The Stolen Day

Celebrating our son's 7th birthday

One of the questions we often get from people wondering about island life goes something like this,”What does an ordinary day look like on the islands?”  And we usually respond with our normal schedule of homeschool, classes, and visits.  But just as typical as an ordinary day is what we might call a “stolen day.” 

“What is a stolen day?” you’re wondering?  Let me give you an example.

It’s 8:30am.  I’m getting ready to go out and run some errands.  The team is coming at noon for lunch and then some discussion.  I’m getting ready to head out when my landlord comes to the door.   He’s with a young man in dirty work clothes carrying a power drill.  “We’re here to install the shelves.”  They say.  “Oh, okay.” I reply.  My morning has just been stolen.

Did we know they were going to fix the kitchen shelves? Yes.  Did we know when they were going to do that…well they had been telling us for two weeks that it would get done “tomorrow”.  Today was the day.  Surprise!  For the next 3 hours I was busy helping these men move things around in the kitchen, drill holes in the wall, supply various tools they didn’t have or forgot to bring, and generally help with the installation of the shelves.  That lunch plan with the team—yeah, that had to be pushed back by about an hour.  So much for running errands.  That would have to be another day.  On the other hand, I got some quality time in with my landlord.

Another example…
It’s 8:00 in the morning.  There’s a whole day ahead and a whole lot of homeschool to do.  Just then a lady stops by for a visit. She stays for an hour.  A bit of homeschool might get done during this time, but it’s hard to carry on a conversation and teach at the same time.  Finally she leaves but right behind her is another neighbor.  She wants to talk about her troubles and needs my full attention.  After her another neighbor shows up.  Her son is sick.  She’s brought him along.  We’ll do what we can for him and send them home with some medicine or some money or the advice to go see a doctor.  Suddenly it’s lunchtime.  I guess homeschool will go into the afternoon today.  Those plans for the afternoon?  Oh well.  Another stolen day.  But then again, I visited with a friend, comforted someone in her troubles, and helped someone in need.  Not such a bad day after all.

More birthday fun at the beach

These are just two examples: sometimes it’s a funeral; sometimes it’s a wedding or an English exam or a ceremony that they forgot to tell us about until the day of; sometimes it’s an endless stream of visitors; sometimes its one persistent visitor or a desperate English student.  We never know who or what it will be exactly, but we can count on these regular interruptions—this regular stealing of our day.  And yet, as we throw our plans it begs the question… are our plans so important?  In fact, maybe stolen is the wrong way to think about it.  All that is being stolen from us are our plans.  What we are being given, time and again, is an unexpected opportunity for relationship.  So maybe we shouldn’t talk about “stolen days” but “relational days”.

“So, what’s an ordinary day like on the islands?”  Well, there are ordinary days and then there are relational days…and both are good.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Both pregnant women gave birth to baby boys! Our neighbor (who was very anxious about her delivery and who had asked us to pray multiple times) had a quick delivery and credited God and our prayers for it! Tom’s sister also had her baby— our kids are very excited to have a new baby cousin!  Our older son turned 7 years old this week, we are so thankful for him and all the ways he is growing and learning! He asked and we had a “pirate adventure” in celebration of his big day. Our younger son was very sick this week, but we are very thankful that he has since recovered! Our former teammate and good friend was visiting for a few days and checking-in on the language project— we were very thankful to have her and to hear that her meetings had gone well.



PRAYERS REQUESTED
We’ve narrowed our search for an office space to a few neighborhoods— pray that the right location with the right landlord would be available and that we’d learn about it soon. There are two new people joining the language work— pray for good time of training for them and good working relationships and unity all around. Pray for a man that recently left that work, for healed relationships and for the quick return of the work computer he was using. Continue to pray for our new teammate as she settles into life, language and relationships on Clove Island. We gave ourselves a month to settle in but now that it is April, we are diving back into more commitments and responsibilities— pray that we find a good balance of all the things we want to do and should be doing.