Standing Firm During the Fast

 The month of fasting is upon us and with it a whole host of questions.  How should we conduct ourselves?  How should our brothers and sisters live?  How do we answer the constant question of “Are you fasting?”  How do we answer the question from an island friends, “Should I fast?”  Before you jump to an answer, take a moment to ponder what life is like during this time.

Crescent new moon starts month of fasting

EVERYONE is fasting.  If you were to eat or drink in public you could be arrested.  If your family is part of the majority faith then they are all fasting.  That means they are waking up in the middle of the night to eat and drink before sunrise.  Will you get up with them?  Will you eat with them?  In the morning and during the day, there will be no breakfast or lunch prepared for you even if you wanted it.  If you were to prepare breakfast for yourself, the smells of cooking and the sight of you eating would be a cruel and unwelcomed temptation for those fasting around you.  How could you do it in such a way that would not be offensive?  Then as evening comes and everyone with great relief begins to eat and drink, could you celebrate with them, if you were not fasting along side them?

And yet, in your heart you know you are free.  You know that no amount fasting will forgive your sins.  You know that the action is futile as a points towards heaven and an undue burden.  Do you take on this burden as well for their sakes?  Is this what it means to become all things to all people?  Yet all around you are people who think their fasting is paving their way to paradise—they are even proud of it.   In your efforts to honor and respect them, it would appear that you are no different—that you agree with their fasting—even support it.  In your efforts to respect have you simply hidden your light under a bushel?  Can you stand by and do nothing when you see so many suffering needlessly?  Can you do nothing, say nothing?  Either the truth will burn inside you until it bursts forth, or you will feel the fire inside you smolder and die.   

Snuck in river trip before fasting started

It’s easier for a foreigner, or for a family.  What you do in the privacy of your own home is your own business.   No one expects a foreigner to fast, but they ask us all the time if we are.  They try to compel us and cajole. “Try one day! Just give it a try.  It’s good for the body.  You live here, don’t you?  You speak our language.  You wear our clothes.  Why don't you fast with us?”  

Often they mock us, “Oh you can’t do it, can you?  It’s too difficult for you.  You’re too weak.”  Implying at the same time that we are weak in spirit as well as body—that a true follower would be strong in such disciplines.  The ones like this very rarely listen to our thoughtful heartfelt responses, but rather just laugh at us—those poor foreigners.  If this is the reaction to foreigners, what might it be to a local.  I fear a much nastier answer would be given, along with insults and threats.

It is no easy thing to navigate this month.  Just today our house helper brought her seven year old daughter to work with her.  Why?  To force her to fast.  They feel it is time for her to learn to fast—even if just for a few days and they don’t trust her.  So she has to be watched. They even follow her into the bathroom to make sure she’s not sneaking any water.  The days have been hot—miserably hot.  She’s a seven year old girl.  We feel for her.  We wouldn’t go so far as to offer her a drink against her mother’s wishes, but if we caught her drinking while her mom wasn’t around—we wouldn’t say anything.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Muki and Mtsa have been eager to keep studying even during the month of fasting! All of our colleagues on the small island made it safely back! Our older kids had a choir concert and our daughter had a solo, we’re thankful that the school was able to livestream it so we could enjoy the performance. We removed the stitches and Megan’s skin biopsy incisions are healing well (no biopsy results yet). Our island sister Elewa just had a opportunity to share and answer questions with 12 women in her community— may it bear great fruit!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Pray for our island brothers and sisters as they navigate this month of fasting. Pray for the women’s gathering as we start a new study— pray that women still come in spite of the heat and the month of fasting. Pray for some rains— it is miserably hot right now and didn’t rain all week. We have a worker from the big island visiting, pray that her visit might be mutually encouraging. Pray for our friends on the French Island, crime has been increasing there and a few mentally ill men have become violent and destructive in their neighborhood, leading to some scary incidents. Pray for peace (both spiritually and physically) and for the continued post-cyclone recovery of that island.

Coming Home Surprises

You never know what you will come back to after a time away from your island home.

Our plants are alive!

When we’re gone a long time, we have come to expect that we’ll find something gross or unpleasant on our return. Once it was a dessicated rat that had been trapped in the room with our belongings and had obviously starved to death after trying various inedible things in the room. Sometimes it is to find that clothes or other fabrics have mildewed in the tropical climate. Other times we return home to signs of different infestations (whether ant, cockroach, mice or rat). We have come to expect that our plants will be dead (sometimes from lack of water, sometimes from over-watering).

But this time we hadn’t been gone that long. I can’t say we were expecting any real surprises. There was the pleasant surprise that our plants looked okay (it was long enough for them to suffer). Some of our rooms smelled a bit musty, but opened windows and doors helped sort that out.

It wasn’t until I opened our kitchen door that the surprise came. It took me a little while to understand what I was seeing. Across the wall was a splattering of red, dramatically across our kitchen knives, but it wasn’t just that one spot. Extending all the way to the opposite corner, spots of dried red could be seen. I quickly turned to our pantry shelf and discovered ground zero. What was left of the canned tomatoes was sitting in a tarlike substance with remnants of canned tomatoes on everything in the vicinty.

On closer inspection it became clear that one can had ruptured, but another had completely exploded with force. The can’s pull back lid was completely blown off, the impact on the ceiling of the shelf showed the impact and a bottle of oil had been knocked to the floor. Three of our four kitchen walls were splattered with tomato remains.

Unfortunately for us, it must have happened early in our time away, because if it wasn’t dried on, it was sitting in putrified layers on our kitchen shelves.

As we cleaned, we had to marvel… we’ve gotten used to coming-home surprises, but we hadn’t expected this one!

Ground zero

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had a good week at our kids’ boarding school, getting to see their life there while our youngest got his annual standardized testing done and we were given more help and strategies for homeschooling.  We are so thankful for the school our kids go to and for all the people in our organization who work hard to make sure our kids are thriving and that we are teaching them well in homeschool.  It was very encouraging.  Our youngest had a great week hanging out with other kids his age, which was nice to see.  We managed to get back home without too much hassle about our daughter’s medicine.  Our daughter seems to be feeling better this week.  We also managed to clean up the tomato explosion without too much trouble. Our former teammate had a baby this week!  Her little girl is beautiful and mom and baby are doing well.  

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for us as we get back into island life and into our normal routines of homeschool, studying with friends, and everyday life in a very hot place!  Megan seems to be healing well, but pray that her skin biopsies will all come back negative.  One of our colleauges missed their flight.  Pray they wouldn’t have too much trouble finding their way back to the islands.  We’ve had some very saddening news from an expat family on the big island.  We don’t know this family well, but they have the same heart for the islands as we do.  The wife and mother of three little children has been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. Join us in praying for miraculous healing.  

MONTH OF FASTING: The month of fasting will begin this coming weekend— if you would like to get special emails about how to pray during the month or links to a website dedicated to praying for the islands, let us know (those of you on our newsletter mailing list will get an email invitation soon).

Noticed in Translation

 Muki and Mtsa come over every day to study.  Sometimes our studies go really deep, sometimes one of them is falling asleep.  We never know what it might be like on a given day.  As we are away in mainland Africa for a few weeks, we are wondering, hoping that Muki and Mtsa would continue to study and learn and grow without us there.  This may be an important time, an important lesson for them to learn who their real teacher is.  We are hopeful that they are discovering that God will lead them and give them all they need to grow and find joy in the words of truth.

Beauty in our midst

Talking about finding joy in the words of truth, it has been fun to study with these guys who don’t know the standard answers, who are reading these stories for the first times, and are noticing things I’ve never noticed before.  Here are a list of some of my favorite recent “insights/confusions.”

Insight #1: The great teacher never gives a direct answer.  I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but it’s quite true.  Recently someone told me that of the hundreds of questions addressed to him, he only answered directly 3 times.  Usually he answers with a question or a story that brings out so much more than the initial question asked.  Muki and Mtsa picked up on this early on and whenever they saw the teacher answer with a story they would laugh and say, “He’s doing it again!”  They see it as a sign of his great wisdom, and they’re right!

Insight #2: People named Anisi are liars.  Anisi is a common name on the islands.  It is also the name used to translate the name Ananias.  As you may remember Ananias and his wife die suddenly for their lies and disobedience over the sale of some property.  Muki and Mtsa agreed that lying is serious, especially concerning things of God, but then Mtsa said to Muki—Anisi’s are always bad.  Then he listed 3 different Anisi’s he knew who had got into some kind of trouble.  Muki nodded his head in agreement, “Watch out for anyone named Anisi.” He told me gravely.  I decided to just let that one slide.

Insight #3: Rich people are bad; poor people are good.  Okay, this is not so much an insight as a confusion.  It highlights how culture can get in the way of proper understanding.  When we read the story of the rich young ruler and the teacher says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.”  Muki and Mtsa nodded their heads and then started telling me stories of all the terrible things rich people do.  I tried to point out that, in that time, it was thought that rich people were good—that they had clearly received God’s blessing.  That is why the teacher’s friends ask, “Who then can be saved?”  But they were not too interested in that.  They instead took the time to rag on rich people and how evil they are.  This is a shame, because where the original story challenged people’s assumptions, in our context it affirms them.  Islanders firmly believe that the poor are blessed and will receive salvation for their suffering in this life.  Muki and Mtsa are poor, so they take comfort in this—and completely miss the point.  None of us are good enough.  A poor man—many a poor man—spends his life searching for and putting his trust in riches just as much rich men, and so do not see the things of the kingdom.  

Son excited about conference prizes

Insight #4: God provided for Cornelius’ servants. When Peter has a vision on the roof of the house and shortly after Cornelius’ servants arrive at the door. Muki and Mtsa were intrigued by the mercy shown to Cornelius’ servants, because if Peter had already eaten, then there would not have been food for them, but because he had the vision before the meal, he was able to inform the ones cooking that they would be having guests.  This gives an insight into island culture around food and hospitality.  If the food is gone, there is not necessarily the expectation that the host will cook again!

Insight #5: The good news is for everyone—even islanders.  When we read the story where many people heard the good news in their mother tongues, they loved the long list of languages that were spoken.  We took out a map and looked at all the different places the people came from and all the different languages they spoke.  Their conclusion:  it’s for everyone—every language—even islanders.  Amen and Amen.

These are just a few of the insights and confusions that come.  There is struggle but there is joy!  And the Word is living and active.  May it continue to live and act in all our lives.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Muki and Mtsa say they have been studying together in Tom’s absence.  Pray that those times will be fruitful and encouraging. The conference we attended went well and we were able to enjoy a weekend with all our kids (and some of their friends) away from their school. We were able to get the rest of our daughter’s medication for her continued treatment for the rest of her school term (not an straight-forward process).

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for all our island friends that they would be studying, learning and growing. Pray for our son as he has academic testing this week. Pray for our daughter as she continues to recover from a flare-up, and that she/we would continue to grow in our understanding of her disease, what triggers flare-ups, and how we can best encourage her . Pray that we wouldn’t have any trouble bringing her refrigerated meds back to the islands for her next break. Megan got to see a dermatologist and will have some suspicious moles removed at the end of the week. Pray for a smooth procedure and good results. Pray for our travels back to the islands.

Being Together

There’s a lot to be said for being together.  It’s necessary.  It’s vital.  It can be hard, but it can also be such a blessing.  There’s also the old saying, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,”  which anyone who lives far from family or friends can relate to.  For us, this is one of those weeks where we get to revel in being together with our friends and colleagues from the islands and beyond.

Being together with our oldest kids

It’s a literal truth that oceans divide us from our island colleagues. So when we get together, (which only happens once a year), it is a special time.  We are so thankful for the people with whom we work.  They are not only kind and fun and a joy to be around, but they are also bright, thoughtful and full of experiences and questions that cause us to think in new ways, challenge us to work and live better, and engage us in their joys and struggles.  The questions, exchanges, ideas, experiences that get shared are a tremendous blessing.  They refresh us and restore us.  They encourage us.  They remind us that we are not alone.  We are not the only one facing these struggles.  Our specific situations may be different, but we have so much to learn from one another.

As is our habit, we organized our island gathering to happen the weekend before a much larger biannual gathering of colleagues from all over Africa.  (We are in between sessions even as I write this.)  In the same way that the islands gathering is a blessing and refreshment, this larger gathering is a similar blessing.  Though we may not work as closely with the people at this gathering, we consider many to be friends.  There are also many whom we are meeting for the first time.  But in the same way, the questions, exchanges, ideas, experiences that get shared are a tremendous blessing.  Our vision is expanded.  Our perspective is changed.  We come together to learn and grow and listen and share the joys and the sorrows—and we are blessed.

Being together with teammates from 15 yrs ago

Some of our island brothers and sisters have struggled to gather together regularly. They allow the distance between their villages and all the distractions of life to get into the way of this vital activity. We are praying that they will be reminded of how important it is and to make it a priority. Being together keeps us strong and reminds us of our united purpose and priorities.

It may be that all the important people in your life live close to you, that you get to see them all the time.  You may take it for granted.  We hope you won’t.  May this be a reminder of how precious it is to be together.  What a blessing.  What a privilege.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The weather was not great last week and everyone on Clove Island and the small island had cancelled and/or significantly delayed interisland flights, but we all made it to the big island and subsequently mainland Africa. This was a big answer to prayer! We so enjoyed our time with our island colleagues and now with our colleagues from across Africa (including old friends and former teammates/leaders), it is a blessing. We got to have our older two kids with over the weekend and will get to be with them again this coming weekend— another blessing of being together.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Praying that our island brothers and sisters would prioritize meeting together on all the islands.   Pray for our daughter’s rheumatoid arthritis. She had a flare-up that made her miss some school this week.  Next week, we will go to an educational support week with our youngest to do the standardized testing he needs and also get advice about how to continue to guide his educational journey— pray that it would be a good time and provide some clarity about how to proceed with him. Ma Nadjma will probably be married by the time we get back to Clove Island- pray that we can continue to be a light to her and her family.  Pray that Muki and Mtsa would meet and study together during Tom’s absence (they were studying almost daily before we left).  Pray for several transitions happening in our higher leadership— may God be with both those leaving and those coming into those roles.

Contentment or Frustration

 Life is full of unexpected turns of events, mishaps and disappointments. On the islands, more than in the US, we have had to get used to plans often not working out. Whether small plans for a single day, or big plans for our team and work here.

The rain keeps coming!

A book we read a few years ago challenged us to embrace contentment in the midst of disappointment and delays. The alternative, which comes a lot more naturally and easily, is to become frustrated, anxious or angry at the changes. The author challenged us to see the unexpected with peace and hearts ready to see the new opportunities created by the new circumstances. A shift of thinking that doesn’t dwell on plans falling through as a failure, but as just a new path opening up.

This can be easier said than done. I was reminded of this week as rainy season has come early! Heavy rains ruins plans on the islands. No one wants to go out. People don’t want to visit or welcome visitors if its pouring. People come late or not at all to scheduled meetings. Clothes on the line don’t dry. Paths and roads become impassable. Boats and planes don’t go.

This has created some minor inconveniences. We didn’t get to take short-termer on a hike that we had wanted to show her. Some of the experiences she was supposed to have visiting some projects got canceled. Generally, we have been able to smile and laugh and say that it wasn’t meant to be. But now her departure (ours too) is approaching and the stormy weather is causing inter-island flights to be canceled. Today we walked alongside our colleagues as they had their flight canceled, thinking they wouldn’t travel, waiting at the airport and eventually some getting on flights with a different airline. Other colleagues on the small island are still waiting. But it isn’t just the inconvenience of getting to the big island a day later, it’s the possibility of missing their international flight to mainland Africa and for one family potentially missing an embassy appointment they had to make weeks in advance. The domino effect of disrupted plans can make finding contentment and peace harder to find.

Our youngest gives a piano recital

Sometime it can also be harder to have peace when there is a person to blame. Bad weather isn’t anyone’s fault, no one controls the weather except God. But when disrupted plans are because of someone else’s decision that can be harder. If the decision was selfishly motivated or even an evil or negligent act, it gets harder still.  

We are looking at our travel plans for this week and the weather forecast and we know that we’ll have the choice to become anxious or extremely frustrated as our plans may be derailed or to be content and look for what hidden opportunities we might find in one set of plans falling through. But we also have friends who are dealing with much bigger frustrations— our friends dealing with the aftermath of a cyclone that has turned their homes and lives upside down, or loved ones whose livelihoods and work is at the mercy of government officials making unpredictable and drastic decisions without caring about the devastation they cause. So we don’t pretend that we have it hard and we also know it is not easy, but ultimately we can’t choose contentment and peace on our own. It has to be given to us by the One who is bigger than all the troubles of this world.

Our two oldest get visit from Megan's dad

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Four of our colleagues made it safely to the big island even after their initial flight was canceled! Our teammate was able to have a examination bed made to support her OT work before her travels. Our short-termer has had a good month and was able to see different kinds of work and opportunities to share with islanders herself. Megan’s dad was able to visit our older kids at boarding school. It was a good visit and he made it home safely.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
All the island workers are supposed to travel to mainland Africa this week (if they aren’t already there), but interisland travel is in doubt because of bad weather. This means workers on the small island and Clove Island (like us) may not make it to the big island in time for our international flights. Pray that we can all have peace and contentment in the uncertainty. Pray that we would all make it safely the big island and to the mainland for the gathering of island workers this weekend. Pray that the gathering would go well and be an encouragement to all. Pray that the island sisters would meet for the monthly gathering even without the expat workers around. Pray for our friend Ma Nadjma (a widow with two little kids) as she is planning to get married and become a second wife to a man who already has a wife on another island. Pray for God to work in her heart and life and she would see Him as the ultimate provider.

Getting Things Done: Presence Required

I left the printshop grumbling…I had come in last week and had been assured that they could do the printing in 30 minutes.  It would be as easy as that.

“30 minutes…ha!” I muttered to myself, “Try 3 hours.”   I was annoyed.  

View looking over our town

I had arrived at the printshop at 11:30.  I had even called ahead to let them know I was coming.  They told me to come, that it would be no problem.  But when I got there, the print shop was busy.  It took 30 minutes to be seen.  “Why didn’t they tell me they were busy?” I asked myself.

Finally, they got started on the job assuring me it would not take very long.   Two and a half hours later, I was still waiting for the job they said would “not take very long.”   That’s when they came out from the back and said to me, “It’s 2pm, we’re done for the day.  We’ll finish the job tomorrow.”  

Grumble, grumble grumble…why couldn’t they have told me to 'come back tomorrow' two hours ago???…why couldn’t they have told me they were busy today???…why did I have to sit around there so long???…grumble, grumble grumble…

Somewhere half way home my grumbles turned into head shaking, and then even a grin.  Why am I surprised???  Shouldn’t I have known it would be like this?

First of all, time is relative on the islands—30 minutes can easily stretch to two hours.  I know that.  

Secondly, everything closes down at 2pm, so should I have been surprised when they told me to come back tomorrow?  Not at all…

“But what about making me wait all that time???”  my mind complained.  

Then I thought about my landlord, sitting patiently as the plumber fixed the shower, or watching as the construction crew put the roof on, or as the electrician redid some wiring.  He was there for every moment of it.  Did he have better things to do?  Surely.  But the reality is work does not get done unless you are present.  

The final product was nice

It’s like your presence is the generator.  There is no power to do the job until you are present—even if the job takes hours.  We have seen this so many times, we should not be surprised by it.  It’s why you can’t tell a restaurant to start preparing the meal before you arrive.  They will only start the fires when they see you.  It’s why you can’t expect house repairs to be done in your absence unless you have a landlord willing to sit and watch them.  And it is why the new calendars will not get printed unless you are sitting quietly waiting.  This is the island way of things.  Why am I grumbling about it now?

The next morning I was not surprised when the remaining job (punching a hole in the calendars and printing the bill) did not start being done until my arrival.  Even though I had been assured the job would be finished when I arrived the next morning.  (I even went late and called ahead to give them more time and opportunity to get the job done—alas!)  

So I began to sit and watch again.  But that’s when my American culture got the better of me.  Yes, I knew this would happen.  Yes, I knew what to expect, but I wanted to get back home to join a meeting and all that they needed to do was punch holes in the calendars. I could see the guy every once in awhile pausing from his other work to punch a few holes in just a few more of our calendars with a manual hole punch—the same punch I have at home.  I could do that and even do a better job of it!   I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’ll just take the calendars now and punch the holes myself,”  I said, trying not to look too exasperated.  “Is the bill ready?”  

“Oh yes, the bill.”  I rolled my eyes and grinned as the printer sprang into action to make my bill.  10 minutes later I was leaving, bill paid. The stack of calendars still needed holes punched in them, but I was free. Maybe next year, I will need to remember to clear my schedule for a couple days for the printing of the calendars…

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We were able to get our annual island visas renewed without any problems (something we don’t take for granted as colleagues on other islands have had difficulties). The planning of the island worker gathering is coming together. We are thankful for the team of people working with us on that. Our short-termer continues to do well and as she has a different background from us, she has had unique opportunities to share with islanders. Tom has several men now interested in studying with him.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for Tom that he would discern how to proceed with these men and generally how to encourage island men to greater growth and lasting maturity. One of our island sisters that we had you pray for last week was in the hospital for two nights this past week. She is back home, but pray for healing for her and for clarity about her diagnosis. There is a religious holiday this week and elections for town mayors, which will make for a strange week with schools closed for three days. Pray that the unusual schedule would lead to unique opportunities for our team and local brothers and sisters to have good conversations with islanders. One island sister sent a message encouraging everyone to pray that God would open hearts/minds across the islands. Let us join her in prayer.

Too Tired

 A week ago Sunday was voting day on the islands— and like other years, both in the lead-up and on the actual voting day, there were signs of corruption and manipulation of the voting system. Opposition candidates were told they couldn’t run, were arrested and convicted on spurious charges. On the voting day, there was a stealthy video taken of a polling official stuffing filled out ballots into the box and other stories of polling places having ballots listed for deceased or absent people (in these small communities most people know each other).

Our beautiful island

Now in previous years this could have led to protests and violence, but as I talked to people, the expectation was that nothing would happen. “People are tired” was the sentiment. Protesting hasn’t gotten them anywhere, and they’re tired of fighting what seems like a losing battle. They’re too tired to protest, too tired to hope that anything can make a difference. Plus, they’re scared. Scared of arrest and imprisonment or worse if they are too vocal.

It’s a dreary state of affairs. There is part of us that is glad that an election day went by without unrest and violence. Don’t we long for peace and stability?  Don’t we pray elections can be held without incident or casualties?   But we don’t long for a country where peace is won by the fear and apathy of the population, where truth and justice are stifled. That’s not real peace or stability. 

Tom at recent wedding event

So we continue to pray for justice and peace.  We pray for good governance and freedoms without war or revolt on the islands. We mourn for the slow but persistent erosion of freedoms, community action, and equal rights. We mourn for this tiredness that is fed by apathy, fatalism and hopelessness.  And we pray for it to be changed into a new awakening of light, life and hope.  And we do not lose hope.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We have had some encouraging news from people on the neighbor island that was devastated by the cyclone, stories of restored power and water and schools even preparing to reopen. Several island sisters were back from travels— two having received medical care and doing better. We are thankful to have them back and for the women’s gathering that we had this past week. Our short-termer is doing well and is very engaged in language learning and building relationships.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
The two returned sisters are not completely healthy. One learned that she has out of control diabetes with accompanying complications— pray for her as she tries to change her diet and lifestyle to become more healthy. Another left the country where she was getting care before the doctors wanted her to, she wanted to get back to her husband and kids, but it means that she is still doing the prescribed treatment without the benefit of a doctor to follow-up with— pray that she would continue to find healing and full recovery. Pray that now that these women are back that the local group could start to meet with more regularity and numbers again. The past few months the group hasn’t had as much life and activity. Pray with our short-termer for clear guidance of where she should serve long term— pray that if she is meant to return to the islands that it would be clear to all. Pray for our preparations and planning for our annual gathering of island workers that will happen in February in mainland Africa— we are trying to firm up the details this week and praying that we would follow God’s lead.