As Brendan and I sit at the front of our house and watch our neighbors go by - walking with their small children, catching up with friends and relatives, or going to buy fresh vegetables for dinner - we prepare ourselves to leave this place in only 1 week to begin the journey back to America.
We will have to been gone for over 1 year, 10 months of that we have been in Timor Leste. During that time we've been through flooded rivers, dengue fever, earthquakes, met large families in wood and tin shacks, swam with a crocodile, and learned from the eye witnesses about the massacres and terror that have stalked this people through the 20th century.
More simple difficulties included adjusting to a culture where most people eat rice 3 times a day, the months of cold bucket showers, doing all the cooking on 2 gas burners, dealing with power outages and often no running water (and that the drinking water was unsafe when it was running), and washing all our dishes and clothes by hand.
But what has made every minute worth it is what we're always talking about: the people! The people here are quick to open their hearts to you, to trust you like you are part of the family, and they are disarmingly generous with the little they have.
And they have taught us so much! It's difficult now to know how much we've changed from living and working with them these 10 months, but even now some inspirations stick out.
They've taught us:
How to Live a Simple Lifestyle
In America, a lot of people talk about simplifying their lifestyle or living simply. The problem is that everyone's definition of living simply is different - to one it might mean giving up the daily Starbucks trip and to another it might mean only eating out 3 times a week instead of more often. But there's a radical difference between that simple living and the dirt or concrete floor, few modern conveniences, limited access to safe drinking water existence of many people in East Timor and all over the world.
Brendan and I have blended Western and Timorese living styles together this year (for health and nutritional reasons), but the Timorese side has taught us to appreciate so many more things than we did before. One example is laundry - it will be sooo nice to be able to use a laundry machine when we get home... but we hope that we will never forget the women who are washing clothes daily for their big families by hand (we had it easy with only 2 people). Everyone knows that we shouldn't take privileges for granted, but to a certain extent, until you've been to a developing country, you can't understand except academically just how many little things we should be appreciating.
How to be Rich in Family
Recently, Brendan and I were going for a walk and we ran into one of the high school seniors from Canossa while she was on her way with her sisters and cousins to a celebration. She was chatting with us and she told us a story of a conversation she had with her Dad. Her Dad had just come home from work and was sitting down working on something new when she approached him and exclaimed, "Dad, we are sooo rich!" Her Dad looked up in surprise and confusion because he knew, while they weren't hurting as badly as some other families, they were by no means rich.
To alleviate his confusion she continued,"...In family, Dad. We are rich in family!" And her Dad smiled. The student has brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins who all live nearby and are very supportive of each other and her family. I know exactly what she's talking about, as the oldest of 7 kids with both Mom and Dad's sides of the family in our home city. But I think I am one of the few lucky Americans to know the 'rich in family' joy, compared to the many Timorese in this family-oriented society. It's a sad thing that our independent attitude and our 0,1, or 2 child-norm seems to be costing many of us.
Living in 3 different countries now for a significant amount of time, it's clear that Italy and East Timor's cultures each have some parts that are better than ours and some worse. But one big difference is the closeness in families, especially with all generations living very close to each other or even in the same house. Going along with this, especially in Timor, is a much greater sense of respect for the elderly and the very young (including the unborn). This special respect for all people of all ages is a virtue that our own culture, sadly, often fails to show.
How to Be Rich in Faith
Brendan and I came to East Timor to support the people in their faith and to show them Jesus' love in practical ways, but I think they have helped our faith to grow even more. The witness of how they live their faith is a constant challenge to me.
One example of this is their incredible hospitality. They will sit on the floor or stand so that a guest can have a chair, and they will go hungry so they can offer a guest some food. They will give all they can and then apologize that they have not done enough. They freely give from their daily living money, instead of from their excess. As a "saver" who is more likely to save to have extra and then give from that, I am often humbled in their presence. Their overwhelming generosity is what Christians should be known for and not always are.
Another aspect of their faith that has had a lasting impact on me is their resilience through incredible suffering. It's true that everyone suffers, but here men, women, and children have died early from violence, young people have been killed without warning for peacefully protesting, and Sisters have been murdered on missions of mercy giving food and medicine to refugees. And not only the violence, but the suffering that is byproducts of conflict have killed or wounded many here: hunger, homelessness, and disease. I imagine that experiencing all these things may hurt you in a more traumatic way than other examples of suffering.
Yet, in their suffering, so many of them have looked to God for comfort and found strength in Him to start again and to rebuild and support others in doing the same. I don't know if I would be that strong in the same circumstances. All I can say is that to be with them and to hear their stories is to to be inspired.
Our friend Cas, a volunteer from Australia, described the witness of their faith very well. She said that here (compared to at her home) the people really pray and the people really sing. They put their heart and soul into it because Jesus is their Source, as He should be for all of us. The constant crazy changes in developing countries provide an opportunity for them and us to much more fully depend on God for our daily needs. And when we depend on God, we have found over and over again that He is faithful.
So that is a very short summary of some important things we learned this year. This will be the last blog written from East Timor, although there may be more from America as we have a chance to further process our experiences and what we've learned. We hope you have enjoyed reading this blog throughout our journey and that you have grown somehow too.
Please pray for us during our week long journey home for health and safe travels. And if you would like, you can meet us at the Des Moines airport October 1st! We will be flying in a little before 8 pm on that Thursday night and we would love to see you there. If that doesn't work try to see us as soon as possible. We've missed you all!
Love Always, In Christ, Your friends,
Rachel and Brendan
P.S. Also published today is the blog on Sharing Our Witness just below this one. Read that too if you get a chance.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Sharing Our Witness
Recently Brendan and I have been excited to have some opportunities to share our witness. The first was right before the day remembering the life and example of Saint Magdalene of Canossa (an Italian Mother Teresa who founded the Canossian Sisters). The Sisters and the 80 girls who live at the school had been doing a novena that would finish on the eve of St. Magdalene's feast day. Sister Terezinha invited us to help with the prayer on that evening.
We prayed and sang psalms together in Tetum and read scriptures. Then out of nowhere Sr. T asked us if we would be willing to share our witness of our recent life and how we ended up in East Timor. So we stood up and told all the students and Sisters how God had worked mini-miracles in our lives to bring us to East Timor and what He has been teaching us here. They seemed to understand and appreciate what we said. We just hope it will encourage them to really strive to know Jesus more and to have a good attitude about the crazy twists that happen in life that God uses to get you where He wants you.
Another opportunity came when we were asked to be on a vocations panel at a Singles for Christ retreat. Here in Timor there are very strong and supportive programs for Kids for Christ, Youth for Christ, Singles for Christ, and Couples for Christ. Each group meets regularly for prayer, praise and worship, and to encourage each other in the faith. We've been really impressed by the people who organize all of them, who we see at Mass every week and who have been a blessing to meet.
So we agreed to be on the panel, talking about both marriage and missions as potential vocations. It was a 2-day retreat and the young people were pumped up for God by the time we got there for the workshop the 2nd day. Among the speakers were a Sister (Sr. Sonia), a priest, another married couple, an international lay missionary, and us as married volunteers/missionaries. All were Timorese except us and Sr. Sonia, who is Filipino.
It was beautiful for us to see all these people - most were young graduates our age trying to pray and search out what vocation God is preparing them for. They were at this retreat hoping to hear from God in a special way.
The vocations talks also seemed very helpful for them. We couldn't understand all of the fast Tetum of the Timorese speakers, but the retreatants laughed often at the speaker's anecdotes and were also very attentive when speakers shared about more difficult times in the discernment process. For us, in addition to our mission experience, we shared about dating throughout college and trying to pursue purity in our relationship, while discerning whether or not we were supposed to be married or a Sister and priest respectively. We shared with them that for most people it's quite a process with lots of prayer involved, but the answer will come. For us that came when we felt God's blessing for us to be married and He also worked everything out for the marriage and our volunteering trip.
After everyone presented there was a Q & A time when anyone could ask questions to any speaker. The question we and the other married couple received was 'How can you make sure you will stay together forever?' (no divorce). Divorce is starting to become an issue here, as it is everywhere. One thing that we told them was about being 2 + God and that the strand of 3 is a lot harder to break than 2 (especially since one of them is unbreakable already). We talked about how as a couple when you pray together, read the Bible together, and do other Church activities together it keeps both spouses focused on Christ and what's important. That's what keeps marriages together - so has been our experience in our marriage so far and it has also been the advice we've had from many long-married couples who we really respect.
In my opinion we have really benefitted from this advice. This year has been an amazing time for us not only to really make an impact on others, but because we also get to spend a lot of time with each other and much of that time is doing activities focused on Christ. To me it's obvious that our marriage is very healthy and blessed because of this time. I'm especially glad that God gave us this time together at the beginning of our marriage so that we have a strong foundation to build on in the future.
The last opportunity I'll write about was with English Club. We spent a week talking just about faith and one of the days our conversation topic was, "Is Jesus important to you? Why?" We discussed for a long time and I think it was as encouraging for me as it was for them. Each student said at least one very profound thing with a distinctly different perspective - Jesus as a friend, Jesus as a confidant when there is no one else, Jesus making the impossible become possible...We also talked about the difference between going through the motions in your faith only because it's a family thing, and the need to go much deeper into a relationship/friendship with Jesus and to let your daily actions be inspired by that friendship. They said that they want that deeper faith and I believe it. Some of them really understand already, especially some of them who have suffered most. One student's father died this year and she seems to have the deepest faith of all.
During a more recent English Club I shared my faith story with them. It was almost all in Tetum and afterward I realized that I finally have a good grasp on the language and can quickly figure out how to say what I want to. So that was a great revelation, but the better part was that they seemed to understand and react to it. I just prayed that the Holy Spirit would work in their hearts so all these little things will add up to make a real difference in their lives.
After my story and some discussion, I gave them each an English New Testament with a special note for them in the front from Brendan and I. It's great because it's really multitasking: to help them know Jesus more, to help them learn English, and to help them fulfill their life goals (the other week we made Life Goal lists and many of them said they wanted to read the Bible often or daily).
It's really been an amazing experience to work with these students who I see as my younger sisters (and one brother : ) Brendan has had similar experiences with his university classes.
So God has generously given us many formal opportunities as well as countless informal opportunities to share His love here in Timor. Maybe someday we'll know the impact He has made through us. But you don't have to go out of the country to make a difference - remember to keep making an impact right where you are (as many of you are constantly doing)!
K, hope you are all well at home! We can't wait to see you! 1 week and we'll be on our way! Love you and miss you A LOT!
Always,
Rachel and Brendan
We prayed and sang psalms together in Tetum and read scriptures. Then out of nowhere Sr. T asked us if we would be willing to share our witness of our recent life and how we ended up in East Timor. So we stood up and told all the students and Sisters how God had worked mini-miracles in our lives to bring us to East Timor and what He has been teaching us here. They seemed to understand and appreciate what we said. We just hope it will encourage them to really strive to know Jesus more and to have a good attitude about the crazy twists that happen in life that God uses to get you where He wants you.
Another opportunity came when we were asked to be on a vocations panel at a Singles for Christ retreat. Here in Timor there are very strong and supportive programs for Kids for Christ, Youth for Christ, Singles for Christ, and Couples for Christ. Each group meets regularly for prayer, praise and worship, and to encourage each other in the faith. We've been really impressed by the people who organize all of them, who we see at Mass every week and who have been a blessing to meet.
So we agreed to be on the panel, talking about both marriage and missions as potential vocations. It was a 2-day retreat and the young people were pumped up for God by the time we got there for the workshop the 2nd day. Among the speakers were a Sister (Sr. Sonia), a priest, another married couple, an international lay missionary, and us as married volunteers/missionaries. All were Timorese except us and Sr. Sonia, who is Filipino.
It was beautiful for us to see all these people - most were young graduates our age trying to pray and search out what vocation God is preparing them for. They were at this retreat hoping to hear from God in a special way.
The vocations talks also seemed very helpful for them. We couldn't understand all of the fast Tetum of the Timorese speakers, but the retreatants laughed often at the speaker's anecdotes and were also very attentive when speakers shared about more difficult times in the discernment process. For us, in addition to our mission experience, we shared about dating throughout college and trying to pursue purity in our relationship, while discerning whether or not we were supposed to be married or a Sister and priest respectively. We shared with them that for most people it's quite a process with lots of prayer involved, but the answer will come. For us that came when we felt God's blessing for us to be married and He also worked everything out for the marriage and our volunteering trip.
After everyone presented there was a Q & A time when anyone could ask questions to any speaker. The question we and the other married couple received was 'How can you make sure you will stay together forever?' (no divorce). Divorce is starting to become an issue here, as it is everywhere. One thing that we told them was about being 2 + God and that the strand of 3 is a lot harder to break than 2 (especially since one of them is unbreakable already). We talked about how as a couple when you pray together, read the Bible together, and do other Church activities together it keeps both spouses focused on Christ and what's important. That's what keeps marriages together - so has been our experience in our marriage so far and it has also been the advice we've had from many long-married couples who we really respect.
In my opinion we have really benefitted from this advice. This year has been an amazing time for us not only to really make an impact on others, but because we also get to spend a lot of time with each other and much of that time is doing activities focused on Christ. To me it's obvious that our marriage is very healthy and blessed because of this time. I'm especially glad that God gave us this time together at the beginning of our marriage so that we have a strong foundation to build on in the future.
The last opportunity I'll write about was with English Club. We spent a week talking just about faith and one of the days our conversation topic was, "Is Jesus important to you? Why?" We discussed for a long time and I think it was as encouraging for me as it was for them. Each student said at least one very profound thing with a distinctly different perspective - Jesus as a friend, Jesus as a confidant when there is no one else, Jesus making the impossible become possible...We also talked about the difference between going through the motions in your faith only because it's a family thing, and the need to go much deeper into a relationship/friendship with Jesus and to let your daily actions be inspired by that friendship. They said that they want that deeper faith and I believe it. Some of them really understand already, especially some of them who have suffered most. One student's father died this year and she seems to have the deepest faith of all.
During a more recent English Club I shared my faith story with them. It was almost all in Tetum and afterward I realized that I finally have a good grasp on the language and can quickly figure out how to say what I want to. So that was a great revelation, but the better part was that they seemed to understand and react to it. I just prayed that the Holy Spirit would work in their hearts so all these little things will add up to make a real difference in their lives.
After my story and some discussion, I gave them each an English New Testament with a special note for them in the front from Brendan and I. It's great because it's really multitasking: to help them know Jesus more, to help them learn English, and to help them fulfill their life goals (the other week we made Life Goal lists and many of them said they wanted to read the Bible often or daily).
It's really been an amazing experience to work with these students who I see as my younger sisters (and one brother : ) Brendan has had similar experiences with his university classes.
So God has generously given us many formal opportunities as well as countless informal opportunities to share His love here in Timor. Maybe someday we'll know the impact He has made through us. But you don't have to go out of the country to make a difference - remember to keep making an impact right where you are (as many of you are constantly doing)!
K, hope you are all well at home! We can't wait to see you! 1 week and we'll be on our way! Love you and miss you A LOT!
Always,
Rachel and Brendan
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