Giving Thanks in All Circumstances

We’re thankful that we have a special day marked out for the giving of thanks. It is refreshing and humbling to remember all that we have to be thankful for from the past year. We take the time to look at photos and remember all that’s happened— so many good things.

Thankful for Thanksgiving chickens!

But we have a memory verse that we learned many years ago and it doesn’t say, “give thanks on the 4th Thursday in November,” or “give thanks when you have a day off and have lots of yummy food to eat,” or “give thanks when everything is going well and you’re feeling good.” It says, “give thanks in all circumstances.”

Now we had lots of good circumstances this year… There were some awesome months in the US reconnecting with so many friends and so much of our family, enjoying the outdoors, making some of our kids’ wishes come true, sharing with people about the islands. There were great times on the islands: our outstanding team, welcoming a new teammate, seeing God work in island hearts, seeing our kids grow.

But there were plenty of hard circumstances too… there was illness and pain, there was death and grief, there were carefully laid plans falling apart, there was saying goodbye to our daughter and leaving her at boarding school, there were rising prices and shortages, there was corruption and unrest, there were tales of violence and tragedy. There are many circumstances that we call out to God, asking for a change in the circumstances. But the verse doesn’t say, “give thanks once the circumstances change.” It says, “give thanks in all circumstances.”

Thankful for son cooking!

Not that we pretend that the hard circumstances don’t exist. Not that we close our eyes to the darkness around us— but we ask God for the ability to give thanks in the midst of it all. Today is the first day of Advent and the theme of the day is hope. We give thanks that God gives us hope in the hard circumstances. Thank you God for sustaining us through illness and pain, for meeting us in our grief and allowing us to cry, for orchestrating our failed plans into new opportunities that we wouldn’t have pursued otherwise. We thank you for a wonderful boarding school, where our daughter is thriving. We are thankful that in the midst of shortages and inflation we have always had enough. We thank you for the vision that one day spears and swords will be turned into farming tools and people will no longer think or plan for war and violence.  We thank you for the hope that change is possible.

Looking back at the year, it may be easier to be thankful for lots of the circumstances that were hard in the moment. We can smile now, but at the time there were no smiles. That’s a good reminder too— thank you God that some day I will be able to see your hand in this and be thankful!

Whether it was easy or difficult to be thankful this long weekend, we hope you had some good times of reflection with grateful hearts, rejoicing and giving thanks!

Thankful for cooling downpours

PRAYERS ANSWERED


Our teammates had a great trip to the French island and the visitor had a good, if short visit here too.  We are thankful for people visiting our island and our teammates being able to go and visit others.  We are thankful that our daughter is on her way here.  Unfortunately, the Sunday flight (as it often is) was canceled, so we have to wait to see her until tomorrow, but we will be thankful in every circumstance.  We are thankful that she finished her term well and is able to come back to us and stay with us for a whole month.  We are thankful for the beginning of advent and the joy and traditions that it brings to our family and the opportunities it gives us to share with our island neighbors.  We are thankful that our teammate and the printer were able to finalize our annual proverbs calendars that are being brought by our daughter— we look forward to giving those out and the openings they will provide for good conversations. We thankful for some cooling rain in the past few days!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
We are still waiting to hear the results of the trial of the former president.  So far, things have remained calm.  Pray that the days ahead with our daughter at home could be marked with lots of lasting memories and special times together.  Pray that we would be able to find the balance between celebrating having her around and giving her space to do her own thing as well as remembering that we still have jobs to do too.  Pray for our friend Uhaju and Tom to be able to start meeting this week to study a story set together.  Pray for his continued growth.  Pray for the island sisters that have struggled to find a time to gather and study this month.

Picking up Burdens and Putting them Down

Sometimes it feels like everything we do is about balance.  Stray too much to one side and fall down a slippery slope, but stray too much to another side and there is another slope, another undesirable extreme.

Island men exiting after prayers

The current lesson we’re learning is not unique to this place or to this moment.  And like so many things in our lives, it is about balance. Could this be one aspect of what He meant when he talks about the narrow path?  It seems like finding balance is finding a narrow path between the slopes.  In this case, the area requiring balance is in carrying each other’s burdens.

The verse says, “Carry each other’s burdens…”  What does it mean to carry each other’s burdens?  We think it means to come along side, listen well, understand the situations, problems, fears and anxieties of another and offer support—sometimes words of encouragement, sometimes a commiserating sigh, sometimes a call to action, sometimes physical or material help, sometimes a reminder of the truth.  Always prayer.  

One narrow path of this lesson is compassion, love and empathy—all excellent things.  We are meant to feel and feel deeply.  The Spirit stirs in us even greater compassion, greater love, greater empathy for others.  He is the one who makes it possible for us to carry each other’s burdens.  

And we are called to do it for each other.  There will be times where we will carry that burden for someone and there will be times when they will carry the burden for us.   

Living on the islands we’ve learned to carry many burdens.  New teammates struggle with culture shock, language learning and the difficulty of living in a new culture.  Sometimes we struggle with our teammates through problems happening back home—in their home country thousands of miles away.  Sometimes we struggle with interpersonal conflict and people not getting along on our teams.  We carry islanders burdens too.  People struggling without enough money.  People sharing with us their hard decisions (which we may think wise or foolish). Sometimes we are called to love people who are hard to love.  Carrying others’ burdens comes in many forms and we can be overwhelmed by all the needs. It is too much for us.

Tom & teacher training class

The slippery slope on this side is to love too little—to lack in compassion or empathy.  It is easy to become jaded.  It is easy to harden our hearts.  It is easy to avoid difficult people and difficult situations.  It is easy to keep our burdens to ourselves and keep others at arms’ length.  It is often easier to just feel a little bit less of their pain and stay away from the mess.  But that is not what we are called to.  We are called to love deeply, to serve each other, to honor others above ourselves, and to carry each other’s burdens.

But there is another side to the lesson.  As we’ve learned to pick up and carry and join in the burdens of others, we’ve made the mistake of making the burdens our own.  When a teammate struggles, our hearts can start to worry, what will become of them?  As an island friend makes a poor decision, we ask ourselves, why didn’t we give them better advice?  As two people struggle to get along, we agonize over how we might bring them to a place of understanding.  What can we say? What can we do to fix it?  It is a slippery slope that can lead to deep fear, anxiety and burnout.

What have we done?  We’ve taken up the burdens of others and made them our responsibility.  Why do we do this?  Perhaps out of fear for them and the situation?  But more often it is out of a desire to control and because of pride—as if we are the ones who can fix it.  As if it all hinges on us.  As a team we’ve been reading Henri Nouwen.  He challenged us this past week with these words,

“Without realizing it, the people I came to live with made me aware of the extent to which my leadership was still a desire to control complex situations, confused emotions and anxious minds.”  (italics added)

Notice that where one side of the slope is to love too little and lack compassion, the other side of the slope is not to love too much.  No!  We can love extravagantly, but we have to learn to put down the burdens—or better yet transfer them to the only one who can handle them.  “Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.”  

On this side of the narrow path we have had to learn the lesson of letting go.  Let go of the burden and give up control.  Pray.  Give control over to the only one who can really do something about it.  But we find that we are continually tempted to pick up the burden again—to examine it, to feel its weight.  Even when we have decided to let go, it is easy to spend a sleepless night picking up the burden we know we were supposed to put down.  

After haircuts

So the lesson is learning to really let go.  We carry each others burdens, but not forever.  No!  We know exactly where to take them, and together we take them to the foot of the cross and leave them there.  We must leave them there…

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful that when we do lay our burdens before Him, He is so faithful in answering, either in relieving us of our burdens or giving us the grace and strength to endure. May we remember and be thankful! Our teammates made it safely to the French Island (though we’re not sure that they enjoyed the boat trip much) and the first day of short-termer orientation went well. A former worker made it safely back to the island for a visit— we pray that he would able to speak words of encouragement, challenge and inspiration to his island friends while he is here.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
The islands government has decided to finally take the former president to trial (after 4.5 years of house arrest with no charges). We imagine that this trial could lead to significant unrest— pray with us to peace, justice and fair governance on the islands! Please continue to pray for our daughter as she takes her final exams this week, packs up her dorm room and travels to the islands. The sisters haven’t been able to have their monthly meeting for November yet, pray that it would work out to meet this week and that they continue to grow together. We are hoping that she can make a same-day connection on Sunday, but interisland flights are notorious for cancellations and schedule changes. It would be a nice gift to our family to have her back on Sunday and not have to spend another night away. Pray the interisland afternoon flight isn’t changed or cancelled and that she can make the connection.

Freak Out or Trust

We started to hear rumblings of a possible strike a week before I traveled.  The pilots were unhappy and would strike if the company did not meet their demands.  But travel from the islands is complicated.  It takes multiple days.  First you have to fly from our island (Clove Island) to the big island. Then you spend a night on the big island and fly out the next day, because there are usually no connecting same day flights.  That’s the normal way of things. 

Tom & our daughter reunited

So I had already flown to the Big Island when word came out that the pilots had gone on strike.

This is the moment to freak out.  Or at least that’s what something inside us tells us.  But if we’ve learned anything from living on the islands, we’ve learned to be more flexible.  In fact, we’ve learned that these are opportunities for spiritual growth.  So we try to swallow that impulse to freak out because the other option is to trust. Who is in control?  Who holds all things in His hands?  Who knew there would be a pilot strike?  Who will make a way for us?  So I took some deep breaths, tried to remember these truths and proceeded with plan B.

Plan B was to wait for the airline to put us on alternative flights, and since my flight was no longer leaving Sunday morning, I might as well go and join the fellowship of my brothers and sisters on the big island.  So I did, and it was great.  But after the gathering, I had a message on my phone.  The airline wanted to put us on a flight with another airline, routing through another city in a more distant country than my destination and arriving the next day at 2am—yuck!

Our boys moved up karate belts!

There was another airline that had a flight out and a much nicer schedule, arriving in the evening, not the middle of the night.  Unfortunately, the two airlines don’t work with one another.  It would mean getting reimbursed for the one ticket and buying another.  My teammate was on the same flight as me, so we talked about what to do and agreed to try to get on the other flight.  I said a quick prayer and went about buying the ticket.

As soon as I bought the ticket, I received a text that the airline I had just booked tickets with minutes before had had a crash that day.  Time to freak out, right?  More deeps breaths.  There was little I could do about it now.  The tickets had been bought.  An airline that has just had a crash will probably be extra careful after that, right?  So maybe we would actually be safer—assuming the airline kept flying…but I had no control over that.  All I could do was wait and see if the airline would still be flying the next day.  So I prayed—for patience, peace, and for the airline to still be running the next day, and then went about the rest of the day visiting and enjoying unexpected time with colleagues from the big island.  I’m not saying I did all this without any worry in my heart, but I tried to remind myself, when worry came, that my Father’s got this.

I am not trying to paint myself as a perfect saint in all this—it was exercise in trust (needed practice in strengthening those trust muscles).  In some ways the Father went easy on me, one thing that made it all a whole lot easier was that I was traveling without Megan and the kids.  It’s easier to trust and to roll with things when you don’t have to worry about feeding a family or about 5 people’s bags.  That would have been a lot more stressed.  It was a sign, actually, that our Father was in control.  Megan and I had considered going to this conference as a family—strongly considered it—but in the end had decided it was best just for me to go.  So there was provision in that too.

Tom's airport meal

Opportunities to trust in His provision continued.  Though I had bought the plane tickets and it was confirmed that the purchase had gone through, I had yet to receive the actual tickets to my email.  So my teammate and I arrived at the airport the next morning, without tickets and not knowing if there would be any flight at all.  But as we waited for the check-in counter to open, our tickets arrived to my inbox and the plane arrived on the tarmac.  In a few hours we were in the air and on our way.

The rest of the trip was more or less uneventful.  It did include a 7 hour layover that became a 9 hour layover in an airport that had no dining facilities. (I had a soda and potato chips for dinner—that was all that was available.)  But we eventually arrived at our destination, tired and thankful, and for the most part—without freaking out.  God is good.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Megan and our son are feeling better.  There was a gathering to give condolences to Elewa for the death of her sister. It was a time of prayer and sharing words and passages of encouragement. The grief is still painful but we are thankful for Elewa staying grounded in the Father. We’re thankful for the conference that Tom was able to attend and that almost all participants were able to make it eventually despite the strike. We are thankful that Tom was able to spend two nights at our daughter’s school and have all day Saturday with her. We’re thankful that flights started back up before Tom’s return flight and he made it back home to Clove Island today!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
The weather is heating up on the islands— pray for our team’s energy as we go into hot season, that we’d know when to rest and have relief in the form of rain and fans when we need it. Pray for our two teammates going to the French Island for the first time at the end of the week— they will be helping with the orientation of new short-termers there. Pray for an uneventful boat trip, that they could be helpful and have fun, and that they would have new insights into how to pray for the French Island. Pray that the short-termers would be inspired to long-term work. Our daughter is going into the end of her first term of high school, including the stress of final exams. Pray that she can study well and not be too stressed.

Determination: Take 2

Two young women, sisters, have been coming to our English Club recently.  As they were leaving last week, we met their mother on the street.  She is a delightful woman and extremely proud of her daughters, who both speak English so well.  She asked us seriously, what it would take for her daughters to study in the US.  So we began to explain some of the process, how expensive it was, how much time it took.  We told her it was the sort of decision you should make with the whole family because it will be very difficult and costly.  We’ve known very few islanders who have been able to study in the United States. We knew it was probably discouraging for them to hear, but we didn’t want them to get their hopes up.

Many students want to study abroad

Almost exactly one year ago, we wrote a blog about El-Azima and his attempts to study in the US.  We wrote about the difficulties and time spent in filling out countless different applications and financial aid forms.  But we never followed up with what happened.  Well, El-Azima got all his applications in last year, but then he never found a way to take the English proficiency exam required by most colleges.  So he was not accepted anywhere.  All that work… wasted, because he couldn’t find a way to take an English proficiency exam.

Well, a few weeks ago El-Azima showed up at the office and asked if we could help him with applications again. We had our answer ready—“Take the English Proficiency exam first, and then we can talk about applications.”  We were not willing to waste more hours filling in forms with the same results.  But it turns out since the past year, there are now internationally recognized English Proficiency exams online.  All he needed was $50 to pay for the exam and he would be on his way…but El-Azima doesn’t even have $50.

Our son with new flower

Last year we helped El-Azima a lot and at the end of that time it was clear that here is a young man who is undaunted, but to what end?  We saw all his transcripts—he was a pretty good student in school, but not the best. His English is good but not great. And hardest of all, his family has no money—really no resources.  His parents are subsistence farmers without any education.  In our opinion, maybe El-Azima could aim a bit lower.  Perhaps studying in an anglophone country in Africa (where these tests might not even be required) would be more within his reach and more realistic for his family.  So we didn’t offer to pay for the test.

Somehow, El-Azima found the money to take the test, and so we helped him with a computer and internet connection.   He did not do very well.  He scored well below the minimum of what most colleges demand.  So when he came to me asking help to apply to colleges again, I had a hard thing to say, “We are really sorry, but you need to get a higher score on the language test if you want more help.”  He left and that seemed to be the end of it.  

But El-Azima is determined.  He went ahead and applied on his own, resubmitting his documents from the previous year, and the next we hear from him is that he’s been accepted with a $20,0000 scholarship to a small college in Pennsylvania! “Wow, congratulations. God bless you,”  we told him.  Apparently all that determination paid off.

Tom watching rugby at African airport

The next day he sent us a message asking what to do—he had just received an email asking him to pay a $500 enrollment fee. We explained to him for another time that the scholarship would not cover everything.  There would be many other fees besides this one—plane ticket, rent, books, food, etc.  How is he going to pay?  Undaunted he asked what he should do.  Frustrated, we suggested he call the university and ask them to help him.  So he asked us another question, how does he call the USA?

He is determined. Is determination enough?

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Tom was feeling much better this week and able to travel in good health.  He’s on his way to a conference in Kenya.  Some flour has come and bread is being made in the bakeries again, for which we are thankful! Our daughter had her first choir concert ever and they sounded great (we were sent clips)! We are thankful for these new experiences she is able to have there.  Tom finished successfully co-teaching a teacher training course with an island teacher this past week.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Tom is on his way to a conference in Kenya but the airline is on strike, making travel very difficult for him and many other participants. Meanwhile, Megan is home with our boys and our youngest son and Megan are sick.  Pray for traveling mercies for Tom and others, and health and strength for everyone while Tom is away.  This past week we were unexpectedly called to attend the funeral of an island sister’s family member.  Elewa’s biological sister died suddenly and unexpectedly.  This is another blow to all of us as it was only a few months ago that our brother Dimi lost his wife suddenly and unexpectedly.  Pray that the community can continue to gather around those who mourn and that they would find comfort.

Connecting

How do people connect? Or more importantly how do we connect other people to each other?

Connecting at an English Ceremony?

At an English class graduation ceremony this weekend I noticed how two teachers from different programs, different villages, different ages really connected.  They were talking about how to help each other and their English programs thrive.  Meanwhile two other teachers stood off to the side.  They also represented different villages, programs, ages—but they were not connecting in the same way.  What was going on?  Was it simply personality?  Or could there be something we are missing?

We are, admittedly, not natural networkers.  Some people seem to be able to create great webs of connection and relationships and help connect people to one another.  We are not gifted at this.  Yet we realize the necessity of helping make connections if we want to see communities grow on the islands.

It is often a challenge for us on the islands—what connects people and what doesn’t?  It seems more complicated than in America. In America it seems like a fairly simple formula: 

[Similar Interests] x [Shared Time] = [Greater Connection]

We know it’s more complicated than that, but lots of friendships start around these building blocks.  But it does not seem to work that way in the islands.  Take for instance, similar interests.  We have tried, over the years to bring brothers or sisters together for regular meetings—people that should have similar interests—but time and again, most attempts to create connection by simply creating shared time have failed.  Similar Interests and Shared Time usually are not enough.  The connections may continued for as long as the foreigners are organizing it, but once they stop the connection falls apart.

So what does seem to bond islanders together?  Interest and shared time do play roles.  We have seen people bond because of English and become a sort of social group.  We see this also with sports teams and drumming groups or school groups.

Connecting at a cultural event?

Another things that bonds people together is self-interest.  It pains us to say it, but many relationships are based on gain.  One good island friend will talk about this in a shameless way.  “Relationships are how you get anything out of this life.  They are more important than money.  I have gotten so many things from being friends with you.”  He is not talking about abstract things like love or knowledge. He means material things or advantages like a business opportunity or the gifts we bought him in the US. This can sound shallow to American ears, but is perfectly reasonable to islanders.  

But we’re not sure if mere social groups nor relationships based on self-interest carry a lot of trust for islanders. And trust is something we definitely desire in the connections we make.

So what else? Family and village are certainly a factor.  It’s just easier for an islander to trust someone who is from the same place —or even better shares some blood-relationship with them.  There is somehow the sense that someone from another place, someone with no relation, will eventually cheat you and can’t be trusted.  


So the island formula might look something like:

[Similar Interest] x [Shared Time] x [Similar Family/Village] x [Mutual Gain] = [Greater Connection]

All this could seem rather depressing. Take for instance, Uhaju, who is desperate for more community.  Recently we were able to bring him to a gathering where he was able to meet other brothers and sisters.  He was greatly encouraged by the meeting, but did any connection arise from it?  Time will tell, but nothing immediately has arisen.  Looking at the formula above, only 2 of the 4 factors had been filled.  Uhaju has no family/village connection that we are aware of.  And it seems there is little worldly profit for others to gain in a connection to him. But thankfully there is a higher power at work than this formula and we have seen a few examples of great connection happen between islanders, even when they were from different walks of life and different villages, even when one was poor and/or uneducated and didn’t have much to offer.  

Or maybe we’re looking at those outliers in the wrong way. Maybe all the factors of the formula have been fulfilled in those instances, but just in nontraditional ways.  Because in truth all of these factors are fulfilled in the good news that tells us we are one family, blessing each other, growing together (mutual gain) in our shared interests and desire to be together. Connection is possible, even against the odds. Perhaps we just need to pray for it!

Birthday Beach Outing

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Tom was sick this week, but we are thankful that he is feeling better and that we were still able to celebrate his birthday (just slightly more subdued). We’re thankful that Dimi made it safely back to the islands and that it seems like his trip was encouraging. Tom was able to get a multi-entry visa for Kenya, something we’ve never been able to get before but very helpful. Our teammate had a good final week on the island with lots of good interactions and is now on her way back to her home country.  


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Lots of people are sick on Clove Island right now with cold/flu like symptoms. Testing isn’t happening much anymore, so not sure if it is a COVID wave or something else, but everyone we talk to has someone in their family not doing well. Pray for healing and quick passing of this wave of illness. The women were meant to meet this week, but it’s unclear whether enough people are healthy. Pray that the meeting would still happen even if it needs to be postponed. We continue to pray for Uhaju and increasing connections between brothers and sisters on the islands. Tom leaves Clove Island on Saturday for a week- pray for safe travels and connections. We read that the airline might have a pilot strike soon— pray that his flights still fly! Continue to pray for the islands amidst continuing shortages.

Why Was I Worried?

 It is humbling to realize how many times I have to learn the same lesson.

Some lessons we’ve managed to learn. When hardships come, we know that God will provide and in some situations we don’t even notice the potential hardships because we have grown to trust that we will be provided for and it will all turn out okay. Thoughts that used to bother us and cause us to worry might still pop into our minds, but they don’t linger or take root in our hearts. In those situations we can remind ourselves of God’s promises, we can remember the lessons of His faithfulness in our past and be reassured.

Ready for school in France (2012)

But some areas in their life we are slow to learn.
 
One slow-learning area has been related to our kids. We knew when we answered the call to serve overseas that it would mean our future children would have unique blessings and hardships. We knew that (like all parents) our choices would greatly impact our kids.

But still anticipating hard times for our kids is rough. If there is a hardship that hits one of us parents or that is hitting the family as a whole, it’s easier to remember the lessons of God’s faithfulness, but if it’s just our kids, the troubling thoughts are more likely to linger and more likely to take root in worry. In worry, our minds come up with lots of reasons why the current situation is unique, how the factors are new, thereby subconsciously trying to convince our hearts that these new factors somehow invalidate the previous examples of provision.

When our oldest daughter was set to start school, we happened to be in France. We had only arrived days before. She had never been to school. The school would be all in French with native French speakers. She didn’t know any French. She was starting mid-year with a group of kids that all knew each other already. My mind had lots of reasons why this could be really hard on her. Would she cry? cling to my leg? be miserable? We prayed about it and got others praying, but it was still with nervousness and worry that I walked to school with her on the first day. That’s when God (through our daughter) totally astounded me. As soon as we got to the door, our daughter ran right in without being told, without a backward glance and started doing a puzzle at one of the tables with another child. Even the teacher was surprised and assumed our daughter had been to school before. I saw it for what it was, a lesson that God was answering prayers and watching over our daughter. I didn’t need to worry.

School on the islands (2014)

This early lesson hasn’t stopped us from worrying multiple times with our kids at school. When we transitioned to the islands, the new factors were the facts that they were the only foreign kids, and that island teachers didn’t work very hard to make things fun or interesting, preferring to use fear and shame as motivators for learning. Still somehow our daughter’s transition to island school went fine. Next it was the fact that our three kids are different— our daughter was fine, but our sons have unique factors that might have made school more difficult for them. We could feel worry creeping into our hearts.

And to be honest, sometimes island school has been difficult. But each time we’ve hit a major transition point and gotten ourselves worked up about it and proceeded to get people to pray, God has answered in amazing ways and left me questioning, “why was I so worried?”

So now to the latest lesson— lots of new factors to feed the worry machine… high school, boarding school! (with all the accompanying challenges), our older (easily bored) son only doing homeschool, our youngest at local school by himself having struggled with French— it was easy to imagine that this fall could have left all three of our kids really struggling (or at least that’s what worry told our hearts). We’ve prayed a lot and even though I know it shouldn’t surprise us anymore, we have been amazed by how well our kids are doing. I am humbled, because even as I knew that God is faithful and I knew He had provided in similar circumstances, I had also prepared myself for this fall not going well.

Doing some homeschool art time! (this week)

I shouldn’t be surprised. Our daughter is doing great and seems to be thriving with friends, teachers and classes she really enjoys. Our sons have adjusted quickly to their new schooling situations. The older coming up with so many activities and things he wants to grow in that his schedule is full, leaving little time for boredom. The younger being blessed by an unusually patient island teacher and also understanding more French than he ever has.

Why was I worried again? Isn’t this the same lesson? Thankfully we have a very patient Father willing to provide us the same lessons again and again. And maybe soon, we will still remember to pray fervently and we will see Him be amazingly faithful, but we can skip the worrying part.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Praise that our three kids are all doing fine in their respective school situations.  Definitely an answer to prayer.  Rice is back in the shops and we think flour has started to come back! We are hoping the bakeries will be back to full production soon.  Two of our teammates are getting ready to head back to their home countries for some months.  They have both had very successful terms and we are so thankful for the growth, strength, perseverance and love shown by each of them.  We’ll miss them and will look forward to their return.  Tom’s good friend, Barak is back from 5 months of medical treatment on another island.  The reunion was very joyful.  Barak appears to be in much better health after two operations, and he joyfully told Tom it is because of our prayers he is better.  Hoping this is an opening for more healing and new life!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Just because things are going well does not mean there won’t be challenges along the way.  Pray with us for our kids, and your kids—there are bound to be difficulties, hard times, and struggles but we never have to give up hope.  Let’s keep praying for them—our Father is faithful.  Dimi will have a chance to visit with a counselor during his travels, may it be a comfort to him in his grief.  Keep lifting up his children as well.  Pray for Uhaju as he continues to search for more fellowship.  Pray that island brothers and sisters across the islands would desire to see each other at least once a week, if not more.  So many seem content with once a month or less.  Tomorrow is Tom’s birthday and he got home from class this evening not feeling well.  Pray for him to feel better quick!

What We Pass Down

Recently our neighbor cut down a tree out in his fields.  It was a large breadfruit tree, at least 2ft in diameter—a hard wood, that has a bright yellow color inside.  What did he do with it?  As you may have guessed, much of it went for firewood—not for heating a home but for cooking.  Even here in the city, although many homes have cooking stoves powered by gas or kerosene, many still prefer to cook over an open flame (especially as gas prices have risen).   

The beginning sections of trunk

The whole tree was useful. The branches would be used for cooking.  The large lush green leaves would be much enjoyed by cows and goats, as animal feed.  But the trunk had a special purpose.  The trunk was cut into sections, about 2-3 feet high and put in our courtyard.

The next day the artisan arrived, his only tools a long machete and an adze.  He quickly went to work on one of the sections of trunk.  Wood chips started to fly, all the way up to our second floor veranda.  As he turned the wood, chopped with his machete, and scooped with his adze, a shape took form.  He was making a shino, a large wooden mortar used for crushing and pounding—especially the cassava leaves used in the national dish.  As we watched him work we were impressed by how hard the wood was, but also with how quickly he could make one.  By the end of a day he had finished.  A shino goes for about a hundred dollars—on the islands, that’s not bad for a day’s work. He came back day after day, the tree ultimately producing 6 or 7 more shinos.

The man making the shino was not young and he had no apprentice with him.  Megan asked if he was training anyone else to do it.  The neighbors didn’t think so. His kids would go to school, they wouldn’t sit and learn his craft.  Who would make shinos after he was gone? The neighbors didn’t know and paid lip service to the fact that he needed to teach someone, but none of them is going to volunteer their kids to be his apprentice.  Could this become another lost art?  Perhaps someday.

Shino taking shape

What gets passed down to the next generation?  What is worth passing onto our children and what are the things they no longer need?  In island school, children still learn to write in cursive (something we’ve heard has been dropped in a lot of US schools). Is such a skill really necessary, when messages are more often written with thumbs on a phone these days than with a pen?  Islanders are careful to pass onto their children the art of recitation.  At our teammates house a little school sits next door where every day children come to memorize long chapters of Arabic verses, the meaning of which they don’t understand, but which will be important for ceremonial events, from weddings to burials and everything in between.  Chanting is an expected part of island culture and carefully passed down to each generation.

Part of me hears their chanting of words they don’t understand and feels exasperated at the uselessness of it all.  But what we pass down, shows what is important to us and what we value!  We wonder at our own culture.  What are we passing on with gusto and what are we failing to share with equal care?  Whether intentionally or not, we often pass on to others the things that are important to us.

We may claim somethings as essential to our life, but if we fail to pass it onto others, another reality is revealed.  Meanwhile, things we claim to be of little importance, we carefully reinforce through our ardent love for them.  What do we truly value?  What are we passing on? Perhaps the artisan who makes such fine shinos takes no pride in his work?  Perhaps he just sees it as something to make a buck.  Or perhaps he doesn’t want to teach others—perhaps he does not want competition.  Perhaps again, he simply hasn’t thought about it, and if an apprentice came along, he would be happy to teach him.  

The reality is that if we know something that is important, we should be teaching it to someone else. If we aren’t passing it down, then we are ultimately making it unimportant.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
A truly big shipment of rice finally came to Clove Island! Other shipments have been small and unsatisfying, but with this one, everyone that we know has found a sack of rice (even us) and we see stacks of them in shops again. What a relief! The women’s gathering went well and was well attended. Our daughter continues to do well at boarding school and had a great midterm break.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Rice has come but there are still shortages of several other things— the one we are feeling the most is the flour shortage, which means we can’t find bread. Pray that flour would come soon! Pray for the continuing rise in crime here— people say the youth being deported from the French Island are bringing their lives of crime back with them and don’t know any shame. One of our island friends was beaten up by some of these youth while she was out in the fields. Pray for her healing and for her husband to take good care of her. Pray for Dimi’s kids as he is traveling for the first time off island since their mother died. One local brother lost his father this past week and we go as a group tomorrow to give our condolences. Pray that we could be an encouragement to him and also pray that Uhaju might be able to join us and start to be more connected with the community.