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.