Word and Deed

 Ananas came to our house on Sunday, as he faithfully always does.  He brings us eggs and bananas.  We pay him far more than they are worth, but we appreciate having these things on hand and he needs the money.  Ananas is one of the “old guard.” As different workers have come and gone the local ‘family’ has also grown or shrunk with them.  A few of the old guard— the legacy of workers long past—remain part of the family until today.  A greater number have gone their own way.  And a few, like Ananas, linger on the fringes.  Neither part of the family, yet neither wholly alienated from it either.  Why is it like this?  I think a recent incident gives some insight.  Ananas came for a visit and shared a story with me.

Bananas from Ananas

“The shop owner was so angry,” he said.  “He caught her putting a dress into her bag.  ‘What do you think you’re doing?  Are you a thief?  You walk around here stealing things from shops.’ He had grabbed her arm and was shouting at her.  But I told him to calm down.  It would be okay.  People shouldn’t act that way.  People are poor.  They can’t always afford to buy things.  I told the woman to come with me.  The shop keeper yelled at me, ‘Hey what do you think you’re doing.  She needs to pay for that.’  So I took out some money and I paid for it.”

It should be mentioned that Ananas is not a rich man.  This was a beautiful act of generosity on his part.  His story continued.

“I took her over to my stall and had her sit down in my chair.  I told her she could just sit there for a while and calm down. She was crying.  She said thank you again and again.  I told her it was okay, that people shouldn’t do things like that.  Shopkeepers are rich men, they don’t need to treat a poor lady like that.”

I was moved by his act of kindness.  What an opportunity for him to share the good news! I asked him, “Did you tell her why you helped her?”

“No,” he replied.  “I just did it.  I didn’t say anything.”

Perhaps I’m being too hard on him, but it seems like an opportunity missed.  Islanders believe in good deeds—especially in this “holy month”—because they believe it gets you faida: good points on judgment day, blessings, good karma.  You might call it “heavenly money.”  “That woman probably left thinking Ananas did it for the heavenly money, never knowing that he may have had a better reason all along.  

Visiting a newborn

I feel this story shows some of the wavering we see in Ananas.  He is both bold and timid.  Courageous and fearful.  Open and yet closed.  Obedient and yet disobedient.  Sometimes I think Ananas is “trying to have his cake and eat it too.”  He seems eager for his neighbors to see him as a good member of the community.  He seems happy for people to think he is doing his deeds for faida.  But he also wants to be welcomed among the family.  But most of the family does not accept him.  They see him as two-faced.  Untrustworthy.   I know a famous saint once said, “Share the good news and if necessary use words.”  This seems like one of those times when words were necessary.  The longer we live here, the more we find, words are almost always necessary, as our good deeds are almost always misinterpreted as just people looking for faida.  

We aren’t looking for faida.  We don’t need faida. We want to show the love of the one who loves us first.  We want it to be more about Him and less about us.  Obedience means being willing to speak up.  

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We were able to have Muki and Mtsa’s family over for a breaking of the fast meal last night. Unfortunately Mtsa wasn’t able to come because the person relieving him at work never showed up. Still we were able to have some good conversation with his wife, and Tom and Muki were able to deliver food to him at work. The chikungunya epidemic seems to be calming down— with the news being about people recovering instead of new people getting sick. Our daughter is doing better. Thanks for praying. The men’s gathering was short as men were tired and had things to do, but there was still some good conversation— we’re hopeful that the regular monthly connection will eventually lead to deeper relationship. Hashiri agreed to go to the doctor (something Megan has been pushing) if Megan went with her— so they went last week and got some answers about Hashiri’s ongoing health issues.  Hashiri also applied for a job this week (something else Megan has been encouraging her in). 

PPRAYERS REQUESTED
It is the final week of the month of fasting with the big holiday likely to be on Saturday (some people say it could be Friday, but we won’t know until the new moon is sighted the evening before). We often see and interact with lots of people on the holiday, pray that we could opportunities to be witnesses of the good news in both word and deed!  The fuel shortage has continued and we have several friends who have been struggling to find fuel for cooking, but thankfully a ship with more is supposed to arrive tomorrow on the big island. Pray that this shipment would not be hoarded by a few, but would be well distributed so that everyone can get what they need. Pray for our daughter as the upperclassmen split up and go on multi-day field trips— pray that she stays healthy on the trip and can still get the rest she needs with her health condition. Pray for wisdom about celebrating Easter this year— there are some obstacles to a big gathering, so pray that it would be clear how to proceed. Clove Island has added a extra step for getting our visas, pray that we could get our visas renewed this week before the holiday (as they expire soon). 

Fear of Shortages Causes Shortages

 Fear has gripped the islands—Crowds amassing at gas stations get bigger and more desperate, especially for kerosene. People who would normally only buy 5 or 10L of kerosene are bringing 20L containers and more than one if they have the containers and the money. We passed the line of containers, long and unmoving.

Line of containers waiting for kerosene

Gas on the islands comes in three different forms. There is the gas for cars, the gas canisters for western-style stoves/ovens and the kerosene gas that most islanders use for their simple cookstoves. There is now a shortage of all three forms of gas in our town. Wealthy people who own personal cars probably use all three on a daily basis. The poorest islanders only use the kerosene, but they use it everyday. They buy it in small amounts— enough for a few days or a week.

It began with a rumor…”The war in Iran will cause gas shortages.” The rumors of potential shortages spread like a kerosene fire, and without delay those with money in hand went to buy as much gas as they could hoard. 

The islands are used to shortages, usually they are caused by poor management and planning or by a long stretch of bad weather stopping shipments. But this shortage isn’t from mismanagement or weather. This shortage isn’t caused directly by the war. This shortage is from fear.

Fear is not a healthy motivator— it usually does not point us in the right direction. But fear is powerful and can override reasonable arguments and advice. Fear combined with selfishness is a combination that can lead to all kinds of problems and hurts. 

How do you stop a rumor?  How do you stop fear?  The hydrocarbons company, which is responsible for importing gas, has sent out appeals and official statements telling people not to panic, that there is enough gas on the islands, and that there is even another ship already en route to deliver more. They have tried to make people understand that if everyone buys normally that there will be plenty for everyone. No one has been listening to them. The government has warned people of the danger of hoarding and storing gas at home. Finally, the big island has forbidden people from filling up containers with car fuel— it has to go straight into a vehicle. 

These fears of a shortage may be realistic. War causes lots of problems and shortages are not uncommon, but the reality is that there wasn’t a problem on the islands until fear caused the problem. The reality is also that some richer individuals are sitting on stockpiles of gas while poor people are struggling to find someone to sell them the kerosene that they need to cook today’s meal.

People/vehicles crowding gas station

Our friend said she saw a neighbor earlier in the week (before the rush for gas got bad) arrive home with some huge containers and a barrel of kerosene. A day later our friend asked this neighbor if she’d sell her some kerosene, “I don’t have any” was her reply. Our friend didn’t call her out on the clear lie, but instead kept looking. She waited in a line for a few hours but as she couldn’t spend her whole day doing that, she traveled to a neighboring village on the promise that she’d be able to buy 5L there.  When she got there she was only able to get 2L. She’s heard that the port is supposed to release some more kerosene for sale, so she’s hoping on that. 

We hope she finds it. We hope that fears will calm, that the shortages don’t come to pass and that everyone, including the poor, has what they need.  Meanwhile our friend is wondering about looking for firewood (which is hard to come by here in the capital) and contemplating whether it would be safe to build a cooking fire on their rooftop…

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We facilitated the first half of an online debrief with the team on the small island last week.  It went well and we’re hoping for another good session this week.  Women’s gathering went well despite some smaller numbers—those who came seemed to get a lot out of it.  We’ve all had some good conversations this week with various friends about fasting and why we don’t fast like they do.  We were able to visit Bako’s family and see his newborn baby boy.  The month of fasting is a good opportunity to get some administrative work done (less visits, no classes)  Praise that that work is getting done!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for the panic to stop and for there to be enough fuel for everyone. The men will gather this week.  Pray that many will come and that they will continue to grow in trust and vulnerability with each other.  The mosquito-borne illness chikungunya continues to spread all over the islands.  Many, many people have gotten sick.  Thankfully it doesn’t seem too serious most of the time, but some are struggling with on-going joint pain which can last for months.  Pray for healing and for this epidemic to dissipate. Pray for our daughter who has been having a hard week with her rheumatoid arthritis— pray for a lowering of her stress levels and healing for her body. The month of fasting continues and we continue to pray for opportunities for light to shine in the darkness—if you want to be receiving our personalized emails for prayer during this month, let us know. 

War and AI

 As we are all aware, missile strikes and other sorts of warfare have broken out in the Middle East.  Islanders are generally not very interested in world politics, but they know when something big is going on.  Rarely do you come across someone on the street with very strong opinions, and usually they have only the vaguest viewpoints to express about fighting in places like Ukraine, Gaza, Libya or Venezuela.  Those places are far away and have little effect on them (at least as far as they are aware).

Looking down on major road

But facebook is another matter.  Just like everywhere else in the world, social media with its perceived anonymity, is a place for promoting opinions (at least those opinions that won’t get you in trouble with the government) brazenly and broadly—mostly through forwarding others' pictures and videos with your own tag added.  This is new to no one.

But what is different now is the prevalence of AI generated content.  My island facebook page is full of “pictures” and “videos” from the present conflict.  Most of them show missiles approaching and blowing up American airplanes, aircraft carriers, oil tankers, battleships and military bases.  Some of them are obviously fakes, but many have become so realistic it is hard to know what is true and what isn’t.  Based on what we see there, and if it were our only source of information, we would be convinced that the US is losing badly and sustaining terrible losses.  We know this is not the truth, because we have other sources outside of facebook, but what if we didn’t?

We know this is just as much a problem in America as in Africa.  We can no longer trust what we see in a video to be real.  And just like here, some people are getting their news from forwarded facebook photos and videos.  The content might be different—even opposite, but equally false. 

Word spreads just as quickly and powerfully person to person as a post on a facebook page.  This morning our house-helper walked in telling us about the war going on and how all of the oil tankers have been destroyed.  “We’re going to see a rise in gas prices, because they’ve destroyed so many boats.”  We asked if the price has already risen.  She said not yet, but it’s coming—an increase of 20%!  

We wonder where she gets her news.  We don’t think she watches, reads or listens to a regular news programs.  And yet, she told me about all the oil tankers that were being destroyed.  Where did she get this information?  Did a neighbor tell her?  Did someone show her a Youtube video?  And what are we supposed to tell her?  How are we supposed to respond?  

We are constantly telling friends not to believe everything they see on facebook. Years ago, we were having to tell them about how digital photos can be doctored and faked, and “No, I don’t believe a woman gave birth to a baby with a fish tail, even if there is a photo to prove it.” Now I tell them how AI makes videos now that can make it sound like someone is saying or doing things that aren’t real.  They nod their heads and agree, so perhaps we are raising some awareness.  But, we wonder if they think they are smart enough to tell the difference (which we usually assume about ourselves as well).  

Back together again!

Where does this all lead?  We’re not sure.  At the end of the day, perhaps it doesn’t matter very much to islanders which country bombed which country more successfully and came out on top in a war that’s far away from them and has not effected their lives except for a spike in gas prices (which would probably have happened no matter who is winning or losing).  Perhaps it’s just one more lie floating out there among the many that we’re exposed to all the time.  It is hard to know what’s true anymore.  Many people have given up trying to find it, and settle for what feels true.  And yet, something in us longs for truth.   

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  

We long for the truth.  We long to be set free.  It is there in all of us, no matter how many facebook videos we believe.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Megan is finally home on Clove Island— after some unexpected extra time on the big island due to canceled flights. It is nice for the three of us to be back again! The leadership meetings went well and were encouraging. Our daughter was accepted to the colleges she was most interested in. Our older son was part of their school music tour this past weekend that went well. Our youngest is feeling all better now, we are thankful that he didn’t have a serious case. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED 

We pray that people would seek and know truth. We will be facilitating a team debrief online tomorrow and next week that we were meant to do in-person in October. It was disrupted because of a team crisis at that time and postponed— pray that it can still be a meaningful process despite the delay and that the internet connection stays strong for it. We are supposed to have women’s gathering this week which can’t be at our normal time because of the month of fasting— pray that it would still be well-attended and that we could have good discussion about whether to do a larger Easter gathering this year. One of the island brothers who has not been as involved lately just lost his mother. Pray that the brothers could respond with love and that he might be drawn back into community with them. The month of fasting continues—if you want to be receiving our personalized emails for prayer during this month, let us know.