“Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day-to-day
living that wears you out.” ~Anton
Chekov
“…
our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far
outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is
seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal.” ~2
Corinthians 4:17-18
"I'm not sure what people expect a sacrifice to feel like but I think it feels hard sometimes. I think it feels like not being sure you will get through the day." ~Rachel Jones
Living overseas can be difficult. I agree with Rachel Jones who, in her blog
post (link above) says she will not say, “I never made a sacrifice.” It is
a sacrifice to be here. It is a sacrifice to walk away from the conveniences
you’re used to, to walk away from family you love, to walk away from the life
you are comfortable with. And when
things are happening back home that you wish you could be there for, it is a
sacrifice to not be able to go (just as it would be another kind of sacrifice
to pay $5000 for a round-trip ticket.)
But, in that sacrifice, are also blessings, as you fix your eyes on what
is unseen, what is eternal, and confide your concerns to God in prayer.
But when crises are happening on both sides of the sea, it can seem even more overwhelming. For me, this week in particular has seemed
like an exercise in crisis-response.
After two long weeks of standardised testing, I was faced
with quite a number of students who had not finished their tests, and several
others who had yet to start, namely new arrivals from POC who missed testing
with their classes. (Can you say, “good
timing?”) My crisis-response plan included
creating a schedule, communicating it with the teachers, and committing to four
more early-morning lab set-ups.
Crisis response plan, successful.
By 9:30 Friday morning, I was able to declare our testing
season complete.
Another crisis, one that the school administration has been
working on for many weeks, is an impending teacher shortage. By way of
perspective, the Primary Campus has 18 teachers slotted for this coming school
year (which isn’t quite enough to
offer what we have traditionally offered), but we know of only 9 (nine!) for
the 2014-2015 year. We completely trust
that the Lord can provide, yet we feel compelled to plan rationally as well, to
make sure that we don’t set ourselves up to burn out our teachers ... an attempt to head off crisis-response with crisis-prevention.
After weeks
of brainstorming and planning, we proposed a change (of schedule and class offerings)
to the teachers, and later to the school board.
The Board offered a unanimous vote of support and acceptance, so on
Monday we issued a letter to our students’ parents explaining that this change
would be happening and that on Friday afternoon we would be having a meeting for
anyone who had concerns. We anticipated that from this meeting would emerge any
complaints and concerns that were hiding out there.
So fast forward to Friday noon and the next semi-related
crisis. My boss and I realised that we
had forgotten to put together a slide show to help explain the rationale behind
the change. I had about two and a half
hours to put it together, but was also scheduled to teach two hour-long
computer classes in that time.
Back up to before Christmas, and yet another crisis. I still remember the email from my boss
asking if I would teach the computer classes upon our return as our computer
teacher would soon be leaving the school.
With some amount of trepidation, I agreed. The next teacher, a Finnish woman with lots
of rolling R’s throughout her name, was due to be here by the end of March. Crisis solved, right?
After a work permit/visa crisis of their own, she and her husband were
finally able to arrive at the end of April, meaning that this past week she has
come to observe for the first time. I am
so grateful! And was also very grateful
when she agreed to take over the Grade 2 class on Friday afternoon (after I
taught the lesson and got them set up) so I could work on the PowerPoint
slideshow for the afternoon meeting.
Crisis averted.
Uh … with the convergence of crises, I almost forgot what I
was writing about. :)
So, I left her in charge and 40 minutes later, just in time
for the meeting, the slide show was finished and safely transferred from my
office computer to the auditorium laptop.
Crisis averted.
Again.
Now we awaited the influx of unhappy parental units and the
next crisis.
The meeting was attended by exactly one parent, a thoughtful
member of the school board who had already heard our spiel, expressed her complete
enthusiasm, and only decided to come to the meeting in case we needed backup.
Bless her!
And we thanked the Lord for this non-crisis.
On Thursday evening I found out about a situation at the
secondary campus that, fortunately, I did not have to personally deal with, but
which left our grade 8 play without one of its cast members … one week before
the curtains opened. I made some calls
to ensure that the director was informed, and the next several hours included
much brainstorming. In the end, that cast member’s parts were divvied out to
others. We shall see this coming
Thursday how effective was this crisis response.
I was double-booked on Saturday, with play practice and set
work scheduled at exactly the same time as a pre-Mother’s Day preparation party
for the Tok Pisin Sunday School kids.
Not a huge deal, but after a week of running interference with various
difficult situations, this too felt like a crisis. An hour after those were scheduled to end,
Evan’s birthday party was scheduled to begin at the Teen Centre.
Normally this time of year it is especially difficult to
book the Teen Centre because of all the end-of-school-year activities that are
going on. Two years ago we tried in
April to book it for a party in late May, but there was no availability. This year, learning from that situation, I
started the booking process in February.
This, more than two weeks before his actual birthday, was the closest we
could get, but get it we did. This
crisis was avoided completely, and Evan and his friends were able to scooter and
rollerblade and ripstik to their hearts’ content.
There was one more coulda-been-a crisis related to the
birthday party that I can’t forget to mention.
Evan is not a cake and frosting guy, and had told me that he wanted
brownies and ice cream for his party.
However, for nearly a year the store has been unable to stock ice cream.
Now that is a
crisis!
Evan informed me early enough, though, and I was able to
make two litres of vanilla ice cream in the days leading up to the party. Problem solved.
Perhaps the biggest crisis on this here island is the fact
that there are 300 language groups still remaining (in PNG) that do not have a
single line of God’s Word translated into their mother tongue. The national translation organisation, BTA, has said that by themselves
it would take 150 years to get projects going in every language that needs
translation.
How do you solve a crisis so immense? Truly it is a God-sized task.
This past weekend, BTA met with SIL and other parachurch
organizations as well as churches representing a number of denominations. The end result? Signing of the “Bible Bilum Covenant.”
A bilum (bee-loom)
– a traditional PNG string bag worn over the shoulder, neck, or with heavier loads, slung across the forehead and hanging down the back – is in its own way a crisis response tool. Do you need to carry 30kg of fresh garden
produce to market? Put it in your bilum.
Do you have a few cords of firewood to
haul? Grab the bilum. Need to put the baby to sleep? Put her in the bilum and hang it in a tree.
Bilums come in a variety of styles, sizes, colours, and patterns. They are as unique as the people who make them, and many of those who make them still do not have a Bible in their language.
300 language groups need the scriptures. 300 language groups have never heard God speak their language. They need God's Word before
thousands more die.
They need a Bible
in their bilum.
This is a crisis.
But, I believe it is one God plans to solve.
“After this I looked
and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every
nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb. … and they cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God!’”
~Revelation 7:9-10
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