Bits and Bites....

I realized that I neglected to mention in my last post that Hugo had made it safely home on Friday afternoon. He had a productive week in cool Wamena. It is located up in the moutains so the air is dry and much cooler than here on the coast. Hugo had to wear a sweater in the mornings!

That night the school had its annual fun night. Each grade mans a booth or two and kids get tickets to play the games or sign up their friends or family members to get soaked or forced to sing into a mic. (Brynnie paid herself to sing "Twinkle twinkle little star") There are lots of candies to be won. The children of all the national workers at the school are also invited so it's a bit of a crazy time. But the kids love it! This year Mikah's class manned the dunking booth and she's been waiting and waiting for her turn to do it so this was a big year for her! Marc decided to become a target at the sponge throw and helped out throwing the sponges back. What a guy!

In other news, Ice's hubby came back and said sorry, while crying and she said sorry back and so things are on the mend. Whew...

With Ritha and family however, things are not so great. This Thursday they are going to decide what is to happen with Ritha's adopted daughter Awi. If she gets to stay with Ritha or if she has to go with her biological mother, who happens to be pregnant, to Timika. This is very hard for Ritha as she knows that this woman is not a believer as she is.

Then last night Ritha's older brother beat up their younger sister because their mom didn't give him some of the 10 million that she received from the sister's boyfriends family! So she gave him her wages for the month of October! She's looking pretty bad today, poor girl. Please remember these God-fearing women in your prayers. They are going through a really tough time right now.

There is also another plane missing. You can read about it here.

Bits and Bites....

It's been a bit of a sad week. Let me qualify that. I feel sad due to some events that occurred in the past week.
Last Sunday a pastor from an interior church from our federation, came to our house to ask if we could help him because he had a tumor that needed to be operated on. Let me back up a bit and explain that the reason he is here in Sentani is because his wife had a baby. They didn't want to give birth in their village and so they decided to come here. First of all, it is much closer and cheaper for them to go to Merauke, a city in the south, but it is more exciting to come here to Sentani. There are funds they can apply for to help pay for the cost of the flight and funds for the medical care needed. His wife delivered a healthy baby a couple weeks ago. Before coming to our house, he had gone to our neighbours saying that his wife had a tumour and needed to go to the government hospital in Jayapura. He had also gone to our friends J and D saying that they needed money for medical care. During his pleas for money, he dropped the name Rev. Versteeg many times in the hopes that that would make us feel like we should help him. He is trying his best to fraudulently obtain large amounts of money. Have you forgotten that he is a pastor??? (never mind that this position was obtained in a dubious manner) This is not the first time he has done this. When the leaders of the church are behaving in such a manner, it leaves one feeling rather disheartened. There are good people in our church but they are being overshadowed by those behaving in a criminal manner. Please pray for the people interior who's lives are a struggle every day.
The second event that made me sad is that the biological mother of Ritha's oldest daughter showed up unexpectedly. She called her older sister and told her to tell Ritha's daughter when she passed by on her way home from school, that she was coming to get her. Ritha has raised this girl since she was little and all the official paperwork says that Ritha is her mother but because Ritha's husband is dead, and he being the blood relative (the girls biological mother is his younger sister), she has no legal claim to the girl. Please pray that this situation will be resolved in a manner that is to His glory.
The third event is one involving Ice. About a year and a half ago she had a boyfriend. That guy was not a good guy and mistreated her in the worst manner. Last week he came and paid the fine that was levied for his actions. He gave 2.6 million rupiah and a pig (usually worth 10 million) to Ice's family. In situations such as this one, the family of the mother of the girl who was wronged, receives the payment. So Ice's dad gave them the money and said that he would keep the pig. He called the local relatives together to discuss what to do with the pig. Cook it, sell it, save it... In the meantime, the family of Ice's mom came and stole the pig because they feel they should have the pig. Does any of this seem crazy to you too???? Anyways, this whole thing bothered Ice's husband quite a bit and that combined with some other issues has made him on edge. So when Ice was not being too terribly respectful of him, he flew off the handle and threw a shoe at her. She believes that he didn't mean for it to hit her, but it hit her in the middle of her back. He became very frightened and ran off and as of Saturday night had not yet returned. This is the first time he has done anything like this. I think he's actually a pretty good guy. So I've been trying to counsel Ice a little and help her to repair the damage. Please pray that he will return and they will be able to work things out. In a side note, Ice's dad was rather frightened and wanted to take her to the hospital after it happened. He came looking for me but I was gone so he chartered a car and off they went. At the hospital Ice received 4 different kinds of pills to take. In my uneducated opinion, a bag of ice would have been sufficient really....

I have written before regarding the GKI (Gereja Kema Injil) and the GKIP (Gereja Kema Injil Papua) churches before. But I’ll write again as it’s been a while and there was an event that occurred yesterday regarding this church. The GKIP is a group that broke off of the GKI a couple years ago. Ice tells me that when it happened they literally fought. Near our house is a church building that has not been used for some time as they are fighting over possession of the building. At the time of the split, the two groups lined up on the grass outside the church on opposing sides and fought. Sadly, the GKIP side was much larger. The church was closed up and the GKI meets in the youth centre across the road from us and the GKIP meets in the gym of the Bible school (which they’ve taken over) on the other side of the road from us. In the interior many people also left the GKI for the GKIP. Families were ripped apart and siblings, parents, aunts and uncles no longer speak to each other. However, the actions of the GKIP have convinced many people to return to the GKI. It has become evident that the GKIP is more of a political movement than a church. This was particularly evident when they began burning down homes and churches of the GKI. Yesterday a number of men, “M’s”, went to Enaratoli (interior village), the headquarters of the GKIP movement, to speak to the people there and hopefully expose the GKIP for what it really is. However, upon landing, the airstrip was surrounded by an angry mob of people shouting and threatening that if those in the plane should exit, they would burn the plane and so on. The MAF pilot and his passengers made the decision to leave immediately. The Papuan people are an emotional group and when roused, begin to think irrationally. At times like this it is hard to see what God’s plan is. The GKIP needs to be exposed for the lies they are perpetrating, but when you aren’t given the chance it is very frustrating. Please pray that some good will come of all this and that people will see the truth.
Interestingly enough, I just heard that the leader of the movement is very ill and wants to go to Australia for treatment but is unable to as he is blacklisted from entering.... hmmm....

Bits and Bites....

Hugo is in Wamena until Friday. They have about 4 planes that require his attention and as two of them have their engines out, it's more practical for him and Rudy, national worker, to go there. So that leaves me a single parent until Friday.
Mikah has joined the middle-school soccer program here. That means that each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday she has practices. On Fridays they also have a game against another team. Sometimes its the boys middle-school team...
On Friday and Saturday I attended a women's retreat put on by one of the other org's here. I slept over there in a dorm, used by Papuan students during the week, with some friends and we had a great time together burning the midnight oil to the smell of mothballs... It was a fun time of learning and fellowship.
As you saw in an earlier post, I had taken some photos of our guard and his wife and brothers and uncle. While I was taking their pictures, a neighbour woman wandered by and asked if I would take her photo as well. So I did, not really knowing who she was, only observing that she was wearing what we would consider a nightie... After I had printed the photos, Ice saw the photo of that woman and had a little panic moment. That woman happens to be the mother of the girl that was killed earlier this year. The one who has said that as long as she is alive, Pak Mitre's children (Ice and her sister) will have no children... Ice's sister, out of fear for her life, has left the area until her boss comes back from furlough. This isn't over by far....
Ice however, seems to be doing well health-wise. Let's pray it continues this way.
Our friends J and D were interior for two weeks. They used the MAF floatplane to get to the villages that they went to. J taught some courses to the elders of the churches there. D had put together a little "course" for the ladies about the B*ble. D hadn't told the ladies ahead of time that she had something for them because she wasn't sure if they would be interested. But they were! She had 30-40 ladies and their nursing babies come. First she taught them a very simple song of Haleluj*h and Am*n. It can be sung in canon. The women were very shy to sing but as they went on they became more and more brave. In the end they performed the song in front of the church facing the men! You have to understand that this is totally new for them. In the meantime, J had taught the men the same song and had them also sing it. In the end they sang it together! It was a beautiful thing!

Someone lost his first front tooth yesterday....

Things are pretty quiet here right now. That's something to be thankful for.
Hugo's been splitting his time between avionics and mechanics as of late. He studies most nights for a couple hours towards his mechanics license.
Ritha's sister has started English studies at a school run by another org. I was helping her with her homework on Saturday. It's really difficult for Indonesians to say the "th" sound along with the "sh" sound. Also, when there is a "t" or "k" at the end of words in Indonesian, you don't actually pronounce the sounds. Your mouth only makes the shape of the letter. Plus, in Indonesian the "t" sound is quiet and soft. So I've been trying to teach them how to make an English "t" sound. It's not easy...
Pretty much each day at least one little girl comes by with a bunch of flowers and tries to sell them. I never buy them. It's not about the money, it's about the principle of the issue. I know that they are most likely just looking for money to buy snacks with. The other day one of the girls begged me to give her 5,000 rupiahs to buy vegetables with. She begged my neighbour for the money because her "older sibling was sick." It pains me that little kids are doing this. It's a dog eat dog world here. I've spoken with a couple of young women about money and they told me that they have to carry all their money with them all the time otherwise their younger siblings will steal it. The other day someone got into Ritha's house and took the back tire off Rode's bike and stole the inner tube! Their house doesn't really lock up properly. They have one room that has a lock on it and in that room they store anything they don't want stolen. It's also their bedroom. Ritha has tried to store the rice and oil in the kitchen instead but they seem to become less on their own...

Bits and Bites....

I took some photos of our guard Yokben and his wife, brothers, and uncle. Originally, his wife Mere asked me to take photos of herself to send to her family in the village. But when I showed up with my camera the others wanted their photos taken too. Yokben really wanted his cell phone to be on the photo. So funny... Of course while I was taking the photos, an inebriated fellow wandered onto the scene. He tried to pick up the weed eater, and they gently told him to leave it alone and then he started saying stuff about me and wandered away. But then, he came back and started asking how much it was for me to take his photo and why didn't I want to take his photo... Mere told me to quickly leave, so I did... I really feel like I'm a magnet for inebriated fellows... Again this afternoon as I was driving to our Canadian thanksgiving (belated) potluck, a drunk fellow stopped me in the middle of the road. I waited until he was beside the car and then zoomed away. He was rather angry about that and made it difficult for the next car to go by.... So we had a thanksgiving potluck lunch at a complex owned by one of the other missions here. It's up on a hill and has a great view of the city and the airport. They also have picnic tables and barbeques (wood/charcoal). So we grilled and chatted and it was fun!

Studly Canadian guys...

The two grillers... Took this photo of Rode the other day.

News...

As I'm sure you've heard/seen on the news, there was a large earthquake in Padang this week. MAF has sent a caravan and three pilots there to assist in any way they can. The airport is fully functional, but in the city things are a mess. The phones are ringing off the hook with various aid agencies asking for MAF's assistance in bringing in aid. Please pray that this may be an opportunity to show the love from above.
Just this morning I went into town and at the stop light there were young people collecting money to help out the folks in Padang.
I haven't seen Ice today but the other day she was doing better. I can't help but wonder if the whole tragedy involving the girl who was killed and the proceeding fallout has had an effect on Ice. In spite of the fact that she is a Christi*n, she still very much believes in black magic and the like. I wonder if this is making her feel as though she is under a curse and it is effecting her health.
On Monday Rita's sister's boyfriend's family paid her mother 10 million rupiah. This 10 million is supposedly a fine levied on the family of the boyfriend so that the two could date. There is no precedent in their culture that calls for this kind of thing so it is baffling how this could have happened. Upon receiving the funds, the mother proceeded to inform the family of the boyfriend that she was taking the girl. As you can imagine, the family was not impressed and made it clearly known that since they had paid the money, the girl had to come with them. So she did. It's not an ideal situation since their house is rather small and there are two other married couples living there in addition to the parents. She was however, given her own room with a door that locks (thankfully). But she would rather just get married but apparently that would require more money again and all the money is gone because of the fine. The boyfriend has actually purchased a home in a government housing complex but it is not finished yet. The girl is rather worried about what people will think. Even though she has her own room, people will think the worst. In the meantime, Rita is on her own with the two girls. Her brother is gone a lot becuase he doesn't want to take the chance of meeting his mom. They have made up a letter saying that the mom is no longer allowed to bother them and if she does they can go to the police. Everyone signed the letter so lets pray that she will stop being a hindrance in their lives.