Thanksgiving

Piling up the plates on Thanksgiving Day

We have had a couple of really busy days, so we apologize for our blog going out late this week.
So often our life on the islands gives us a new perspective.  It happened again this Thanksgiving.

“Today is a celebration in America!” We explained to some visitors who stopped by to say hello and were surprised to see us all in a state of preparation.  Then before we knew it, we were explaining (in the local language) the story of the pilgrims.

“A long time ago, in Europe there were some people who being bothered because their religion was a little different than the others.  They weren’t allowed to worship God the way they wanted, so they decided to go to America where they could have religious freedom.”

Bobbing for apples

We went on to explain about the hard winter, the peaceful relations with the native americans and the great feast they had the following year. But for a moment, as we spoke about religious freedom we remembered Thanksgiving in a new light-- not just a story of provision and thankfulness but of the pursuit of religious freedom. How challenging in our island home, where any difference in religion among islanders is frowned upon and even forbidden.  Islanders don’t even consider it an option. Yet for us, it is such a foundational part of our identity, it is easy to forget.  The right to choose, the right to believe. The pilgrims came to the shores of America for this very reason.  Imagine a group of islanders fighting for those same rights….

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  We gathered together as a team and ate around a big table.  We had some of the classic Thanksgiving foods and some less traditional, but everything was delicious. Conversation flowed easily among the adults as the children went wild at the kids’ table.  We talked about all the things we are thankful for--realizing that it was just  a year ago that we sat around a table together as new acquaintances forming a brand new team.  Now we are experienced teammates, brothers and sisters. 

Dress up with island friend

So much has happened this past year, we could write a number of posts about all the different details, but if we were to sum it up, the word that stands out is “growth.”   This has been a year of a lot of growing--and sometimes hard growing.  We have been challenged again and again as team leaders to grow in wisdom, our acts of service, reliance on our Creator and to die to ourselves.  We have seen the tremendous growth in our teammates, in terms of language, lifestyle, and dying to themselves as well.  We see our children shooting up like weeds- learning and processing new things all the time.

It is exciting to think that we have another year of growth ahead of us. We will be stretched and challenged. We will continue to see amazing things happening in lives and hearts. And hopefully we will remember in all of it-- to be thankful. We are truly blessed.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are truly thankful for all the answered prayers of the last year. One that struck us particularly is the vast improvement in Megan’s back (what a difference a year makes!). We have visitors from the big island coming to learn about our island (as we get to learn about their work as well). It is encouraging to be together! Grace’s first set of island exams (as a 1st grader!) went well and she wasn’t stressed by them. Our teammates in South Africa have been reassured that their newborn’s passport will arrive in time for them to return to the islands as planned in a couple weeks!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please pray for David. He has been sick for the past week and has an infection. Pray for quick healing. Pray for freedom on the islands. Pray for all of us-- as the heat and humidity increases (especially our pregnant teammate). Pray for us this Advent season that we would have many opportunities to share about our source of hope, joy, peace and love! Pray that we would continue to have wisdom as team leaders to guide our team and facilitate discussions about strategy, focus and values. Our kids have two weeks off of island school-- pray that we’d be able to find some extra time to love and support them. Tom has started an English class with the island police- pray that it would bring good connections and relationships.