A while back my dad wrote a book entitled When God Says No. Unfortunately, the Billy Graham Crusade messed things up when they thought the title was too negative and they changed it to Praying to a God You Can Trust. I say it’s unfortunate because it’s the former of the two titles that has had such an impact on my heart, often bringing to mind that simple phrase, “When God says no”. I have found many times in my life where I have prayed a specific prayer that it seems God is saying “No”, and sometimes that’s exactly what He’s saying. However, on more occasions then I could possibly count, I clearly haven’t been listening carefully enough. Because, had I been listening more carefully I would’ve realized that God wasn’t saying “No”, but rather, “I’ve got a better idea!” I seem to be in the midst of one of those times right now.
Back in 1985 my parents were wise enough to enroll me in the Northwest Airlines Frequent Flyer Program. Since then, I’ve been saving up my miles. I’ve used a few of those miles here and there for some special trips (like when I flew down to West Palm Beach, FL to see Jimmy Buffett in concert for the first time … and in his home town no less!), but for the most part I’ve just kept saving them. At first I didn’t know what I was saving them for, but as the miles began to build up I realized that I wanted to use them to go to Australia … the cost: 100,000 F.F. miles. Well, I’ve had those miles for quite some time now, but the opportunity to use them just never seemed to present itself. For the better part of a decade now, I’ve been praying to add Australia to my list of countries and continents that I’ve been to, but there was always some obstacle in my way. I come to find now, that what seemed to be a “No” from God was simply a “I’ve got a better idea!”
As most of you know, I’ve been spending the last two months here on the far side of the world working with some friends who run an ethno-tourist company. Unfortunately, most to all of their ethno-tourists come from North America. This creates two significant problems. First, it means that any time these guys want to visit their supporters they have to spend several days traveling half way around the world at an incredible financial cost. Second, since most of the ethno-tourists are college-age and young adults, the only time they have off where they can spend two to three weeks of traveling is in the summertime. This creates a bulk of the year that is essentially downtime … a loss of significant opportunity cost.
On my way to the airport to come over here, my parents, my best friend, and I stopped at a deli for lunch. As we were sitting and talking, I found out that my parents were scheduled to be in Australia just after my time over here was up. So, half jokingly, I asked them if I could go with them. I didn’t really get a straight answer, but with only a glimmer of hope the answer didn’t seem too promising. The proposal was all but brushed off until I got over here and began to do some serious thinking. I scheduled my time to be completed here at the beginning of September while my parents were scheduled to come to this side of the planet towards the middle/end of September. Was there a reason beyond purely personal and selfish longing to go to Australia with them? What about the gap of time between my scheduled departure and their scheduled arrival? Is there anything in the midst of all this in which God was at work and wanted me to be a part of it?
When it comes to traveling and geography, I have this way of thinking that is unlike most other people. For example, when I went to Germany to see one of my very best friends get married a few years past, I decided to spend a couple weeks afterwards backpacking in some countries I had yet to visit. So, I found myself on a train in Frankfurt early one morning on my way to Paris. From there, I decided that, because of a song by, you guessed it, Jimmy Buffett entitled “The Coast Of Marsailles”, I would take a train down to the French Riviera and, as the song says, sit on the coast of Marsailles. From there, after a night of sleeping on the beach because I didn’t want to “waste” the money on a hostile, I headed down to Barcelona for a few days. My line of thinking from there was, “I’m in Europe and when I was in Bali a few years past I made some friends from England … I should go visit them since I’m already here (in Europe).” So, I gave them a call, bought a plane ticket on Ryan Air, and flew up to England to visit some old friends for a few days. That’s just how my mind works. Some people will visit friends because they happen to be in their neighborhood, others because they’re in their city, others still because they happen to be in their state. Me, I visit people because I’m in their hemisphere! Thus was my line of thinking when I started thinking about visiting Australia. If I’m going to be that close, I might as well visit my friends in New Zealand, right?!
The more I thought about it and the more I prayed about it, the more things started to come to my mind and seemingly fall into place. I spoke with my friends here that I’m working with to make sure it was even something they were interested in, and they thought it’d be a great idea to travel down under and try to do some networking for their business. We made contact with the head of the conference my dad is to speak at as well as with my friend in New Zealand and both seem very excited about the idea of hearing about the work God is doing up in these parts and how they might get connected. I’ve run into a few “speed bumps” along the way, such as financial issues, but the Lord seems to be at work in smoothing out the rest of the journey. Nothing is finalized by any means at this point, but here’s what it looks like God has in store for the end of my journey over here on the far side of the world:
To wrap up my experiences here, there is a scheduled debriefing time with one of my “bosses” here. The hope/plan as of now is to do that debrief time at the end of August in Bali after the last ethno-tour group departs. Admittedly, there would be some surfing and scuba diving as a part of this debrief time. From there, I would head up to Thailand to visit a missionary friend of mine from Westwood for a week or two. This would sufficiently and appropriately fill in that early September gap until I head down to Australia to meet up with my parents for the conferences. There, I will set up a booth and have my dad promote me from the stage to have people come over and here about the work God is doing where I am now. The idea with this is that churches from all over the country would be coming to me instead of me traveling to all of them. After a couple weeks in Australia, I will head New Zealand to spend a couple weeks with my friend. I would meet with his church as well as connect with some other churches in the country with which my friend has connections to, sharing with them the same information I will have shared in Australia. From there, I would head back to the states with a few personal days of checking out Tokyo, Japan … someplace I’ve only seen from inside the airport.
So, the question that is left to answer from all this is why? What’s the purpose? Well, the answer is simple. The organization here would not only expand their number of ethno-tour groups throughout the year, they would also have a shorter and cheaper distance to travel to connect with some of their supporters. Plus, the same restrictions of the college-age and young adults only being able to get time off in the summer would allow for ethno-tours to come year-round during the US and Australian summers.
What can I say, God is creative! I could never have come up with something so masterful on my own, nor could I have ever anticipated such a purposeful and substantial reasoning for my first trip down under. Not only that, but it allows me to use my F.F. miles for one of my two backup plans: 1) Fly to Tanzania, Africa to scuba dive in Lake Tanganyika and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, or 2) Fly down to Argentina where I can find a relatively inexpensive cruise to Antarctica that I can join. We’ll see what the Lord has in mind, because His ideas tend to be exponentially better than mine!
Saturday, June 24, 2006
The Missionary (by Jimmy Buffett)
Some of you … well, let’s face it, pretty much ALL of you … have been wanting to know exactly what I’ve been doing while I’ve been over here on the far side of the world. Admittedly, it’s hard to sum it all up. Each day has it’s own uniqueness. Each island I visit has it’s own character and personality. I live on “Island Time” here (which most of you probably understand because I tend to live on Island Time back in the states too, which drives most of you crazy!) which means that any schedule is open to change … and the schedules certainly do change! So, there’s not much consistency or normality to which to summarize exactly what I’m doing here. But, I’ll try none-the-less … just for you ;)
First, let me just say that my overall time here has been a rollercoaster of emotions, relationships, spiritual growth, spiritual warfare, and cultural adaptation. I have spent time at home in the city, out at base camp, vacationing in Singapore, and living out in the homes on various islands. Each occasion offers it’s own rewards and challenges. But, since the second half of my time over here as begun and it looks to be the busiest half with the most amount of travel, work, and island-stays, I will focus primarily on my times in the islands … especially since this is what it’s all about anyways.
Before ever going to visit any islands, the new group of ethno-tourists are brought to Base Camp where there are usually a couple days of acclimating to jetlag and having some meetings to prepare them for their work on the islands. During these meetings, they are taught about cultural awareness and appropriateness, typical religious beliefs of the islanders, and proper use of our national guides who do our translating.
The islands vary from being a few minutes away from Base Camp to up to a couple of hours away. Sometimes we take a ferry if it’s far enough away, but typically we take a long, wooden boat in which we are typically pretty cramped and often have the spray of the crashing swells against the bow and hull soaking us. There is typically a welcome party when we reach the jetty of the village to which we will be staying. The party generally consists of a group of women dressed in traditional clothing and playing hand-held drums while singing a welcome song. They continue to play and sing as we file everyone out of the boat and distribute the luggage accordingly. From there, we are paraded down the jetty to land and escorted to the local government building … typically no more than a few rooms big. There, we are officially welcomed by the local officials and distributed to the homes in which we will be spending the next three nights.
There are generally three or four tourists in a home including a guide. The entire first day is spent talking with our host families, along with any of the number of other neighbors who tend to wander in and out of the house, learning their names, relationship with one another, and asking general questions about life, culture, religion, and relationships.
Our meals are generally sitting on the floor and eating with our right hand … and let me tell you, eating with your hand, especially only one hand, is a true art form! The food always consists of white rice and some kind of fish. Often times there is chicken too, and there are usually some spices that are either already in the food or on the side that we can add. Many of the tourists can’t handle the spiciness of their food … personally, I love it! One thing to note is that the chicken that we eat was generally running around in front of the house earlier that day and the fish was likely caught no more than a day earlier. The food typically looks very unappetizing, especially when the fish is almost literally staring back up at you as you’re eating it. It’s a lot like those old cartoons where the cat takes a whole fish, sticks it in it’s mouth, and pulls it out with only the head, tail, and bones remaining. If you eat it right, that’s exactly what this fish looks like when we’re done eating. As repulsive as the food looks though, it’s generally quite delicious … at least, once you’ve gotten used to it.
The second day can be spent doing anything including talking, fishing, walking, playing sports, riding in boats, or doing whatever else our host family might suggest. Some families are more active and involved then others, so that plays a big factor. On one island, they have regular sailboat races and they invited the guys of our group to participate. That was quite an amazing experience! Certainly not a typical island event for us though. Usually the sports begin around 4pm and most of the village is involved. These villages are very communal in all their activities. It’s really quite sad to think of how individualistic America has become compared to the biblical ways these locals live in being the communal beings God created us to be. As a general rule, I don’t know who my next door neighbor is when I’m living back in the states, whereas these people are instinctively meeting together at the same place and at the same time every day as an entire village. We have a lot we can learn from these people!
One thing I should mention is that there are two bucket baths per day. It is required that we take one first thing in the morning and then one again in the evening after the sports. In the heat of the day we get sweaty and stinky enough, but when we’ve been playing volleyball or football (soccer for those back home) or any of their other sports, it’s easy to get pretty soaked with sweat and ripe smelling. Thus, the cultural two bucket baths per day. It’s really quite interesting the way these people don’t hesitate to throw their garbage on the ground or in the water yet they demand the cleanliness of regular washing.
The conversations we have with our families and the other islanders tend to get pretty deep and purposeful as early as the second day. What’s amazing is that their religion and culture are directly tied together, so there’s no stigma against talking directly and intentionally about their beliefs. As ethno-tourists, that’s why we’re there. So, as a result, we learn a lot about their beliefs and understandings and are able to share with them some of what we believe and why. This is truly the most amazing part of our times on the islands. By the second night our evening conversations often allow themselves to get fairly intense, although sometimes the people we’re with never allow us to go very deep at all. One of the key things we focus on is figuring out who’s a true seeker and spending most of our time with them. There’s no point in forcing a conversation with someone who isn’t interested in hearing or talking.
Day three will often be the day that we do our CD (Community Development) project. This can be anything from building a road to teaching English. Sometimes it’s just us tourists who are doing the work while other times half of the village will join in and help us. We like it when the latter of these two happens! We’ll usually do the CD project in the morning and then go back home for lunch. It’s not uncommon to take a nap after lunch for two main reasons: 1) It’s easy to exhaust ourselves and the evil one often uses fatigue to keep us from being focused enough to have conversations later on that night, and 2) Many of the locals will also be napping in the early afternoon because the heat of the day demands it. From there, it’s sports again in the later afternoon and then dinner.
After dinner, most of the islands will give us a goodbye party. The party can involve our host families dressing us up in their best traditional clothing. We are seated at the seats of honor and will watch their presentations on a stage they may have made in the few days we were there. They will have traditional dances, singing, speeches, and playing of their traditional handheld drums. Sometimes they’ll end the night by blaring the music and having a free-for-all dance with the whole village. Some of these parties will last a couple hours while others go well into the night. These are a ton of fun, but often prevent us from having time for last night conversations … so they are bitter-sweet experiences.
The next morning we have breakfast, pack our belongings, and meet as a big group. We say our goodbyes and are escorted back down the jetty on which we arrived. Sometimes it will be escorted by the drums that welcomed us while other times it will simply be a conversational stroll with our new friends. Regardless, the feel always changes between our welcome and our farewell from being greeted by strangers to being sent off by friends … sometimes with tears in our eyes. It’s amazing how close you can get to people, even people who don’t speak your same language, in a matter of a few short days. As we get on board our boat and motor away, there is a traditional Anderson goodbye as both the tourists on the boat and our new friends back on the jetty will wave frantically at each other until they are no longer in sight.
We often talk about our new friends the entire ride back to Base Camp, as well as discussions about how excited we are to be sleeping in a bed as opposed to the floor and taking an actual shower instead of a bucket bath. When we get back to Base Camp we have a day, maybe two, of debriefing from the previous island and preparation for our second island. Each tour will consist of two island stays, each three nights long, and generally each very unique from the other. During our time in between, we do our best to process what we’ve just experienced in the recent days past, prepare as best we can for what we’re about to experience in the days to come, and find a healthy balance between rest and play during the time in between.
Hopefully this has answered more questions then it has brought to your mind, but if there are any specific, burning questions that have been brought to your heart or mind from reading this, please feel free to ask. That doesn’t mean I’ll answer it, necessarily … but I’ll certainly try!
First, let me just say that my overall time here has been a rollercoaster of emotions, relationships, spiritual growth, spiritual warfare, and cultural adaptation. I have spent time at home in the city, out at base camp, vacationing in Singapore, and living out in the homes on various islands. Each occasion offers it’s own rewards and challenges. But, since the second half of my time over here as begun and it looks to be the busiest half with the most amount of travel, work, and island-stays, I will focus primarily on my times in the islands … especially since this is what it’s all about anyways.
Before ever going to visit any islands, the new group of ethno-tourists are brought to Base Camp where there are usually a couple days of acclimating to jetlag and having some meetings to prepare them for their work on the islands. During these meetings, they are taught about cultural awareness and appropriateness, typical religious beliefs of the islanders, and proper use of our national guides who do our translating.
The islands vary from being a few minutes away from Base Camp to up to a couple of hours away. Sometimes we take a ferry if it’s far enough away, but typically we take a long, wooden boat in which we are typically pretty cramped and often have the spray of the crashing swells against the bow and hull soaking us. There is typically a welcome party when we reach the jetty of the village to which we will be staying. The party generally consists of a group of women dressed in traditional clothing and playing hand-held drums while singing a welcome song. They continue to play and sing as we file everyone out of the boat and distribute the luggage accordingly. From there, we are paraded down the jetty to land and escorted to the local government building … typically no more than a few rooms big. There, we are officially welcomed by the local officials and distributed to the homes in which we will be spending the next three nights.
There are generally three or four tourists in a home including a guide. The entire first day is spent talking with our host families, along with any of the number of other neighbors who tend to wander in and out of the house, learning their names, relationship with one another, and asking general questions about life, culture, religion, and relationships.
Our meals are generally sitting on the floor and eating with our right hand … and let me tell you, eating with your hand, especially only one hand, is a true art form! The food always consists of white rice and some kind of fish. Often times there is chicken too, and there are usually some spices that are either already in the food or on the side that we can add. Many of the tourists can’t handle the spiciness of their food … personally, I love it! One thing to note is that the chicken that we eat was generally running around in front of the house earlier that day and the fish was likely caught no more than a day earlier. The food typically looks very unappetizing, especially when the fish is almost literally staring back up at you as you’re eating it. It’s a lot like those old cartoons where the cat takes a whole fish, sticks it in it’s mouth, and pulls it out with only the head, tail, and bones remaining. If you eat it right, that’s exactly what this fish looks like when we’re done eating. As repulsive as the food looks though, it’s generally quite delicious … at least, once you’ve gotten used to it.
The second day can be spent doing anything including talking, fishing, walking, playing sports, riding in boats, or doing whatever else our host family might suggest. Some families are more active and involved then others, so that plays a big factor. On one island, they have regular sailboat races and they invited the guys of our group to participate. That was quite an amazing experience! Certainly not a typical island event for us though. Usually the sports begin around 4pm and most of the village is involved. These villages are very communal in all their activities. It’s really quite sad to think of how individualistic America has become compared to the biblical ways these locals live in being the communal beings God created us to be. As a general rule, I don’t know who my next door neighbor is when I’m living back in the states, whereas these people are instinctively meeting together at the same place and at the same time every day as an entire village. We have a lot we can learn from these people!
One thing I should mention is that there are two bucket baths per day. It is required that we take one first thing in the morning and then one again in the evening after the sports. In the heat of the day we get sweaty and stinky enough, but when we’ve been playing volleyball or football (soccer for those back home) or any of their other sports, it’s easy to get pretty soaked with sweat and ripe smelling. Thus, the cultural two bucket baths per day. It’s really quite interesting the way these people don’t hesitate to throw their garbage on the ground or in the water yet they demand the cleanliness of regular washing.
The conversations we have with our families and the other islanders tend to get pretty deep and purposeful as early as the second day. What’s amazing is that their religion and culture are directly tied together, so there’s no stigma against talking directly and intentionally about their beliefs. As ethno-tourists, that’s why we’re there. So, as a result, we learn a lot about their beliefs and understandings and are able to share with them some of what we believe and why. This is truly the most amazing part of our times on the islands. By the second night our evening conversations often allow themselves to get fairly intense, although sometimes the people we’re with never allow us to go very deep at all. One of the key things we focus on is figuring out who’s a true seeker and spending most of our time with them. There’s no point in forcing a conversation with someone who isn’t interested in hearing or talking.
Day three will often be the day that we do our CD (Community Development) project. This can be anything from building a road to teaching English. Sometimes it’s just us tourists who are doing the work while other times half of the village will join in and help us. We like it when the latter of these two happens! We’ll usually do the CD project in the morning and then go back home for lunch. It’s not uncommon to take a nap after lunch for two main reasons: 1) It’s easy to exhaust ourselves and the evil one often uses fatigue to keep us from being focused enough to have conversations later on that night, and 2) Many of the locals will also be napping in the early afternoon because the heat of the day demands it. From there, it’s sports again in the later afternoon and then dinner.
After dinner, most of the islands will give us a goodbye party. The party can involve our host families dressing us up in their best traditional clothing. We are seated at the seats of honor and will watch their presentations on a stage they may have made in the few days we were there. They will have traditional dances, singing, speeches, and playing of their traditional handheld drums. Sometimes they’ll end the night by blaring the music and having a free-for-all dance with the whole village. Some of these parties will last a couple hours while others go well into the night. These are a ton of fun, but often prevent us from having time for last night conversations … so they are bitter-sweet experiences.
The next morning we have breakfast, pack our belongings, and meet as a big group. We say our goodbyes and are escorted back down the jetty on which we arrived. Sometimes it will be escorted by the drums that welcomed us while other times it will simply be a conversational stroll with our new friends. Regardless, the feel always changes between our welcome and our farewell from being greeted by strangers to being sent off by friends … sometimes with tears in our eyes. It’s amazing how close you can get to people, even people who don’t speak your same language, in a matter of a few short days. As we get on board our boat and motor away, there is a traditional Anderson goodbye as both the tourists on the boat and our new friends back on the jetty will wave frantically at each other until they are no longer in sight.
We often talk about our new friends the entire ride back to Base Camp, as well as discussions about how excited we are to be sleeping in a bed as opposed to the floor and taking an actual shower instead of a bucket bath. When we get back to Base Camp we have a day, maybe two, of debriefing from the previous island and preparation for our second island. Each tour will consist of two island stays, each three nights long, and generally each very unique from the other. During our time in between, we do our best to process what we’ve just experienced in the recent days past, prepare as best we can for what we’re about to experience in the days to come, and find a healthy balance between rest and play during the time in between.
Hopefully this has answered more questions then it has brought to your mind, but if there are any specific, burning questions that have been brought to your heart or mind from reading this, please feel free to ask. That doesn’t mean I’ll answer it, necessarily … but I’ll certainly try!
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
God Don't Own A Car (by Jimmy Buffett)
And neither does my friend, Krista.
Sorry about the title, but it just seemed the most appropriate under the circumstances. I have a request for you all. I have a friend from Westwood, Krista, who has been serving our Lord in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the past couple years and is coming home for the summer. I had originally offered for her to use my van while I was out of the country, but things changed and I ended up selling my van to one of my best friends, Jason, who recently started his own non-profit organization in Kentucky through which he is also serving our Lord and was in need of a large vehicle … and I was in need of money. It seemed to work out pretty well for everyone but Krista. Now she’s coming home June 11 until August 6 or so and will have no mode of transportation while she’s home. I promised her I would see what I could do to help her find a vehicle she could either borrow, rent, or buy for the summer. Her exact words when she emailed me were, “I know beggars can’t be choosers, but … I would really like a small automatic car.” Keep in mind she was ready to drive around Evangeline, my beast of an ’86 Ford Econoline conversion van. The small automatic car is her preference, but she’ll count any running vehicle as a blessing from the Lord!
I’m hoping to get one more blog written before the end of this week because once this weekend comes I expect to be pretty non-stop busy and away from most internet opportunities until August (with an occasional day or two here and there where I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get done). So, if you think I was incommunicado before, my understanding is that that was nothing compared to what’s to come. That means that if you have any leads for Krista regarding a car for the summer, I’m not the right person to contact because I probably won’t get the message until it’s too late. Instead, could you please contact Mark Bendell at Westwood? The number there is 952-224-7300. And if you don’t have any leads for her, prayer would be super appreciated as well!
Thank you!!! And keep posted for more bloggings in the next couple days. I’ll try to add pictures too, but that seems to be easier said then done lately.
Sorry about the title, but it just seemed the most appropriate under the circumstances. I have a request for you all. I have a friend from Westwood, Krista, who has been serving our Lord in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the past couple years and is coming home for the summer. I had originally offered for her to use my van while I was out of the country, but things changed and I ended up selling my van to one of my best friends, Jason, who recently started his own non-profit organization in Kentucky through which he is also serving our Lord and was in need of a large vehicle … and I was in need of money. It seemed to work out pretty well for everyone but Krista. Now she’s coming home June 11 until August 6 or so and will have no mode of transportation while she’s home. I promised her I would see what I could do to help her find a vehicle she could either borrow, rent, or buy for the summer. Her exact words when she emailed me were, “I know beggars can’t be choosers, but … I would really like a small automatic car.” Keep in mind she was ready to drive around Evangeline, my beast of an ’86 Ford Econoline conversion van. The small automatic car is her preference, but she’ll count any running vehicle as a blessing from the Lord!
I’m hoping to get one more blog written before the end of this week because once this weekend comes I expect to be pretty non-stop busy and away from most internet opportunities until August (with an occasional day or two here and there where I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get done). So, if you think I was incommunicado before, my understanding is that that was nothing compared to what’s to come. That means that if you have any leads for Krista regarding a car for the summer, I’m not the right person to contact because I probably won’t get the message until it’s too late. Instead, could you please contact Mark Bendell at Westwood? The number there is 952-224-7300. And if you don’t have any leads for her, prayer would be super appreciated as well!
Thank you!!! And keep posted for more bloggings in the next couple days. I’ll try to add pictures too, but that seems to be easier said then done lately.
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