Pure Joy

A well-known verse tells us that we should consider it a joy (pure joy!) when we face trials and different kinds of difficulties. Another book, which we are reading, has been talking to us about the dangers of responding to difficulties with frustration, anxiety or discontentment. Yet another book we are reading is an old biography about a man that sought out some hardships in his early life because he was confident that he was being called to even greater hardship and he wanted to be prepared.

Finding joy in learning to wear the local wrap?

All of these sources have been challenging us to rethink how we look at, consider, react to and pray about difficulties. So here came a test (more for our short-termer than for us, but the difficulties hit us too)…

First, our short-termer tested positive for COVID right before she was supposed to come. This meant a scrambling with both her international plane tickets and interisland plane tickets, as well as letting various people know and rearranging our schedules. Good thing was that she had already had symptoms for 10 days. We rescheduled her arrival for a week (safely past the two-week post first symptoms marker). A week later she still tested positive and though her symptoms had faded and she wasn’t contagious, we were told that in some cases one can still test positive for weeks if not months. We pushed her arrival off for another week (less confident this time that the new plan would work).

Finding joy in a long hot-season ceremony?

But the next week, she tested negative! We were full of thanksgiving and awaited her new travel itinerary. Unfortunately website problems and bad customer service meant that she spent two days on her phone before she was able to reinstate her international plane ticket— only to learn that the flight times changed making the idea of making a same-day connection to our island not possible.

But we adapted. We organized transport and a place to stay on the big island. We changed her interisland flight. When she finally arrived on the big island on Wednesday all those things were in place…but then her bag didn’t come!

Fast forward a few more days and she was reunited with her bag, but not after more delays, hassle and expense. Not to mention that during the two-week delay, the circumstances of her host family had changed and our teammate was forced to renegotiate where our short-termer would be staying.

Now we have been impressed with our short-termer’s attitude through all this, but it’s safe to say that almost nothing about her coming has seemed easy. So how do we look at all these difficulties? Do we think of them as ‘pure joy’?

Finding joy in a difficult class?

We will readily admit that it has been stressful and we have shook our heads a few times when yet another complication appeared with an incredulous ‘again?!’ ringing in our thoughts. But it has also made us wonder…perhaps we can expect great things from this short-termer. Perhaps all these small difficulties are preparing her for bigger challenges in the future.

Maybe you don’t find that thought comforting, but for us it adds excitement. All these annoyances could be building a resilience in her that God will use to great purpose in the future! While I am not to the point where I react to all the difficulties as ‘pure joy’, a new outlook on them does push me towards accepting them as possibly good things and towards having a heart that can rejoice and be thankful in all circumstances. God is good, we await what He will do next!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful that our short-termer has finally made it here and has settled into her homestay, and we are thankful that all of us have been able to maintain a mostly positive attitude throughout!  We are thankful that our medical teammates down on the south-side of the island are making good inroads and good connections.  Their meeting to establish what their medical work will look like with the government health administrators appears to have gone well.  Tom’s first week of online training went well and he’s thankful for the internet holding up well.   We are thankful that we have a new long-term worker/colleague on the big island and that our island brothers and sisters returned safely from their training trip to mainland Africa much encouraged.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our short-termer to have a blessed two weeks full of language, relationship and opportunities to be a light.  Pray that our south-side medical team could figure out the final details for their medical (hoping to start in December) and find the final items they need for settling into their new home.  Pray that Tom would have another good week of online training and that the internet connection would continue to work well.  Keep praying for “Fakhadi”,  Tom still hasn’t seen him, but at least Fakhadi has started responding to messages.  Pray that they would be able to meet this week and that Tom could be an encouragement to his friend.  Pray for discernment to understand what is really going on with Fakhadi and how to help him.  Pray for opportunities for each of our teammates to share good news this week.