Can they change?

Tom's famous!- this picture has been in an island TV ad!

Walking down a winding path as I hunt for houses in a village not far from here I am almost run down by a 5 year old girl with a big mischievous grin on her face.  Behind her I hear wailing.  Further down the street is a little girl, maybe two or three years old, bawling.  She has a rock in her hand and her arm cocked back as if ready to throw it, but she is hesitant.  She looks back down the street.  Her mother sits on the porch with another woman laughing and encouraging.  “Go, throw the rock at her.”  they say to the little girl.  The girl continues to cry and hesitate in her action.  Meanwhile my heart breaks.  I wonder at the formative lesson she is learning at this moment: Your parents won’t help you.  No one will stand up for what is right.  The wrong doer will go unpunished.  The best you can do is take your revenge.   How well will she learn this lesson?  Will this moment in the street stay with her for the rest of her life?  Who will show her that there is another way? Will this pattern of revenge ever change?

Our son & friend with a giant yam

Early in the morning I sit down under the window in our living room to have a quiet time with God.  The morning sun is still weak so the window offers the best light.  Outside, without fail come the old men.  They have come, dressed in their fine white prayer robes, from their morning prayers (they were up well before the sun) and now they congregate on the public benches under the shade of a breadfruit tree to chat.  As I listen to their chatter outside my window and read the beautiful words in front of me, many times I am struck wondering, “Who could share with these old men?  How long have they prayed this way?  Have they ever heard anything different? Would they ever change?”

Our daughter & Megan buying fish by our house

At English Club we get into a discussion about thieves.  What should the punishment be?  A few say we must teach them not to steal, but most call for them to be beaten.  One tries to talk about the underlying poverty, but no one seems to listen. “Once a thief always a thief,”  they say.  “They won’t change.”  One girl says, “They should be put to death!”  After a bit more discussion, someone suggests that repeat offenders should have their hands cut off.  There is consensus. All but one or two feel this is a great solution.  “Once a thief always a thief,”  they say again.  “They never change.”

“We don’t agree,” we speak up.  “People can always change.”

We believe in change.  We believe people, families, communities, even whole societies can change.  We have seen change.  And so we have hope.

PRAYERS ANSWERED

Our youngest (11months) getting big

We’re close to deciding on a second house for our future teammates (that would make only 3 more houses to find!). One day this week we said to each other, "I think our youngest is starting to get the hang of going down stairs." Then the very next day I find him out on the street, having quickly gone through the whole house, opened the screen door to the porch, gone down the stairs to a shared landing area and then down the final stair to the street. All this in a matter of moments. I discovered him just as an islander man was saying, "Hey guys, look at this white baby!" When I found him he just smiled at me. We’re thankful he was all right.  Our kids are doing well and are gaining new friends among the neighbor kids.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for change on the islands! Megan’s back has been showing improvement but setbacks are quick- pray that she can be strict about limiting her activity and  of course pray for healing. For the continuing house hunt and preparations for the team. For opportunities to talk and share with people during this month of fasting.

The Scent of Cloves

Our older kids by new cloves

Drying cloves have a powerful scent. We sit in our house and are hit by the strongly-scented breeze coming from the spices laid out in the sun outside.  It is the time for drying cloves.  On streets, porches, and roof tops you see them:  People preparing cloves.  The cloves are harvested from the trees in clumps a bit like grapes.  The first step is to pull the cloves from their stems.  When this work is done, large tarps are spread out and the cloves are carefully spread over them in a thin layer.  Each tarp reveals a group of cloves in a different stage of drying.  The fresh cloves are plump and colorfully red, yellow and green, but days in the sun shrivel them down to small dark sticks. The smell follows you around town. This is why we call it “Clove Island.”

Megan w/ our youngest by some cloves

The islands can feel pretty isolated. You look out at the endless ocean around us and realize that geographically we are isolated.  But at the same time we realize that the island’s isolation is an illusion. The island is incredibly dependent on the outside world. People wait in line at the post office to pick up money sent from relatives abroad. Islanders rejoice at the news that yet another international group or foreign nation has donated the money to save the islands from its latest money crisis (whether it be unpaid worker strikes or gas shortages or something else).  Island shops are flooded by imported goods and food. Many of the staple food items like rice, onions, and chicken, --foods that islanders eat all the time, are imported. So how do the islands give back, are we just a little economic vacuum out here in the the Indian ocean, taking in but never giving back? What do the islands export? We heard the tales of ylang-ylang factories that are now defunct and a vanilla trade that has dropped to almost nothing...

Going between the airport town and the capital, squished in a local taxi bus, we see a building on the side of the road with a big sign… WE BUY CLOVES! The first time I saw it, it struck me, here stands direct evidence of the islands actually exporting something. This company buys cloves off of islanders and ships it abroad.

Cloves drying across the street

“There is a lot of money in cloves,” one of our island friends tell us. Islanders can sell it for $10 per kilo and off it goes to other countries-- to spice tea and foods. Right now someone might be sitting in a hut in India or even in our old town in Chad, breathing into a hot cup of tea and smelling our island cloves. It’s a strange thought to have on our little isolated island in the Indian ocean.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We have a verbal agreement on one house!  4 to go!  Megan’s back seems to be making slow improvements.  We’re happy to have another visitor with us this week.  Last night we were invited to break the fast with a local family.  It was an honor and a blessing to be invited.  The kids had a great time playing with their kids.  We were able to skype with some of our future teammates this week.  It was great to spend some time with them and encourage one another as we look forward to the future.

PRAYERS REQUESTED

Our older kids with some friends

Continue to pray for our house hunt.  This week’s hunting may have shown us that one of the villages we were considering may not be the best place after all.  Pray that we would be able to make wise decisions and have discernment about the right places for our future teammates to live.  Continue to pray for our future teammates, especially in terms of them finding others to come behind them, prepare them and support them for the great work ahead.

Let the Hunt Begin!

Our daughter & Tom in possible house

Now’s when things get exciting. Now is when we stop just being a lone family on an island-- we become team leaders. I know what you are going to say, “Your team isn’t coming until November??” Yes, we know… but this week we’ve begun the house hunt.  It is the first and biggest task that we have during this pre-team preparation time: Find five homes for our team members and get them all ready for their arrival!
Finding our own house has given us a strategy for going about finding the others: it’s all about face time and walking the beat. 

So on Tuesday I, (Tom) headed to airport town.  This is one of the towns where we want some of our teammates to live.  I got out of the taxi, went up to the first group of men I could find and said, “I want to rent a house.”  They discussed it and before long I was following someone down the street.  Two encounters and three phone calls later I was looking at a house.  It was big--too big, and far from good community.  I needed to do a little better job of explaining.  So back on the beat. 

I wound through the streets and stopped and talked to whoever looked friendly.  “I want to rent a house, but not a big one, a normal one, and the most important thing is that it’s in community, not far away from people.  You see, we want to learn language…”  Then I usually end up having to explain what I’m doing on the island, what our teammates (I call them “interns”) will be doing,  how they will need to learn to speak Clovish (i.e. Clove Island Language), why we want them to live in community and then answer their questions about why I’m teaching English in their town…All this I’m proud to say I explain in Clovish (all those prayers for my language learning have been paying off! Thank you!)  By the end of the morning I’ve seen another house.  This one is a possibility.  I’ve also given my phone number to someone who says he’ll be able to show me something in a couple days.

Our son on the house hunt

Wednesday I return to airport town.  I spend the whole morning walking around, talking to people (sometimes mistakenly talking to the same people I talked to the day before) but no leads.  The whole morning I didn’t see one house.  Maybe I’ve seen everything?  Haven’t heard from the guy I gave my phone number to yet...

Thursday we come back again and wander around for a couple hours with no success.  I’m starting to feel like we’ve seen what we’ll see.  I’ve got our 3 year old son with me and he’s getting tired.  It’s time to go home.  Then it happens.  A lady I met yesterday comes up and says, “Go see my friend over here,”  I throw tired our son on my shoulders and we walk across town.  “We’ll just look at this one house and then we’ll go home,” I tell him.  After we see that house, someone else stops us. “Sorry buddy, after this house we’ll go home.”  On the shoulders he goes again and we’re off to see another.  “Hey Mister,” I hear as we return from this second visit.  “Sorry, buddy” I say to our son and we’re off to see a third house.  Finally, after seeing three nice houses (two of which could be winners) we hop in a taxi and return home.

Friday is our day off and we rested.  But today, Saturday, I take Megan and the kids to look at the top three possibilities.  Then I put them in a taxi while I go off to see another (the guy I gave my phone number to finally came through).

Now what?  Pray...Discuss...Choose...and then!...move onto the next town! 

Our youngest practices walking with Megan's help

PRAYERS ANSWERED
This first week of house hunting has resulted in more than one good option!  Our houseguests from last week had a good time and made it safely to the next island.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please pray for the house hunt. The idea of finding five houses is a little daunting, pray that we would find the right houses, in the right neighborhoods. Pray for stamina as we expect this house hunt to last the whole month. Continue to pray for Megan’s back--she has seen some improvement this past week, pray for continued healing. Please continue to pray for the islands during this special month of fasting.

A "Normal" Week

Tom & kids with friend about to take a hike

Often times we get the question, “What does a normal week look like for you?”  This week seems like a good example of how ‘normal’ here is very relative.  We’ll just give you some highlights:

At the beginning of this week we got a call from one of our colleagues over on the little island.  “There’s a couple here,” our colleague says,  “They’re from Western Africa and have been living here for about a year and have never taken a vacation.  They were wondering if they could stay with you guys for a few days.” 
“Yeah, that sounds okay,” I say,  “when will they be coming?” expecting a date in the coming month or so.
“Tomorrow.” 
“Oh...Okay.”
Part of living in Africa is opening up your home.  Visitors come by at anytime of the day and that’s how it is.  Now, islanders only stay for a couple of hours but we would have our West African brother and sister here for a few days, but so it goes...
“So what’s your plan for your time here,” I ask in French the following evening. (Did I mention they only speak French? Good language practice!)
“We’ll stay for a week,” they explain.  Another “normal” week on the islands.

Near the summit overlooking city

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A few days ago we heard screaming and shouting out on the street.  We wondered what was going on.  We raced out on the porch to find out.  The whole neighborhood was out.  There was a large cardboard box in the middle of the street.  Girls were screaming high pitched screams, boys were running around and yelling--it looked like they’re playing soccer.  What was going on?  One of the boys goes over and opens the lid of the cardboard box.  A large rat jumps out!  Apparently one of the neighbors was cleaning out their store room and found a whole nest of rats.  Now it was a neighborhood event.  The girls started screaming again.  The boys grabbed rocks and sticks or just kicked.  The show continued until the box was empty and all the rats were dead.  Then everyone went back to their work while some of the boys played soccer with one of the rat carcasses.  Another “normal” island morning.
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Megan & our youngest (almost 11months)

On Tuesday we were getting the kids ready for bed when suddenly we hear car horns.  Our neighbor appears knocking on the door.  “Come,” she says to Megan and the kids.  A family member from abroad has come back to the island to get married and there have to be lots of people there to greet her.  Megan hands our youngest to me throws on her shirumani (the wrap women wear here) and runs out the door with our older two kids.  Her and the kids are taken into the neighbor’s house where everyone greets the soon-to-be-bride and then settle down for singing.  Of course, no one can leave until the obligatory party favor bags come out.  An hour and a half after they left the house, having properly greeted the guest, Megan and the kids return home and we rush the kids to bath time since it’s already quite late.  Another “normal” evening for Clove Island.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful that both our boys have gotten over the tummy bug that’s been going around the island.  We’re also happy that none of the rest of the family got sick.  We had a nice time with our visitors last week and its been a good week with our visitors this week.  They have been very thoughtful guests, helping out around the house and playing with the kids.  Hopefully, they have found their time with us restful!


PRAYERS REQUESTED

Our son being helped down the stairs

Continue to pray for Megan’s back.  The pain persists but changes, so it’s hard to tell if the change signifies improvement.  We have a lead on a possible house for a future teammate.  Pray that we would have wisdom and discernment to find the right places for all our future teammates.  Pray as we begin the process of looking for houses in earnest.  Both Tom and Megan were each asked some good truth questions this week and each had a chance to share.  Pray for the opportunities to continue and that we would have the language to explain truth clearly. The special month of fasting starts this week for islanders-- this means new routines and more opportunities to share. Continue to pray for the family that left Volcano Island.  Pray for a smooth transition back to the States.