Old Story Heard Anew

Skit Night at English Club

“If your wife cheated on you could you forgive her?” I asked my friends Uhaju and Huomba.  They sat and pondered the question for a moment.  Then Huomba in his slow and ponderous manner replied,“Some things are just too hard to forgive.”

I’m not sure how we had come around to talking about cheating spouses.  The conversation had begun with a discussion about the terrible events that had happened in Paris.  We had pondered the reasons why people could do such horrible things—things that seem awful and alien to many of our friends and neighbors here on Clove Island even if done in the name of faith.  We had come around to the idea of revenge and had talked about some of the things it said in their book and what my book had to say.  My friends explained that they believed revenge was the job of the state and not the individual.  Countries could make war—not individuals.  I challenged them with the fact that the group claiming responsibilities for the attacks claims the status of a nation state.  This made them pause.  But somehow the conversation about forgiveness continued on and it eventually came around to talking about husbands and wives being faithful.  (As a side note: few husbands and wives are faithful here on the islands.)  And suddenly it seemed clear to me that I should not tell the story I had been prepared to tell them, but a different one:

The religious leaders came with an angry crowd and brought a woman and threw her down at the teacher’s  feet.  “We caught her.”  They said, “In the very act.  She is an adulteress.”  They held stones in their hands ready to stone here.  “Teacher,” they said, “What should we do?”  The teacher did not look at them but wrote something in the dirt.  Then after a moment he said, “Let the person who doesn’t have any sin throw the first stone.”  The crowd was silent.  The teacher went back to writing in the dirt.  Slowly, one by one, the men dropped their stones and started to leave.  Soon, there was no one left except the teacher and the woman.  The teacher looked at the woman and said, “Woman, who condemns you?”  “No one” she replied.  “Then neither do I condemn you,” he said. “Go and don’t sin anymore.”  So the woman left.

Uhaju and Huomba sat in silence.  It was as if the story had just slapped them in the face.  They looked dazed, their mouths slightly open. It was clear— they had never heard anything like this story before.  I began to ask them a question but could see that they were not ready to respond.  So instead, I told the story a second time.  Even in the retelling, I could see the amazement in their faces.  Finally they seemed ready to answer some of my questions.  Their answers were telling.
“Everybody sins.”
“The teacher is merciful.”
“The law says she should die.  They still do that in some countries.”
I asked them, “What does the story teach us about God?”  At first they didn’t know so I pressed them.  “Does the teacher follow God’s way?”  “Yes.” “So he is doing what God wants.”  “So God is merciful,” one said, with a mixture of surprise and reluctance.  I went on, “If this is story is true then it teaches us about how we should live our lives.  So how should we live?”  The two were silent.  Then one said, “We don’t know.”  “I think you do,” I said.  The two of them looked sheepish.  “We should forgive,” one of them finally said.

Thankful for the beauty around us

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving week. Our family has been very healthy lately, not something we take for granted here. The kids are liking local school more. We secured the big international tickets to go to Tom’s sister wedding (thanks to the generosity of others!). We keep hearing stories and experiencing first hand islanders being interested and truly seeking. We live in a relatively very safe place, something we are very thankful for in the midst of world events.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for Ma Imani, she is pregnant and thankfully has made it into the second trimester (after many miscarriages). But the doctors say she needs to start eating more and better foods (she is a picky, light-eater usually). Pray that she would have an appetite and eat well,  and pray for protection over the rest of her pregnancy. We now have a couple friends who have miscarried recently on the islands, pray for them as they deal with the emotional aftermath of that experience. An island sister has been getting some backlash for actions that were perhaps too bold— pray for increasing wisdom for her and that even the backlash might lead to good opportunities. We have entered in exam time—all our English exams are oral and time-consuming. Pray for good exams and the energy to get through them all as the weather heats up.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE BACK HOME!

Unexpected Encounter

Our 7 yr old exploring the caves

We had someone new join us for our time together on Sunday.  She is not an islander. She’s a foreigner to the islands.  She’s been working here for a number of months.  She comes a country in the Middle East where there is a very strict government and very few freedoms.  Yet, when she heard two of our teammates speaking English a few days ago, she couldn’t help but introduce herself and in the course of the conversation it seemed like she couldn’t help but let them know about the good news that had changed her life.  From this chance meeting on the side of the road, she was invited to join our time together and share her amazing story.

She had always gone against the grain, she told us, always “swimming up the river.”  Yet, she had also tried to live a good life and to do what is right.  She had worked for some very religious people and seen the deception and the hypocrisy in their lives and found herself rejecting the things that they claimed were true.  Yet, still she tried to live a pure life.  She prayed everyday and tried to live as she was supposed to.  Then one day, she had a dream.  The dream was so real.  She was praying in the daily ritual way, and then in the midst of her prayer she stopped and left the building.  There in the street was a bright shining man.  He offered her a beautiful belt and a drink.  She took the belt and put it on and then drank the drink.  Then she looked up and saw another building across the street.  She went to this new building to pray and felt herself filled with joy.

She had found some friends to help her follow this new path, but they spoke a different language and it was very hard.  She wanted to go abroad to a place with more freedom, but she kept being denied a visa. Then she got a contract job that took her to the islands.  She had been here for six months and the contract was over she would have to return to her home country soon.

She wished she had met us earlier. She would really like to learn more—and even though her English isn’t very good, she wanted to learn as much as she could from us in the remaining week or two she has on the islands.  The only book she had was in her friends’ language and it was slow reading and hard to understand. That’s when one of our teammates reached over with his smart phone.  He started searching the internet for the book in her language.  In a matter of seconds, he had found it and handed it to her.  The look of surprise on her face was wonderful!  The whole book has been translated into her own language and she hadn’t even known it!  She immediately started to read it.  With a wide grin she said, “I don’t even need you anymore.  I can read it for myself.”  She spent the next hour (and probably many more after that) reading and understanding and asking our teammates questions. 

Our 5 yr old exploring too!

What a privilege to see something like this.  How strange that we should find each other in such a remote place as the islands.  What a great reminder that sometimes, all it takes is a dream—and that dreams happen!  What a great encouragement to see the joy of someone reading a book in their own language.  What a motivation to see more translation work done.  What a surprise! 

This young woman will not be here very much longer, but we’ll share what we can and she will leave with her own book in her own language and she will leave us greatly encouraged.  You will be a blessing and you will be blessed.  Yes, it’s true.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful for this chance meeting and for the window it gives us into what God is doing around the world. Ma Imani is feeling better. Continue to pray for her health. Our team had planned a single-weekend music worship to get a few more songs in the local language/style, but it is turning into a weekly music club, which is better than our original plan. We’re excited to see the songs they create become embraced and sung by islanders. We had a visitor for most of this past week— he is visiting the islands and even considering working here in the future. It was encouraging to talk with him and share life with him.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our new friend as she returns to her home country, that she would continue to learn, grow and be a bright light in that place. One of our teammates continues to struggle with debilitating allergies— pray for relief. She hasn’t found medicine that doesn’t knock her out and it has been going on for months.  It is really draining her. Please pray. Megan is still sharing stories in a local home but most of the family is not around to hear. Pray that they would share with each other and learn together. Tom has decided to continue to meet weekly with the two guys. Pray for wisdom about what to study and how he should push/encourage them.

Training Takes Off

Tom teaching a much smaller class

It all started five years ago.  A student friend of mine came to our house on Volcano Island and asked a question.  “Would you be willing to train us as English teachers?”  I was still something of a new teacher myself and I didn’t have any formal curriculum to offer him.  But I did have all my notes from the English teaching course I had taken a year before.  He seemed eager and serious about it, so I agreed.  With three of his friends, we started the English Teacher Training Program.  It was not much to talk about at the beginning—just me sharing with them my notes and giving them encouragement, but it worked.  They started teaching classes.  The classes grew.  All four of those original teachers found opportunities overseas and traveled away, but the group continued on.  The students they taught became the new teachers and the program continues to this day.

When we arrived on Clove Island, everyone one wanted English but English teaching was almost non-existent.  It was like starting over again from square one.  But slowly, with the help of our team, English has been catching on.  At the beginning we simply taught classes, but about a year ago we started doing the teacher trainings again.  Thankfully, the program has been greatly improved by my talented colleagues. And now, slowly interest has grown.

So this month we are doing our teacher training for the third time.  The first time we did the training we had ten students.  The second time fifteen.  This time we had forty-three!  43 apprentice-teachers!  When I arrived before class the room was already packed. Usually we do the training sitting in a semi-circle, but every seat was taken and teachers kept arriving.  First it became a double semi-circle. Then a triple.. They just kept bringing out more desks!  I had only brought twenty copies of the handout so the administrator had to go out twice to make more copies.  Many of them were my former students, so I recognized about half the class, but there were others there too. Many of them had come from villages outside our area.  They are hoping to go back to their village and start their own English programs there.  All these students meant my lesson plan needed adjusting—activities take a lot longer with so many students.  As it was, I still had to rush at the end to finish everything.  But we still managed to have some very good discussion and the class was definitely engaged.  It was exciting to see.  How did this happen?  How did we go from 15 to 43?

Kids in new shirts from a package!

Well, we’ve realized a few things.  Training works.  As teachers gain confidence, students gain confidence in them and the whole program grows in confidence.  Also,sometimes leaving can be a good thing.  We’ve started telling people that our team will be leaving the islands soon.  6 months from now will be the end.  Although Megan and I plan to return, many of our teammates will not.  One of the questions we have been asked again and again is, “What will happen to English teaching?”  It’s a good question.  It also seems to be a good motivator, especially for some of our most excited students, teachers and administrators.  I think that’s the third factor—motivated people who have caught the vision.  Some of these teachers and administrators have realized that we will not always be here.  So they have started to branch out on their own.  They are starting their own association.  They are helping to start programs in other villages.  They are catching a vision, and they are sending potential teachers to our training program. Lots of them!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The song making workshop went well even if our numbers might have been smaller than hoped.  We hope to record a few new songs in the coming weeks. There are now 4 different groups meeting to study together and hopes for more. Peter has been having much better days of school after some hard initial months. We had some good training as a team that is helping to shape our vision and strategy. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray that they would be able to effectively train all these English teachers and that we would see more islanders taking ownership! Pray that we would see this kind of motivation and island ownership in all the things we are involved in- not just English teaching. Pray for all those seeking change on the islands and for them to stand strong amidst backlash. Ma Imani has been sick. Pray for healing and relief for her body.

Better in Families

Dressed for a wedding event

No one is content with the status quo on the islands. Almost everyone we talk to whether islander or foreigner wishes and hopes for change. Now we don’t all agree what the biggest problems are nor how to change things. Some doubt that change is even possible. But we’re convinced that real change will happen in people’s lives first and eventually we’ll see change at the societal level.

But over the years we’ve noticed something. When one person changes their perspective, it won’t necessarily extend beyond them.

We know lots of young single men who like to talk about change. It is a time of life where island men feel free and excited to explore. Some have gotten excited about change but as young single men they don’t really have a voice in their family or community. They are still dependent on their families and don’t want to rock the boat and be hit by the backlash of their parents or friends. No one likes the problems on the islands but that doesn’t necessarily mean they all want to embrace change.

A man used to come regularly to talk to Tom. He seemed to understand things and wanted change in his own life. But we asked with whom he was talking about these things, who else was he telling. The answer was “No one.” He was holding it like a secret. He didn’t talk about these things even with his wife.

A few towns over there is a man who lives a changed life, but he has also rejected most of island culture and traditions. He wants to share with others but he’s isolated. He has pushed away his family and community. He walks down the street and looks like a foreigner. He’d rather live abroad. Many like him have already fled the islands.

But here is the beautiful thing that is starting to happen now, people are exploring the idea of change within their families. It isn’t done in secret, so there is no fear and shame. They are learning together so they can embrace change together. It isn’t just the young people, but fathers and mothers too. There is a growing culture of discussing and sharing with others, so ideas and stories spread to extended family members and neighbors. Also change can happen without rejecting people and culture, but hopefully can work to transform them.

This past week I was in a neighbor’s house. I was sitting talking with two grown sisters of the family, sharing stories of creation with them. Their mother joined us, as well as two neighbors. They all listened. We talked into the night. At some point they pulled the youngest son out who had fallen asleep unnoticed at our feet.

Waiting for the men's event to begin

It was good. Not that everyone is on the same page and ready to embrace the same things, but it is being done in the open and they are exploring together. It is only a few families right now, but it is still exciting. Change can happen.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are excited about and thankful for these families. Tom and others have started another training for islanders who teach English— 43 teachers came to the first session! They were hoping for around 15-20. The translation project continues, we’re excited to benefit from its fruit.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please pray for these families that are studying and exploring together— each one has different difficulties and barriers to overcome. Pray for more individuals to engage their families in their thoughts and explorations. We are going to have another song workshop this coming weekend— the hope is have 6 new recorded songs in the local language at the end of it. Pray that it goes well with the right people attending. We still need to pray and think about future things— pray that we would have the time and quiet to devote these things to prayer. With increasing change and momentum, we expect backlash— pray for everyone in the midst of it.