Water, Water, Water

We just got back from vacation.  This was not an extravagant vacation, although we did have to to take a plane ride to get there (we live on an island after all).  We didn’t leave Africa.  We didn’t go to a major tourist destination.  We wanted a place where we could rest, do some medical/dental check-ups, eat some fun food, and swim.  So we used AirBnB for the first time and found a place with a pool and just relaxed.

Swam in pool everyday

We live on an island.  We are surrounded by water, and yet the thing that made this vacation feel most like a vacation may have been, of all things, water.  It just felt like there was such an abundance of water.  Everyday we swam in a clear blue pool.  After each meal, dishes were easily washed and rinsed under hot running water.  Hot showers were part of our daily routine.  One day we even went to a water park, sliding down water slides and swimming in large clean pools.  Water—so abundant, whenever we wanted it, hot or cold.  Something many people take for granted.

Our colleague recently wrote a blog about the difference between sufficiency and abundance.  She talked primarily about electricity and we’re talking about water, but it is true about many things: There is a difference between having only what you need (sufficiency) and having more than you need (abundance).  We could talk about money, internet speeds, talents, foods, choices, friends, family, etc.  In all these things there is a meaningful difference between what is sufficient and what is abundant. On vacation we reveled in having abundant water.

It seemed a bit strange (after the fact) to realize how much we appreciated the water.  After all, we have enough water on the islands. It is sufficient. Our island home has indoor plumbing.  We know other people working in Africa who have to walk a mile to a river and carry water back to their houses on their heads.  So in some ways we have it easy and yet, we don’t have an abundance of water.  We do not have water whenever we want it.  No one around here does.  Water comes and goes.  In our current house water pressure is almost nonexistent.  Most of our water comes from large barrels that we fill during the few hours when the water is on.  So most of the time the water we need comes from a barrel, not from the tap.  Not a big deal, right?  But boy after months of bucket water, it is nice to turn on a faucet and see water gushing out!  To be able to wash a dish immediately or step under a powerful shower head.  Even something as simple as flushing toilets can seem like a luxury when you don’t have the chore of using a bucket of water to flush it manually.

When we have “just enough” we can go in two directions.  We can be thankful, remembering that we are close to not having enough.  “We at least have what we need.”  Or we can complain.  “Wouldn’t it be nice to have more?”  Obviously one attitude is preferable over the other.    Abundance is wonderful, but strangely enough it leads to complacency.  Abundance is a blessing we soon forget. When we have in abundance we can be wasteful and forget what it means to not have it.  We can soon take whatever it is for granted.  After a week into our vacation, I don’t think turning on a faucet brought the same joy it did the first day, we were already getting used to it.

On playground by waterpark

Now we’re back on the islands and the water situation is bad. We’ve been home since yesterday and water hasn’t come through our taps at all. People are saying that water hasn’t been good for the past week or more. We’ll have to be careful with our water use, but we’ll get by. It will be sufficient, but sufficient is a blessing we must choose to appreciate.  It is too easy to forget and complain.  Unfortunately the taste of abundance can make sufficiency harder to appreciate, so we will have to continue to seek to be content in all circumstances. .

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are back on Clove Island. We are very thankful that we were able to make a same-day connection rather than spending a night on the big island. Our son’s follow-up at the dentist went well, he was a trooper. Megan’s follow-up was a long day at the hospital but it did provide more clarity, in a few months she will need to follow-up again. It has been a blessing to have medical professionals among our friends and family who are willing to give us good advice and counsel (even from afar). Our teammate has made it safely to the States for a conference along with other island workers involved in language projects, while others of our colleagues are at a big multinational conference in Asia. Our kids had their first full-day of school today. It went well! We heard that one of our new teammates has gotten her financial clearance!!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
It turns out the brother was only briefly imprisoned over some family disagreement.  We don’t have clear details (and may never), so continue to pray for him and his relationships with his family. Pray for us as we look into the options for Megan’s medical follow-up — we’re hoping to find a good doctor in either Kenya or South Africa who is experienced in these things. In the meantime we pray that her symptoms and discomfort would be minimal. We also pray for healing! Keep praying for our kids at school—that the whole first week will be good and that they would settle into good habits, make some good friends, and understand French! This will be a busy month. We need to get everything ready for our new teammates coming next month— that means securing and furnishing a house to rent, arranging homestay and language helpers, planning a week of orientation and praying for their transition to life on the islands. Pray that all these preparations go smoothly and for our other new teammate waiting for full clearance to come. Ma Imani’s 18 month-old daughter may need an operation (which would require traveling to another country to get it— a difficult and expensive undertaking for an islander who only speaks the local language). Pray that Ma Imani could get good medical counsel and have peace about what to do for her daughter.