Oh, That’s Just Tear Gas

Bang!  
“That sounded like a gun shot.  Did you hear that?”

Scene from our friends' porch

Bang….Bang, Bang!
“Oh that’s the police.  They’re firing tear gas at the gangs.  They’re always fighting over there.”

We are visiting the French Island right now.  Our friends live up on a hill.  Their porch looks out over a neighborhood where there is frequent trouble with gangs.  We watched as tear gas canisters exploded over the street, landing among a gang of young men who were pushing trash bins into the street to block the way of the police.

“Sometimes they light them on fire.”  Our friends say rather nonchalantly, as if this is normal.  But in fact it is normal, here.

“Usually the wind carries the smoke away, but once in a while it comes in our direction.” With that we moved inside and closed the windows.

One of the things we’ve discussed a lot this week as we’ve been visiting our friends on the neighboring French Island is how we often assume things to be the same on all our islands when actually situations, mentalities, and daily life may actually be very different.  

Tear gas raining down

We all do it, don’t we?  We generalize.  We group.  We stereotype.  We simplify.  We assume that the way people live in one place is the same as they live in another place.  We assume everyone is either like us, or like our impressions of them, but as soon as we dig a little deeper, we realize that people are different.  And those differences are important.

Driving around the French Island, we are intrigued and confused by the similarities and differences to Clove Island.  Sometimes it feels like Clove Island, only cleaner and richer.  But other times it feels extremely different.  On the French Island, many islanders live in fear of deportation, crime, gangs and finding their next meal.  While on Clove Island, these fears are almost unheard of. Our friend, who has lived both on Clove Island and the French Island laments that many of the French people think they understand all island culture because they’ve seen it on the French Island, but they really have a skewed understanding which impacts their ability to speak meaningfully to their island neighbors.  

Not that we aren’t also guilty of making misassumptions.  We’ve made assumptions about life on the French Island from our experiences on Clove Island. Or even closer to home, we’ve assumed that we know all about the culture and dynamics of Clove Island, ignoring the fact that we’ve only lived in the capital and that the realities of life in the many villages is different. We may take pride in having figured out how to share our resources, share good news, help others, and do our work  on Clove Island, but we have to admit that they may not work well in the villages. Success and failure stand in the balance of our assumptions.

It would be so comforting and reassuring if our expertise and assumptions could apply to huge swaths of people.  The reality is humbling: that we don’t know what is best, that people are different from our assumptions and that we still have further to go in gaining an understanding of them.  Moreover, it will take action to overcome our assumptions.  If we want to understand someone else’s reality we have to go, see, and enter in.  We have to ask questions.  We have to stop and listen.  This takes time, energy and often money for travel.  But the effort is worth it.  We understand the French Island better for the time we are spending here.  We are learning.

How much of the world these days is fractured—with so much misunderstanding and misassumptions.  Maybe the answer is more humility and more going.  Where are the biggest misunderstandings and fears and judgments?  Maybe those are the very places for us to go, to see, to enter in and learn. 

About to get our COVID tests!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
In an answer to prayer, Makini has met and studied with one of the men with whom Tom had studied. They have plans to study regularly and we pray that more seeking men would join them (we have a few specific men in mind that we are praying would join!). Dunga has stood strong with her family and hasn’t had any renewed calls for meetings. We are thankful that she has weathered this storm and continue to pray that she would be a blessing to her family.  We have had a nice time reconnecting with our former teammates and a few days by a pool relaxing with some good family time. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
We weren’t able to travel back to Clove Island as planned because two of us tested positive for COVID. We’ve been assured that this is probably residual presence of the virus from our previous infection rather than a reinfection and that we’re not contagious, but it has disrupted our plans. Pray that we would get negative tests so that we can travel on the next boat and get back to Clove Island to welcome our new teammate (coming next week). So pray again for calm seas and calm stomachs when we finally travel. Pray for our new teammate as she celebrates her birthday and says goodbye to her friends and family. Pray for safe and smooth travels. Continue to persevere in prayer for our medical teammates that they would get clearance to start medical work soon!

Rain

 Call it what you will I call it rain
When troubles come and pat against my soul
Go in if you like, I will remain
And let the washing waters make me whole

Just when I’m sure that I can't bear the rain
A tiny leaf starts pushing through the ground
In a place where the soil was too dry to sustain it
A new tiny flower can be found

 - Sara Groves, “Rain” from Past the Wishing 1998

Rainy Day

It’s raining today.  This would not be our first blog about the rain.  We love the rain here.  It is relief and life, cool breeze and refreshment, the scent of soil, the cleansing of dust, the cooling of hot stones left long in the kiln and radiating their own waves of heat finally cooling to the touch.  

But today we’re thinking of another aspect of rain.  The one that pushes us indoors and away from community.  The one that disrupts travel and turns roads into rivers, damaging bridges and asphalt, flooding and fouling.  The rain that shows the cracks in what seems like a well-built house, as water drips from the ceiling.  The rain that makes the fisherman tremble and paddle for shore as fast as possible and causes the large ships to rise and fall, rise and fall, their great hulks like bits of cork on the water.

These two descriptions of rain are not really so different.  It is a matter of perspective.  When I am safe in a secure home I can look out on even fierce winds and heavy downpours with a satisfaction and joy.  The rains have come!  They will wipe away the filth, and draw away the heat, and give life to the plants.  But it is different when you are out on a boat in bad weather.  It is simply put… miserable.  It’s also different when your vacation plans—the day at the beach, the picnic on the hill, the fun in the sun—are ruined by hurling rains and blowing gales.  Perspective has a lot to do with it.

New leak in house

All these thoughts brought to mind a Sara Groves song, quoted above.  That rain can be be both troubles coming and troubles washing away.  A blessing and a trial.  A mark of suffering to come and a promise of hope as well.  Sometimes we can’t bear the rain, but at the same time it brings new life.

In a meeting with island brothers we were speaking about glory.  One brother said, we spend so much time thinking about the need for change, we miss the reality of glory revealed.  But glory is revealed through suffering.  There is no glory without suffering.  Glory comes from entering the journey and persevering through the hardship.  It is only at the end, when the battle is won, the troubles endured, the sacrifices made, when love and righteousness have overcome evil and adversity—then there is glory.  And that makes me think of rain.  When the storm has passed, there is life.  Sometimes we can watch the storm from a comfortable room behind glass windows and watch the rivulets of water pour off of the roof.  Sometimes we are caught out in the middle of it.

“Go in if you like, I will remain
And let the washing waters make me whole”

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Thank you for praying for our trip. We made it safely to the French Island and the seas were mercifully (even miraculously) calm and none of us got sick. It has been good to reconnect with our colleagues here and prayerfully dream about the future of work on this island. We also had the chance to share at a school run by like-minded friends. The two of us were able to get a booster shot while here and our daughter got her first shot too.  (Unfortunately no pediatric doses were available for our boys.)

Arrived on French Island

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for calm seas and stomachs again for our return trip back to Clove Island. The return is only 3 hrs during the day (rather than 10 hrs overnight on the way here), but that’s still long enough to get sick! Continue praying for our medical teammates waiting for approval to start work— not sure what the hold-up is and whether this delay is a blessing in disguise or a sign of a greater impediment. Pray for the work on the French Island— the situation here is complicated and very different from our island and needs a different approach. Pray for more workers for the French Island!

In-Person Plans

It seems like an easy goal: to see someone in-person at least once or twice a year! 

Our friends are just across a bit of ocean

Our friends and colleagues only live an island away, a quick 25 minute plane ride…it shouldn’t be a hard commitment to keep. 

 Then it was made all the easier when we both joined a leadership training program that required three sets of in-person meetings over the year. We wouldn’t have to even work to plan meeting up— three meetings were already planned for us! 

But in the era of COVID, I think the whole world has become accustomed to loose plans, especially when and if plans depend on meeting in-person. Whether it is positive COVID tests or new regulations about meetings or changing travel restrictions, there is always an uncertainty that hangs over any plans for in-person gatherings. 

But COVID is not the only culprit in forcing us to keep loose plans. Babies are another set of plan-killers! (At least these plan-destroyers are cute and lovable.) Our friends couldn’t attend the first set of in-person meetings because they were about to have a baby and couldn’t travel. They attended the meetings virtually, but obviously it’s not the same. 

Our last time on French Island (2 yrs ago!)

Once the baby was born, we looked into going but between the boys’ school and the travel restrictions, we contented ourselves with sending our teammate to the French Island to see them with a few gifts from us for their kids. Fast forward and we were going to see them twice, right after Christmas on the French Island then in late January on Clove Island for the second-set of in-person meetings. 

But we didn’t anticipate the rush of travelers around Christmas and by the time we got to the boat office all the boats were sold out and direct plane flights hadn’t reopened. At least we would still see them in January! But this month COVID struck again as the new COVID surge on the islands meant that the second set of in-person meetings had to be postponed to March. Our friends are going to be in their home-country in March so can’t attend in-person. 

So we’ve prayed and come up with a new plan— the large in-person meetings were postponed but we were expecting to be in those meetings this coming weekend, so instead we’ve got boat tickets and are going to the French Island to see our friends! 

I’ll admit that we wait for these plans with bated breath. We’ll wait to see that the French Island doesn’t change its travel restrictions and requirements. We’ll wait for the day before when the boat office said we needed to reconfirm that the boat is still going. We’ll wait for our COVID tests to come back negative. I don’t know that we’ll really believe that it’s finally happening until we actually step foot on the French Island and greet our friends. 

Son with mini banana

 We are praying that it works out even as we trust and know that God makes better plans than we do and His plans are sure. Meanwhile we’ve just learned that the third-set of ‘in-person’ meetings are going to become an online training, changed in part because two more couples are having babies!

PRAYERS ANSWERED 

The COVID wave seems to be basically done on the islands. We’ve noticed more funerals in the past week, but generally it seems that most people are feeling better and that it was fairly mild for most. Our boys finished their school exams and get to enjoy a week free from local school. Megan just finished an online training that in the future will let us provide more training opportunities to our colleagues on the islands. Two of the men with whom Tom has studied now have a plan to meet with our island brother Makini— we’re excited to see this connection finally developing into something. 

 

PRAYERS REQUESTED 

Pray for the boat trip to the French Island. Last time we took an interisland boat trip, it was a long and choppy trip where all the passengers were seasick— please pray for calm seas and calm stomachs for our whole family. Continue to pray for our medical team colleagues— they are still waiting for the government approval and letter to start working at the hospital. Pray that the approval would come quickly and that they would both be healthy. Pray for Tom as he has been asked to meet and potentially study with a new island brother, pray for wisdom about how to proceed and what islanders to include in these meetings. Continue to pray for preparations for our new teammate set to arrive in early Feb.

Looking Forward

 Look at these two questions below:

What’s holding you back?

Drumming at one the first weddings of 2022

What’s keeping you from moving forward?

They are more or less the same question, but with an important difference.  The first question, “What’s holding you back?”  focuses on the past.  But the second question, “What’s keeping you from moving forward?” encourages forward movement.

As part of our leadership training we are required to participate in some life coach training.  Life coaching offers some helpful tools and strategies for the team leader.  One of which is to ask better questions.  Another part of coaching is the idea of moving forward, to help people get “unstuck.”  

As 2022 begins, it’s been easy to feel a bit stuck.  COVID still rages, disrupting our plans, weakening our health and strength, and interrupting our relationships.  It feels as if many of the problems that plagued us in 2021 plan to continue with us into 2022.  It’s easy to see all the things that are holding us back and dwell on them.

Not many masks at these weddings!

But the New Year is a time to look forward.  It’s a new year—despite what might be happening at the moment, there will be new opportunities.  There will be lives changed.  There will be growth and hope and new birth.  We can’t lose sight of that.

Both island culture and island religion have a strong fatalistic tendency.  In the response to recurring hard things you often hear on the islands:  “Nothing ever changes.” “This is what God wants.”  It’s amazing how deeply this mentality can influence culture.  It certainly impacts their understanding of ‘new’.  New is a temporal thing.  It does not last.  Before long, it will be gone and things will be back to the way they were before.  As a result, islanders do not expect things to last.  When they buy clothes they expect them to fall apart after one use.  When they paint a house they water down the paint to make it stretch.  The paint job looks beautiful at first, but after just a few weeks it begins to crack, peel and fade.  Restaurants, hotels and businesses will open with a lot of beautiful things, but after 6 months everything will be breaking down or dingy with no plan to replace them.  New is nice and beautiful, but it is temporary and fleeting and leaves no lasting change.

Isolating Bday girl!

We find this acceptance and expectation of fleeting newness frustrating. We are not here for a quick fix, a new novelty or some short term change.  Our goal, our calling is transformation.  We believe that change is possible.  We believe that hearts can be changed. Mentalities can be changed. Lives can be changed.  Communities can be changed.  Even countries can be changed.  We believe there is a kind of new that lasts—it is a newness that grows.  It is not fleeting or temporary but it puts down roots and it expands and it grows into a mighty tree.  But it takes time.

As 2022 began we were sick, isolated, and a bit discouraged to have COVID again, but we will not fall into fatalism.  We will move forward!  It’s a New Year and we look forward to the promise that everything is destined to be made new! And not just new, but a forever new! That is a promise that keeps us moving and looking forward with hope and joy.

So welcome 2022! Let’s see what new things God’s got in store for us!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
A number of our prayers from last week have been answered!  We are feeling better and many of our friends who were sick are feeling better too.  Some rain finally came!  There are certainly more hot days to come throughout this month and the next, but the rains give us a much needed reprieve from oppressive heat and we are very thankful!  We are also thankful for negative COVID tests for our colleagues who have been traveling and their safe return (there’s still one on the way). We are thankful that despite isolating that we were able to have a fun day for Megan's birthday!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Some friends are still sick with COVID, including our newest team member in the US who hopes to join us in February.  Pray for quick recoveries for all.  Our island sister Elewa badly sprained her ankle and was told to stay in bed for a week— pray for her quick recovery. A training that was supposed to happen in late January on our island had to be canceled because of the COVID surge, but it frees us up to visit our friends and colleagues on the French Island. This would be the third time we’ve attempted to go there to encourage them— pray with us that it would work out this time.  Pray that we will not be discouraged but encouraged.  Pray for great things in 2022—lots of new life, and opportunities to share the hope we have, new friends who want to learn and that old friends would discover something new and lasting.  Pray for our island family to grow and shine.  Pray for new people to come and join us in the work.  Pray for great things with us.  Pray us forward!

Christmas Wishes

It has been our habit now for many years to send out a Christmas text message to all our island friends.  Originally it was old-fashioned SMS. Now, it’s a bit more complicated as many friends prefer WhatsApp or Messenger, but whatever the medium, we send out a message to our island friends wishing them a merry Christmas and blessings on their family in the coming year.  This years message (translated) said:

A couple weeks ago- celebrating with friends

Merry Christmas! May God bless you and your family.  May you know the peace of JC this Christmas.  Tom & Megan

Every year I get a flurry of messages back.  Most people are touched by it and send back many blessings in return.  Some friends have even grown to expect it, so when I saw my old friend, Barak a few days before Christmas he asked me why I hadn’t sent him a message yet.  I told him he just had to wait a few days.

But a funny thing happened this year.  One of the friends who wrote back chose not to write a friendly note but rather wanted to engage me in some questions on religion—and not in a polite way either.  Now I know sending out a holiday greeting with a clear expression of faith would be considered bold or even offensive in the West, but on the islands greetings and well-wishes are almost always tinged with aspects of faith. Most islanders and perhaps you too would consider it rude or disrespectful to respond to someone’s heartfelt good wishes with a counter-offensive meant to drag someone into a religious debate.  I imagine that if, for example, a Jewish friend wished me a heartfelt happy Hanukkah—I would not see that as an opportunity to question their beliefs.  But while most islanders consider it rude and disrespectful to respond like that, there seems to be small and consistent minority of islanders who will take any opportunity to start an argument.

New Christmas lego tradition?

After a few deep breaths and a prayer I responded to my would be debate opponent in a polite way that put the questions back on him and avoided entering into a fray.  A few more messages went back and forth, but there was no argument.  I had not taken the bait.

Now while some may have questioned our island friend’s combative response to our holiday greeting, others probably think I should have taken the bait—taken a chance to engage in a strong debate.  In the past I’ve jumped in.  But more and more I’ve found things done over WhatsApp, SMS, Messenger don’t seem to have any strength.  It’s too easy to ignore the person on the other end and write only what each of you care about.  Plus, you lose all the empathy behind the words.  How different if my friend were to sit down with me and ask the same things.  I know his words would be tempered out of respect for me and mine would too, out of respect for him.  We would be much more likely to listen to one another. It’s harder to ignore the person smiling back at you.

We do prefer those one of one interactions, and while our blanket, generic Christmas greeting may lack a personal touch, it is amazing how many islanders will point to it as a sign that we care for them. So we don’t engage in WhatsApp debates very much these days (at least not if we can help it), but we do make the most of the medium to spread a little love and good wishes.   

Sporting holiday colors

PRAYERS ANSWERED
All our friends who were traveling have been successful in their endeavors, getting negative tests and managing to arrive at their destinations, which is no small feat right now so we are very thankful.  Most of the ones who had COVID last week have made a good recovery.  Although some still have some lingering symptoms.  Our teammates were able to have some nice prayer retreats and one of our teammates had a great time on New Year's Eve with her neighbors.  We’re very encouraged with the inroads she is making with that family.  

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We both have COVID!  Megan got it a few days after Christmas and Tom on New Year’s Eve.  It’s meant a week of isolating and feeling rather yucky, but nothing more severe than that.  Pray that we can get through it and get back to some normal life.  It seems like the whole island is getting sick right now, and in a place with limited health resources, pray for God’s mercy on this place and that this new wave would pass quickly.  Keep praying for the team members who traveled for the holidays.  They’ve made it to their destinations, but it may still yet be difficult to make it back without much prayer.  The island has been unbearably hot this past week.  We need some rain to cool things down. It is the end of the school trimester— pray for our sons and other island kids taking the end of term exams.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!