Growing and Multiplying

Last weekend we were at an English ceremony.  English ceremonies are something of an experience.  

Getting certificates

In one way, they are an opportunity for students to show off how much they have learned and what they have accomplished.  Songs are sung, poems are read, speeches are made and small plays are performed—all in English to a delighted audience which probably understands very little of what is actually being said, but who are nonetheless extremely proud of their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews.  

In another way, the ceremonies are an advertisement for the English Center, hoping that the attendees will see students speaking English at the ceremony and want to sign up for the next round of classes.

Giving Speeches

We have been to so many English ceremonies over the years that we mostly know what to expect.  The fact that it can take as much as 4 hours, that power may go off and on during the event, that students like to make speeches when they receive their certificate, but they get nervous and stand there silently like a deer in the headlights trying to remember the phrases they had memorized, before finally saying, “Thank you,” and handing back the microphone.  We know most of the jokes and the canned phrases like, “English is the key to open the door.” and “English is an international language.”

But this time around, we experienced something new. About halfway in, after a song, they turned on the projector and shared a prerecorded message from a former student and teacher of the center.  He has gone to study abroad in West Africa.  There, at his university far from the islands, he has gathered other island students and started teaching them English.  A satellite campus of the island English program all the way in West Africa!  That’s some impressive multiplication!

This week Tom has been going to the other side of the island to do a teacher training.  This will be the third time he has gone there for this purpose.  That program has been going strong and multiplying, with almost no oversight from our group.  Every few years they have a new batch of teachers who are ready to be trained and Tom makes the long trip down (2 hours each way in a taxi-bus) to train them.  They take it from there.  They then teach in 5 of the villages down on that side of the island, graduating many students.  Some of the old teachers are still around, but many have moved on.  The attrition rate is pretty high as English means opportunity and many end up going abroad or finding a job that lets them move on in life.  English teaching is something they do for a season. 

Video from West Africa!

What is our role in all of this?  If you listen to the speeches made at an English ceremony, you might think we are doing some amazing things.  But that would not be true.  We have a role to play and it is important—we are catalysts who help get things started, but the islanders are the elements that make it happen.  We are scaffolding that help support a new structure, but they are the materials and the workforce to build the building.  At this point, many of these programs can (and do) continue on without us.  We helped plant seeds, but others have caused those seeds to grow.

The program doing the teacher training is a success story, but not every story is a success.  Many of the programs that start up only last a year or less.  They fail for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes the organization and responsibility are just not there.  The students get tired of a center that doesn’t take its job seriously and after a short time it fizzles out.  Sometimes the facilities are not up to snuff.  One program failed because the classroom was so noisy, the teacher could barely be heard over all the noise.  Sometimes the vision fails to be passed on.  We were saddened to learn this month that one of the stronger programs (that had been around for 5 years or more) had folded.  The original founders had moved on and hadn’t passed the vision on to anyone else. So when things began to struggle, it just faded away.

It is our dream to see things grow and multiply—not just English programs, but truth, and hope, and change, and new life, and communities of life-giving fellowship.  We often wish these other things would grow as quickly and reproduce as easily as English programs.  But where English programs are like vines, these other things are like mighty oaks.  They grow slowly and take time.  Yet, even with patience we must accept that some will grow and bear fruit and multiply, others will be fruitful for a time only to fade away and others will bear no fruit at all.  So we plant, we water, we encourage and hope for new life to grow, and leave the rest to God.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The teacher training in the far away village has gone well and Tom only had to spend 2 of 5 nights away. A short-termer on the French Island (who had been trying for months to come to Clove Island) finally has made it! We’ve enjoyed getting to know her finally. There was an encouraging story of an island brother living abroad going and praying for an islander sick and alone in the foreign hospital.  A new teammate has had really encouraging conversations with an island friend, who is really seeking. Some the Word has been printed and should be making its way to the islands soon.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Our longtime teammate (whom we just said goodbye to) is getting married tomorrow in mainland Africa. Our daughter will be able to attend the ceremony. Pray for all the final logistics, that the ceremony would be a great testament to the good news and that the celebration would be joyous! One of our new teammate’s birthday is tomorrow (her first on the island), pray that she would feel loved and appreciated. Pray for our daughter as she has a long weekend coming up. Lots of her fellow students will get to see their families, but she won’t— pray that she has a relaxing and fun weekend. Pray for multiplication of truth, hope and new life on the islands!