Small Islands

The islands are not a big place. You can find smaller places and much smaller people groups, so they are not insignificant, but in the scheme of the whole world, they are small.

Island fishermen in small traditional boats

We have a visitor this week from the US, who has not traveled internationally much. It is fun seeing him process the islands and how different things are here. Coming from a ‘big’ place like the US, we think it is always important for Americans to see how differently others view the world. These small and diverse places give us new perspectives, can open our eyes and change us for the better.

Some weeks ago we talked about our good friend Bako and how we went to South Africa, rubbing shoulders from other young leaders from various African countries. I think it was a humbling experience for him, coming from a small place and going to a big one. The size of Johannesburg and the variety of cultures represented at the school were at times overwhelming. But perhaps the most humbling point may have been that some of the other participants had never even heard of the islands. We’ve encountered this many times, and while we aren’t surprised that people back home in the US haven’t heard about the islands before, it stings a bit that people from Africa, even countries nearby, don’t know where the islands are or anything about them.

Big international boat

For most islanders, the islands are their whole world. Many will never leave them. One of our good island friends is convinced that the islands are important. She loves languages and recognizes the importance for business and interacting with people from other countries. Several times she has suggested that if we ever had to go back to the US, that we should just open a language school to teach Americans the local island language! Her assumption is that, of course, people in the US would be interested in learning her language, because then they could do business and travel here with no problems. We have refrained from bursting her bubble about the feasibility of such a school and instead have thanked her for her advice.  

Another island friend, who has never left the islands, seems to understand the smallness of the islands. She was lamenting about war in the world, but she declared that the islands would never have to worry about ‘real’ war. She asserted that they were too small to be worth anyone’s notice. Also she said that the islands would never provoke a real war because, “All it would take is one bomb.” She made this point with hand motions, sound effects and gestures showing how, “One bomb—and boom—everyone would be dead.”  While I don’t know that her assessment is completely accurate, she’s an example of an islander who feels that they are small.

Father's Day mug from our daughter

In homeschool, our youngest son is learning about space. We are reading about far-away galaxies and the reality of how small our planet and solar system is in the context of the universe. It is humbling to feel so small.

On the islands, we struggle between wanting islanders to recognize the bigness of the greater world, to see beyond their one-way of seeing things, and to realize that there are different ways of viewing things. At the same time, we don’t want a feeling of smallness to make islanders not celebrate who they are, recognizing that their language and culture are something beautiful and unique and worth preserving. In the grand scheme of things all of us are so small and yet God in all His bigness tells us that we are valuable and important enough to him that He knows every hair on our heads!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We all made it back safely to Clove Island after the previous weekend on the big island. Two of our teammates and a number of island sisters traveled together and said it was encouraging to see them caring for each other and enjoying each other’s company. Our youngest is officially done with the local school year (still a few weeks of homeschool left though). We are thankful for fathers, as yesterday was Father’s Day. We are thankful for the time on the big island connecting with workers from all the islands and for a fun final day with our old teammate and leader who leaves the islands for good in a couple weeks. She has been a blessing to us and the islands and we are grateful for our years serving together here.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for an island brother who is experiencing health problems and has been told that neighbors have put a curse on him. Pray for healing and protection for him and his family. We have a houseguest from the US for the next week, pray it would be a good visit for him and give him insight into cross-cultural work and how God might guide him in his future.  Megan is having sciatic pain. Pray for healing and insight into what she should and should not be doing. For the newly translated books coming into the islands, that they would have a powerful impact here. Pray for our team that we would remain steadfast and stable in the midst of lots of transitions and changes. This past week we heard of two overseas workers (friends of friends) who died suddenly leaving behind wives and children (some of who attend our daughter’s school). Pray for all those in shock and grieving.