Hope deferred

So this last month or so has been one of most trying and difficult for me in regard to the suspense created from my incompleted stay paper situation. At the moment, with three weeks to the day which I am supposed to be leaving for a short vacation to the states, the invaluable necessary piece to get back into Suriname(whatever it is exactly: a stamp, a slip, a signature) is absent. Since discovering in March of last year after Me and Taylor's first extended stay that when we arrived in Suriname on January 6th we were given (unknown to us and apparently the IMB personnel who worked on our visa situation)a two month stay and were expected to go back to the states and then return. The country of Suriname had inacted a new Law sometime in the fall before we came.

Well, going back to the states was the last option we hoped to have to take. So with a few key connections in the city we were able to contact a man who would help us in so that we would not have to go the U.S. We began working on fixing the papers to go to the country of Guyana to spend a short time with another IMB couple that same month. As you can guess, with only a matter of days before we were suppposed to go, that planned trip had to be cancelled.

With an approaching regional prayer retreat planned in June we spent a good three weeks working with our Suriname connection "Kirk". We turned in every required document, had every Passport, birth certificate etc and were searching for what seemed the most simple of documents: some official receipt showing our paperwork was submitted and would allow us entry back into the country. Well, working with Kirk as we discovered was far from simple. As the day to leave neared we couldn't get a hold of him to save our lives and did not know until a day before we left if we would actually be leaving. Well..we went and came back without encountering any problems -no thanks to Kirk.

In October one of my best friends Chris asked me if I would be in his wedding party. I was honored by the proposal and after prayer decided in December I would be heading back to CA in May. I bought a $1,200 ticket from Paramaribo to San Francisco (a ticket to SAC was almost twice as much!) in early January. My supervisor brought to my attention the need to get my incomplete stay paper situation squared away. No need to worry right? I've got over five months. To make a long story short, two weeks ago I was back at square one...and working things out with Kirk again.

Nearly a year later and I'm still seeking the evasive piece that will allow me back into Suriname legally. This past week had be calling Kirk nearly everyday and him postponing and deferring my requests for every reason possible. Needless to say, I've had to fight the threat of constant anxiety, suspense, discouragment and despair.

Despite what seems to be a pretty bleak scenario, I have not lost heart or given up. I feel the Lord wants me to go and I know if it is his will I will be leaving on May 21. Philippians 4 has been the comfort God has given me: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which passes all undestanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." I've taken solace in these words and put everything in the Lord's hands with complete peace...oh yeah and I am hoping and praying it works out! If you happen to read this blog before I post a verdict as soon as I know then pray with me for this situation.

In Proverbs it says: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

Hoping to get a little from that tree.

Funny questions for which you have no answer

Well I got quite a few positive response from my blog "How you Know you live 4 degrees north of the equator" and i see the typcial viewer of this blog enjoys the peculiarities and cultural nuances -or you just like to hear how the weather is. lol

So I thought I'd post a blog along similiar lines pertaining to funny questions you don't have an answer to.

Okay Mr. American; learned gentleman, young, cosmopolitan and adaptable, ready for anything. So you think you've got everything settled now with your flexible and open world view. You've been living in a foreign culture nearly a year-and-a-half. By now, nothing thrown at you should stump you. However, there are certain recurring questions posed by your people group that you have been asked a thousand times and yet they always leave you..well without an adequate answer. I listed ten I could think. interesting enough, they all fit into the food or family category.

1.)"In America people don't eat the head of the fish??!!" I can't believe that. It is the best part!

2.)You're parents only had three kids? only three? Why?

3.) "So people in the U.S. don't eat the bones of the chicken? It wouldn't be good manners for me to do that?"

4.) "You're how old and you don't have a wife yet?"

5.)"You don't eat rice at every meal?!" "I can't imagine that. I couldn't do it."

6.)"They have laws that would prohibit you from killing certain animals for food?"

7.)"Why would it be illegal to have more than one wife?" You would go to jail for doing that?!"

8.)The breast part of the chicken is my least favorite part, I have to have bones in mine. The best part is the neck.

9.)Why wouldn't you take a woman here in the village? (Somehow all my thoughtful and reasonable answers never seem to suffice to satisfy them)

10.) "People don't eat chicken's feet in America?" If someone cooks up a chicken, that is the first part I'll take!!"

What's your advice?

So here’s the scenario: She’s 23, has two young boys ages 3 and 2, she became a Christian about a year ago, she lives in a house in the village and attends Church regularly and has a desire to grow in her faith and knowledge of the Word. In addition, she has a husband whom she began to “live with” (marriage as we understand it as a legal union and an intended lifetime commitment doesn’t exist in traditional Aukaan culture) four years ago. This man “has” three other women (wives in a very loose sense) who live in different villages along the river. Our woman of focus understands fully that her man is openly promiscuous and a blatant adulterer. He will shamelessly call out at other women in his wife’s presence without hesitation in public. The traditional Aukaan culture fully accepts his lifestyle. She doesn’t see him for extended periods of time and doesn’t know when he’ll come to see her. Whenever it pleases him, he will call her to come see him where he works and stay for perhaps a week or so and then she will return to stay alone in the village. She herself does not sleep with other women because she desires to live the Christian life. She understands the sad reality of her situation but she fears the possibility of contracting an STD or even AIDS.

Scenario number #2: She’s 38, has been a Christian for over 15 years now and has five children. She began to “live” with her “husband” before she was saved. She is active in Church and prays diligently and seeks to follow the Lord closely. She discovered just a few years ago that her husband had taken another woman in the village where they currently reside and has five additional children with her. The relationship between the two women is contentious on nearly a daily basis. Our woman of focus is always suspecting that her husband is heading to a different part of the village to sleep with this “other” woman or give her money. There are often encounters in the village in which the “other” woman will curse her or threaten to fight. There are frequent heated arguments with her husband who is a man open to the Gospel who has even begun to come to Church. Even for him, the family situation is not black-and-white. He does have a responsibility to provide for all of those 10 kids and two wives but there is unceasing strife, unrest, discontentment and jealousy. Our believing wife often asks me to pray for God to give her patience as she has endured much. Furthermore, all five of her kids witness all that goes on and the impact it has on them undoubtedly unhealthy.

Not just hearing, but seeing firsthand stories like this has troubled me many a day in Godoloho. I have even on occasion been shoved into a “mediator” and counselor role. So I’ll prompt you to answer: what’s your advice?

Well….devoid of any advanced degree in marriage or family canceling and at the moment no personal marital experience from which to draw wisdom I went to the only place I knew: God’s Word.

I Peter 3:1-2

“Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.”






I cannot imagine how trying it must be to be where these women, and many others like them, but I hope when you get a chance, pray for them and pray that the lives they live will display Jesus so that their husbands will come to know the savior – the only way for any true life change to come about.

How you know you live 4 degress North of the Equator

I have always been a guy who loves weather and topics on the subject have and continue to fascinate me. Both my Grandfathers were farmers and from my experience being around them, understand how and why climate and other weather-related phenomena sparked their interest. I guess it’s in my blood. When journaling, I’ll often document the weather for the particular day. So after well over a year and especially after experiencing 12 full months in the jungle I thought I’d give a few of my observations pertaining to the statement: How you know you live 4 degrees North of the Equator.

Here are a few…

1) The words ice, snow, shiver and season do not exist in your people group’s language.

2.) Any given day could by any other given day of the year. (The temps vary so slightly that a season concept is non-existent.

3.) The sun is always intense and always hot even when the temps aren’t.

4.) You can get sun burned in <10 minutes.

5.) You have to search far and wide to find sunscreen in your country’s capital city.

6.) You have never worn the only sweatshirt you brought from home.

7.) The temps have never dipped below 67 degrees.

8.) You woke up freezing cold and checked the thermometer to see the display show 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

9.) You hung your black shirt out on the line in the morning and pulled a fully dry brown one in the afternoon.

10.) Your clothes will decay at an alarming rate.

11.) You never assume or have confidence that it won’t rain.

12.) Fully cleared grass and other plant growth can be over 6 feet high in a matter of a month or so.

13.) People are shocked that a time of year exists where you live in which it is so cold you cannot swim or wash in the rivers.

14.) Intervals of rain are consistent enough that for 80% of the year water caught from the sky is sufficient for all needs.

15.) You’re always sweating and as a consequence, you’re always washing clothes -and you don’t even think of wearing yesterday’s shirt today. lol
16.) You are always perspiring and have broken into a sweat at any and all of the 24 hours in a day.

17.) The season concept is painstakingly difficult for your people group to understand.

18.) If you cook it today, you better eat it before today ends.

19.) Ants: unfathomable both in number and variety. Every one of them is armed to the teeth.

20.) You’ve never had a need for chapstick or any type of lotion.

I could go on for a while but I felt twenty reasons would suffice to give you a little idea climate-wise from a 15 month veteran jungle man.

A few questions with Basiya Otmar

On a cool and sparsely-clouded February morning I had an awesome opportunity to sit down and talk with a local village leader and acquaintance named Basiya Otmar. Otmar, whose wife is Saa Bea (read “Saa Bea’s story”) has a family, in which a number are believers and so he has ostensibly heard the message of the Gospel. As I sat down and watched him build a thatched hut in his large garden there ensued a deep and insightful dialogue on marriage, the Bible and Aukaan culture. I made an effort to remember as much as I could of what was said between us. What was discussed helped me better understand the average Aukaaner’s perspective worldview.

Otmar: Ryan, there was a guy a while back who told me a lot about the Bible and read the stories and I’m telling you that I would become a Christian if it wasn’t for the fact that believers have a problem with a man having more than one wife. Why is God opposed to that?

Me: Well…there are plenty of reasons why: For starters, in the beginning God made Adam and Eve, male and female, Jesus reinforced that as being the way God intended it to be from the beginning.

I then went into how men had or chose to take more than one wife including some of the Holy men of God in the Old Testament but you see the magnitude of strife it brought on them.

Otmar: Yeah, yeah I understand that. It’s not an easy thing to manage. It takes skill and a wise man who knows what he’s doing. But let me tell you something, I was one of 21 kids by my father and five of his wives but I was the only child of my mother. If my dad had only had one wife, he would have only had one child! Look what a problem we have on our hands then.

This evaluation of this phenomena by Otmar and his perception that having only one child in a family was a serious problem put into perspective how truly different the views of family and child rearing are in Aukaan culture. I had to laugh considering Otmar himself has nine children by his only wife. I wanted to tell him how there are plenty of women who bear enough children to make up for cases such as his own mother.

Me: Otmar you know quite well how every woman is jealous of any other woman with whom she must share her man. You also know you can’t love each one the same.

This question was initiated by his bringing to my attention the case of one particular man in Godoloho who has four wives and lives harmoniously with all four. He told me they all go to the planting grounds together and each will cook a particular dish and bring it to him without quarreling. (I later found out from another source that one of the wives had left him so clearly there were a few false assertions concerning his situation)

Otmar: True! You can’t love all of them the same, no doubt about that. But that’s where you find out how who has the smarts, wisdom or shrewdness to make everything work well. You must deceive each one of them so they each feel that you love them the most. Each one must believe they are your favorite.

Me: Yeah, but I find it hard to believe you can successfully carry that out. It will become quickly apparent who is more favored by the way you treat each one.

Me: Otmar, what about adultery and mistresses by so many men here? I know because men tell me all the time how they sleep with women besides their wives. I also know how they expect complete faithfulness to their husbands in that regard. Is this so?

Otmar: Absolutely. That’s how it works and those are the expectations.

Me: Don’t you see how there is a double standard here? You know the majority of these women with whom men are unfaithful are married to a man somewhere and someone’s wife is being unfaithful when men do what they please.

Otmar: hmmm. Yeah. (There was a sort of confident indifference to my observation- his acknowledging the discrepancy but knowing change wasn’t anywhere in the future nor was any effort going to be put forth by a reality so advantageous to himself)

Me: Otmar, You yourself have only one wife and a good one at that (his wife is Saa Bea, a strong believer, see “Saa Bea’s story” –one of my earlier posts) and you’re a valiant defender of polygamy so why don’t you take another wife yourself?

Otmar: Well..I have nine kids and providing for another woman and additional kids would be tough right now.

You can see how lame his own defense in relation to his antecedents for support of polygamy was. He didn’t use any arguments such as status, masculine dominance, or pleasure. I later talked to another Christian woman from church who told me quite plainly that Saa Bea wouldn’t take it. She’d leave him and/or fight with the rival. Truthfully, Otmar knows how a good, faithful wife is not a given and Saa is just that. He benefits from her Christian morality and belief in being faithful to one man despite his own unbelief.

This discussion was too good and it was the proper time to bring up how Saa Bea had been miraculously healed with the whole village being a witness to it including himself. Saa Bea had told me how Otmar acknowledged a miracle but still didn’t accept Jesus but I wanted to here from his own mouth his take on it. His response was what I expected but all the while so powerful and gave a clear glimpse into the hearts and minds of so many Aukaaners regarding the Gospel.

Otmar: Yeah Ryan, Bea was sick and paralyzed for two years and she was in fact, healed instantly. “They” (numerous villagers) refused to believe it really happened but it did.

Me: So it was a miracle then?

Otmar: Yeah.

Me: So Otmar you know how your wife continually refused help from the witch doctor and she called on Jesus’ to heal her despite everyone else rebuking and cursing her for doing so. You see how Christ’s power was what did it.

You have see with your own eyes how the God we worship has amazing power and might so the only question I have for you is this: Why don’t you become a Christian?

Otmar: Well…Ryan, you see our people brought these set of beliefs from Africa, they stayed with them as they were on plantations as slaves and they carried them as they came up the river to where we are today.


Otmar’s response was simply stated and surprisingly brief. It didn’t explain details and expound on the sanctity or effectiveness of the Aukaaner’s religious practices over others’. However, Otmar’s shockingly succinct response told abundantly more than the few words he spoke. What it said was: I don’t need any justification for why I or my people group believes what they believe. I hold fast to these beliefs because that’s how we’ve always done it and I’m not turning my back on that despite evidence of truth outside of it-even within my own family. Otmar’s “testimony” is representative of many Aukaaners in the interior and it gives a small glimpse into the hearts of the lost in Suriname. But praise be to Jesus Christ our savior for those who see God’s power, do believe and ‘produce a crop 30, 60 and even 100 times what was sown’