You would think that a missionary community would be tight. With all that you may experience here in Sentani, what you lack is a sense of community. It is strange because this group of people do everything together, we worship, play and go to school together yet with all this interaction there is no interdependence IE: no community. This isn't an indictment but an observation and maybe it is because of the transient nature of each one here. Take us for example, we are here as far as we know for just a year. How much effort would anyone want to make getting to know us. Multiply that and everyone here is on a sort of stop watch mentality because for many and any reason time can be up and lives are uprooted and resettled in any of the states or in any of the many countries represented here. Relationships become stained with an inevitable looming departure.
This makes sense as to why I don't seem to dive into community anywhere even if most places I have lived in the States everyone stays put. I was missing my LC community this week because I had gotten my feet wet in the whole making of community. It was easy to leave because leaving has always marked my living, staying put was good for me though if not more difficult. So here I am in what is familiar, a transient group of leaving people and I find myself fitting in easily...BUT maybe that isn't the best quality I should relearn. Community, a group of interdependent people, seems to be what God intended. Maybe here we need to learn that leaving though inevitable isn't reason enough to not invest in each other. Maybe I need to just dive in, invest in transient people just because the time spent in building relationships is always valuable no matter the time frame.
2 comments:
It's a valid observation! I do that by the very nature of my business as well. The relationships I form with people in the military are very shallow, very temporary. In 14 years I think there are two people that I could call upon and they would be there if they could. Not a good law of averages. As i get older though I see others with deep abiding relationships and wonder about how to achieve that...I think that is why I was so fascinated by LC when I came and threw myself in with such fervor...it was the first place that I felt a part of a family, a community. This depoyment has somewhat spoiled that though =( I think you are on the right track though, it's like what you said earlier, it isn't time to worry about leaving yet, there is time for that later. So we should give it everything we have for as long as we can. Hmmm...New year's resolution anyone?
you know... I was thinking about your blog title... it strikes me that Papua is actually PriceFULL while in Lynden we are PriceLESS =) Sorry... finals week... lack of sleep making me delirious!! Plus I am procrastinating by posting comments to your blog!!
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