We are a team that reads. We encourage all our teammates to read and share about what they are reading. Moreover, we are always reading and discussing a book together as a team. Each month we make our way through a book chapter by chapter. In addition, there are certain core books that we make all our new teammates read. We do this because these books have been impactful on our lives, how we approach the work we do, how we engage in life in this place. These books have become so integrated into our thinking, reading them feels like talking to an old friend, or colleague—someone you respect highly, and know all their stories and their examples. You can almost guess what they’re going to say before they say it. But that’s not a reason to stop listening to them. It’s always good to go back and talk to Rolland, Rick,or Nikki (to name just a few).
Tom reading |
We’ve got a short-termer with us this month, and we wanted to expose her to as much of our life, our work, our experience, our strategy, so we decided to go back and read a few chapters from some of our core books together and discuss them as a team. Just this past week, we had a wonderful discussion about what it means to be a credible messenger— a person accepted by the community, appreciated, valued, who has earned respect. It was all familiar to us, but familiarity doesn’t rob Rolland’s words of their challenge:
“As you meet new friends, try and find things that are of common interest between you. If you have no common interests, then develop some. This means that you have to become interested in the things that they are interested in. Over the years I have had to develop an interest in the history, politics, economy, religion, sports…”
This paragraph got us to talking. What common interests do we share with our island friends? Lots of people talk about politics and the economy. There are some who talk about sports, but mostly people talk about their families. And we were convicted. Families are so complicated here, full of drama, multiple marriages and polygamy (with confusing vocabulary in the local language to describe the different relationships) that we often let our eyes glaze over a bit as someone takes several minutes to explain how they are related to so and so. But, it’s something that islanders care about. So if care about them, we should try to care about their complicated family relationships, too!
So this morning I sat down with Muki to ask him about his family. I even got out a pencil and paper, knowing that it would be complicated. I wrote down their names and relationships and where they live. I must admit, I learned a lot. Muki’s father had 3 wives and a total of 10 children. Most of them (Muki’s siblings and step-siblings) still live in the neighborhood, though a few have died. Muki himself has 14 children! (I did not realize it was so many) from two wives. His second wife gave him 10 children. He is divorced from both of them. In total, he has 29 grandchildren and counting!
I think it makes our relationship a bit deeper for him to have shared these things with me. I hope it does. Thanks for the idea, Rolland. It’s always good to sit down and chat with you and get some new ideas.
Our son enjoying the heavy rains coming onto the porch |
PRAYERS ANSWERED
A second tropical storm is passing the islands but thankfully so far (especially for our neighbor island still devastated by the cyclone) the storm has been less intense than early predictions. Our short-termer is doing well and keeping a great attitude as she learns local language and spends time with islanders. Two of our island sisters are back and a third is on her way back this week. We have heard second-hand reports that their health is greatly improved. The nightclub (that recently reopened near our house) has been not nearly as loud as they were when they first reopened at the New Year. We are thankful for the less-disturbed sleep for us and our neighbors.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for Muki and his large family. Despite the size, he seems to be on good terms with very few in his family. Pray that his studies with Tom would challenge him to seek reconciliation within his family. Continue to pray for our neighbor island recovering from the cyclone, we know that some Clove Islanders are continuing to take illegal boats to immigrate to that island despite the devastation there. Our island friend (Ma Nadjma) has a man interested in marrying her. She is a widow with two young kids and has been praying for a new father for her children. He already has a wife on another island. We have expressed our thoughts about polygamy. Ma Nadjma seems keen to accept, we are encouraging her to at least go slowly and pray about this decision and see God open or close the doors. Pray for God’s guidance for her and for us as we try to share God’s hope with her.