Uncertainty

This week I was teaching our new teammates about the future tense in the local language. Whenever you teach the future tense, you also have to include a little culture lesson, because islanders use and perceive the future different, with more uncertainty, than we do. Islanders are very conscious that one can’t really know what the future will hold. So when islanders use the future tense, often it doesn’t come with a commitment or with a sure expectation that it will come to pass.

Uncertain of the weather

That uncertainty is sealed by the oft-repeated phrase that follows almost any island declaration in the future tense. “God willing!” Sometimes it is the person that says the future comment who will add, “If God wills,” but if they don’t then the listener will almost always add it themselves, “God willing,” and upon hearing it the other person always repeats it back, as a group recognition of the uncertainty of the future.

So Friday, I had a short conversation with an island friend. I said, “Our daughter will come this weekend.” She said, “God willing.” I said, “We heard that the garbage truck will start coming three days a week.” She says, “God willing.” I say, “It looks like it might rain.” She says, “God willing.” As she leaves I say, “See you later.” She responds with a smile, “God willing.”

It is such a habit that it just comes out of our mouths too. Even when we are speaking English, we feel the urge to tag any talk about the future with ‘God willing.” We don’t really have a problem with it because it is true that we don’t know the future and we like recognizing God’s sovereignty. But we’re not always sure what is going on in islanders’ minds when they say it. Some islanders say it almost like it is a superstition. It can feel like they think declaring a desired future could jinx it or bring about bad luck, so to be safe, you add a “God willing” in the hopes that it will actually happen. If it might help, it’s better to do it, being the wisdom.

Uncertain when trash will be collected

There is a lot in island mentalities that is uncertain. Even as they say, “God willing”, they would affirm that they have no idea what God wills. Their view of God makes for a inconstant actor in their lives, they can’t be sure what He will do or won’t. So sometimes the ‘God willing’ seems like an attempt to pacify a powerful being by acknowledging His power and hoping He will use His power to help rather than hurt your plans.

It was funny this past week, because people were pretty confidently saying that the new moon would be seen on Wednesday evening and that thus the month of fasting would begin on Thursday. Meanwhile I had looked at the new moon charts and they showed that the new moon would only be seen from the islands on Wednesday if the sky conditions were perfect (that is to say that it was going to be very dim and hard-to-see the new moon from the islands). Still most islanders fully expected to fast on Thursday.

Wednesday night was completely overcast. No stars peaked through, let alone a dim and very slight new moon. So the religious leader of the islands declared that the fasting month would not begin until Friday. Now I don’t know if it is because of a distrust of their island religious leaders, but many islanders were not comfortable. It seems that they weren’t sure if this is what “God willed”. Other countries had seen the moon and started fasting on Thursday.  This uncertainty led many islanders to fast on Thursday, just to be safe, because, “Who knows what God actually wants,” maybe he required them to fast on Thursday?  If only they knew what God required…

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
[He] answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Certain of God's goodness & future family fun

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our daughter made it safely back to us! We are so thankful for all the answered prayers, including smooth flight connections, no delays and especially the last flight that the rainy weather broke for the morning so our daughter could fly with clear skies. We are also thankful for our colleagues on the big island that welcomed her there and helped her get to us.  Our teammate was also able to travel and though she had to be rerouted because of canceled flights, she made it safely to her destination. The new family has recovered from their illnesses. Fasting has begun! We were able to have some good conversations in the days leading up to fasting and Tom was able to share the whole good news with someone who hadn’t heard before.  We’ve had some good rains which has brought some wonderful relief from the heat and helped those with heat rash. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
The month of fasting has begun. Please pray for all of us on the islands (island body and workers) to shine brightly in a month that can bring about times of pressure, confrontation, and also openness and good conversations. Pray for us as a family— our daughter is home for 4 weeks, but all within the month of fasting. Pray that we could find creative ways to have fun as a family during this month and that we would help her debrief her term at school and give her the rest she needs. Pray for the new family as they navigate the month of fasting for the first time, and also try to have good times of language study (something that can be more difficult this month). Trash continues to be a problem (they didn’t come at all last week), pray that the rumors of regular pick-ups restarting would be true. Pray for our teammate whose flight back to Clove was just canceled because of the rain today.
(If you are committed to praying regularly for the islands through the month of fasting, then send us an email and we can send you information to help you pray for specific topics and people.)