Not What We Planned

 When we were first preparing to move to Africa longterm, we had a plan. We would leave the US and start our lives in Africa in one year’s time.  That was what worked best for our schedule. But that plan was not to be. We were told that we would have to wait 6 months longer than we wanted. And when we heard that, we were deeply discouraged. As we questioned and struggled with our one year’s plan demise—being disrupted by a whole 6 months—some longtime overseas workers (unaware of our disappointment) started sharing their story with us.  They had just arrived back in the US and were going to be there for 3 or 4 years. It was not something they had planned.  But life situations had made it necessary.  More amazingly, they seemed at peace with it.“What’s 4 years, really?” One of them said.  “We’ll come back 4 years from now and still have 20+ years of work ahead of us, right?”

Tom at island event- they don't usually go to plan!

Needless to say, we were humbled by this perspective. To us, 6 months felt like the end of the world. We look back on that moment as the first of many lessons about holding our plans—especially the timing—loosely. God often has a better plan.

Over the years we’ve retold this anecdote to ourselves and others many times, which suggests that it is a lesson that lots of us need learning.  This week we had a visitor who shared about her journey so far. She said things always seem to take longer and work out differently than she had originally hoped. Not what she planned.

Our teammates have been trying to find a solution to their water problems for a long time.  Even once a plan for installing a cistern had been settled on, it has taken much longer than expected.  They could tell their own story about the twists, turns and disappointments along the way.  In fact, that story is not over yet.  We are still waiting for the text saying it is up and running.  It has not been an easy thing. Not what they planned.

We have colleagues on the small island who have been preparing for a new team and had hoped it would have been starting, but instead they are still waiting for things to come together.  Still waiting for people to sign up to join the team.  It’s not fitting the timelines we had all hoped for.  Not what we planned.

Some delays are long, some are short. The medical team was originally slated to start back in 2017 or 2018, but only got going in 2021. Our medical teammates were supposed to start their internship last week, but unexpected complications means that it won’t start until next week. That is not what we were hoping for.  Not what we planned.

Our son & daughter- homecooked meal in dorm

Things aren’t going the way you’d hoped?  You thought you had it all worked out and now it’s all falling apart?  Time to take that timeline you created  for your life, project, work, vacation, dream, (add your thing here), and start again? Not what you planned.

Islanders are so cautious about disappointed plans— not wanting the shame of people hearing about their plans and then having to come back to tell them that their plans didn’t work out. So they don’t tell people about their plans until the very last minute.  Multiple times we’ve had people tell us they were leaving to study abroad for multiple years only the day before they traveled. A few times they’ve even called from the airport or after they’ve arrived in the new location! The surprise is all so that they don’t get caught having to admit that reality was not what they planned.

Sometimes when the change to our plans happen, we can sense right away that maybe the change was for the best. Other times, all we feel is disappointment.  That’s true for everyone.  Islanders hold future plans very loosely. (God willing!)  They are quick to thank God when things go in their favor, but at the same time, they look at the future with lots of fear and uncertainty.  We don’t want to do that.  We want to hold our future plans loosely with a sense of trust.  Whether we can see it or not, we are learning to trust that God’s plans are always better than ours. There are lots of things out of our control, but nothing is out of His hands. Not what we planned? It’s better.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The medical team got their approval for the short-termer and for our teammates’ internship. Progress has been made on our teammates’ cistern project. Praise that an older man that Tom has studied with amazingly did not sustain serious injury after two bad accidents.  Tom had the chance to challenge him to see God’s hand in these events. The young boy that stole from us (and who we said had to learn to read to pay us back) has returned and restarted his lessons with Tom and is doing really well.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
An island sister on the big island has had her father threaten to kick her out of her home and to have the police come and arrest her unless she follows island traditions. She has not been afraid, and so far she hasn’t been arrested. Pray for continued peace for her and wise words and actions as she interacts with her family, the police and her community. Pray for her children too. There is hopes to do a large gathering here on Clove Island this coming weekend with both islanders and expats on the island. Pray that the planning and the event itself would encourage unity and deepen the sense of community. Things have gotten better, but our son still hasn’t fully found his rhythm at boarding school. Pray for good friends, that he would feel encouraged, and he would look to God in the hard moments. Our medical colleague is still waiting on the funding for her breastfeeding training. Pray for patience with the bureaucracy as she tries to work with the island medical system.

What Would You Do?

 Imagine someone came to your house and told you that they planned to perform a religious ceremony there—only the ceremony was for a different religion than the one you followed.  Would you allow them to do it?  

Islanders gathered for religious event

On the surface this seems like a simple question with potentially a simple answer:  “No, of course not.”  

But, if you stop and think about it for a second, a question might jump to your mind.  Instead of a flat out, “No”, you might find yourself asking, “Why?”

“Why my house?  Wouldn’t it make more sense at your house or your place of worship?  Why in the world would you choose my place?”

Considering the seeming strangeness of the request, there might be some pretty strange reasons for it.  Some of them might be completely valid.  Some of them might be completely bizarre. But it takes asking why to start discovering the complexity.

We struggle with these sorts of complexities all the time, as do our island brothers and sisters.  For example, with this very question—the answer might be one where you have little choice in the matter.  Some colleagues have been renting a house on the big island and when the landlord came and said, “We’re going to do a religious ceremony there.”  It wasn’t so much asking as it was telling.

But then lets add a layer of complexity to it.  What if you’ve become good friends with the landlord?  And what if the religious ceremony is a prayer for his beloved mother who he can’t talk about without choking up?  What if the house you’re renting is the biggest space available to the landlord to do a big event?  It gets harder and harder to say no. And at the end of the day, it’s the landlord’s house.

Let’s add another layer of complexity.  What if you are not an expat renter, but an islander in your own home and it is your extended family coming to you with the request?  What if it was your beloved family member who had died and the family is requesting to use your house because it is the biggest space available?  You may not agree with the ceremony, but you agree with the sentiment.  There is something in us that longs to commemorate the ones we’ve loved and lost.  Does that make it okay?

Now, I’m not sure of your answer.  Maybe you’ve switched and now think, “Let them go ahead and do it.”  Well, let me add another layer of complexity.  You may have peace in your heart, but what about the people around you?  What does your capitulation say to them?  What does it say to others of your faith?  What kind of example are you setting?  Are you missing an opportunity?  Is this the moment for lovingly sacrificing your desires for the sake of your family, or is it the moment for bold witness and humbly standing for what you believe no matter the consequences?

Tom brings back sunglasses for a friend

Perhaps now you are thinking, “Maybe yes or no is the fool’s choice.”  Perhaps there is another way to hold all these competing values together.  Could we offer alternative venues?  Is there the possibility of an alternative ceremony?  Is there another way to honor a loved one that I could celebrate that would be acceptable in the eyes of my family and community?

I hope by now you don’t claim to know the answer.  In fact, I don’t believe there is one answer that works in every situation.  Rather, there is one true answer for each situation and those answers will change with that situation.  To know the right answer for the given situation will take prayer, discernment, wisdom, humility and love.

These sorts of decisions are frequent for our island brothers and sisters.  One came up just this week, sparking a discussion among them (and inspiring this blog).  On the surface, it might seem like the decision is obvious, but dig deeper and we see its complexity.  Unfortunately, we are often quick to judge from the surface, without digging down and understanding, without wrestling with the complexities of the issue, without listening and empathizing with the person making the decision.  

Imagine someone came to your house and told you that they planned to perform a religious ceremony there—only the ceremony was for a different religion than the one you followed.  Would you allow them to do it?

What would you do?

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our son’s second week at boarding school was much better than his first. He’s settling in and things are getting easier. Thanks for praying! It looks like the island brother with the hurt back may not need surgery after all—he will do some physical therapy and then be evaluated again. Our colleagues heard back from the landlord in France, so they can move forward with the contract and repairs for the house that our teammates will live in when they move over to the medical team in November. Our island sister made it safely to her destination and her mom says she has contacts for people and community there. Megan’s back continues to improve— her incision is almost completely healed (after her body started rejecting the stitches). The monthly women’s gathering was an encouraging time where some of these complex situations were discussed. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
The medical team is still waiting on several approvals— for a short-termer to be able to observe at the hospital on the plateau, for our teammates to begin their internship at the hospital in the capital, and for the funding for a breastfeeding workshop that had already been planned for this past weekend. These delays are frustrating and it isn’t clear where the delays are originating from. Pray for God’s timing and for obstacles to be removed. Pray for our teammates who have been struggling with bad water at their house for as long as they have lived there— efforts to install and fill a cistern at their house has been and continue to be problematic.  Pray for the islands as all of us continue to wrestle with tough issues and dynamics filled with complexity. May we surrender them in prayer and see God bring discernment and unity.

Accumulation

As we came back to the islands this past week, it was to a smaller team. Our teammate, who had lived on the island for years, moved out of her house and left while we were gone (though happily we saw her as she passed through mainland Africa). She gave away or sold most stuff to islanders, but there were some things that made their way to us. A bag with some odds and ends. Our other teammates had received a last minute tub of random stuff too that was very much appreciated by their neighbors. For anyone that has had to move, this will probably sound familiar. In our experience, there is always a final box/bag needed to hold all the random stuff at the end.  The stuff just keeps coming! And you start to realize how much you have accumulated.

We've accumulated a number of puzzles

Meanwhile our new teammates (in their first year on the islands and with kids) just got back from vacation.  It was their first time off islands since arriving, and naturally they came back with lots of stuff that didn’t make it the first time and/or that they have been missing the past 6 months. They are still in that early stage, where you welcome a certain amount of accumulation.

When we first arrived on the islands, we remember that our possessions were limited both by what the airline luggage restrictions allowed us to bring and the limitations of what we could find on the islands. With growing kids and fresh memories of all the things we couldn’t get on the islands, we always left the islands with big shopping lists of things to bring back. There was the always-present food stuffs that we missed, but then always some toys, clothes, electronics, books, kitchen stuff, too.

Younger son likes to accumulate things he finds

As time has gone by, we find our lists are a lot shorter. We still usually get some good coffee, chocolate and peanut butter, but we’ve already accumulated so much on the islands and/or gotten used to life without some things, that we are less often truly disappointed if we don’t have time to buy things when we’re off island now.

We also have had enough reminders of the slow creep of accumulation to fear it. Whether it is a teammate moving out or having to sort through the kids’ stuff as they packed up for boarding school. I find myself wanting to get rid of stuff and questioning why we still have things. Some collections of stuff seem like a headache to keep, the storage and eventually moving of it doesn’t seem worth it.

But maybe we need to first accumulate and feel burdened by the stuff, in order to want to stop the accumulation. Maybe if you’ve never had to move or never been low on storage space, you’d never feel the burden of it. Or if you’ve never had the money to accumulate possessions, then you’ve never been in the position of having more than you need (over-accumulation definitely feels like a rich person’s burden). Whatever your situation, we have been privileged enough to have more than we need to keep. We have felt the burden of possessions and also the freeing feeling of culling those possessions—ideally by giving to people that actually need or want what we have, but by whatever means, getting rid of stuff.  These days I smile at the thought of newly freed up storage space, uncluttered corners, empty boxes! Maybe it's time to ‘de-cummulate’ again!

Son hasn't accumulated much in his dorm room yet

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The island brother with the hurt back got his passport renewed and made it safely to mainland Africa and had an MRI! He’s awaiting the results. We made it back to Clove Island, despite some bad weather and canceled flights. We had a nice few days on the big island and had a chance to connect with our colleagues there. Our daughter has settled right back into school.  Megan’s back continues to heal and she has decreasing amounts of pain!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Our son’s first week at boarding school was a bit rough. Pray that he could stay positive even when things don’t quite go as he hopes and that he would make some good friends and find activities that bring him joy.  Continue to pray for the brother with the hurt back.  He may need surgery and it is unclear if his family or village will help him.  Pray for the medical team who are waiting to hear from people.  They need clearance from the hospital for our medical team members to start their observational internships.  We also need to hear from a landlord in France that they would agree to rent out their house.  Pray that we could be generous with our things, de-cummulate, and bless others. We just learned that a young island sister will be traveling abroad for university studies— pray that she would have safe travels and find fellowship with others in her new home and continue to grow in her faith.

A Good Bunch

There’s always a bit of milling about after English club ends.  People have questions, want to borrow books, or just talk a little bit.  As we were saying goodbyes, we were all joking with each other—all good friends, with us and with each other.  This recent club group has been a special joy.  They have a camaraderie, gentleness and kindness that make them stand out.  We wish you could get to know some of the regulars.

An English Club meeting at our house

Moro has become something of a leader of the group.  Moro is 26 years old, always well dressed, but not ostentatious.  He has a wide smile and a friendly demeanor that help him to make people feel at ease, the sort of person you would love to have as a tour guide or host.  He loves to tell the story about how when he first came to English club he could barely speak.  Now he is an English teacher and one of the most vocal at English club, encouraging others to come and participate.

Swafu is in highschool but he seems to have a self-awareness about himself not common to highschoolers.  He loves to joke and is not afraid to laugh at himself.  He is tall, but still has a boyish face, usually with smile, quick to laugh and make jokes—even in English—harder to do in a foreign language. He helps to lighten up the club.

Three old regulars at an event using their English

Bako is our resident statesman.  His features more chiseled and less inclined to smile, he has been around the longest and he knows it.  He speaks with pomp and eloquence, slowly and deliberately, in his deep, rich voice.  He sees himself like a benevolent older brother or uncle.  He often leads the English club, and though his creativity is not impressive, everyone accepts and respects him as an elder.  He is a dependable, old friend.  When a smile does break out across his face, it’s like a great fissure that transforms his countenance and is quite endearing. Thankfully, English club often draws out such smiles.

Sabila is petite, light skinned, and conservatively dressed.  Another highschool student who shows a maturity beyond her age.  Verbally she is smart and clever and strong, ready to defend her positions and not take any guff, but her eyes are soft and she is clearly a thoughtful, caring person who desires to do what is right.

These are just a few of the ones who make English Club a joy right now.  We have been leading a weekly English Club at our house for over ten years.  We never know what kind of people will come.  There was a time when we had some of the strongest English speakers around—a bunch of proud and showy men who made conversation interesting but not so friendly.  Other times we’ve had people of lower levers of competency, resulting in a lot of shy, labored conversations, more games, and one or two dominant players.  Our club has ballooned at times to 25 or 30 people and shrunk down at other times to just 3 or 4.  It has a tendency to be mostly men, but there have been seasons when women have equalled them in numbers, and we always seem to have a couple women who come consistently, unafraid to stand up and say their piece in front of the men.

Family time this past week

With a majority of them, we see our conversations go deeper and our friendships strengthen over time.  Many of the ones who no longer come we still regard as good friends.  The majority have shared with us at one time or another their struggles, their dreams, their questions, their faith.  This is certainly true of the 4 listed above.  Tom has had many discussions with Moro on the subject of kingdom life.  Swafu has expressed interest in studying one day, when he’s not so busy.  Bako has allowed us to pray for his children on many occasions and has faithfully prayed for Megan’s health concerns in return.  Sabila has asked us about what we believe, and has noted the difference in our lives and our marriage.

We have been away this month and have taken a break from English Club until September.  Such breaks usually result in the group of club regulars shifting.  We will see if these four will continue to come faithfully.  We hope they do.  But even if they don’t, we are thankful for them and look forward to seeing what God will do in their lives.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had a good week as a family, getting all the school shopping done and having fun together. The orientation day at the kids’ school was full and reassuring, though the final goodbye was hard. We’re thankful for all the great staff at the school and how intentionally they look after the kids in their care. Praise that the island brothers and sisters have really rallied behind the big island brother that had the accident hurting his back, raising a lot of support to for his medical needs.  Moreover, his family who have been hostile towards him have warmed towards helping him and advocating for him before their village. Praise for opportunities the medical team has been having to share good news with coworkers.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Continue to pray for the island brother with the hurt back. He needs to travel to get an MRI and specialist advice/care. Some of his symptoms are concerning. They are working on renewing his passport and making arrangements. Pray for healing!  Pray that he would continue to have peace and a voice for truth into his community during this trial and for the logistics to come together for him to travel.  Pray for our children at boarding school as they transition to life there, making new friends, finding healthy routines, and learning from loving adults.  Pray for the three of us as we return to Clove Island as a family of 3 and all the change that will be for us. Continue to prayer for Megan’s continuing recovery from back surgery, that pain would continue to diminish and go away.

It’s Different with Two

Every once and awhile we are asked by new parents (or soon-to-be parents) about our transition to parenthood. And inevitably, we’ll admit that the bigger transition for us came when we had two kids, not one. Of course, the difference between being a parent and not was momentous and changed our lives greatly. But there was a lot about our day-to-day life that we kept doing with our eldest. She was an easy-going baby and we just dragged her along with how we normally did things.

Back in 2010, adjusting to two kids!

But once we had our second child, we realized we were going to have to rethink things. We couldn’t just drag two kids along and keep doing life like we did before. Sometimes we would have to divide and conquer or just make different choices. Somehow the life change felt bigger going from 1 to 2, rather than from 0 to 1.

Thirteen years have passed and we are facing another big change. Again you might have thought that the bigger change already happened last year when our oldest went to boarding school for the first time. And admittedly that was big and we have had to learn a lot in the last year. But still having two kids left at home meant the kids still outnumbered us, we still always had sibling dynamics in our household.

Our oldest two now in 2023

This year our second-born goes to boarding school, joining his older sister there.  So now our youngest will suddenly be an only child. Suddenly, we’ll have more kids out of the house than in the house. With two gone, it feels like a bigger shift for our lives, for our family.

With two kids home, we basically just kept the same family rhythms that we did with three kids at home. But now with just one, we’re realizing that we are going to have to rethink things. We’ll probably need to reconfigure household chores.  I’ll need to rethink how much I make for meals. We may need to come up with different routines. We’ll need to be aware that our youngest will need more of our time as he won’t have a sibling to play with or bounce ideas off of. It’s going to feel quite different.

We just marked 20 years of marriage this past week, and in those years there have been lots of transitions and big life changes. But after reflecting on the different changes, it is comforting to know that each one has its good parts. So even as we face a new change with all the accompanying grieving and adjustment, we can have peace that there will be wonderful new blessings that will come with this change. We may have to rethink things, but we’re excited to see our older son grow as he experiences independence, makes friends, and learns more about himself through the variety of unique experiences that boarding school will offer that he couldn’t have had on the islands. We’re excited to see how our relationship with our younger son may deepen and how being the only kid at home might encourage him to grow and develop in new ways. We look forward to seeing how our daughter’s plans to look out for her younger brother at school might strengthen their relationship and lead to both of them thriving more there.

Anniversary dinner. 20 years!

It’s going to be different and in some ways harder with two gone, but we endeavoring not to begrudge the change and to be thankful for all that it will bring.  

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The time doing safari with Tom’s family went very well. They saw tons of animals and had a great time. Tom’s family made it safely back to the US. Our son’s tummy didn’t continue to bother him. Megan’s surgical wound is healing nicely. We had the chance to visit our kids’ school and meet his dorm parents and see his future dorm. It was nice to help imagine more what his life will be like. Our teammate has said her goodbyes and made it safely to the big island. We celebrated 20 years of marriage! It has been a good 20 years. Several workers on the islands have had health issues lately, but with prayer have seen God provide recovery and healing.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We say goodbye to our two oldest on Friday afternoon. Pray that we could have a great time as a family this week. Pray that all of us would transition well to this new chapter. Pray for a smooth adjustment to boarding school. Continue to pray for Megan’s recovery, that the pain she’s had post-surgery would diminish and go away completely. An island brother on the big island had an accident this week that left him temporarily paralyzed. He has recovered feeling and some movement. Pray with us for his complete healing! One of our teammate’s house helpers has been studying the truth and appears to have had a breakthrough. Pray that she would be willing to be connected with island sisters and share with others what she is learning.

Is This the Awaited Healing?

 If you are reading this blog post, you are probably somewhat aware of the journey my family has been on with my back.

Waiting in hospital Thurs to start pre-op prep

It has been a long journey, over 10 years long. I have written other blogs about it, talking about the lessons that pain and limited ability have taught me (here’s our first entire blog on it from 2014). It has been humbling. I have always known that healing was possible and that God is able to do the miraculous. I have always readily accepted whenever anyone offered or suggested that they pray for healing for my back.

Yet over the years, immediate healing was never something that I felt pulled to pray for or to seek with urgency. Then sometime this past year, there was a change. I felt led to pray consistently for healing. So I prayed everyday and I asked the family to pray everyday. I started to see some consistent improvement and I started to wonder if God wanted to bring about healing through the persistence and slowness of trust.

Then there was a setback in February. It began with me doing something I shouldn’t. I know my back limitations and I pushed them, not because I felt like I was healed and freed to push, but because of misplaced senses of pride and relational obligation. Now, I have had many setbacks over the years, and I know the steps I take to recover. It takes time, patience and stopping normal activities. But this was different. I wasn’t improving as expected. Things got worse.

I continued to pray each day for healing, and now the thought appeared, ‘maybe I need to get worse in order to get better’. There were two accompanying possibilities. Perhaps God wanted to show His power by providing miraculous healing when it would be obvious that it was His hand doing the work, or maybe He was opening up the way to surgery.

No one wants to jump to surgery, but we have considered it more than once over the years and even talked to surgeons. But every time I started recovering from my setbacks and surgeons never wanted to do surgery if I was able to improve by other means. It didn’t seem to matter that I never fully healed, they only wanted to do surgery if pain was intense and wasn’t improving with physical therapy and medication.

Post-op meds

So even as it hasn’t been fun for the past few months, there was something strangely reassuring in the fact that I wasn’t improving. We believe all healing is a gift of God, so first we took some time to pray to make sure that God didn’t want to provide that healing without surgery, but even as we had lots of people pray, no one came telling us that they thought surgery wasn’t the way forward and even some came to us surprised that they hadn’t felt led to pray for immediate healing.

We felt a peace about coming here to mainland Africa and pursuing surgery. I had surgery on Thursday and have been resting and recovering. I am already in less pain than before surgery. So I find myself asking, “Is this it, Lord? Is this the awaited healing or will the journey continue?”

I will meet with the surgeon tomorrow to hear his thoughts on my longterm post-surgery recovery, but I have read some general recovery descriptions for this type of surgery and it talks about people eventually resuming activities with almost no restrictions (even contact sports and lifting things). After 10 years of significant restrictions, I am a little lost in that possibility and am pretty sure I would have a hard time trusting such freedom.

Our oldest is 15 years old and says she can’t really remember me not having a bad back. Could this be the beginning of a new chapter? I’m hopeful, but I also am confident that God will continue to walk with us and teach us along the way, through both pain and healing. Thanks for praying and walking with us.

Tom and family visiting island

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We all made it to Kenya safely. Megan’s surgery went well without complications. She had people and lots of prayer around her. Our island sister has not been afraid despite news of increased scrutiny. The seminar on marriage went well. The brothers in a far village had a visit from others to encourage them and pray for them. It sounds like there are some women joining their numbers, too. Tom’s family’s visit to the islands finished well.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for good health and healing. Pray that Megan’s recovery would continue and that this might be a new chapter of renewed strength and ability. Pray for the remainder of Tom’s family’s time here in Africa, enjoying safari. Pray for good health, our youngest son had some tummy troubles. Pray for our teammate as she says goodbye this week to the rest of the team and to her island neighbors and friends of 5+ years. Pray for our island brothers and sisters that they would not become weary, but would persevere with joy in the midst of challenges and breakthroughs. 

Having People Visit

 It’s different actually seeing a place in person. Reading about it and seeing pictures may allow you to imagine it, but actually being there allows you to register the smells in the air, the feel of the humidity, the cadence of people’s greetings. It makes it real in a new way.

Arriving at the airport

We don’t get a lot of visitors, and for good reason. The islands are hard and expensive to get to. We have had several people excited to visit us because they already had plans to be in mainland Africa and were hopeful that they could just tack on a few days and see us on the islands. But then they realize the ticket price and all the travel time needed to get to us on Clove Island and they realize it isn’t so easy.

If they do make it all the way to Clove Island, the question then is, what do we show them? Tom’s parents and aunt are here with us for 1 week. How should we fill that week? Should we focus on giving them a taste of our normal life, full with team meetings, visiting with neighbors, and day-off routines. Or should we go for special outings, heading for the farther flung sites that we like to visit on special occasions? We could fill a whole week with these outings.

Three generations going to a wedding

Should we focus on the natural beauty of the island and show them beaches, rivers, waterfalls, and green hilltops? Or should we go for the personal connection and focus on meeting the island friends and neighbors whom we have come to love and our teammates with whom we share so much of our life? What will be the most meaningful to our visitors in the long run?

With some of our early visitors to Clove Island, we didn’t have as many options. Back then, we hadn’t learned about all the cool and beautiful spots, and we didn’t know as many people either. We may have even wondered what to do with visitors. But after 10 years in the same place, we find it hard to limit to just a week’s worth, but it is important to limit. We don’t want to exhaust our guests and we know that just being in a hotter climate and surrounded by people speaking a different language can be tiring.

Ultimately, we’ll go for a taste of different things, maybe one river spot, one wedding event, a little visiting, one short hike. We can’t do it all, but we can leave them with a much better sense of our lives than they had.

We don’t get a lot of visitors, but those that do come will understand our stories better, will be able to read between the lines of some of our requests with better insight and will potentially pray for us and the islands more.

Visiting the river

It makes a difference seeing a place in person! So if you fancy a visit to the islands and aren’t scared off by the travel and price tag, then we’d love to have you! Karibu! Welcome!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Tom’s parent and aunt made it safely to the islands with all their luggage (which is not a small thing these days)! Their first days on the islands have gone well. Thanks for praying. Megan made it safely to the big island today and will travel to Kenya tomorrow. Our son has been feeling better and sleeping better. Women’s gathering went well and more women than normal seemed engaged. Ma Imani has a plan to start studying with her mom and sisters, pray for open hearts and for nothing to prevent their meeting (their first meeting time was canceled last minute).

PRAYERS REQUESTED
This week a local sister was informed that there was meeting at the big gov office, where they talked about new beliefs spreading rapidly and named her as a leader. Her family was warned by a friend at the meeting to be careful. Pray for wisdom and peace for her, her family and the greater group. A seminar on marriage on our island for the brothers and sisters, organized by someone from the small island and with an outside speaker, is planned for this coming week. Pray that it could be a blessing to the group and to their marriages. A group of brothers in a far village have been having challenging conversations and debates about their beliefs, pray that they would have the words to respond well to people’s challenges and questions. Pray for Megan as she meets with the surgeon on Wed. If everything goes according to plan, she should have surgery on Thursday. Pray for a good surgery, without complications, and for peace for her and the family. Tom and the kids won’t be there the day of the surgery but should be able to arrive the following day. Pray for our son as he says goodbye to the team and island and leaves the island for boarding school for the first time.