Exploring Possibilities

 Our daughter is turning 17 next week, she’s taking the SAT on Saturday and finishing up her junior year of high school (that’s the second to last year).  Her school sent us a handbook for the college search process and encouraged us to talk to our kids about it over this break from school. It’s a big decision and there are so many different paths and factors and options to consider.

Tom and son on French Island

People respond differently to big decisions and to exploring the options and possibilities for the future. Even within our own little family, our older son and Megan like to imagine the different potential paths in their mind and can have fun thinking about how things could play out.  On the other hand, Tom and our daughter will only usually do it if they have to, but don’t gravitate towards it. While our younger son actively avoids it and would much rather someone else do the planning for him. This doesn’t mean that any of us are terribly decisive. Megan likes to explore the different possibilities, but that doesn’t mean that she’s quicker to making the final decision.

At our most recent English Club we talked with islanders about making decisions and what people do to help explore the options and make those decisions. It became clear that they weren’t very conversant on this topic. They weren’t used to thinking about decision-making as a process. By the end of our time, it seemed that usually for them decisions were just made and there wasn’t a drawn out process of research or getting advice or making pros/cons lists or comparing different options. On reflection, we think that many islanders don’t know how to do the research needed to explore different possibilities. Without research, they don’t really know what is possible unless someone presents it to them or they see someone else doing it.

We remember that when we first came to Clove Island, we were under pressure to start an English center. Clove Islanders saw this as something foreigners did, but then we took some Clove Islanders to an English teaching conference on the big island. They saw that islanders there were starting their own centers and programs. They came back with this new possibility in their minds and now we have the privilege of coming alongside 16 different centers/programs spread across Clove Island run entirely by islanders!

Unfortunately, not knowing how to do research well, means that islanders are often victims of scams. Possibilities are presented to them via email or online ads, and they don’t always know how to independently verify that something is legit. They don’t always question that they have to wire money in as an application fee or a formality in order to open up some great opportunity, not realizing that there is no opportunity. We know an island family that sold everything and gave up their house because they were sure that they had gotten a job in a different country and were just waiting for the airline tickets to be delivered any day. No tickets ever came, it was all fake.

Heading back to school

Our daughter was given a handbook and access to a database of different colleges, with search options, filters, side by side comparisons and more! She can trust the information. It was provided by her school and has been verified by others. She is privileged to have such resources and whether she likes the process or not, she has the tools to guide her.

Or at least they can start to guide her. There is still the most important factor.  The God factor. All the resources and charts and information doesn’t necessarily help you know what you should decide. God can use those things as tools, but ultimately we look to Him to give us the discernment— to close and open doors, and to grant us the peace as we step forward into the future.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Thank you for praying for our daughter. Her fever and other symptoms resolved and she was able to travel as planned. They made it safely to mainland Africa and back to school. Today is the first day of third term. Meanwhile Tom and our youngest son made it safely to the French island— they didn’t get sick on the overnight boat ride and were even able to get some sleep. They had an encouraging time visiting our colleagues there— the island has found a new normal post-cyclone. It is still not ideal and lots of repairs to buildings still need to be done but people are getting by, mostly in much more cramped living, working and school situations.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for islanders to not be the victims of scams and to be aware of different legitimate possibilities for their futures. Pray for God to guide us and our daughter as she begins to think about college. Tom and our youngest are just arriving back on Clove Island— pray for them as they jump back into life, work, and homeschool. Tom’s friend is supposed to meet with him to pray for a dream to decide which path is correct. Pray for the truth to become evident to him and for his heart to be open enough to accept it. Megan takes our daughter to the rheumatologist tomorrow— it has been a discouraging past few months for her arthritis. Pray for healing and better months ahead. Pray for our daughter— that she would stay healthy— colds/viruses hit her harder and lead to flare-ups in her arthritis. Pray especially for the first couple weeks as she has SAT and AP exams. Pray for Megan’s travels back to the islands and that she can travel back with some of our daughter’s refrigerated medications.