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.