Short-termer Impact

Tomorrow we will say goodbye to our intern.  Our intern came out 2 months ago for a short-term assignment with us.  He’s a young man in his 20s, from the States, going to college, interested in linguistics and this kind of work.  Having him here has made us reflect on the benefits of having a short-termer around.

Goodbye party for our intern

We prefer short-termers that can stay more than a month, because over that time there is usually some point where life becomes less exciting. It might be brief, but they get a taste of what “normal life” is like here on the islands.  This usually comes with a level of disappointment—realizing that even on a remote tropical island, the adventure eventually wears off.  It often comes with the sense that, they can’t do very much.  They don’t speak much language.  They can’t share with everyone they see all the wonderful things on their heart.  They realize that if they wanted to truly have an impact, the road would be long and hard.  These are important truths that are worth wrestling with.  But at the same time we like to encourage them with a wonderful truth:  they do make an impact.

Someone has said that most short-term trips have the most impact on those who go rather than on the ones they go to.  That is true.  Short-termers are given the opportunity to experience and see things they’ve never seen before.  Their cultural boxes are challenged.  Their ideas about the world and its people are expanded and God uses it mightily to awaken us to the opportunities, the wisdom and the needs of other cultures—and that is an impact that can often be of life changing significance. 

Helping with English Exams

But even as we invest in our short-termers and expand their horizons, we value their impact on our team, on our work and on islanders.  As a team, we greatly enjoyed having a fresh face, with new ideas and insights added into our team.  In practical ways, our intern has helped us with some tasks that needed an extra pair of hands, feet, and eyes on the ground.

Our intern/short-termer possesses a gift that that I think is key for anyone coming out to the islands: flexibility.  We promised him a few important things.  We promised to orient him well and to give him good support—multiple times in the week for checking in, prayer, rest, and study.  But beyond that he had a lot of freedom and could expect the unexpected.  That was certainly the case this summer.  Now we would have preferred to keep our short-termer settled in one place, but our own travels meant, we sent him off to the little island for three weeks, where our island colleagues graciously supported him. There he lived with an island family, experienced the small island’s unique culture, and learned their dialect and accent.  When he came back to us, he definitely had picked up a bit of the little island accent!  Back with us, we quickly sent him off to live with a Clove Island family.  Our short-termer took it all in stride.  One islander remarked, “that guy could live anywhere.” I think that is high praise in this line of work.  Flexibility is key.

When an island family agreed to take in our intern, they were agreeing to let a different sort of person into their house.  He carried with him a light and a love that they had possibly never known or experienced before.  They had almost certainly never had someone like this live so closely with them.  All their preconceived notions about how they thought people like us live, think and act were being challenged.  The experience of having a responsible, kind, loving, faithful young man living among them may change the way they think about people of the light and people of darkness.  And that may have a mighty impact indeed.

Sitting down to dinner at Fakhadi's

But beyond his own relationships with islanders, our intern has also helped to impact our friendships with islanders, by being a catalyst for deepening those relationships.

A couple of days ago, our friend “Fakhadi” (whom we’ve mentioned on the blog before), invited our whole family to his family house as a sort of going away dinner for our intern.  We’ve known Fakhadi for 7 years, but this was the first time he has invited us to his home and given us  the opportunity to meet his extended family.  This was no small thing and something that wouldn’t have happened if our intern hadn’t made friends with him and provided a reason for the invitation.

Now, we have only had a handful of short-termers in our years on the islands. It’s an investment to get them here and to support them properly without knowing exactly what the impact will be. But that is where we trust and celebrate because surely short-termers have an impact on the islands, and the islands will have an impact on them as well.

Could someone you know be our next short-termer???

PRAYERS ANSWERED
One of the men that Tom has been studying with has started to share the stories and things he has been learning with his wife— this is very encouraging. Pray that it would continue so they could seek and study together. We are thankful for the evening with Fakhadi and the chance to get to know his many sisters, nieces and nephews. May it lead to more interactions! Our teammate is on track to leave the UK and be back on the islands by the end of the week- we pray for her travels and are encouraged that her medical check-ups didn’t reveal any new problems. Our short-termer’s final week has gone well and we have been very thankful to have here this summer.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
As we were posting this blog, an island sister was in labor at the hospital. She had been very anxious about this delivery because her sister recently had a traumatic still birth. We just got word that the baby was born, but don’t know yet how it went or if everyone is okay. Pray for health and safety of both mother and baby and quick recovery! Another island sister has recently been confronted about her beliefs by her brother. She invited him to come and talk to her about it and she is still waiting for that visit. She has never had a direct confrontation with her family before— pray for peace, wisdom and the right words for her and for a softening of her family’s hearts (especially this brother). Our organization’s leader for all the islands is in Kenya and will have surgery at the end of the week— pray for a smooth surgery and quick recovery. Pray for our short-termer’s travels back home and that he would be a successful ambassador for the islands and get people praying! Tom is going to start an English teacher training course in a far village— meeting every weekend for the next month- pray for the logistics and that it might be a link to spreading light to that village. Tom is meeting with an island brother tomorrow to study— pray that it would go well as their first meeting a couple weeks ago was a little rough because Tom didn’t know ahead of time that he had a low literacy level. Tom has a new plan for engaging him, so pray that it goes well.