70,000

Men gathering for funeral event

Island culture still holds surprises.  Just this past week I attended an event I’ve never been to before.  Sadly, it was a funeral event.  COVID has been raging through the islands and people are dying.  There is a lot of denial, little testing and little the meager health care system can do, so people die.  We have not had any close friends die.  Most of our friends are still young, but we have had many friends who are bereaved… an aunt, a father, a mother, or a grandparent passed away.  

Last week the ex-husband of our old neighbor, Ma Riziki, passed away.  Sadly, we didn’t know Ba Riziki very well.  After we moved away from that neighborhood, Ba Riziki had come back to be taken care of by his ex-wife because he had nowhere else to go.  He was a sick, old man and we rarely saw him.  Last week he died.  Although we did not know Ba Riziki well, we know the rest of the family, Ma Riziki and her sons and daughters and knew that we would drawn closer into the circle than we usually get and therefore invited to more of the funeral events.  This is why, I (Tom) found myself at an event I had never attended before.

It began much like other events begin.  Men milled around and were ushered to seats.  There was a man handing out prayer beads.  That seemed a bit different, but you often see men with prayer beads, so I thought little of it.  When everyone was seated a prayer was said.  This too seemed normal and I was waiting for the event to get going.  But nothing happened.  I was sitting, looking around, wondering if something had gone wrong.  Maybe the teacher hadn’t shown up.  Maybe there was a problem with something.  As time dragged on I started to feel bad for Ma Riziki’s family.  This must be embarrassing for them, I thought. 

Finishing their prayers

Then behind me a man yelled out, “500”.  I thought I had misheard him, or perhaps it had been someone selling something out on the street.  Saying 500 in the Island language is the equivalent to $5, so that seemed like a possibility, but then another man called out “500” and another and another.  No, it was definitely part of the event.  Now I was curious.  Were these men promising to give money to the bereaved family?  Was this a way of drumming up funds for the funeral?  I really wish someone had told me, because I should probably say something too.  But how much would be appropriate for me to give?  As I was contemplating this question I heard a man say, “1000” and then another—$10 dollars.  Maybe that’s the amount I should do.  But then one of the men next to me called out “500” and I saw him shift the beads in his hand and looked around with the realization that everyone was quickly and methodically passing bead after bead between their fingers.  Suddenly it all made sense.  It wasn’t amounts of money they were shouting, but amounts of prayers.  Each bead counts as a prayer and once through all the prayer beads is 100 prayers, so 5 times through is 500 and 10 times through is 1000.  Now I saw that there was someone keeping a tally—counting up the prayers.  Working to reach a certain number.  Later I asked and was told they were going to 70,000.  

Relaxing with this realization of what was going on and that I had no responsibilities, I was a bit chagrined at my slowness to pick up on the situation.  I sat back and prayed my own prayers.  I looked around at the men and saw no one who looked grieved.  No one seemed to miss the passing of this old man.  As I looked I noticed how fast some of the men moved from bead to bead and wondered what prayer they could say so fast and move along so quickly.  Did these tiny prayers touch their hearts?  Were they from the heart?  But then I asked myself a more grievous question.  Did it even matter?  The point was not a heartfelt prayer.  The point was 70,000.  70,000 was all that mattered.  And what was 70,000?  A payment.  In a sense my first thoughts were not far off.  They were not offering physical money to the bereaved family but spiritual money.  Each prayer helps work off some of the dead man’s debt—paying off his sins, until he has done enough to enter paradise.  A fundraiser to help the old man get through his suffering a little faster.  And I was reminded again of just how transactional people see eternal life here.  God demands payment through prayers and sins make you a debtor.  You must pay any way you can, but pay you must.  

As I listened to the prayers add up I sat, and thought, and prayed.  What a difference one prayer from the heart could make.  One prayer prayed in brokenness and truth, not as a payment but as a cry for life.  7 million prayers said on the beads could not equal one of those prayers.  Had Ba Riziki ever prayed like that?  Will any of these men ever pray that way?  Or will it always be a business transaction?  Pay as you pray.

When they hit the number, 70,000, they stopped, chanted a bit, handed back the beads and everybody went their way.  “Duty done.  Good luck old man.  Hope the prayers did you some good.” I went home and prayed some more for their hearts.

Celebrating a good orientation time!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The orientation of our new teammates went really well. We are very excited to have these two new women on our team! They moved into their own home on Saturday and have been warmly welcomed by neighbors. We were praying for rain to cool things down and it rained! Our kids have been really enjoying playing with our close neighbors and Megan has been getting to know several of the women. It is an answer to prayer that our new house has provided good neighbor families for us to connect with!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
May we continue to be stirred to pray for islanders— for freedom, for change, for grace, for justice. Pray for the beginning of language learning for our new teammates, that they would get into good habits and routines, that language helpers would be helpful and consistent and that even now they would be making friends and shining brightly in their neighborhood. We don’t know how COVID is doing on our island because they have stopped testing, but we continue to pray that the surge pass quickly. They plan to reopen schools March 1st. Pray that this would not We have been talking to some different prospective teammates who are in different stages in the application process. Pray that the right people would be led to work on the islands. Pray for a business team set to start on the big island which has been delayed because of people testing positive for COVID.