No Power

The whole team on our first retreat

Growing up in the United States, we very rarely had to deal with power outages. I have a fun memory of eating a tub of ice cream by candlelight (it would have just melted otherwise), but it was a pretty rare experience. We would drag our candles from some dusty unused corner of the cupboard and we’d usually count the minutes until power was restored. It wasn’t a regular concern and the few times there were power outages, it was for big reasons-- blizzards, high winds, earthquakes! Big reasons that no one could control.

On our island we have been having serious power outages (bad for here). For the past week, we are probably averaging less than 6 hours of electricity a day, sometimes 24 hr stretches without power. Food is going bad in the fridge. We’re running out of candles and having trouble keeping things charged. But the worst part has been the heat. It has been one of the hottest week-- a hot, humid, stagnant heat. No wind, no breezes, no relief. So no power, means no fans at night. It means waking up covered in sweat and miserable. it mean the kids wake up in the middle of the night, scared in the pitch darkness, hot and covered in heat rash. It hasn’t been fun.

The 3 littlest teammates

So what is the big reason? Did we have a cyclone? Did a landslide take out the power plant? We heard there was a gas crisis, is there no gas left on the islands? No. Everyone assures us there is gas. All cars are running and the gas company has plenty of it. They just aren’t selling to the government owned electricity company, because the electric company hasn’t been paying their bills. Now we all pay high electric bills every month-- how can they not have any money?

I have asked this question to a number of different islanders and they all throw up their hands and say, “You know, it’s the government. Money disappears,” that’s to say the “big” reason is common everyday corruption.

What can we do? We can pray. We cannot change men’s hearts, but we know someone who can. We cannot stop the heat but we know someone who controls everything.

The power is still bad and we may have to wait to see corruption in the government stop, but one thing has changed. God sent rain and lots of it. And with the rain has come sweet relief from the heat. :)

PRAYERS ANSWERED
It rained! It is much cooler now. We had a short retreat with our team to close out the first unit.  Tom has gotten to share and study the book with a man, as well as help this man with his sick daughter. Our schedule has changed which will allow Tom to restart a weekly study with another man.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Next week we head into two weeks of intensive language to start the next unit of our team’s curriculum. This means that we will have our teammates in a classroom setting and be “teaching” them some island grammar. Pray for us as we prepare those lessons and that it would all go well. Pray that this would be a good boost to our team’s language learning. Continue to pray for Megan’s back! We’re looking into options for getting an MRI (there are no MRI machines on the islands).