming and hawing about a minor decision. Walking through a foreign city, passing restaurants but not being able to decide where to eat until time and hunger forces us to eat at a place neither of us is very excited about. Or spending so much of an evening deciding whether to play a game or watch a movie, that we end up just going to bed having done neither because it has gotten so late. It’s not a trait of which we are proud and in our role as leaders we’ve had to get better at making clear decisions, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still waste time with indecisiveness every now and then.

Obviously not all decisions are weighted equally. It is one thing when we are talking about what movie to watch or what restaurant to order dinner from, it’s another thing if we are talking about big decisions with lasting effects on our lives.

We have several big decisions hanging before us. First, we have to move! Our landlords let us know that they need us out by March. Deciding where to move is a big decision that will impact us greatly! We also have perspective team mates who are interested in joining us on the island. Welcoming the right or wrong people could shape the health and effectiveness of our team for months and years to come. Then there is a proposal brought by some island brothers and sisters for us to do some targeted training to help raise up new leaders and help the work to multiply. The right decisions here could lead to lasting results!

But big decisions aren’t made in isolation. We often have to go through the decision-making process together. We have to navigate different styles of decision-making. Quick, slow, internal, external, intuitive, analytical. People tackle decisions differently and our different styles can lead to conflict, making us groan at the prospect of making decisions in a way that will please everyone involved.

Son playing in empty lot near our current house

But then, where does our faith come into all of this? Who are we actually trying to please? If we believe that God has a plan and has the ability to lead and guide us— how does that play out in group decision-making?

It’s with that question that all the anxiety about decision-making starts to disappear. It’s not on us to make the right decision or risk making the wrong one. We can pray, faithfully pursue different options and watch for His hand providing confirmations, opening doors, bringing peace and/or warning us away. We just need to take the time to listen and watch with open eyes and soft hearts.   

We’ve been reading a challenging book with our team. The author makes an incredible statement, as he talks about focusing on his moment-by-moment concentration on God.  “This concentration upon God is strenuous, but everything else has ceased to be so.  I think more clearly, forget less frequently.  Things which I did with strain before, I now do easily and with no effort whatever.  I worry about nothing, and lose no sleep.”  What a statement.  What a claim.  It puts all these decisions into a new light. He continues “Nothing can go wrong except one thing.  That is that God may slip from my mind if I do not keep on my guard.  If He is there, the universe is with me.  My task is simple and clear.”  

This year's first lychees!

Doesn’t that sound wonderful?  Rather than focusing and obsessing on the decision itself, we focus on God and find that we can face decisions with confidence and peace.  We have seen him do it before, but it is easy for us to forget and grow anxious when a new set of decisions comes our way. May we grow as listeners! May whatever is holding us back from that kind of communion disappear and the answers to all our looming decisions be brought into the light.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We have already seen one house that is a good possibility.  We will keep looking, but it’s nice to know we have options.  Our good island friends had their baby and mother and baby are both healthy.  We are rejoicing at the news of another new sister from the next town over.  This is again the result of islanders bringing other islanders into the family—very exciting.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We are getting back into English teaching this week.  Classes starting up, getting the English Club going, and lots of exams and ceremonies in the coming weeks.  Pray for us as we get used to the busyness again. We are excited to start planning some training sessions with our island brothers and sisters.  Pray for the recent new brothers and sisters who are in need of mentoring, learning and growth.  Tom was able to meet up and have a very direct and thoughtful conversation about the kingdom of Light with his old study friends.  It is not clear if they will start studying together yet, but it was a very good conversation.  A former worker is visiting the islands this week.  Pray that his visit would be a great encouragement and spread much light.  Please keep praying for our boys getting ready for local school especially our youngest.  We still don’t know when the school year will start! Our youngest’s French is still very rusty, but we’re making some slow headway. 

There is Joy on the Way

Men watch taxi bus pass

It really shouldn’t have been a very pleasant trip. Taxi bus rides are usually mildly uncomfortable anyways and this time I was in the far back row where the seat back sits at an uncomfortable angle and where the air flow is the most restricted. This taxi bus in particular was packed with people. Plus, I was wearing formal island clothing (which means 3 layers in hot, humid weather), and on top of everything the road was bad, so it was bumpy, slow-going.

It shouldn’t have been a pleasant trip, but it was amazing! I think I had a big smile on my face for most of it.

Instead of a group of strangers, I knew almost everyone on the bus. It was a chartered bus, but we had all been together paying our respects to our mutual island friend and brother who lost his mother a little while ago. We had just come off a wonderful time of sharing and praying together in his mother’s home. Our teammates were there, along with islanders from all three islands. We had heard testimonies and prayer requests and teaching from all three islands, and were leaving the village feeling encouraged by the sense of community. We expected to be separated into various taxis and buses as they came along, when an almost completely empty taxi bus pulled up. So we all piled in!

I’m not sure who started it but soon the bus was filled with singing. It was joyful and life-giving. My good island friend was a few rows ahead of me with her hands alternating between enthusiastic clapping and being raised in the air. Some islanders from different islands were catching on to the lyrics and joining in as the choruses were repeated multiple times. No sooner had one song ended than another began.

Megan & our visiting leader

I wondered what people thought as we passed through several villages on the way back to the capitol. It’s not normal for taxi buses to be filled with singing, unless maybe it’s a radio blaring. Not to mention the lyrics and content of these songs. Given the country we are in, these are songs you might expect to only be sung in the relative privacy of individual homes. But I detected no fear or trepidation, at least not in the island women who were leading the charge. They knew the songs the best and were energized from being together. A few of the men smiled, but a few were quiet—maybe because they didn’t know the group or songs as well or maybe because they were nervous by the boldness and audacity of singing such things in a public taxi with an unknown taxi driver and passenger in tow.

The women handled the “unknown” part in similarly bold fashion. They went around and introduced every single person in the bus, including in most instances their full names and where they lived. They asked the one unknown passenger to introduce himself and asked him to request a song so that we could sing it again. We quickly obliged him in another rendition of “There is Joy on the Way of Our Father” with loud exuberance. Then the women asked one of the men in the bus to say a prayer of blessing over the unknown passenger before he left the bus.

I couldn’t help wondering what the passenger and driver were thinking. Were they shocked? Were they intrigued? Would they tell others about this experience? When the taxi bus pulled over to pick us up, I don’t think the driver and passenger knew what they were getting themselves into. We were all dressed in classic island style, but this was not your typical group of islanders catching a taxi bus. We could have sat quietly and kept to ourselves, but I couldn’t have been happier with the freedom and boldness on display. There is joy on the way of our Father!

Tom & kids back in island karate

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are very thankful for this bus trip and the gathering that preceded it— it was an encouraging glimpse of island community. We have welcomed our islands-wide leader as well as a potential teammate to our island. We are enjoying their visits very much so far. Things are coming together for us to reopen our English library and restart our English club. Our teammate currently in the US has her tickets to rejoin us in December!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
A former worker was planning on visiting the islands, only to have someone in his household get COVID, meaning he’ll have to delay his trip by at least 2 weeks. Pray for all the logistics of having to change all his tickets and plans. Our potential teammate will be here for another week— pray for clear discernment about where she should serve in the future. Continue to pray for a good new house for us and in the meantime for a new front door for our current house! Pray for our boys as we try to prepare them for their return to island school at the end of the month— their French is rusty! Our good island friend’s wife started going into premature labor last night. She has been given medicine and put on bed rest. Pray for her and the baby and ultimately for a safe delivery of a heathy baby (this is their first) and also pray for our team that we would be able to show love to them at this time.

Study in America

Another hopeful group of English students

A text message came to us while we were still in the US:  

“Teacher, I passed the BAC with mention!”

We were super excited.  Himu is one of our favorites.  (We know, teachers aren’t supposed to have favorites, but what can you do.)  We’ve known Himu for years.  We’ve seen him grow up.  He was a kid when he first started studying English and we’ve seen him shoot up both in height, maturity and English.  We’ve had a role to play with his family.  When it seemed like Himu was getting involved with the wrong crowd, Himu’s father asked Tom to talk to him.  Himu has been a regular at our English club, and someone we’ve enjoyed immensely.  For him to pass the BAC—the big exam that allows islanders go on to university—and to pass “with mention” — the island way to say “with honors”—is a big deal.  It means doors opening for Himu.  It means opportunities to study—most likely abroad.  It means great possibilities for his future, and we were excited for him.  So we weren’t surprised to hear from him a short time later.

“Teacher, I’m traveling to France for University.”

We rejoiced with him and wished him many blessings, noting, with a bit of sadness, that we might not see him again for many years.  Then when we arrived back in the Islands I got a phone call.  

“Teacher, it’s me, Himu.  I’m at the French Embassy and they won’t give me the visa.  Only people with connections can get the visa.  Can you help me?”

No distancing here!

We talked about it for a little while.  I still don’t really understand why he was having trouble getting the visa.  He had been accepted to a university, given a scholarship to study in France.  Why should it be difficult to get the visa?  I suspect that COVID has something to do with it, but I can’t be sure.  It could also be a matter of corruption.  Whether the former or the latter, his question was a valid one—Could I help?  In the islands, many things happen because of relationships, not because of merit or fairness. We are people with connections, and Himu reached out to me for help.  Unfortunately, our connections are not French connections.  We asked around, but we just don’t know anybody with connections to the French Embassy.  A few days later I got another message from Himu:

“Hello Teacher, I need to ask you a small important question.  As I did not get the French Visa, can I get a scholarship to go to the Untied States?  I got my BAC with mention!!!  If yes, how do I do it??  Thanks.”

What can we say to our student and friend?  How realistic is it for him to study in America?  He is a young man, from a relatively poor family, from a poor African country.  Even the process of applying is expensive.  But he is smart, maybe he could make it work.  So I wrote to him:

“Himu, there is no easy answer to your question.  To go to a university in America you must first pass the TOEFL exam.  Then you must apply to a university and for a scholarship.  All of these processes cost money.  Finally you must be accepted both by a university and for a scholarship and find the money to travel to America.  So it is possible, but it is not easy.”

Over the years, we‘ve had a great many students ask us these same questions.  Most of the time these discussions do not go anywhere.  The students don’t really think they could go to America.  It is an unrealistic dream, an unsurmountable mountain—they don’t really plan to climb the mountain, they just want to know how high it goes.  But could Himu be the rare one ready and able to climb the mountain?  We admit to be sadly skeptical, but we will have to wait and see. 

Our son's lego armada

PRAYERS ANSWERED
 Our island brother’s mother passed away this week.  We were able to go to the funeral and share with him our condolences.  Another group of brothers and sisters will go to visit this week.  We are thankful for the community that exists and that our brother does not need to face difficulties alone.  The potential teammate has bought her tickets and should arrive at the end of this week.  We continue to see people and reconnect with many of our acquaintances.  We are blessed to be loved and appreciated by so many here. We are also so excited to learn just today of two new island women becoming sisters!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Many of our requests are the same as last week.  As the potential teammate and our island leader will be traveling to visit us this week, we are hopeful that their travels will go smoothly.  We continue to figure out our new routines and are getting ready to start our English club & English library again.  Our front door is being repaired which means people can only come to visit us via our backdoor.  It would be better and more convenient if the front door were fixed, but the landlord is waiting for a specially made door. Please pray that this could happen soon.  We also still need to find a new place to live.  Pray that word would get out that we are looking and that we would find a new home without trouble.