Expected, Accepted, Ignored

 A few days ago I arrived early for my class.  The door to the classroom was locked, so I sat on the bench in the hallway waiting for someone to arrive and open up the door.  Next to the bench were a number of large buckets of paint , paint brushes, and various painting apparatus.  As I watched the painter came by and sat down on one of the buckets and set to work.

Valance covered with old paint drips

He opened one of the buckets full of paint and then pulled a second empty bucket up next to it.  He then poured about half of the bucket of paint into the empty bucket.  If he spilled a drop I didn’t see him do it.  With his thumb, he carefully wiped the edge of the bucket he was pouring from, and then scraped the rest into the bucket before wiping his thumb on his painting shirt.  Transfer accomplished and no paint on the floor—this time.  You see the painter did this right on the tiled floor of the hallway.  There was no drop cloth, paper or plastic sheeting.  He was working without a net.

Despite his deftness at pouring from one can into another, I could see that either others, or he himself, had not had such skill at other times.  All around his “work area” there were splatters of dried paint, even if his work area was the nicely tiled hallway.  This was not really a surprise to me.  In even the nicest homes, it is common to find paint splattered on windows, mirrors, tiled floors, light fixtures, and even picture frames and furniture.  It is one of those things that I look at and find hard not to judge.

With many decisions islanders make, I have come to appreciate their reasoning is different from mine—even if I still don’t agree, I can understand why they do it.  For example, islanders often buy cheap new clothes that fall apart after one wearing.  Why waste your money on clothes like that?  But the value of now and new—it’s cheap, it’s new, and I will look good today—outweighs the value of long-term and dependable clothes that are more expensive.  But the paint one eludes me…

Another example

I understand that plastic drop clothes are expensive, but I don’t think money is the issue.  I think, there are enough old rags and pieces of cloth lying around (the wraps that women wear and replace regularly would make great drop clothes).  And I don’t think that the painter doesn’t take pride in his work.  I watched him carefully mixing paint.  He clearly knew what he was doing and was doing his job attentively and well.  No, it was almost more like he didn’t see the splattered paint.  As if the small splatters that happen are just part and parcel of painting—expected, accepted, ignored.  It made me think of all the other things that are expected, accepted, ignored.  It made me think of the small boy who threw a plastic bottle into the street in front of his mother and left it there.  No comment from his mother.  Trash on the street is expected, accepted, ignored.  What’s one more plastic bottle?  It made me think of power outages and water shortages and employees not being paid for months.  Expected, accepted, ignored.  

I love the islands and its people.  There are many things I prefer about island culture and lifestyle compared to America, but in this way…I wish I could change them.

Even as I write this, I am thinking of things in my own culture that might be expected, accepted, and ignored:  violent and pornographic entertainment, lonely people without community, poverty in far off places.  We are by no means off the hook.  And I wish I could change my home culture, too.

Expected, accepted, ignored is a type of blindness.  It is seeing without seeing.  How do you open someone’s eyes?  It is not as easy as pointing out the problem.  For a few that might work, but for most they will see only what is expected, accept it and ignore it.  They will see it briefly and forget—or turn away in despair, thinking, “What can I do. It will never change.  It’s just the way the world is.”  

To see change, new eyes are required, a new heart too.  To see corruption and littering and poverty and loneliness and violence and splattered paint and want to do something about it—that takes a sensitivity that comes from above, and a hope that does not disappoint.  So though we might say something to encourage people not to litter, or speak out against corruption, we know the change starts in the heart, and so we push and pray to see change there. 

Megan and our two older kids

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Tom had a weird illness that might have been dengue or chikungunya. Thankfully it was very mild and he is feeling better. He and our youngest have been doing well at home on the islands, while Megan and our older two had a good weekend together in mainland Africa. Men’s gathering was well attended and the conversation was lively.  It was great to see men speaking up and listening to one another about real life things. Our teammate had a number of good interactions this week with neighbors and friends.  Tom’s studies with the two guys continue to go well.  Muki is really enjoying what we’re reading and shows up eager every day to read more.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We pray that God would open our eyes to the things that we expect, accept and ignore— may He soften our hearts. The month of fasting starts this week— pray for the islands in this special month where everyone is more focused on the things of God. May many seek and find Him. If you would like to get special emails during the month with ways to pray then email us.  Megan took our oldest for her check-up with the rheumatologist— her treatment isn’t working as well as hoped, they made a small change to her treatment, pray that it would lead to a significant improvement in her symptoms. Also pray that Megan fill the rest of our daughter’s prescription before she leaves town (the pharmacy was only able to fill part of it and wasn’t sure when they could get more).