A Significant Amount of Time

Tom, friend and short-termer

We saw the ex-pat workers bristle at our suggestion that they had not been here very long. We had said, “It’s been less than a year, right?” But they quickly corrected us by saying that it had been just about a year now. Unfortunately for them, that did not strengthen their argument for us that they had been on the islands a long time. We’ve seen lots of people come and go on the islands, but we find they still have a lot to learn after only one year here. What seemed to them a very significant amount of time, to us was not terribly significant considering the complicated situations they were in.

We remember planning to come back to the islands after our second son’s birth and pushing to get back as soon as possible. Ultimately we were back on the islands with a two week old, even though I had had a c-section and hadn’t fully healed yet. My body was rejecting the stitches and my incision became infected on the islands. Looking back our rushing back seems a little foolish, but at the time it seemed like we had already been gone for over 6 weeks and we wanted to get back as soon as possible.

Other teammates have also struggled with being gone from the islands for a such-in-such number of days. They work to shave a day or two off their time away, but then they talk to their island friends. These islanders don’t count their time away in days, they count time off-island in months. When we told our island neighbors that we were going to Madagascar soon, they guessed, “So will you be gone for a month or two months?” We assured them that we wouldn’t be gone THAT long, but it was obvious that (to them) being away for a month is pretty normal—not really significant.

A couple months ago we talked to some potential long-term workers, thinking of coming to Africa in 2020 and interested in our team. We had a good, long talk about our team and the work, but when we said that we were looking to welcome new workers in the fall 2020, they looked discouraged. They were really hoping to come to Africa in early 2020. It was obvious that the difference of 6 months was a closed door for them—they’d have to look for other opportunities. It reminded us of, well, us…

When we first came to the organization, we were hoping to go to the field in mid-2007.  At our orientation week in mid-2006 we learned about the opportunities: there was one team starting in 2006 (too soon, we thought). But the next team would not be starting until mid-2008. We were so disappointed. It felt like such a long time to wait—another year!

Tom with his good friend's kids

But then we met a veteran couple at orientation week. (They were there to share their experience and help give some perspective to Africa.)  Not knowing our situation, they shared how they had come back from Africa temporarily for their son’s education, probably for around 4 years. They talked about it like 4 years was nothing and we expressed our surprise. Four years was certainly a long, significant amount of time! But then the man said, “Well, what is 4 years when you think that we have 20-30 years of work ahead of us?” Suddenly our complaining about a one year delay seemed small and immature.

But even as we write this post, there is a part of us that cries out that even a single day can be significant! Didn’t we just write a few weeks ago about how our short-termer’s time here on the island, while short, was significant. People’s lives can be changed in a single summer, one month, a week or even a day. There are certainly times in my life that were short but very significant. We’ve even balked a few times when people have suggested delaying coming to Africa (even though they’ve felt called) to get more education or to get some work experience. We caution them about waiting too long and losing their vision. Some people delay and then get comfortable at home and never leave. “After all, a lot can happen in a couple years!” we’d say.  So are we just being hypocrites and calling an amount of time insignificant in one situation and in another considering it highly-significant?

As I’ve thought about it, it seems that we can only determine if a time period was significant after it has long passed. Who’s to say if this day or summer is significant until we give it a few years and we see if that time is still informing our thoughts, ideas or decisions?  Sometimes we think we know when something life-changing has happened, but the proof comes when our life is really changed and stays changed afterwards. If our life quickly goes back to normal, was it a truly a significant experience?

At our local airport, heading to big island

There is a time for everything under the sun.  A time to go quickly and a time to go slowly.  A time to wait and a time to move ahead.  The trick is knowing what time you are in and allowing times to be significant and life-changing when they are meant to be.  Thankfully, our Father is ready to guide us.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Various travels have gone well so far. Our pregnant island sister made it safely to mainland Africa. Our short-termer is now on the small island. We had a good and encouraging day on the big island with our country leader (and old teammate), as well as our old friend Ma Imani. Our other teammate is safely on her way home for her brother’s wedding! 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
There have been some divisions and disagreements in the body on the big island. Some of these are exposing some long-unhealthy areas in the group. One of the sisters from Clove Island went over to mediate this weekend. We haven’t hear how it went, but thank God that these things are coming to light and pray for good patterns of mediation and reconciliation to be established and for true forgiveness to happen. We made it safely to Madagascar, pray for Megan’s family as they travel to join us. Pray that Megan’s back would stay strong as we travel around a lot in the coming days. Pray for our teammate who is staying on Clove Island alone for the next two weeks, that it would be a good chance to lean on her island friends and neighbors and deepen relationships. Pray for a good friend of our team. She has been trying and praying for a baby for several years and is pregnant. She just made it out of her first trimester but we’ve heard that she might be miscarrying. Pray for her, the baby and her husband.

What Do You Worship?

A recent Men's event: rich, important men up-front

I’ve been reading a good book recently by Tim Keller.  In it, Keller says, “Everyone has to live for something, and if that something is not God, then we are driven by that thing we live for...”   Shortly after, Keller quotes the author David Foster Wallace who famously said in a commencement speech, “Everybody worships.  The only choice we get is what to worship.” Keller goes on to use this insight to think about his own context in New York City and how important it is to understand what exactly people around us are worshiping  So it got me to thinking, “What do islanders worship?”  After a moment of reflection I concluded, they divide their worship between God and The Rich Man and these in equal proportion.  In many ways, the island way is to offer God His due, through prayers and certain sacrifices and then the rest of life is yours to do as you please.  As long as God is given the proper amount of respect, you may run after the big house, the luxury car, the beautiful wife and the status that comes with it.

How do I know this? After living here almost ten years, there are many examples to pull from but some of the most striking evidence for this have come through our regular administering of English exams.  Just yesterday we were giving exams and the final question on those exams is the simple question, “What are your dreams?”  Now, I realize this is not a fair spectrum of the population as most of our students are young, college-aged, and inexperienced, but the responses are still revealing.  There will be the odd student who will tell us of their dreams to be a doctor and help their country, but by and large the most common response we hear to this question is, “I want to have much money [sic], a big house, big car, and be famous.”  Yet, in an earlier question when we asked, “What is a good thing to use your money for?” Often students will reply, “To help others, because this is what God wants.”  One of my students threaded the needle perfectly yesterday when she replied, “In my opinion it is good to use your money for buying anything you want and helping the ones who don’t have anything.”  I didn’t push her on it, but in my experience, there is not usually much money left for the poor once you’ve bought everything you want.

Tom & short-termer about to give exams

But I had another realization as I considered this question of worship.  Do island women worship the same things as men?  The culture and answers I just described are most often heard and seen among men.  In reality, island women are very different.  Island women hardly worship God at all, at least in formal practices.  In talking to my female teammates, it’s clear that women’s lives revolve more around marriage and motherhood.  Their worth, status, and joy seem to be wrapped up in these things.  Can one worship motherhood? Could a wedding ceremony become a form of idol worship?  What happens to the childless woman?  What hope is there for the poor, plain girl?  Of what importance is a good versus a bad husband when marriage and children alone are the goal?

It is not hard to see that the things islanders choose to worship are no less empty than the things Keller talks about us giving our worship to in the West: fame, career, family, money, beauty, art, comfort, the American Dream.

 In his speech Wallace went on to say,  “The compelling reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship...is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.”

Keller saw this in New York City.  We see this on the islands: People being eaten alive by their idols.  The same questions that challenged Keller challenges us. There is something better, more fulfilling, more eternal, than the idols we have chosen to worship. How do we get people to stop chasing them? How do we talk about the one worthy of our worship in ways that can be relevant, appreciated, understood, and felt?  This is the challenge.  This is the goal.

Kids on island Independence Day

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our colleague (and former short-termer) on the small island was able to get her year-long visa without problem! Elewa’s pain has decreased and there might be a good opportunity to travel to mainland Africa in the coming months for her to get better medical advice and treatment. Megan’s phone hasn’t been recovered but we were able to order a replacement phone that her parents will bring out to us. Our teammates are all feeling better now. We had a meeting trying to act as mediators. It went okay, we hope that the openness to forgive that was expressed was genuine (we will see!).

PRAYERS REQUESTED
One of the strongest groups on the islands (who meets multiple times each week to study together and encourage one another) was just warned via a neighbor that the police said they have to stop meeting. They aren’t sure if this threat/warning is real or just a neighbor causing trouble, but either way, help them to have guidance about how to proceed. That they would not be governed by fear but would still be wise. It is going to be a busy week for us- pray that we can keep good priorities and do what we need to do. One of our island sisters is traveling today on her way to mainland Africa (where her husband is from) alone with their two young kids. She is pregnant and hopes to give birth there, but her husband won’t be with her so she will have to navigate the rest of her pregnancy and two kids without knowing the language or without many contacts. Pray that she would see God providing for her and that all the logistics would go smoothly. May she be encouraged. At the end of the week we will head to the big island for a day and then onward for some vacation. One of our teammates will travel at that time back home for her brother’s wedding and our short-termer will move to the small island. Pray for all the preparations, goodbyes and travels. We hope to have our boys meet with our friend the speech therapist while we are on the big island (who has been helping us remotely), pray that we could find a good time to meet and that the boys’ speech would continue to improve.

Quick Decisions. Longer Consequences.

On the way to retreat on islet

Over the weekend we went on a retreat with our team.  We went camping.  We prepared well and had everything we needed: food, water, firewood, etc.  We remembered these things because of the last time we had gone camping.  That time instead of bringing our own firewood, we had thought we would find it on site.  We found plenty on site, but it was all soaking wet.  This made cooking a real bear. Thankfully we only had one cooked meal planned, but we had to content ourselves with slightly warm hot dogs. The quick decision to not bring firewood, led to much longer consequences (hours of struggling over pitiful flames). This time we planned much better around meals (and were much more ambitious), and the cooking and eating went great! 

Something we like to do on a campout is go for a hike.  So on the second day, we went off on a hike around the island.  It was rather spontaneous. We tossed out the idea and said, “Let’s leave in a couple minutes!” We left mid-morning, walking along the coast.  The plan was to follow the coast and eventually turn inland and walk back over the hills and to our campsite, making a loop.  Nothing overly complicated.  We had hiked the area once before and knew there were the trails the farmers used and we were pretty sure they connected to the coast on the other side.  So even though we did not know exactly the trails we would take, we didn’t think it would be too hard to find our way.  Quick decision.  Longer consequences. Now, we never got lost, but that didn’t mean our hike was easy.

On hike: Following the coast

The first quick decision was to walk along the coast and leave at midmorning.  The tide was still low, but it had already turned and was coming in. As we went along, the tide continued to come in.  There were no trails for us to follow inland. So we had to keep to the coast.  We kept walking, but more often than not the rocky coast was met with a cliff with no way up. There may have been places where we could have stopped or scrambled up, if we needed to be safe from the tide, but none of us were interested in being stranded on a beach or cliff for hours waiting for the tide to go out.  So we kept going.  Finally we rounded a corner and found a break in the cliffs.  A valley that led inland.  Thankful to finally have a way to leave the coast, we turned inland up the valley.  Quick decision.

The valley

We followed the valley inland but soon found ourselves climbing again.  Soon it became clear that to get out of this valley, we were going to need to scramble up a steep hill and that the hill was more of a rockslide. So, in flimsy footwear and with our three kids, we found ourselves scrambling up loose rocks and holding onto roots and branches as we tried to get out of the valley.  Our teammate stepped up and led the charge. Eventually a farmer friend spotted us and started giving his advice. Finally with plenty of scratches to our arms and legs and a much wilted-in-spirit hiking party, we made it to the plateau.  The rest of the trail was uneventful—trails we had traveled before and knew well, but the joy of the hike had been greatly diminished.

It seems there is a lesson for us to learn in all this.  There was nothing wrong with our plan, per se, but at the same time, we might have done things better.  If we had left at low tide, we could have been much more leisurely in our search for a trail inland.  If we had considered the fact that we didn’t really know the trail we would take, we might have prepared with better footwear.  If we had simply done our hike in the opposite order, i.e. climbing over the hills and then coming back via the coast, we could have avoided all our problems all together.  If we had remembered that hiking in the islands is NEVER as simple as you might think, we might not have been so nonchalant in our planning.  But those are the surface lessons.  Perhaps there are bigger lessons to be learned. 

We are constantly making quick decisions. Sometimes, those quick decisions have big, long-lasting consequences.  We don’t realize it because the decision itself seems so small.  Maybe the negative examples stand out more— the flippant comment that ruins a political career. The hasty email that damages a relationship. But it can happen the other way too:  a simple, quick decision that leads to a meaningful conversation that changes someone’s life. Sometimes we can learn from bad experiences and make better decisions next time, but in lots of situations we don’t know what will come of all our quick decisions. We’re thankful that we have Someone who does know. May He guide all our quick decisions more and more.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had a nice team retreat on a little islet of the tip of Clove Island. We were thankful for the beautiful location, for good weather and for God keeping us safe. Our kids finished local school and have started the new homeschool year! Our family is feeling better! (But our teammates are sick now. Pray for their quick healing!)

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Unfortunately Megan’s phone was stolen while we were on our retreat. The number of people on the islet is limited and our boat-driver friend who helped us get to the islet seemed to have an idea of who took it. Not sure if we’ll get it back, but pray for islanders and this increasing attitude that it is okay to do bad things if one can get away with it. Our colleagues on the small island still haven’t recovered their lost items. Our short-termer has just two more weeks on our island, continue to pray for his impact with the family he is living with. One of our colleagues on the small island is back for a few weeks to pack up and say goodbye. We are sad to see him go! Pray that his final interactions with his team and his island friends and neighbors could be a blessing to all! Continue to pray for our teammate and the woman who has recently accepted the things they have been studying— pray for growth and good understanding for her and her family members. Our island sister, Elewa, has had a sudden return to the debilitating abdominal pain. Island doctors are giving her various theories of the cause but with no way of confirming the problem. Pray for relief from her pain and guidance as she looks at traveling to get better care and advice.

How Important Is This?

Megan & our daughter heading to event

At first it can be overwhelming— so much happening and yet so much left unsaid.

Someone might tell you that someone died today, expecting you to realize that that means there are people gathering at the closest relative’s house that day and again in two days time and that all acquaintances should be giving their condolences in person sometime during the week and close friends should give money to help with the expenses. Or they might tell you about a wedding and tell you the day of the biggest event, expecting you to naturally deduce the dates of smaller events that are held on the preceding days, not to mention what time such events are and who should attend them, what they should wear to each and whether they are expected to contribute money at said events.

At first islanders don’t know what to expect from us. “Do they go to things? Will they come to our cultural events?” Some assumed we wouldn’t go, but others dared to invite us. Then as soon as everyone sees us at events, they start to see us as part of the community.  Sometimes they assume that we are now “in the know” and understand all the unspoken rules and values of island culture.

So we’ve made mistakes. We’ve not made it to events where we were expected and missed. We’ve gone to events to which we afterwards wished we hadn’t gone. We’ve gone to the wrong location. We’ve gone overdressed. We’ve gone underdressed. We’ve shown up way too early. We’ve shown up late. Every time we learn something. But the most important thing we’ve learned is that much is unspoken, so we need to ask a lot of questions.

Daughter at event

It isn’t always appropriate to ask the person inviting us, so we have our trusted friends (cultural informants) who we know will give us good advice. “Where am I supposed to go? Will someone come and get me? What time? Will it really start at that time? What should I wear? Do I need to bring anything? Can I bring my kids? Is this the only event I need to go to? How important is it that I go to this?”

We get so many invitations (sometimes even from people we don’t know). So the last question (how important is this?) is often our most lingering query as we decide how to spend our time. This is where we have to be careful not to let our Western minds make this judgment call. Sometimes we need to look at these events as opportunities instead of burdens.

Take one recent wedding invitation…our western minds say, “Surely it isn’t important that the wife of the English teacher that gave her an exam last year come to her wedding event! She doesn’t even know our names!” Instead I have to look at it from her perspective. English has been very important to her. She’s invested months of study. Being able to communicate with foreigners and invite us to her wedding is a culmination of those efforts, plus everyone will notice us at the wedding, adding to her honor and highlighting her studies in front of her family. Several times, they will rewatch the hours of video (that will focus on our faces multiple times throughout the proceedings) and she and her family will remember us fondly forever for having gone.

Or take the news of a death this past week…we learned about the death of an acquaintance’s mother-in-law (who died to a village far away). I didn’t know the dead woman. I barely knew her daughter-in-law. The main house of mourning and funerary events would be in the distant village. It didn’t seem like there was much for me to do, and on my own I may not have done anything but offer brief condolences when I next happened to see her. But one of our island friends saw an opportunity. She called all the women who had been at a few meetings with this woman who is grieving her mother-in-law and told us to gather one afternoon to pay our respects together. We all gave a little money, we went, we sat, we said words and prayers of comfort and we left. It didn’t take long, but I do not doubt that it was a significant testimony that not only increased our credibility but the credibility of the good news.

Tom and friend at event

So maybe we need to ask ourselves and our cultural informants a different question. Maybe the question shouldn’t be “how important is this?” (aka, “do I have to go???) and instead ask, “what opportunity does this event offer us? Could I bless others with my presence?”

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our son’s gash on his head has healed well! Our close neighbor and daughter arrived safely in Madagascar for medical treatment and have already been seen at a hospital. Not sure on details beyond that but we pray it is good medical care! The kids made it through their local school exams and only have a couple days of school left! Tom’s friend has finally had the dream he has been praying for, but he doesn’t understand what it means. Pray that God gives him clarity.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Unfortunately our colleagues on the small island have not yet recovered their stolen electronics. It seems like the investigation is still open and there are some leads but we’re not terribly confident that the local law enforcement will do much more. Pray for a miracle and for peace for them. There hasn’t been any movement towards unrest since the month of fasting ended (as was rumored might happen). We continue to pray for constructive change in this country by peaceful means! Last year we had a short-termer from Madagascar, now she is back on the islands, married and set to work on the small island. Pray that she can get her long-term visa easily and without incident (this has occasionally been difficult on the small island). There have been quite a few illnesses floating around our family and team. Pray for healing for all!

Lasting Connections

Short-termer & Language helper

As we mentioned in our last blog, we have a short-termer with us.  This brave young soul has agreed to not only join our team, but spend his two months with us living and eating in a Island home and with a Island family.

The home where our short-termer is staying is about 5 houses down from the place where our Canadian teammates stayed (3 years ago now).  It is wonderful to see, in general, the lasting effects that all of our teammates have had over the years.  Though many of them only stayed for a few years before moving on, none of them have been forgotten by the friends and neighbors with whom they connected and with whom they shared their lives. 

In setting up a language partner for our short-termer, we called up a young guy who had been a good friend to our Canadian teammates.  He was eager to help out our new guy as he had many fond memories of practicing language with our Canadian teammates.  So with only a single phone call from us, he arrived at our house eager to help. It was amazing to me that he had not been with our team for more than a few minutes before he was talking about holy books, fasting, and faith.  We were not bringing up these topics, he was. It was a reminder that our teammates had a lasting impression. 

Our youngest hurts head

Eventually he was helping our short-termer with language. When the language session was over, I decided to send a picture of him to our old Canadian teammates.  Almost immediately I got a call from Canada and these old friends were reconnecting across the world by video chat.  The joy on this young islander’s face was unmistakeable.

A few days later, I was taking our short-termer out for a language walk.  This is a wonderful and awkward experience all new language learners experience.  It involves walking up to complete strangers and using the little bit of broken island language they have learned and watching the reactions of islanders.  As we headed out of the house, we saw three ladies sitting on a bench preparing food for dinner.  One of them looked vaguely familiar, but this was our short-termer’s game, so I was leaving the talking to him.  I noticed, as he struggled to form his first words of greeting, the lady who looked familiar was smiling and nodding like this was to be expected.  When he finished she replied in slow, loud, well-enunciated island speak:

    WEL-COME. MY…NAMMME…IS…TU-LA  !!!  WHAT…IS…YOUR NAMMMME?

Protecting against future injury

You also have to imagine the appropriate gestures that went along with these phrases.  She knew how to speak to a new language learner.  It was like she had done it before.  I smiled as soon as I heard her name.  Of course, Tula!  Tula had been a very good neighbor to our Canadian teammates and had helped them learn quite a bit of language.  It was no surprise that she would fall back into her teacher mode.  After a few more exchanges, I entered into the conversation and we talked about her good friends in Canada and shared their news.  She was delighted. 

One of the things we have tried to share with our short-termer is that though he is only here for a short time, though he will not be able to get to a level of language that will allow him to discuss deep things of the soul, the friendships he makes and the life he lives among them is important.  Most islanders have never met, let alone lived with someone of another country, another language, another faith.  The light that shines is not quickly forgotten. 

Father's Day- breakfast in bed

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our teammate who has been studying with some seeking women, had one woman ask to pray to accept all she has been learning about. This is very exciting! Pray for her and her family who are also hearing these stories and for our teammate as she continues to meet with them. Our short-termer is doing well. The family he is staying with is very kind and he’s even been taken to a wedding already! Continue to pray for him- he has four more weeks living with the island family. Our kids love homeschool so much that they’ve urged us to start the next school year! So we started today, we are thankful for how our kids are learning and growing. 

We had a good Father's Day and are very thankful for Tom and the wonderful father and husband that he is!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We’ve had some hard discussions over the past week over the difficult situation with some fellow foreigners that we had you pray about, but they went well. Continue to pray as we strive to be mediators of unity and reconciliation between others. Some islanders have speculated that now that the month of fasting is over that the political situation on the islands will heat up again. We’ve heard no concrete rumors of unrest, but we continue to pray for justice and good governance on the islands. Our youngest son hit his head last week and got a good gash. Pray that it heals well and that he can play safely so as not to re-injure it as it heals. Our kids are in the middle of exams at the local school— pray that it would be stress-free and that they would shine brightly among their classmates. Our close neighbor has traveled to Madagascar with her daughter for medical care. This is her first time leaving the islands and she asked us to pray for her. Please pray that they would find good medical advice, that there would be healing and that we could continue to show our love for them during this time. A colleague couple living on the small island have had a hard week. Their motorcycle was stolen and found a few days later on the other side of the island as it was being dismantled. Then their house was broken into as they slept and all their electronics were stolen (phones, computers and kindles). They have a tracking app on one of the devices and so have a general idea of where it is. Pray for the safe recovery of their electronics and for their peace of mind as they recover from the theft.

Welcome to the Islands!

Our short-termer made it in time for the holiday!

We don’t get a lot of outside visitors on Clove Island.  We kind of live at the end of the world.  Over the years, we’ve had a few people on their way to mainland Africa suggest stopping in to visit us (thinking it would be simple), but once they saw the price-tag and amount of travel needed to get to us, they reconsidered. We don’t begrudge their decision. We wish it was easy to get to us.

But because it isn’t easy, we try to be prepared for visitors. We have a document typed up with all sorts of details and logistics for someone trying to travel to us, plus we often have a tentative back-up plan in case of a missed or canceled flight.

This past week we were anticipating our short-termer, coming to the islands for 2 months from the US. He was supposed to arrive on the big island on Saturday morning and would connect same-day to Clove Island. To be safe, we put him on the last flight to Clove island leaving at 4:30pm. It meant he would have to spend most of his day at the airport on the big island but our colleagues arranged for an English-speaking islander to go up to the airport to help him with logistics and to pass the time with him. By sunset on Saturday, he should arrive at our house.

On Friday evening we got word that his flight from mainland Africa had been cancelled. He was put on a later flight, arriving at 2:30pm. Now he would only have 2 hours to make the connection to Clove island (two hours which needed to include passing through immigration and getting his tourist visa). We called the local airline to check, but it looked like he might still make it.

On holiday with our neighbors

Then we found out that the inter-island flight was hoping to leave an hour earlier (at 3:30pm), even though they hadn’t informed anyone. So ultimately our short-termer only landed around 2:45 and was still finalizing his visa when the flight to Clove Island left!

But we had thought of this eventuality! Our island friend just needed to settle him into the hotel right next to the airport…But once they got there, they found out that the hotel had no electricity and no food!

Okay, new plan…our island friend and colleague will help him find a hotel in the capital (plus something to eat), and then they’ll help him to the airport the next morning to get him on stand-by for the first morning flight to Clove Island.

Unfortunately our island friend overslept and so they missed the first flight. All the others were completely full and no one on stand-by got on. Checking at the desk… the next day’s flights had no openings. It was now Sunday, so no offices were open. Would he ever make it to Clove Island?

Finally we were able to secure a reservation for him—on Tuesday—two days away. He was not keen to be alone in a hotel for two days, but housing options were scarce. In the end our colleague arranged for him to sleep on a floor with a bunch of guys from a short-term team passing through.

And so, it was on late Tuesday morning, after 7 days of travel, our short-termer finally arrived on Clove Island! He looked beyond-tired, but he is recovering well.  Travel to the islands—not for the faint of heart!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful that our short-termer made it and that he remained in pretty good spirits. We are thankful for our friends and colleagues on the big island who stepped up to take care of him. We spent the day after his arrival celebrating the biggest holiday of the year! We saw and hopefully blessed many island friends and neighbors on the big holiday! We are thankful for all the islanders that God has brought into our life. Ma Riziki, our old neighbor, burned her arm badly with hot oil. Megan helped take care of the burn with regular cleaning and bandage changes. We’re thankful for how well it is healing and also for the opportunities to pray with Ma Riziki each time. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our short-termer.  He has been staying with us but last night he moved to his new place, staying with an island family. He has jumped into a world of culture and language that can feel pretty overwhelming.  Pray for his patience, understanding, and ability to communicate, as well as his stamina and strength.  Pray that he would be a blessing and be blessed by the family he is staying with.  With the month of fasting and the big holiday finally passed, we return to more normal life.  That means school and English classes.  Pray for our transitions back to these things.  We hope to start recording portions of a Great Book this week.  Pray that it goes smoothly.  Continue to pray for Megan and our daughter who continue to feel a bit under the weather.  There is a difficult situation with some fellow foreigners here that requires some hard discussions.  Pray for wisdom, patience, and grace for Tom and the group as we face this dilemma.

The New Guy

Island rainbow

Imagine you’re helping out with a youth group and a new kid shows up.  He says he’s just moved to town from another place and shares his beliefs with you openly.  What would you do with him?  Most likely, you’d be rejoicing, inviting him to every event possible, and hoping that he will be a new positive influence and encouragement to the group.  Now what if it turns out that he’s not what he says he is and that actually he is a difficult kid who needs a lot of love and mentoring.  What would you do then?  Most likely you’d be thankful for his interest, invite him to every event possible, and hope that the kids in the group would be a positive influence and encouragement to him.

At this point you might be saying, “So what?”  What’s the point.  But this hypothetical episode reveals a situation of freedom and trust that is not present in other places.  Here on Clove Island, we must be more circumspect.  What is their motivation? Can this person be trusted?

Case in point:  A few months ago we heard through the grapevine that a guy who was living on one of the other islands had moved over to our island.  Our friends over there gave us his number and they gave him our number. They gave a good report of him.  A few weeks later, we talked on the phone once and then we didn’t hear from him again.

Unfortunately this is all too common.  It is difficult to know what motivates someone’s heart, why did they initially befriend a foreign worker.  Do they care about money, learning English, networking with foreigners, gaining wisdom, gaining job opportunities?  Any of these and more could be a reason for befriending us.  And we have learned from long experience now that friendships do not transfer easily.  We also find that islanders may present themselves differently in different places.  They may live a very different lifestyle in a place where they are known as a student versus the place where they are known as the first son of So-and-So. Maybe this guy was a friend of our friend over there, but things may be very different here.  So when he didn’t get in contact again, we thought, “Oh well, I guess nothing is going to come of that connection.”

Preparing for breaking-the-fast feast

But then, after not hearing from him and giving up on him, we suddenly got a call from this guy.  And he wanted to come by and visit.  So just two weeks ago I came to meet Yakub.  So we sat and talked, I liked what I heard.  He told me some of his story—about his life, and his work.  He seemed unassuming and not interested in getting things from me.  He did seem to know a lot of foreigners—which made me wonder.  But at the same time, he didn’t talk about the things they did for him or anything along those lines.  All in all, he seemed like the real deal.  So with prayer and trepidation I invited him to some events.  This is no small thing.  We do these things cautiously and carefully for the good of all involved.  It may seem strange, but it is important in our situation.  Our group is small and one bad apple can ruin the whole bunch. Not just with a bad attitude but with a bad report.  So, in a sense we need to play the role of bouncers even as we play the role of bridges.  The funny thing is, Islanders can smell a rat a lot faster than we can.  We do our best to introduce slowly, but we often see quickly whether it was a good idea or not.  This gets to another important factor—just how inadequate we are to do this job.  Despite our many years of living here, we still lack the understanding of cultural nuance to see things as islanders do.  We simply need wisdom and discernment beyond our own capacity.  Another reason why we pray about these things and hope that we don’t make decisions in our own strength.

The good news is that Yakub seems like the real deal.  He was warmly welcomed by the group.  In fact, one of our brothers is full of joy because Yakub lives near to him.  This brother has been asking for a long time to have another brother nearby for mutual encouragement and growth. He was practically beaming as he talked about how God had answered his prayer by bringing Yakub.  And so we look cautiously and optimistically to the future.  It’s not an easy thing to be both bridge and bouncer, but then again, it’s a problem we’d love to have a lot more often!

Mid-feast

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had our big breaking the fast meal on Saturday evening. We are very thankful for all the help received from an island sister. There were 21 adults and 17 children! It went well and we had a time of prayer and sharing together afterwards. We are thankful that Yakub has connected well with other islanders here. We are thankful that Elewa’s husband is doing much better. He is out of bed and in much less pain. He came to the feast on Saturday and thanked and blessed us all as “true friends”.  We’re thankful for our teammate and former teammate who both had birthdays this past week. We are blessed with many great co-workers on the islands. 



PRAYERS REQUESTED
Our short-termer was supposed to arrive on Saturday but he still hasn’t made it! Once he got to Africa, the airlines started changing flight times and he missed his connection to Clove Island. We’re thankful to some fellow workers who have been able to take him in, but please pray for him that he would remain in good spirits and arrive well on Tuesday. The biggest holiday of the year will most likely be on Wednesday (though possibly Thursday). It is a day of greeting and blessing all your friends and family (and kids are given candy). Pray that we can use this day to shine light and blessing as we interact with all our friends and connections. The month of fasting was a great month for islanders on our island praying and gathering together. Pray that it would continue! Megan hasn’t been feeling well for the past few days— pray for healing.