Karate

Tom, kids and BruceLee

On the islands you take opportunities as they come.  Sometimes you will walk into a store and they will be selling something very strange for the islands — say a good brand of coffee,  or pickles, or peanut M & M’s.  You might take these things for granted, but these are not normal products for the island.  So when we see them, and if the price isn’t outrageous, we buy them because there is no guarantee we will see it again.  Some things we have seen that we haven’t seen again include ground meat, hot mitts, and tortilla chips.

We’ve learned to take advantage of the unique because—who knows when you’ll find it again.  That’s exactly how we found ourselves doing karate.  Our good friend Arongo came by the house for a visit.  He shared with us how when he was growing up he did lots of karate, had become a champion at home and had received his black belt.  This was surprising news (and then again not all that surprising—islanders have a way of randomly revealing surprising details about themselves).  He then shared that although it had been many years, they were trying to get a dojo together and it would be great for publicity if they could get some foreigners involved.

Boys and Sensei

Now you may think it’s pretty shameless being asked to do something just for the color of your skin, but we get this all the time.  Moreover, we saw an opportunity. Our kids never get the chance to do any extracurricular activities on the islands.  This was like tortilla chips in the shop.  It’s a chance to do something a little bit different, build new relationships, and get some extra exercise.  So we said, Yes!

And that is how we found ourselves, (Tom and the kids) under the free tutelage of Sensei BruceLee. (Not his real name, but he goes by an English name, so we thought this would be fun.)  Sensei BruceLee is a character.  An older man who clearly has a passion for the sport.  He goes all over teaching kids karate at seemingly no profit to himself.  Possibly because he was taught by people of a foreign language.  Possibly because, he’s just a bit different, he hardly uses any language to teach the techniques.  Everything is pantomime and modeling—and he’s surprisingly effective.  And so, every Saturday we make our way to practice some karate.  There have been many weeks when karate was postponed because the practice space was being used for a wedding, but whenever it is free, Sensei BruceLee has been there, ready and eager to teach us new moves.

Although all of us do it, it has been most fun to see how it has engaged our daughter.  We think she needed an outlet for sports. Sports for island girls is pretty limited at her age.  During school P.E. boys play soccer, while the girls stand around, mostly ignored by the teacher.  When visiting the big island we’ve been envious of the opportunities there for girls to study dance and ballet.  Our daughter would love that.  Wonderfully enough, we think karate has actually met some of those needs.  The karate lessons are quite choreographed.  We see our daughter enjoying the fluidity of movement and grace it takes to do the moves well.  The boys like the kicking and punching, but our daughter shows an aptitude for the balance and movement.

Daughter is gifted karate gear

We’ve been away for a month with conferences, evaluations and vacation.  We are not sure if the karate has continued.  Will it be like the tortilla chips?  Something that we were able to do for a season and now it’s gone?  We hope not.  But then, something else might pop up.  You never know on the islands.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We made it back to the islands with all our bags and have already reconnected with many friends and neighbors.  We even managed to bring back a toaster oven without being overweight.  The kids went back to school this week and their first day back went well.  We’ve been glad to hear that all of our family members who were traveling have made it back safely.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We made it back to the islands, but almost immediately, everyone (but Tom) got sick!  Vomiting, headaches, fevers, coughs—the works.  It was a rough first few days.  Couple this with the island power cuts and humid heat at night, it felt a bit like a one-two punch for our return.  But God is good and we are recovering and adjusting. Pray for health and rain to break the heat.  Our boss’s knee is still busted and may need surgery.  Pray for wise decisions for that, as the timing is far from ideal.  One of our island sisters who is still struggling with health issues and trying to see if traveling to the French island is her best way forward. We’re still looking for teammates, both short-term and long-term.  May the Lord send good people our way. We pray for opportunities to share the 2 kingdoms, to find those who are seeking wisdom and light, and for light to shine in the darkness.