Calloused Hearts?

    Three little kittens appeared by the back door. They are cute and clumsy and skittish. We know that their chance of survival until adulthood is not high. In other situations, in another part of the world, this would probably tug at our heart strings enough to spur us to action, and there would be a strong possibility of us adopting a kitten.

Mommy cat and one kitten

     But we have been in similar situations before— we seem to have feral kittens at our doorstop every year or two. That’s not to mention all the feral kittens we will pass along the street. The cat population is unchecked here and only the strong survive. Most adult cats are scarred and mean-looking.
    We’ve had colleagues that regularly take in cats and it is a big job. Despite their efforts, lots of their cats die of disease, of poisoning, from cat fights. Plus, because there are no vets here, that means no vaccinations and no spaying, so we’ve also heard lots of stories of having to abandon kittens in the forest because they couldn’t take any more cats as their female cats just had litter after litter. Not to mention the struggle they often have to find anyone to watch their cats when they travel. All these realities mean that we have never been interested in adopting a cat ourselves (even though we both had cats growing up).
    That doesn’t mean we’re not touched by the sight of a cute little kitten that is obviously struggling. But our hearts are calloused enough that while we might show it a little kindness, we aren’t going to swoop in and save the kitten from its struggles— the price is too high and we’ve just seen too many kittens like that.
    Even as we recognize this callousing of our hearts, we worry that the same callousing could happen to human suffering. How many people ask us for money? How many people need work? How many children could use more help in school? Everyone is struggling. People are truly poor. The islands’ economy and education systems are a mess. But we also know the costs of getting too heavily involved. We know the risks of dependency, and that certain types of giving and helping ultimately end up hurting or de-empowering people. 

Black kitten hiding from us

 We don’t want to be calloused to human suffering, but when we are asked again and again, we know there has to be limits.
    So what’s the answer? How do we keep our hearts supple? Prayer is a big part of it. Making sure we are still willing to be part of solutions. Maybe we can’t tackle every problem, maybe we can’t or shouldn’t provide a full solution, but maybe we can still do something. And maybe there is a problem that God is wanting us to help with. We need to maintain that openness to help, even if in a majority of the situations we won’t do much— we can be open and we can pray.
    These new kittens really aren’t that bad off. They still have their mother, and our neighbors have been leaving scraps out in the hopes of encouraging cats and thereby discouraging rodents. They have a place to sleep out of the rain. They actually have a better chance than most kittens here. But how many people are in a real bad place. We have seen the requests for food and money increase. There have been lots of storms and people are complaining that all the rain and wind has ruined a bunch of crops— making for higher food prices and less income for farming families. The public schools have been out of session more than they’ve been in session this school year so far.  So we give when there are requests, Tom has continued with literacy lessons with our one young friend, and we pray. God, keep our hearts supple and show us how you want to use us.

Reuniting at Clove Island airport

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Megan was finally able to meet with small group of island sisters that had been meaning to start studying for months and there are plans for this week too. Tom made it back home safely (if a little sick) and has started feeling better. It has been wonderful to have him back and hear what he learned at the conference. We are excited that a new team for the small island is starting to take shape after lots of waiting— there are four new members in the pipeline!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
There were two shocking deaths this week. One was a like-minded colleague on the small island (originally from West Africa), who has partnered with our team there for years. He was in his home country, but his wife and teenage daughter were on the small island. We are thankful that our team there could come alongside the wife and daughter and support them as they heard the news, packed up and left the islands. Pray for them in their time of loss and this sudden uprooting from their island home, and for the hole left on the small island at the loss of this family.  The second death just happened yesterday— one of our landlord’s brother, a man we see nearly everyday, who wasn’t sick or particularly old, but died suddenly. Pray for all those in shock and that we could be voices of comfort and light to the extended family.  We have heard that there continues to be cases of cholera on the big island, including a few deaths— we pray that the public health efforts would be successful in helping contain this outbreak. Pray for us also as we had another incident of catching a young friend stealing from us. Pray for us as we try to consider what the repercussions should be for this breaking of trust.