Strategy & Spirit

Arriving on the small island

On our previous team about 4 years ago a very exciting thing happened.  Women wanted to study with our teammates.  Naturally, our teammates, who had only been out for about a year came to us for advice.  What should we study?  Where should we begin?  What do you recommend? Do you have any tips?  I remember the feeling of being slightly overwhelmed by the questions and caught off guard.  I had no good answers.  I had suggestions, things others had done in the past, some possibilities of things they could try, but nothing more definite.  Though I had lived on the islands for many years and had more knowledge and cultural understanding, we had no plan—no way to transfer that knowledge and experience into a viable way to help others who are learning.  In short, we had no strategy.  Thankfully, we serve a very forgiving Boss who works through our failures. The women found a way forward that was blessed, but I never forgot that feeling.  They came asking for a plan and I had none.  I was not prepared.

Palm Sunday!

Fast forward to last month.  In the intervening years our leadership and teams on the islands have worked hard to create a strategy—a plan.  So when my new teammates came to me with the exciting news that they had some friends who wanted to learn, I could confidently give them a plan.  What a difference between then and now!  How thankful I am for a strategy.

But there is something in me that rebels against strategy.  Our hopes will not be achieved by to-do lists.  In fact, they are impossible hopes.  We can not make them happen with our own strength and abilities. There is no strategy that can achieve them.  The only way for them to be achieved is through supernatural power.  No strategy can harness that power, for it is not like light or gravity.  It cannot be manipulated or made to bend to our will.  In fact, as soon as we try to do these things, this supernatural power slips through our grasp.  So then, isn’t there something wrong in a strategy?  Isn’t it trying to do just that—manipulate in our own strength what cannot be manipulated?  And yet, I find myself appreciating having a strategy.  Without a strategy, it feels haphazard, unprepared, and irresponsible.  How do the two work together?

I was reminded in prayer of a vision a prophet of long ago had.  He was brought to a great valley full of dry bones.  He was told to prophecy over the bones.  He did so and the bones came together and flesh was put on them and a great army stood before him, but there was no breath in them.  Then he was told to prophecy again.  This time for the breath to fill them.  And so he did, and so it did, and there before him was a living breathing vast army.  Thinking about this story it occurred to me there may be an answer to my question.  That strategy and spirit go together.  For in the same way the breath gives life to the body, the spirit gives life to the strategy.  A strategy without spirit is lifeless and dead, but form and breath together make a great army.

So I’ve found some peace with strategy.  It is the form, the structure, the body.  But without that supernatural power—without the breath of life—it is nothing.  

Sunset from small island

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We were thankful for the visiting doctor and the opportunity to see how the medical work on the islands continues to change. Our travels to and from the smallest island went well and we had a very nice conference with teammates thinking about strategy and I believe the breath of life was there too! We also really enjoyed connecting and having fun with some colleagues on other islands whom we don’t get to see often.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We said good bye to our short-term teammate.  She was a precious part of our team for the last month and will be sorely missed.  Pray for her as she processes all that she has experienced this past month and as she prepares to get married in June.   Pray that the coming of Easter will give us many good opportunities to share with friends. Our team is spending some time focused on local language learning (we do these pushes to keep us moving toward better fluency). Pray for Megan as she organizes and tries to motivate the team in the local language (which isn’t always a fun or encouraging activity for everyone). We’ve all been feeling a little sick and more tired— pray for health and good rest. We got to sit down and talk with the team leaders on the other islands, pray for a clear vision for each island in the coming years and for all the various workers as they seek direction for what those years will look like.

Getting There

Washed out road from storms

How do you measure distance?  In miles, minutes, kilometers or hours?  In the islands we feel a great tension between distance and time.  For example:  It’s about 50 miles from one island to the next and 80 miles from Volcano island to our Clove island.  By plane it takes less than 30 minutes.  But what if the airlines aren’t running?—the workers are on strike, or the planes are away for maintenance, then the distances are much farther.  By boat it can take 4 hours, 6 hours or 8 hours, depending on the boat and the weather.  And then the boats don’t go every day, so you may have a wait multiple days to cross those 80 miles.

This same phenomenon of shifting distances is much more prominent on the ground.  When we first arrived on the island, a drive to a village 5 miles to the west took about twenty minutes.  But a drive to a village 5 miles to the east took up to an hour.  Why?  The roads.  The road west used to be in decent condition—we’re not talking highway quality, but a road you can take at about 30 mph for good stretches of it.  Thus 20 minutes.  But going east the road was a mess.  Whole stretches of the road looked like a BMX race track.  As it climbed the mountain, the overloaded taxi buses would slow to a crawl.  With frequent stops to pick up and drop off occupants, the 5 mile trip could easily take an hour.  After awhile your mind adjusts.  “Village East is far.  Village West is close.”  In reality the two roads are equidistant, but with road conditions, one is far, one is close.

Crowd checking out road damage

How strange that this past year our world has reversed.  This last year, at long last, they repaved the road going east.  Now you can zip along in a taxi at a breezy 30—maybe even 35 mph and arrive at your destination feeling like you’ve hardly traveled in a hot, over-stuffed, uncomfortable taxi bus.  Towns that used to seem so far away at 10 or 15 miles away—Now they are accessible and easy to get to.  For a time it felt like the whole island was shrinking.  You could get where you wanted to go so much more quickly.  Those towns on the other side of the island, started to feel accessible.  Then rainy season came.  It’s washed out a good chunk of the road west!  Taxis now cling to a mud path which winds between a cliff of scree and a gaping hole to the sea. The western road has become the slow road.  Time to readjust our thinking. Village East is now close.  Village West is now far.

Our daughter creating things

We often talk about our lives as journeys. This is definitely true of people figuring out what they believe. For some the journey is fast— they hear, they understand, they accept. Others have lots of obstacles along the way. Some may not hear, some may not understand and for some the hardest leg of the journey is from understanding to really accepting and believing something. It reminds me of something a teacher of mine once said about the distance between the head and the heart!  It is another distance that can be long or short depending on the terrain. There are things that we know in our head that we don’t believe in our heart.  But it’s not about the distance, it’s about the road conditions.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The visiting doctor arrived safely yesterday and we are thankful for our teammate that has helped to arrange tours at the big hospitals and a chance to learn more about medical work here. Our new teammates had a first meeting to study with their interested friends and it went well. Our team has had the sad responsibility to grieve alongside three different island friends that lost loved ones this past week.  This has lead to some opportunities to share. One islander recently took a special swim to mark a changed life. We rejoice.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for all those on a journey of acceptance.  We know a number of people who are making this journey even now, but the road conditions are never easy.  Pray for road conditions to improve!  Our team will be traveling to little Vanilla Island for an all islands team conference.  Pray that this could be some good bonding and growing time for our team, that the conference would go well, and that we would be inspired and learn a lot. One island sister has been pressured by family and received thinly veiled threats. Pray for her that she would have strength and peace.

Her Papers

Nanasi and daughter (old photo)

This past month Nanasi was all dressed up, with make-up, jewelry, a shimmery head covering and a bright smile— a stark contrast to her usual appearance during a morning visit. Usually she’s wearing her morning grimace, an old tattered shawl haphazardly thrown over her head as she tiredly flops in a chair with a sigh or groan, eyes still hooded with sleep. But this day was different.  She was infused with energy because she had an appointment at the French consulate to discuss her papers. “Having papers” is a way of saying that someone has French nationality or at least the legal documentation to stay in France. Nanasi has been working for a long time to get her papers. I’m not sure when she started telling us about it but it was years ago. What impresses me is the enthusiasm and optimism that she maintains through the process. From what I’ve heard, French nationality is hard to get for anyone.  Yet here is a poor, uneducated, middle-aged woman who has never lived in France, who never loses hope. Her confidence comes partially from her personality and partially because she has been told that she has a legal right to it. Her father served with the French military for several years before the islands became independent. As such, she has been assured that all her father’s children have a right to French nationality.

And so the process goes. On and on.  Every couple months or so, there is a new update. A new required piece of documentation has been sent or received. Some form is coming that has to be signed. A relative is personally delivering a letter to some official office in France.

I smile and ask questions whenever she tells me an update but I find myself continually asking, “What will she do if and when she finally gets her papers??” She doesn’t even know French beyond a few greetings. She is a grandmother who most days complains of being tired and about her aching back. She has never left the islands.

She never has a good answer when I ask her, but I think for her the papers mean freedom. Islanders are often “trapped” on the island because unless they are willing to take the illegal boats they can’t get visas to travel. One time Nanasi was part of a group going to help perform the music for a wedding on the French island. She was so excited. “They always give visas to these wedding groups, “ she assured me, “We’ll get to be there for a month, do the wedding and see the island.”

Men, goat & chicken take shelter in rain (taken by our 5 yr old)

But ultimately it all fell through, the consulate wouldn’t give the wedding group visas. After trying again for weeks they would only give them visas for a week-long stay— barely enough time for the wedding (whose events would fill an entire week) and with no time to rest or enjoy the trip. They decided it wasn’t worth the money.

Nanasi has tons of family both on the French island and in France. She is regularly calling on them for help with finances. Every year some of them come to visit the islands, bringing with them money to help with the house, with school fees, with medical expenses and even with food and clothing. They are a lifeline, but meanwhile there is a feeling that Nanasi is stuck here, dependent, while they can come and go as they please.

None of her island community know that she has this hope of French nationality. Only her close family and us know. This is a risky enterprise and she probably worries about jealousies leading to curses or bad luck. Plus she would lose face if things fell through or if it took longer than expected. Also, she says that she is looking forward to rubbing people’s faces in it. She is near the bottom of the totem pole here but having French nationality will shoot her ahead of various wealthier friends and neighbors that she has various grudges and grievances against.

Our beautiful 9 yr old

I have my doubts about the whole thing. Whether it will make her life any better and whether it is even certain that she’ll get French nationality. To her, the claim is rock-solid, but to me it seems tenuous. Her father is long dead and the islands have been separate from France for over 40 years. Most island documentation is not up to French standards. Still, she is confident and proud of the fact that she is doing everything the right way. This is legit. She’s not resorting to any black market dealings or false documentation. We try to push the conversation to a greater, more eternal hope than getting French nationality. She hears us and responds politely but she cannot look beyond her papers.  She has put her hope in them.  Despite the fact that the process has been taking years, she remains optimistic. She has a right to nationality and she will get it!  And then everything will be wonderful!  God willing.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We continue to be thankful for the cooling rains after several hot months. It sounds like the meetings about the language work went well on the big island. We were encouraged to hear that a meeting took place between two groups that have been estranged— we’ve been praying for reconciliation and this was an encouraging first step. The group that Tom is meeting with had an encouraging time this past week using a newly produced video in the local language. Our newest teammates have had the opportunity to share with some new island friends and they want to start studying together— this is an exciting development, pray for clear communication moving forward!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray that Nanasi and others like her would find the true hope that never fails. Island brothers and sisters are calling for a day of prayer and fasting for the islands on Sunday, March 18th- please join us! Contact us if you want more information or more ways to pray that day. One island friend just lost his father unexpectedly— pray that our team could be a light to the grieving family. Next week we will have a doctor visiting the island as a possible location for future work— pray for last minute logistics and that we could make the medical connections so that he can see the people and places that will make his brief trip worthwhile.  Pray for our team as we learn more about and come in direct contact with some of the dark things of the islands— like calling on spirits and witch doctor practices.

Multicultural

Our daughter & short-termer on our island's best beach

Our team has just become more multicultural.  Two weeks ago we received a short term team member from Madagascar!  What a gift!  As many of you know every week we gather together as a team for what we call “team day.”  This is a day to pray, talk, and study together. This Friday found us discussing the book Foreign to Familiar by Sarah Lanier.  If you haven’t read it, you should.  It’s a quick read, a lot of fun, and can lead to a lot of “aha” moments about crossing cultures.  This book is always fun to discuss, but how much better when you have a mix of cultures among your reading group!

The problem with crossing cultures can almost always be distilled down to one very nasty little problem—assumptions.  We assume everyone else will think the way we do, act the way we do, talk the way we do, etc.  And that leads to both funny and tragic misunderstandings.  The more you can reveal the assumptions, the better chance there is for understanding and a way forward.  This, of course, is of vital importance when we apply it to our understanding of island culture.  But wait, what about within the culture of our team?  We can’t assume our cultures are all the same—and with our new Malagasy teammate—we would be fools to think so!

It is a beautiful place

So what did this book reveal to our team?  In broad strokes, Americans like to communicate in a pretty straight forward manner, but Africans do not.  Is this something that our team will have to deal with?  You bet!  Do we handle time differently?  Yup!  On the other hand, some of the things we assumed to be different may not be so different after all.  Go figure, people from big cities in Madagascar can value their privacy and can be rather task oriented!  But hey, that teammate from the South may be adjusting so quickly to island culture because there are some similarities between Southern culture and island culture that we would never think were there.

Multicultural teams are both a blessing and a challenge.  These teams will have to work through their cultural differences, but the reward is incredible richness of experience and perspective. On our very first team in Chad, we had African teammates and we remember how much we learned from being teammates with them.  Some of it the hard way—like after three months when they told us that we had been speaking too fast and not enunciating clearly enough for them (for whom English was a third language) to understand. We also had to learn to filter what we said, realizing that we were constantly throwing idioms and cultural references into our conversations.  We got to see how their struggles were just as real as ours though different.  For example, adjusting to the weather was not as challenging for them and a visit back home was only a few hours away by car.  But we remember what a challenge it was to our African sister to wear the traditional clothing of the women there since that immediately associated her (according to her society) with a different tribe and a different religion.  Though the distance from home was geographically shorter, our African teammates were still crossing cultural and language divides that were in some ways much more difficult and hard for people back home to understand. It took a lot of explaining on their part to help people understand.

Yeah, the rains are back!

So what challenges lie ahead for our team?  We’ll just have to wait and see—but hopefully, with the a lot of grace and determinedly low assumptions, we will gain understanding that will bless us all and allow us to bless islanders better too.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful that though the situation of the robbery has not resulted in any sort of restoration of moneys, the daily trips to the gendarmerie or courts have come to an end and our teammates have handled themselves very well balancing standing for justice and showing hearts of love and forgiveness.  We continue to be thankful for our short-termer, we are so blessed to have her with us for this month.  Translation work has started up again and seems to be going smoothly. After many hot and humid weeks, the rains are back this week bringing with them cooler weather— we are very thankful.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
The robbery, our brother’s medical emergency and other difficulties makes us suspect that we are in need of more prayer at this time.  Pray for the unity and harmony of our team—that we will be blessed by our multiculturalness and will listen well to one another.  Pray for our short termer, that her time with us will be fruitful in her life and in the lives of others.  There will be a big meeting about language work this coming weekend.  Pray that it would go well.  We ask for prayer for our neighboring islands where each has a young brother facing hardship and pressure to turn away from the freedom he has found.  May each stand strong and not fall back into slavery.  One has already given in to the pressure, but he has expressed regret and we hope he will turn back. Pray for Tom’s group of friends who continue to meet and ask questions.  May their questions lead them to understanding.  Pray for unity and growth.  We are asking especially for these two things this month.