Prayers in the Time of Cholera

 A few weeks ago I was talking to some friends about cholera.  I told them that I had read an article that cholera cases were on the rise in Clove Island and that people should start taking precautions.  One of the men laughed, “It’s all a scheme,” he said. “I don’t know anyone who has had it.  I haven’t heard of anyone having it.  Do you know anyone who has had it?”  I told him I hadn’t.  “It’s not real.  The government knows it can make a lot of money from aid organizations.  It’s not a real crisis.”  At the time I couldn’t say whether he was right or wrong.  There is little trust in the corrupt local government.  Who’s to say they weren’t creating a crisis out of the hopes of getting some kickbacks?

Buckets arrive for handwashing stations

Fast forward a few weeks and yesterday, I was sitting on my porch talking to a friend, when a procession started marching by.  It sounded like a funeral processions, but the people weren’t dressed for a funeral.  I asked my friend what was going on.  “It’s a prayer for God to stop cholera.  They are walking all around the city, praying that the cholera outbreak would stop.”

How attitudes have changed in just a few short weeks!  But with good reason.  The number of cases, ( a dozen a few weeks ago) have grown to more than a hundred new cases each day.  I imagine the man who spoke of not knowing anyone infected could name more than one person he knows, as can we.  We know of at least 4 acquaintances who have been hospitalized for treatment.  Most people have started taking more precautions—some wear face masks, others have hand washing stations outside their businesses, many have stopped shaking hands and give a fist-bump instead.  There is even talk of the government initiating curfews and bans on public gatherings like schools and weddings.

In case you are starting to freak out about cholera and our safety, let’s take a moment to look at the reality concerning cholera:

New flowers

The truth is cholera, though an extremely unpleasant and potentially dangerous illness is quite treatable and avoidable and is not normally life threatening if handled properly..  The CDC writes, “With proper treatment, even severely ill patients can be saved.”  Moreover, treatment is relatively simple and cheap through rehydration therapy and basic antibiotics.  In the US, cholera is nearly nonexistent, near “eliminated by modern water and sewage treatment systems.”

Clove Island does not have “modern water and sewage treatment systems.”  Cholera is very treatable if you address it quickly, but people here do not trust the government, the health system, the things they hear about cholera.  So sometimes patients come to the hospital after days of suffering, at which point it may be too late.  Others refuse to go the hospitals at all and quickly pass away at home.

Neither is there good understanding about how the illness is spread.  As the prayer procession went by, my friend said, “Prayer is good, but they need to be changing their actions.”  I agreed with him until he told me that cholera is spread through bad chicken and moldy rice.  I spent some time trying to correct him, but I’m not sure he believed me.

We felt encouraged by the prayer procession.  Our friend’s comment that prayer should be followed by action is a good one, too.  Yesterday’s prayer procession shows that islanders are now taking the situation seriously.  And they are right to call on God for mercy.  For He is full of mercy and love. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

A break in the rain, but more clouds forming

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Everyone was able to travel safely after our gathering, including some visitors from the US who left just before the bad weather arrived.  We are thankful for some cooler weather.  We are thankful for our kids back at school doing okay and getting back into the routines of their classes.  

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We pray with islanders for mercy and an end to this epidemic! Pray for those who are sick, that they would recover quickly.  Pray for those inclined to stay at home to get the help they need.  Pray for people to take action and proper precautions against this epidemic. Pray for wisdom for the leaders who must make difficult decisions during these days.  We are also experiencing lots of rain on the islands. Some areas are suffering with significant flooding, which can also precipitate the spread of this illness.  Flooding is also affecting the area where our kids go to school in Kenya. There was a landslide not far from campus where people lost their lives. The campus is secure but the community is suffering. Again, we pray for mercy and that the rains would abate. There is meant to be a gathering on Wednesday with brothers and sisters, pray that it would be an encouragement to all to be lights in dark times.  Pray for our house, which has some serious roof cracks and leaks that will probably require some significant repairs.  Pray for our relationship with our landlord, who we like a lot, to not be strained by this expensive repair issue.

Ideas Take Work

 “When would be a good date for the next big gathering?” This question was followed by various comments and some back and forth until a date was chosen.

Flowers by the coast on big island

“Now, who will be part of a small group to organize it?” This second question was followed by lots of silence, people looking down and not making eye contact.

Everyone was happy with the idea of a big gathering, but it didn’t seem that anyone was actually wanting to put in the work to make it happen. The woman who asked the question doubled down and said that it needed to be new people, not the same people who organized the last gathering. With that statement, she let some people (myself included), who may have been close to being guilted into volunteering, off the hook. At the same time, she was challenging people who don’t see themselves as ‘organizers’, perhaps simply because they have never done it before. Ultimately, there was no decisions made— she told everyone to go away and think about it.

It wasn’t long before I started to doubt whether the gathering would happen (or at least as soon as was suggested). People liked the idea, but ideas require someone to actually be passionate enough about it to work for it. Ideas need some passion to see them become a reality.

As we oversee teams over three islands, we see that there are different kinds of people. There are idea people— who have lots of big ideas. There are refiners— people that take other people’s ideas and make them better. There are implementers— people who figure out how to make ideas a reality. There are finishers— people who push the team to complete things.

Idea of clean porch meant lots of work scrubbing

There are more possible roles and different ways of talking about it (see various personality tests about how people work), but we see that we can’t always stay in our preferred roles.  On our first team we did a lot of personality tests to evaluate the different roles on our team and the gaps. It wasn’t a bad thing, but we learned to be wary of these tests.  They can be great tools for self-awareness, but also for excuses.  Sometimes hearing what their ‘preferred role’ was, meant team members would pigeon-hole themselves and refuse to do anything else.  They weren’t naturally inclined or gifted in such and such, so how could anyone expect them to do that?  But what if you’re on a team with no natural idea people or no implementers or no finishers? The danger is that your team will just stagnate because it doesn’t have the right combination of people to push things along.

Sometimes there are tasks that no one is particularly excited to do. There is the grunt work that just has to get done in order for the ideas that we like to happen. We have been trying to teach our youngest son this lesson more as we try to shepherd him towards more responsibility. We aren’t going to always do things for him. The things we did when he was young, he’ll need to do for himself if he really wants them to happen. He loves our family traditions— including our traditional day off with pancakes in the morning, a family movie with popcorn and maybe a dessert. But does he love them enough to do the work to make them happen?  What about the parts of family life that he doesn’t care about as much, is he wiling to serve the family to make things that someone else might love happen?

Some family time

Ideas take work to make them a reality. We can’t make them all happen. Some shouldn’t happen. So we pray that when there is an idea that should be done, we would be able to discern it and then have the passion and perseverance to put in the work to see it through from start to finish!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We made it safely to the big island and had some wonderful days connecting with our colleagues from the other islands during our annual gathering. We did something different with a lot more time in singing and the Word— it went well and seemed to be a blessing to our group. Our older two kids made it safely back to school and we had some good final time as a family before having to say goodbye. It sounds like people back on Clove Island are starting to take health precautions more seriously with businesses setting up handwashing stations and more education. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray that the lessons we learned during our annual gathering would stay with us and inspire us to live differently. We travel back to Clove Island tomorrow. Pray for us and our kids as we get used to being separated again. We had some good times catching up with our colleagues on the big island, but it is clear that this year is a year full of transitions— pray for God’s grace to abound to them all and protect them and the work as people come and go. The medical team are headed for some vacation— pray that it would be restorative and that on their return that the newer family would have the authorization finalized to begin working in the hospital on the plateau (they had a meeting with authorities on the big island, so hopefully it will finally go through).

The Bread of Life

 We recently read about the aftermath of 5000 people being fed miraculously on a hillside.  The story of that miracle is well known, but we don’t always read about the aftermath. 

Tom and friends on holiday

After the crowds  had had their fill, they wanted more, so they followed the provider of the food across a lake and when they found him they asked for more.  But instead of giving them food to eat, he gave them words.  And they didn’t like the words.  They were uncomfortable words.  Before long, many people went away grumbling.  No food.  Uncomfortable words.  So the teacher turned to his friends and asked, “Do you want to go away, too?”  Peter answered him, “…to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…”

As so often happens, the words we study seem to speak to our situation. This time it is the situation we are experiencing now with three friends.

One friend comes by the house to sell us things.  A long time ago we created a habit of praying and reading together.  It was nice reading together.  He clearly liked the words.  And he’s always likes to pray—especially for the needs of his family—and they always have lots of needs.  The money we give him for the things he sells helps out with that.  It used to be a regular thing for us to read and pray.  But now, every time I ask, “Do you want to read?”  The answer is “Maybe next time.”

Another friend comes by with even greater needs.  I’ve made it a habit to feed him whenever he comes, because more often than not he tells me he hadn’t had anything to eat the night before.  He hardly ever leaves without asking for something—rice, oil, sugar, taxi money.  I give it to him.  But in between the food and the asking, we read.  He loves the reading.  When I ask, “Do you want to read to today?” More often than not, his answer is, “Yes. Of course!” We read and we discuss and we pray and I see genuine joy there.  He doesn’t always understand.  Sometimes I’m not even sure if he agrees, but he loves it.  He tells me he reads or listens every day.  I hope it’s true.

Before the month of fasting, I had wondered what the month would mean for our relationship.  I wouldn’t be able to feed him as I’d been doing—everyone is expected to be fasting.  Would he change his schedule and start coming late at night—when eating is permissible?  But unexpectedly, the situation changed completely as he traveled to the Big Island for the month of fasting!  He’s still there.  But he got in touch with one of my friends on the Big Island and they have been reading together regularly!  His hunger for the words of life continues.

Our kids and neighbor kids on holiday

I have one other friend.  A few years ago we read a lot together.  We read story after story until one day he got to a story he would not accept.  He told me so.  “I don’t agree with this,” he told me flat out.  Shortly after that we stopped reading together.  He was not invested in our friendship for what he could get out of it.  He simply wanted to hear the words.  But when the words got uncomfortable, he stopped listening.  I would see him now and then.  Lately, he would greet me with a fervency and intensity that made me wonder—has something changed for him?  He seemed to be hinting that something was different, but he was yet to tell me about it.

Then a few days after Easter he came over to my house.  His excuse was to ask for money!  (The big holiday was coming and we get lots of requests this time of year for a little help.)  But as he sat down with me, it became clear that he had really come to talk.  He asked me question after question.  And though he asked challenging questions, he seemed satisfied with the answers given him.  At one point he asked a question that I didn’t answer well and amazingly, he supplied a better answer as if perhaps he had been thinking these things through on his own.  At the end of the conversation he asked if we could start reading together again.  I’m convinced that that was the real purpose of his visit.  I don’t think he really wanted money at all.

I don’t begin to claim that I know the heart of any of these men.  I don’t know what’s going on with them deep down.  But I see similarities to the story.  Some are in it just for the food.  When the food runs out, they have no reason to stay.  Some are in it while the words are pleasing, but when they get challenging, they reject them.  But a few hear the words and know it gives life and hunger for more.  We pray for more with such a hunger.

Celebrating our daughter's dunking and new life

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The big holiday went well. Tom and the boys went and visited good friends and neighbors, sharing greetings and blessings, while Megan and our daughter greeted people at our house. The month of fasting is over and we were able to go to the river and cool off. This past weekend we were able to celebrate our daughter twice— first celebrating her 16th birthday early (she’ll be at boarding school on the actual day) and then celebrating the new life she is embracing with God with the traditional dunking in the water. We were blessed with a beautiful day and an uncrowded beach. We are so thankful for the beautiful woman of God she is becoming.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Cholera cases have picked up on Clove Island and we have personally known a family that had several members hospitalized. Pray that the spread of disease would stop and that islanders would take precautions seriously. This coming week, we will travel to the big island and the weekend will be spent with our colleagues who work on both the big and small islands. We hope to listen and sense how God might be moving us as a group— pray that we would be attentive listeners and ready vessels for Him. Our two older kids will leave from the big island to go back to school. Pray for all the logistics of packing up and traveling and for a smooth transition back to school for the last term of the year. There are several future possibilities for new workers to the islands at various points in the pipeline— pray for good discernment for all involved and that the right workers would come to the right teams with the right timing.

Too Good to Be True

 It is so common at this time of year that it’s almost a daily occurrence.  Entering a shop, or passing by on the street, someone who looks a bit tired and irritable (who you may or may not know) looks up at you from where they are sitting, hardly moving and asks, “Are you fasting?”  Or if they’re really cranky, “You’re not able to fast, are you?”

Food waiting for the breaking of the fast

We’ve been answering this question for years, but each year we think about our answers in new ways.  You see, this question is at once a challenge and an open door.  A challenge, because it can make us feel small, the outsider, the disobedient ones who don’t join in the communal fast.  But it’s also an open door because it’s a question, and a question begs a response.  And the response is an opportunity.  It’s an opportunity to touch a nerve, challenge a preconceived thought, share a bit of love and compassion, open a door.  It’s also an opportunity to close a door, offend, and reinforce a stereotype.  We take our responses both seriously and loosely.  Seriously in that we want to be thoughtful and ready, but also loosely knowing that we are not the One who can change people’s hearts.

As I walked into one shop this week a man I didn’t know asked me, “How’s the month of fasting going?”  I like it when they ask in this way.  It feels a lot less combative than the normal question.  Because I can just answer, “It’s going great!”  Before he could ask me the follow up question, “Are you fasting?” I let him know. “But I’m not fasting.”  Then I explained to him how my fast is already complete.  My king has already paid the price for the forgiveness of my sin, so I don’t have to.  So you see, my fast is already completed.  He laughed at this.  It wasn’t a mean-spirited laugh.  More like a “if you only realized what you are saying” sort of laugh.

Morning view over our town

And I can understand what he means.  I’m a fan of the old adage, “Too good to be true.”  In this world, if you come across something that sounds too good to be true, it probably means something fishy is going on.  If the price is too low you want to know what’s wrong with the product.  What’s the catch?  And more often than not, there is a catch.  I know that what I said to the guy in the shop must sound a lot like that:

“You’re telling me I don’t have to fast.  I don’t have to pay my dues.  I don’t have to work hard—that forgiveness will just be given to me as a gift?  Too good to be true!”  He’s probably thinking.

Street sellers' deals- too good to be true?

But if we are honest we know that sometimes—sometimes it’s not too good to be true.  Sometimes—sometimes it is so good and it is true.  Sometimes on rare occasions, the price really is that low.  Sometimes we are in the right place at the right time.  Sometimes, in our moments of great need, someone gives us the help or the money or the chance that we’d been waiting for and we don’t see it as too good to be true, but as a great gift we would never refuse.  Sometimes—sometimes, at just the right time we are given something truly good and only a fool would question it.    

But even with these windfalls, there’s still a catch.  If you look a little deeper, you’d see it.  As my economics teacher used to say, “There’s no free lunch.  If you didn’t pay for it—someone did.”  And that is true in this case too.  This gift of forgiveness I have received comes at great cost.  A cost so great that, if I take it into my heart, I will want to give my whole life in thankful sacrifice for it.  It is a cost so full of sacrificial love that I will want to turn around and fast and work hard and serve and sacrifice too.  But not to pay my dues—No!  Rather out of gratitude for a life transformed.  Someone had to die to pay my dues—the greatest cost of all.  But the debt has been paid.  So I can live my life forever indebted in love to the one who forgave my debt.  My fast was completed for me, but my life is transformed—too true and too good.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
There was a nice women’s gathering this past week meeting at a local sister’s house. There was some honest discussions about their struggles. Our daughter wants to celebrate her acceptance of the good news and to be dunked here on the islands this coming weekend! One sister shared about how she sees things changing on the islands and is hopeful for a day when things will be more free.  An island brother shared with us that he has 7 different people in his village that are looking to study with him. Tom had some good exchanges with people after sending out Easter greetings to people. One man, who studied with Tom years ago, says he wants to start studying again!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
It has been painfully hot and humid lately. This has been coupled with increasing electricity cuts. Pray for a relief from the heat and for power for fans through the nights. This coming week will be the biggest holiday of the island year, ending the month of fasting. We will get a chance to see and greet many island friends and neighbors during the day— pray that we would have good interactions and increasing opportunities to go deep with islanders. In under two weeks we will be having our annual gathering for our group’s workers— pray that all the logistics and planning would come together and that we would all be prepared to hear God guide and direct us.

Life to Come

Knowing how long we have changes our perspective. There has been a lot of death lately. Lots of times where it has come up in conversation, a reminder that we never know the day or time.

View from our sunrise service on Sunday

Some think this life is it. A colleague’s father was questioning her about why we would choose these ‘harder’ lives on the islands and not choose to be comfortable. My friend’s answer was that this life and how comfortable we are isn’t the main thing. This life isn’t the end all— we have a whole other life after. The life to come is more important. It is that life that will not end. This is just the backstory for the main event.

As I was talking with my island friend, Nanasi, someone who is often concerned about money and status, I shared this sentiment.  Like many islanders, she was quick to agree with me, but she took it in a different direction than I wanted. “Yes, that is why we need to do good things here so we can have it good in that life.”

A well-timed bloom

I was quick to shut that line of thought down. No, it’s not about getting it good in the life to come, the focus isn’t on different types of human pleasure, it’s about being together with God, being in His presence.

But God is perfect. He can’t accept sin, so He can’t accept us because we all carry sin in us. A bunch of good deeds doesn’t change that fact. We can’t come to God on our own— we can only be brought to Him.

We can work as much as we want building our own road to God, but we have to realize that a road has already been paved and cleared for us. In order to know the way and in order to be let in, we have to be brought along by the road-builder Himself.

During this month of fasting, we see so many people struggling to build a road to God, thinking that each fasted day and each prayer said is another brick laid on their path, while at the same time never knowing if they will have reached far enough before the end. Throughout this month, we’ve tried to joyfully proclaim that we aren’t struggling to make a road. “The way has already been opened for us!  We already know we will be with God in the life to come!”

Nanasi smiled, but I saw the puzzlement in her eyes as she listened to these sentiments and as she gave the standard response to any comment about the future, “God willing.”

Our son turns 14!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We praise God that we have Risen Savior who has conquered the grave. We are thankful for various Easter celebrations across the islands.  We especially enjoyed our own sunrise service on the top of the tallest building in Clove Island!  We continue to be thankful to have all our kids home with us and for our older son turning 14! We were able to find some fun ways to celebrate his birthday. We are thankful that Muki continues to study with our friends while he is visiting the big island.  We are thankful for many opportunities we’ve had this month to talk of the road that is already built for us and the way that lies open to all who choose it.  

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We just got word last night that a former neighbor just died. She was older but not sickly. The burial and first day of funeral events was today. Continue to pray that we might be a light to those who are grieving and thinking about the realities of death and the life to come.  The month of fasting continues.  Pray that we would be strong through it, to speak boldly of the path that has already been laid and the futility of building your own path.  Pray that we could balance well the time with all our kids and the joy it is to have them around with the regular responsibilities of work and life.  Pray for the idea of having a big group gathering— it’s not clear if it will happen during the month of fasting or if it will wait until after when people from far away can come.