"Big" Family

Big Family Sharing Time

I’m not sure how the terminology started, but our kids often distinguish between our “little” family and our “big” family. Our little family is just the 5 of us that live together on the islands. Our big family includes everyone else— the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc that we don’t get to see very often.

But this past week, there we all were— sitting around, chatting in groups of 2’s and 3’s, laughing, listening and enjoying each other.  Lots of great discussion and easy camaraderie. Around 30 of us. Four generations together. One family.

Drawing with Great-Grandad

On the islands, among our neighbors across the street, this situation would not be that special. Their cousins, 2nd cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents all live in close quarters. They live life together all the time. But for us this was something special. I hadn’t seen my sister in 3 years, nor ever met her youngest. It was 5 years since I had seen my grandparents. And I hadn’t seen most of my cousins, their spouses and kids for 7+ years. But somehow we all made it together for this one special week.

At the center of this special week was my grandparents— surrounded by their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. We all wanted to celebrate and soak in the knowledge, wisdom and experience of Grammie and Grandad. Their faith, love for each other and dedication to ministry over the years has inspired and challenged us. They are gentle and caring people and every time we are with them it does our souls good and we walk away more encouraged, more loved.

"Big" Family Excursion

So we took time remembering good times, asking them about stories and family members from long ago, watching videos from their wedding over 70 years ago. Our family started with this couple, but have now branched out to several states and a few different countries.

So this week we also took times gathered together to hear from each person in our “big” family, to learn about the unique circumstances of their lives and their unique personality. At the end of the time, we knew better how to pray for them all. Also we were so thankful for each person and perhaps sad that we don’t get to see them more often. Until the next time.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our first set of travels went well. We made it safely to the midwest and now to the west coast. We had a great time connecting with family. We also got to see an old teammate from our Chad days— it was great to meet her husband and kids. Our son continued to have tummy troubles through the week, but in the critical moments when we needed him to not be sick, he was fine. We just got an email from the islands and hear that many of our dear friends are doing well and they continue to meet together.

Four generations

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We have been going pretty non-stop lately. Pray that we can still get the downtime we need as a family and individuals. We are feeling a little behind on some of our to-do list items— pray that we can find the time to do them well. Pray for Megan’s grandparents that their days would be pain free and that they could continue to be a blessing to others until the end of their days.  Continue to pray for our future team on the islands— that the right people would be found. Pray also for our returning teammate as she considers when to come back. Pray also for important discussions about the translation work on our island and how it should proceed. Pray for our island friend who had the unique opportunity to spend 6 weeks in the US and will soon return to the islands. Pray that he would have good interactions and opportunities to meet brothers and sisters who would inspire him with truth and good news.

In Memory

2 years ago at their house by the ocean

When we first felt a call to lead a team on Clove Island, it felt a little rebellious. We had been asked by our leadership to consider leading a team on Volcano Island and were coming back at them with a different location. It was an island that hadn’t had workers for over15 years. The situation there was messy and complicated.

After some consideration, our leaders were excited about the idea of restarting work on Clove Island. They asked one of the former workers on Clove Island for his opinion— he was very excited about the idea of restarting the work on Clove  Island and said the island needed an older couple, with experience, impeccable French, who could really take control of the messy situations.

This was not us— we were young, first-time leaders, who hadn’t learned any French yet. Still we and our leaders remained excited about us going. It was going to be challenging. For the first several months, we would be alone— the only workers on the island, jumping into those messy situations with our little experience.

We went through our year of French school and were preparing to head to Clove Island when we received the news. A group from Europe had started working on Clove Island! The leaders were an older couple, with lots of experience among similar peoples. They had impeccable French and knew Arabic too. One was a native French speaker and they were already diving into some of the complicated relationships.

In the US-- learning about bikes!

How excited we were! We became even more excited and relieved when we got to Clove Island and met this couple.  They were kind, gentle and wise.  We were all like-minded, willing and interested to listen and learn from each other.  They graciously invited us to meet with them regularly during our months alone. They spoke with the wisdom of their experiences and saw us very much as being on the same team.  We became friends and we always enjoyed those restful times together at their house by the ocean.  What an answer to prayer!

For the past 3.5 years we’ve worked alongside this couple, enjoying their fellowship, learning from each other and strategizing together. But this spring while we were away, they had to leave Clove Island suddenly. She had become sick and was collecting fluid in her abdomen. They first went to the neighboring French island and thought they would be back soon. But quickly they realized the situation was serious. They were taken back to Europe and after a few weeks learned that she had an aggressive form of cancer. This past week, she passed away.

She was a wonderful gift to Clove Island and to us— a woman with experience and yet great humility. She was kind and encouraging. She jumped into language learning (which is often harder the older you get) and was a crucial player in getting the translation project for our island started.  She was a wonderful team leader, wife, and friend.  She will be greatly missed.

At the same time we rejoice that her suffering was short and are thankful to have the assurance that we will see her again one day.

Overlapping with a former youth group

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our first week in the States has gone well. The kids have transitioned well so far. We’ve had to meet up with a few friends that are leaving the area shortly— we were thankful to overlap with them even if it was only briefly. Our calendar for the coming months is coming together and starting to take shape. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please pray for her husband— her illness and death came so suddenly. We know his future plans are up in the air now. Also pray for him as he tries to make sure his wife’s elderly mother gets the care she needs. Pray also for their team still on the island as they grieve and process what has happened.
We leave on our first domestic trip today! Please pray for the travels. Pray especially for our youngest— he is sick. He’s sleeping right now but we’ll have to wake him soon to go to the airport. Pray that we would have good transitions and interactions with all we meet.

Technology, Facebook & Islanders

Last day on the islands, sleeping on the floor

We made it safely to the US, but we don’t plan to forget about our island friends and thanks to technology, staying in touch is easier than ever before.

Islanders aren’t terribly tech-savvy. Many islanders are not computer literate. Case in point, one recently older islander asked for our help. She needed to send a picture of herself to someone across the world. She used to work for some foreigners decades ago and they wanted to see a current picture of her. She knew about printing a physical photo and snail mailing it, but we explained that we could take a photo and just send it to them with our computer. She looked very confused. She seemed to think we’d have to jam a physical photo into the computer’s CD drive. We tried to explain that there would be no physical photo, it would go from being inside the camera to inside the computer and then sent to her friends’ computer. She looked even more confused but let the matter drop. As long as we could help her, she didn’t have to understand how it worked.

Photo to be sent across the world!

It is not only the old islanders that are ignorant of current technology. This past week, a young islander came up to us. She wanted to connect with one of our teammates and her brother was on facebook. We contacted them for her, but they aren’t using facebook and instead sent an email address. We explained this to her and gave her the address, but she came back the next day and told us how her brother had searched and searched for them but couldn’t find them on facebook using the address we had given. We tried to explain again but it was obvious that she had no idea what email really was.

So many islanders don’t understand much about technology, email or the internet— but most know about one thing and that’s facebook. Facebook has connected a generation of islanders to the internet in large numbers. Islanders are big facebook users.  We are not.  But, after resisting for a long time, we agreed to open an account to stay in touch with island friends. Joining this online islander community has been pretty interesting— it is another window into island culture.

In transit-- eating lunch in Dar

This week it was a window into breaking island news.  We went online to let our island friends know that we had made it to the US. All of the posts seemed to be about one thing.  As we looked closer we saw that there had been rioting in our city related to a murder and mob justice being applied to the murderer. It was like being back on the islands when something serious is happening— everyone talking about it, differing stories with no clear idea what was true. We imagine that our neighbors were gathered on our street talking about the latest rumors, just as the online community was abuzz with new details.

We’ll have to find another way to connect with our non-facebook-using island friends, but it is nice to know that we can stay in the island loop to some extent even while we’re gone.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We’ve arrived safely back in the States.  The flights went well. We were tired but arrived with all our luggage. We also seem to be getting over jetlag relatively quickly this time around. We have already been enjoying chances to reconnect with family and friends. Our kids have done really well so far. Thanks for praying. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
The online news was of a man who murdered a woman (an uncommon event). A mob removed him from police custody by force, killed him and dragged his body through town. The justice building was torn apart by an angry crowd. Islanders don’t believe their officials will give justice so angry mobs decide to take things into their own hands. Pray for the islands— that a better form of law and order could be established. Pray for us as we try to keep up our contacts on the islands in meaningful ways. We still have a lot of planning to do for our time in the States— please pray that we would know how to divide our time and that we’ve have wisdom as we plan our various trips and commitments.

The Moon is Sighted! Surprise!

One of our Eid Day visits

We saw our neighbor's son racing through the street shouting: “The moon is sighted!” We saw people dragging others to the intersection and pointing down the street toward the opening of sky. People were on rooftops all looking in the same direction. It was the new moon as clear as day for everyone to see.

The month of fasting is based on the lunar month. It begins the day after the new moon is sighted and it ends with the big holiday (Eid) when the next new moon is sighted. (In the island language the word for moon and month is actually the exact same word.)

Now the day the moon will be sighted can’t be completely predicted every year. Sometimes atmospheric conditions and global location mean that you don’t know if the new moon will be visible one day or the next. This means that there can be an element of surprise. Islanders know that they’ll have to fast either 29 or 30 days.

Usually the date of Eid doesn’t matter that much to us, we go with the flow. But this year it was important. We were leaving the islands on Thursday. Not just leaving, but we were also moving out of our house and leaving for several months. This meant we needed to arrange to move all our possessions and say goodbye to all our friends and acquaintances.

From the beginning of the month of fasting, we asked people— “when will Eid be?” Again and again we heard “Thursday, July 7th”, with the occasional person saying “Wednesday or Thursday”. “But we’re leaving Thursday and we’d probably want to move our stuff into storage on Wednesday!” we thought. We needed to know. We couldn’t live with the uncertainty this year. 

With our youngest island friend

So we did what most Westerners would do— we went to the internet. We found a website that showed us a map of the world and for each day showed who should see the new moon with varying colors: white (not visible), gray (possibly visible), yellow (probably visible), red (visible). We looked at the picture for Tuesday night and saw the islands in the “red”zone. In our minds it was settled— islanders would see the moon on Tuesday night and so Eid would be Wednesday. We would move our things on Tuesday, say goodbye to everyone on Eid on Wednesday and leave on Thursday.

But as the month went on, more and more islanders said with confidence that Eid would be on Thursday. Islanders are supposed to fix up their house, buy new clothes, and cook all kinds of goodies for the morning of Eid. Many islanders leave most of this to the last minute. Up to the late afternoon on Tuesday, our neighbors hadn’t prepared anything for Eid.  We asked people, “So Eid will probably be tomorrow?” Our neighbors responded strongly, “No— it’s the day after tomorrow.” Fifteen minutes after this firm declaration, our neighbor boy was running in the streets yelling:“The moon is sighted!! The moon is sighted!!”

The next day they kept lamenting, “Eid was such a surprise this year! We couldn’t get anything done!” Maybe next year we’ll show them the website— but secretly we think they liked the surprise because it gave them an excuse to not spend a bunch of money this Eid. Ignorance is bliss?

Our family on Eid

PRAYERS ANSWERED
As month of fasting ended, both Tom and Megan had good opportunities to share with people that they hadn’t before. We made it through the big week! We were able to get all our stuff into boxes (what wasn’t thrown out or given away). We had lots of helpers once it was time to move everything to our new house for storage! We survived fine without our “stuff” in our old empty house for the last two days. We got to make several good visits on the holiday and feel like we were able to say most of the goodbyes we wanted to say. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We are in transit! We’ve left the islands but won’t arrive in the States until later this week. Pray for us as we travel and transition. Pray especially for our kids and all the travel and all the new places and faces. Pray for everyone we left on the island— it will be several months before anyone from our group returns. Pray that the island family stays strong and continues to grow and share. Pray for us that we would be prepared for what the next months hold for us.

The Police

Tom & police students before ceremony

About a year ago a policeman approached Tom and asked him if he would be willing to teach English to the police.  A class began and has continued for the entire year as the police students have gone consecutively through the 3 levels of English classes we teach.  Today they celebrated a ceremony for all the hard work they did and received their certificates.  I mentioned in my speech (speeches are obligatory in this culture) that working with the police was not quite like any other class I've had before.  It was noticeable right from the beginning.  When I arrived in the classroom, all the students stood at attention and saluted me!  I felt like a general. "At ease gentlemen!"  They were also great singers!  Probably all that practice directing traffic, but they sang in full deep voices and on key. You've never heard a prettier ABCs!

After ceremony w/ certificates

There was a certain attrition rate with the class.  We began with 47 students! But by level 2 it had been reduced to 30. For level 3 only 15 regularly attended and only 10 of those received all 3 certificates.  But there is something special about being devoted to a class like this.  Many times we do not have the same continuity.  The classes move on, new students arrive and we slowly begin to forget the names and faces of students that came before.  But these students are not so easy to forget.  We have worked hard together for a long time.  We have forged friendships.  I've been fishing with one.  Another one took me to his fields and loaded me down with freshly picked cucumbers and lettuce.  I've had long talks with another.  Another has a son in the same class as my son, and we talk as we stand at the gate of the school waiting for the dismissal bell to ring.  I went to a wedding with another.  The police are busy around town too, directing traffic and checking papers, but now if I see them I receive big smiles and loud hellos.

It's interesting to think about the relationships we have here, to consider the people we were destined to meet and why.  The police are the ones who handle immigration and are supposed to keep track of the foreigners on the island. Early on in our time on the island, a policeman who lived near us came to visit. We were explaining where our colleagues lived and he cut us off rather ominously by saying, "We already know where you all live." The police are the ones to keep an eye on us. They are the ones who write and stamp our visas into our passports to stay here. So in some ways the police could be troublesome for us, but we have been blessed to find favor with them, and now consider many of them as friends. 

Student showing off his 3 certificates!

Going to get visas finalized is a friendly affair. Traffic stops are filled with smiles and handshakes. A police officer knocking at our door is now a common and welcomed event. The same ominous police officer is now a friend and was at our house this week wanting to learn for himself more from us and asking for a book.

We didn't know what would come from this police class but we see a hand guiding it all.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The police class ended well and it was a great certificate ceremony. We found a house and our interactions with the landlord have gone very well! Even our kids are excited about it which is a real answer to prayer. Our new landlord is also willing for us to store our stuff at the new house during the months we're in and before we "officially" move in. This is a big blessing. We've seen a lot of these final loose ends coming together and we are thankful.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We are in the middle of an extended time of prayer for the islands because this weekend is the Night of Power during the month of fasting where islanders believe God will answer prayers and give visions/signs. Pray with us for God to show Himself to islanders in a real way. This week a horrible thing happened on our island-- a young 3 yr old girl disappeared from outside her house and was found dead three days later. People suspect that she was abducted. Too often the abuse of children is overlooked or dismissed on the islands. We pray for an end of the mistreatment of children. Pray for the devastated family as well.
 It is going to be a big week. This week is the biggest holiday of the year at the end of the month of fasting. We will go around to all our neighbors and say goodbye. We are moving this week- pray for the final packing and the logistics. Because of the holiday, we will have to move things into storage early and live the last couple days without a fridge or stove. Pray it all goes smoothly. Finally this week, we leave the island- pray our final conversations and interactions with islanders go well.