(Photos: Two early ones of us when we all first arrived and a recent picture of a road near our house)
Just yesterday we left our island home. We have traveled to South Africa for the birth of our new baby. The trip went smoothly (except for some flight delays) and we are settling into what will be our home for the next half dozen weeks or so. Oddly enough, the day before leaving the island marked the one-year anniversary of our arrival. How much we have learned since we stepped off the plane a year ago! How many things we have seen and experienced. We thought we would make a short list of praises to our Father:
• Praise for our language learning. We still have so much to learn but there have been many small victories over the past year. Praise especially for learning to pray in the native language and even memorizing our Lord’s prayer in the language!
• Praise for meaningful conversations. It is exciting to us that, although we live on a small, isolated island, there are so many who want to learn about who we are, and who we follow. Even this past week we can point to a number of conversations we were able to have with island friends about things of real significance.
• Praise for our teammates. We do not often highlight them in our blog, but our island teammates are of great importance. We do not work alone, but as a team, each bringing their skills and talents to the aid of the team. We are so thankful that as a team we have functioned so well together. It is no small thing to see 10 people working together so smoothly. We love one another, challenge one another, and help one another toward the best service. We are extremely thankful for them all.
• Praise for growth in ourselves. We have learned a lot this year about who our Father wants us to be and how to depend on Him and trust in Him. We are learning lots about parenting. We are learning new things about His plan in our studies of His book—things about prayers, and suffering, and worship.
• Praise for growth in islanders. In certain individuals we have seen a marked growth in the most important aspects of their character—a real change from the inside out. In others we have seen a steady maturing as they follow the shepherd. We are so thankful for these brothers.
• Praise for our growing family. It has been a great deal of fun watching Grace grow and learn and soon she will have a little brother to contend with.
• Praise for island life. Among our team, we’ve seen bats with 4 foot wing spans; we’ve climbed fruit trees; driven a truck over countless bumpy roads; push-started the truck over countless bumpy roads; changed the truck tires a handful of times; ridden in numerous run-down taxis; watched the sun set over the ocean; attended weddings; participated in holidays; dressed in island dress; eaten exotic foods—including hedgehog; baked in the sun; gotten caught in heavy rain; shucked coconuts; pounded casava leaves; killed mice, rats, shrews and cockroaches; run out of water; run out of power; studied the word by candlelight; spoke praises from the rooftops; slept in strange places; taught many classes; swum in the ocean; wandered through the market; climbed a minaret; and many, many more things.
• Finally, praise for all our struggles. We don’t want you to think that our life here is easy or that we don’t struggle, but we are told time and again to consider our trials as joy. So we’ll finish off this weeks blog with some of the trials we are thankful for (or at least trying to be thankful for): sickness; malaria medications that give Grace bad dreams; not understanding what people say to us; understanding what people say to us, but not being able to make ourselves understood; the frustrations of studying a language with no written grammars or text books; not being able to say what we want to say on subjects that mean the most to us; a drunk man throwing rocks at our house; the heat—heat rash, constantly sweating, sleepless nights; a house like an oven; being pregnant in a place with sub-par medical care; the lost ways of our neighbors; the hardships on some women; the stifling and oppressive nature of the place; the lack of freedom of thought and life. In all these things we give praise, looking forward to what God would have us learn and how He would have us grow.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
We managed to get money without too much of a hassle, but the bank still isn’t working so it remains an issue for the team. We were able to say our goodbyes thoroughly and traveled well. We have made it safely to South Africa and are settling in nicely.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Tom has been fighting a sickness since Monday. It could be malaria. Pray for his healing. We have lots of things to figure out in the next few days as we situate ourselves to our home for the next several weeks. Pray that we can figure out how to get around and do all the things we need to.
