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| Our kids on the roof |
In reality, we are never going to be exactly like our neighbors. We have a steady income each month. We have a bigger house than most. We have education and a freedom to travel that they don’t have. But we try to minimize the differences. We learn local language. We adopt many local customs (as long as our beliefs allow us). We wear local dress, eat local food, and avoid displaying our relative wealth. But it means we are living a harder life than we would have in our home countries. In the hard times, it is easy to long for things that could make life easier--- constant electricity, constant water, a few more appliances...
The struggle intensifies as more “stuff” comes to the islands. When things aren’t available, you don’t have the choice. But nowadays you can sometimes find nice appliances, power systems or even speciality foods in island shops. “What islanders buy these?” we sometimes wonder. But here they are, nice things. They are available, we can potentially afford them, they could add comfort to our lives… is there a reason not to get them?
Well...most of our neighbors don’t have them. It would be one more thing that we have that they don’t. It would free me from a discomfort that they would continue to live with. We would be bypassing a form of suffering that most of them can’t avoid.
Then we ask the big questions, do I really need it? Can I live without it? Will it help me to get to know my neighbors or will it be a barrier between us? Will it help me to get to know God or will it be a barrier between us? Is this thing’s only purpose my comfort?
Our team has been struggling to come up with united answers to these questions.
One of our team values is simpler living and as such we struggle together as a team to think through these issues. That means we talk to each other about the “stuff” we’re thinking of buying. This might sound strange. We don’t imagine many of you who read our blog ever ask your friends if it’s okay to buy something for yourself. But as a team, we have committed to thinking through together many kinds of purchases, and to challenge one another about these things. Are you uncomfortable yet? So are we. It’s not an easy thing to do.
Is my own comfort a good enough reason to buy something?
This is where opinions differ. If we say, “No, comfort is not a good enough reason to buy something,” then are we just being ascetics who don’t know how to embrace God’s blessings? If we say, “Yes, these comforts are meant to help us to find joy in life.” Could it be we are actually sliding down the slippery slope of materialism? The answer is seldom clear. So as a team we struggle to find common ground. We try to listen to one another. Sometimes it means things don’t work out the way we want, but we are glad for the struggle, to be wrestling with these questions rather than just allowing ourselves to slide to extremes.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Rejoice with us! We have a new team mate! A beautiful baby girl arrived last week in South Africa, and now Mom and Dad are working hard to get all the paperwork done and bring our newest teammate back to the islands. We are so happy for a safe delivery and a healthy and happy mommy and baby. Tom has been getting regular opportunities to tell Book stories. It has been really encouraging. There has been some positive steps in terms of more fellowship among islanders--only small first steps, but encouraging! Keep praying!
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray with us as we seek to challenge and encourage each other in this area of “stuff”.
Megan continues to meet with Ma Imani and encourage reconciliation in her family- continue to pray for real forgiveness. Our pregnant teammate continues to struggle with back pain, sleep deprivation and other related pregnancy pains. Pray for healing, pain relief and indomitable joy. Pray that we would continue to be able to share with islanders the reason for our joy and find many opportunities to do so.
