Blindness

(Photos: A recent wedding ceremony Tom attended; Our kids playing Hide and Seek)

As Easter approaches, we’ve been reflecting this week about the death and resurrection of our Savior. In the account in Luke, after the triumphal entry, he looks upon Jerusalem and weeps for the blindness of the people there and says, “"If you had only known today what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden, so you cannot see it.” Sometimes things here can feel that way, and our hearts feel a similar heaviness and grief for our friends. If only they could know what would bring them peace. Here are two incidents from this week:

I was teaching an English club and decided to have a discussion about freedom—what does it mean? Which freedoms are important? What kind of freedom is most important to you? After an okay discussion I asked them this third question about what kind of freedom is most important to you. Four answers dominated: freedom to choose your future spouse, freedom to get an education, freedom to build a house and freedom of religion. This last one surprised me as we had already established that on the island, this last freedom was not allowed. Did they want to change the laws? “No,” they explained to me, “We didn’t understand well.” What they meant was, they were proud to NOT have freedom of religion. I sat stunned by the implications of that.

I sat down with some friends and it turned into a discussion. One of the men turned to me and said,

“Everyone here lies. They only care about themselves. They don’t help one another. Your people, they help everybody. It doesn’t matter if it’s family or a friend. They just help. But our people, they don’t do anything.”

I responded to this by talking about how everyone’s heart is dark and full of sin. The only way to change this is for our hearts to be changed. We need a new heart, and there is only one way to get that new heart. This new heart is full of love, but it’s not my love, it’s love from the one who died for me. He has so much love he pours it into my new heart and now I have enough love to give to other people. He listened to this very politely and even seemed to be touched by it. But then he said,

“It’s too bad. You’re a good person, but you don’t have the true way. We have the true way, and your way is not true. Your book has been changed. You follow the wrong guy. Many of the things you believe are lies. We have the true way.”

I asked him to look and see. I asked him to read my book. I asked him to look at the lives of people here and people like me. But he wouldn’t listen. He doesn’t want to see, at least, not yet.

Unfortunately, conversations like these are common. Some things that seem so obvious to us are not obvious to our island friends. Maybe you experience similar situations where you live. It certainly isn’t just an island disease. But it is a reminder: Giving sight to the blind is a miracle—something we cannot do. So we wait and hope for their eyes to be opened. Everyday we pray for miracles.

PRAYERS ANSWERED

One of the X ray machines at the hospital has been fixed so Jeanne has more to do which makes her very happy. Our son  has been weaned this week and seems to be taking the change very well. Our new sister who had the problem with evil spirits came to visit this week. She told us that she thinks the spirits are gone. We were very happy to hear this news.

PRAYERS REQUESTED

We are still praying for the group of islander brothers to find a place to meet. Please continue to lift this up with us, as it is extremely important. There will be a gathering for Easter this weekend. Pray that it would be well attended and an encouragement to all involved. Pray for many opportunities to share about this our most important holiday. We’ll be having a special gathering at our house on Tuesday to share about Easter.