Waves

 Most of the island beaches don’t get big waves.

Storm brings big waves

We have a colleague who likes to surf but he’s only found a couple beaches on the islands where it is even possible and then only on the right day. But every once and awhile a storm system will make the ocean violent and then the waves come. Big ones will come crashing up on the roads. The spray will wet cars and the undertow can carry pieces of pavement and stones with them.

A new COVID wave is coming upon the island. It is already crashing hard on the big island. One of our colleagues there said that basically everyone is sick.

But on our island, people still don’t seem to believe it. Some think COVID has already come and gone or they believe the government made it up from the beginning. The previous waves weren’t as violent as the dire predictions given about COVID, thus convincing some islanders that it was all made up and the previous ‘COVID waves’ were only the normal seasonal illnesses that people get every year.

Not many masks at wedding event!

One of our medical teammates tested positive last week. Tom was at a meeting when he found out and quickly put a mask on and started to distance himself from the group, but all his maskless friends laughed and told him that those precautions were unnecessary. He kept his mask on all the same.

Just as the signs of the global wave getting ready to hit the islands, the president announced a 5-day break from schools and work for a vaccination push! A solid response, but the announcement continued to say that after the 5-day push, all the public and indoor wedding venues would reopen for big group gatherings. Meanwhile, the 5-day break from work and school has been packed filled with wedding events. Yesterday there were 4 different weddings happening at the same time within short walks of our house.

At one event they were handing out masks and giving hand gel at the entrance, but out of the 100+ people attending, less than 5 actually wore masks. Most islanders have stopped even carrying masks with them and it is only the threatened fines by the government that would get them to start wearing them again.

A plane of islanders arrived in France over the weekend and 50% of the passengers tested positive on arrival at the airport! The wave is here!

The thing with waves— you can see them coming, you can prepare yourself for their impact, but you can’t really stop them for coming. So we pray, we brace ourselves, we do our best to respond responsibly and we’ll see how it plays out.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Only one of Dunga’s family ended up wanting to meet with her, but he wanted to bring a local teacher with him. Dunga has refused and told him to talk to her alone. Continue to pray. Our annual Christmas party with our English Club went well— it wasn’t a big group as we competed against a lot of other events, but our neighbors’ wedding event (with its loud music) had ended in time for us to have a good evening. Our teammate made it back home with her luggage in time for Christmas with her family. Our time as a team and family for the holiday went well, though we were sad that one of our teammates had to be isolated because of COVID.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please pray for the islands in the midst of this COVID wave. We just received a message that four island sisters that were together on the 24th have tested positive. May cases be mild and herd immunity reached quickly.Pray for our teammate with COVID— this is her third time getting it and she has continued to struggle with long COVID symptoms. Pray for relief from all the aches and pains. Another teammate is meant to travel on Wednesday to meet up with family for vacation over the New Year— it is a difficult time to travel. Pray for negative COVID tests and wise decision making for all those traveling at this time. Pray that all of us on the islands could be bright lights for love and truth at this time.

Joy & Love

The 4 themes of advent are Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. 

Advent colorings from years past

Every year we remember these words and use them to enliven our thoughts and prayers of the Christmas season.  It’s become a bit of a tradition to find coloring pages with each of these words on them and for the kids to color them each weekend of advent.  Then we hang them around the house, to remind us of these wonderful realities that have come into the world and into our hearts.  

But this year we’ve been reflecting on them in a new way.  A bit of divine inspiration caused us to use these words as the themes for our English clubs the last two weeks. The insights have been meaningful.

The first week we organized a simple game in which we passed a ball to someone and said one of the 4 Advent words.  That person was then required to share a small anecdote about experiencing this word from their life.  (We gave them a few minutes to try to think of a story for each word, so nothing would take them by surprise.)  Thus, we threw the ball to one person and said, “Peace”  The one who caught the ball came up with the story of when his mother was very sick and went to the hospital.  When she was better, they all felt peace.  And so the game went on to the next couple people, each telling a small anecdote, until someone threw the ball and said, “Love!”  The one who caught the ball had no story.  He couldn’t think of anything.  We gave him a different word and continued to play, but then the ball was passed to another and the word “Love” was repeated.  And again the person had no story.  We were very careful to explain that we were not talking about romantic love, but loving your mother or father, a friend, etc.  Still they couldn’t come up with anything.  “That one is very difficult,” one of them said, and then all the others nodded their head in agreement—it was difficult for them to think of a story about experiencing love.  

“and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…”

Newly colored JOY

The next week we decided to approach the words from a different angle.  We asked the questions like:

“How would a hopeful person respond if they didn’t have any money or job?”
“How would a peaceful person respond if a thief robbed their house?”
“How would a joyful person respond if they see a beautiful sunset?”
“How would a loving person respond if a beggar asks them for money?”

We asked the opposite as well: “How would a hopeless person respond,” etc.

And at first this was difficult for them to answer.  They were confused. “If you didn’t have any money, then you will not be hopeful,” they explained.  They understood these words as emotional reactions to situations we encounter, not as steady realities of the heart.  Thus you are joyful when you pass your exam and crushed when you don’t.  You are peaceful when everything is okay and anxious when things are wrong.  But we challenged them to think about a person whose heart is always hopeful—no matter what the circumstances.  Then they started to think of examples, “The hopeful person who has no job and no money doesn’t give up. They keep searching, because they have hope that they fill find something.”  Or “The peaceful person can say ‘Praise God’ even when his house is robbed.”  There were many smiles as they thought about what a person with these qualities would be like in difficult situations.  It felt like a breakthrough in their understanding.

Is joy a reaction to circumstances or from within?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

At Christmas, we remember where these heart realities come from.  How the Light that brings Hope, Joy, Love and Peace came into the world to give them to all who call on his name.  As Christmas approaches we hope you will be able to reflect on how much each of us needs these things—Love, Joy, Peace, and Hope—to not just react to our circumstances but to have our heart filled and so to rise above our circumstances. How different could our lives, the world be? May it be!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We were able to get our computer back up and running with our latest backup— we are very thankful! The sick teammate for whom we asked prayer is feeling much better, but now another has gotten sick. Please continue to pray for health. Our traveling teammate got a negative COVID test and made it off the islands, but got held up in mainland Africa as airlines/countries keep changing their COVID policies, so she has had a rebook/reroute twice. Please pray that she can make it all the way home for the holidays without any further difficulties. Our small-island colleagues’ travels back to Clove Island were much smoother than their first boat ride and they made it back home to the small island safely. Tom had a good talk with an island brother that just reaffirmed their trust in each other and their willingness to work together to reach out to others.  

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please pray for Dunga. Her father’s side of the family have scheduled a family meeting to confront her about her beliefs on Dec 26th (previously it was her mother’s side). Pray for peace for her, for soft hearts among her family and for her to have the right words to respond to their concerns. We are having our annual Christmas party with our English Club on Wednesday, but we haven’t been getting big groups lately and that night we will be competing with a wedding event next door. Pray that we would still get a good group of people and that all that come would hear and understand good news. Pray for our teammates as they share both in group or individual settings about the holiday (one is having a party, others are showing a film, all will be visiting friends). Pray for our team’s celebration of Christmas— it is a time of year where homesickness can be hard— pray for a sweet time as a team-family. Pray also since our neighbors in our same building are having a wedding on Christmas day— pray that the music wouldn’t be so loud that we couldn’t enjoy the holiday in our home (sometimes wedding music can be deafening).

For Every Advance, A Double Assault

We were talking together before prayer about all the different things that seemed to plague the family of light here—sickness, unemployment, accidents, jealousy, persecution, complications with outside-money, infighting, betrayers, liars, and con-men.

Tom and two friends

Our one island brother looked at us and said, “Every time something good happens, it’s like we are doubly hit—like for every advance, there is a double assault.  We should expect it!   We can’t back down.  When we run and hide or get scared we lose ground.  We must stand firm.  This is the way things will move forward.”

Who would have thought we would have evidence of it the very week he spoke of it?

First of all there was the advance—nothing seemingly great—a small gathering of friends.  Men who didn’t know each other but were all searchers and readers and seekers of truth.  It is not easy to arrange such a gathering, as simple as it may sound.  There were risks and logistical difficulties to consider.  After weeks of talking about it, we only had it scheduled a few days ahead of time, but in the end, it happened.  The gathering was a success and connections were made—doors were opened to new possibilities for relationship and study.  We were thankful and joyful.

Thankful and joyful despite the fact that our house had been burgled the previous day.

Door being secured after break-in

Even though our house was full with guests and we rise early in the morning, a bold thief forced open our latched back door and went through our house as we slept.  He got money out of wallets and purses and then turned to steal the electronics.  He apparently didn’t get far before he was spooked and ran off with our son’s backpack, a couple solar lights and some speakers. The first assault.

We were mostly thankful that the thief was not more successful. He had moved some of our electronics and computers, but hadn’t taken them. We were also very thankful that no one was hurt.  (Violent crime is not common on the islands, but a cornered man is potentially dangerous.) So despite the loss of money and some handy things, we rejoiced in God’s protection.  

But there was still discouragement to come.  Tuesday was the break-in.  Wednesday was the gathering.  Thursday we woke to find our computer stuck in a login loop.  A routine update had crashed our computer.  We don’t live near a mac store.  There is no genius bar.  Computer problems are serious business—and since our computers hold most of our information and work, a computer crash is very discouraging.  But even in this, there was hope.

We are usually not good about backing up our computers.  We remember about once every 3 to 6 months.  But we had just happened to do it last week—Sunday, in fact.  So though a thief meant to steal our computers on Tuesday and one of them crashed on Thursday, all our hard drives were recently backed up—a miracle.  And even though the computer was “stuck” it did not seem “dead” and that too gave us hope.  It has taken many google searches, on-line chats, and downloads, but it looks like our computer is close to being back to normal.  (Another miracle.)

In the meantime, we had plenty of soul searching.  Would any of these things cause us to despair?  No!  Would we walk away or distract us from our greater purposes?  No!  We will not be discouraged.  Our treasure is not in computers or stuff.  If one gathering leads to more gatherings, new life and households of peace, then a loss of a computer— would be more than worth it.  

“Every time something good happens, it’s like we are doubly hit—like for every advance there is a double assault.  We should expect it!   We can’t back down.  When we run and hide or get scared we lose ground.  We must stand firm.  This is the way things will move forward.”  Amen, brother!

Fun with neighbors

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful that the celebration meeting with seekers happened and good connections seemed to happen— please pray that there would be follow-up and lasting connections made. We are thankful that our backdoor was made more secure after the robbery and that the suspected thief was apprehended. Our vision-tripper made it back safely all the way home to the US. Her trip went well and we await her thoughts on longterm plans after more prayer and reflection. We’ve heard that Dunga seems more confident and courageous in the midst of the pressures from her family. Praise God. Our medical teammate is feeling better after being sick last week.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please pray for health on the islands. This is the time of year when different illnesses go around  and one of our teammates is sick with a nasty sinus infection (the third time this year). Pray for quick healing for her and protection from further disease for our team (especially those planning on traveling). One teammate is scheduled to travel home for the holidays at the end of this week— pray that she gets her negative COVID test and that all her flights go smoothly. Please pray that we can get our main computer completely up and running again with the latest backup. That would be a nice gift to us. Pray also for our small-island colleagues as they pass back through Clove Island later this week— their boat trip to the French Island was rough. Pray for smooth seas, strong stomachs and no complications on their return trip and for the different errands they hope to complete before returning to the small island on the weekend. Pray for our plans to share the light of holidays with others… through giving of our annual proverb calendars, sharing storybooks and our annual Christmas party— may our team and islanders be sharing good news boldly at this time of year.

Hope & Peace

Baby friend liked our decorations

We love Advent. 

We like the tradition of lighting candles each night (we do it at mealtime) and keeping track of the approach of Christmas with different advent calendars.  We also love the 4 theme words of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.  We don’t know who came up with these traditions, but they are good ones.  We enjoy the opportunity it brings to reflect on these different words—words that are so much a part of the good news.  If you think about it, it is possible to tell the entire story of the good news 4 times using each of these words as the central theme each time.  Don’t believe us?  Try it out with your family or friends.  You may be surprised by the blessing it will be.  Or reflect for just a moment on each theme.  

The good news takes us out of despair and brings us into eternal, steadfast hope.  

The good news transforms our anxious, rebelling, war-weary hearts in a broken war-weary world and brings us into everlasting peace that can remains even in the face of suffering.  

The good news takes our weeping, our heaviness, our shame, our hard and jaded lives and gives us an unexplainable joy that shines out to others and brings life in the midst of darkness.  

The good news takes our anger, our bitterness, our judgmentalism, or hatred, our stone hearts and gives us a new heart, that overflows with love that is not our own and that is vaster than the oceans.

How wonderful is the good news!  It changes everything!

This past week we have had both moments of hope and peace that have encouraged us and we hope will encourage you too:

Special pancake

Hope
Hope usually means having a long-term view. A long-term view requires patience.  Last week we were talking about those who had come before us.  Some of them had worked here for years without seeing any fruit.  Some of them saw plants sprout up but only to see it wither in the sun or be choked by the cares of this world.  Recently a visitor who had worked on the islands many years before came to visit.  He reflected on how few people passed things onto their children.  Yet today we can think of at least 4 families who are doing just that and whose children know a different way of life.  He also reflected on how they had never had any of the written word in the island language.  Today islanders are reading and studying in their own language and the work goes forward!  There is still a long way to go, but we have great hope!  Great things are possible!  Like Abraham, we may not see it is, but we trust in the promise and our hope is sure.

Peace
If you’ve been reading the blog carefully, you may have noticed we’ve been asking for prayer for Tom’s friend Fakhadi.  (Check out this blog from January to refresh your memory about him.)  In the past month he has not had peace.  His family was greatly worried about him.  He stopped going out, going to work, going to pray.  He was not leaving his room.  He was not returning calls.  Tom’s friend, the Pharisee, was having some sort of crisis.  After multiple calls and visits I (Tom) was able to go and meet him, speak with him, offer him the opportunity to find peace.  He appeared to be interested.  Unfortunately this week, Fakhadi is feeling better and seems like he has returned to his “old self”.  He tells me he has peace and that the peace I offer him is false, but at the same time his family can see that he does not have peace.  

Conversely, our sister ‘Dunga’ is weathering a storm.  Her family is making life difficult for her.  She does not know what will happen.  The future is uncertain.  She may even be kicked out of her home.  And yet, she is finding peace in the midst of the storm.

At recent event

Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.  May you know each in turn this Advent season and celebrate many good-news moments in your lives too.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Megan is feeling much better. Thank you for praying! Our vision tripper made it safely to Clove Island and has been learning a lot about our team and island culture— pray that it would make the way forward for her clear. We have colleagues from the small island visiting right now as they head to the French Island for vacation— it is encouraging to see how God is at work in their family.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Continue to pray for Dunga. She’s heard that her father’s side of the family want to confront her as well. Pray for hope, peace, joy and love to abound in her heart. It is really hot and humid! Pray for our energy levels in the hot season. Pray for our vision tripper as she travels back home to the US this coming week— it is a complicated time to travel internationally. On Wednesday, Tom is hoping to celebrate with some men he has been studying with and hopefully connect them to other islanders who have gone through the same process of seeking and study. Pray for blessed interactions and for continuing interest. One of our medical teammates has been very sick— she tested negative for COVID and dengue, pray for quick and full healing for her. Pray for that the light of good news would shine brightly on Clove Island in this Advent season!