Outreach Has Begun
It is night in Fiji. A vertical black stripe between the curtains contains a single twinkling red star. I lie on my back on the bed, alone. Mars is considered the “Red Planet” so I assume the twinkling star is Mars but, as it turns out, the star is Antares, a massive red supergiant in Scorpius and is apparently 10,000 times brighter than the sun.
It is 550 light-years away.
Perspective.
One of the kids is breathing loudly in the bunkbed next to me. Alive and well. We are travelling the world for an entire year and, as of right now, all five kids are alive and well.
More perspective.
Our outreach is focused in Suva, Fiji’s capital city, and the entire timeframe for our team to be in Suva is 45 days. We were never meant to be here for a long time and it’s nearly half over already. There are some major shifts in the composition of the team this coming week but the bottom line is that there are only 24 days left for us in Suva. Shortly after, it’s back to the Land of the Kiwis.
Even more perspective.
I am cheery now but my initial reaction to life in Suva was anything but cheery. As I mentioned in another blog post, I did not want to come here. And then suddenly, I was here.
We were “living in community” in a large house on the outskirts of the city with 25 other people, most of whom are children. And I’m not dad to most of them. They don’t have to do what I say. And in a house filled with 25 people, even minor habits seem larger than they may initially appear. Different families have different approaches to parenting, food etiquette, talking to adults, screens, unsupervised play, etc., and I am not king of this castle.
We are all from different countries too. Shockingly, a young Norwegian couple with a baby have different needs and expectations than a family with 12 children from the USA or a family from Zambia or from Canada or from Singapore.
For someone with my introverted personality and need for control, these circumstances were a perfect storm. Luckily, there haven’t been any major issues for our family, although others on the team are feeling it for their own reasons. I’ve been able to cut myself a little slack, lower my expectations, find some practical solutions for practical problems, etc. so I’m achieving a natural equilibrium. Deep in my heart, there’s a stronger supernatural equilibrium being discovered daily too. I’m giving it all to God.
The kids are thriving so we are going to stick it out no matter if daddy wants his space.
I made another important decision too.
I decided that I do not have to like everything about the outreach or be supportive of decisions with which I disagree. I can make negative judgments. I can assess situations with an open mind and then decide what I think or feel, thank you very much. It’s possible to see an issue, say something about it, and then move on and do one’s best to know God and make God known.
That’s what I’m doing. It feels healthy.
Like I said before – perspective. We do not simply have to survive in Suva for a few more weeks. We can thrive as a family right now, this second, and turn every moment over to the King of Kings.
Have a good one.
Dawson
P.S. I’ll do another post about Fiji where you get a feel for the place itself since I think that’s well worth the time.
