|
Before leaving Denver, my wife confides in me that
she is still very concerned about Khairini’s father
wanting to put me in jail. I get on the plane and
leave Denver, thinking about her words. We get to
Padang and after the evening meal, we immediately
start dividing up and separating the medicine for a
special 16-clinic one-day extravaganza again. The
three people from Singapore had brought a number of
medicines with them also, to take with us. It was a
fun time as we had to spread out onto all the dining
room tables at the hotel because the other rooms
were being used that we normally used, by other
Christian groups.
So
on Monday we head off to where we are going to do
our clinic. John and I do the clinic at the local
prison. It is only a few blocks from the hotel. The
main reason for going there is because there were
three Christians in prison incarcerated for trying
to hide a Muslim girl twin that had became a
Christian. This story starts out with the Muslim
twin overhearing their father say that the Christian
twin was going to be put into an asylum and
re-taught the Islamic teachings. The Muslim twin did
not want that to happen. So she went to a Christian
pastor and asked if he could help. After listening
to the story he said he could not but knew someone
that might be able to help.
She was sent to another church pastor and he
referred her to one of the church members. The
Christian girl was placed with him a few days
latter. The Muslims began looking for this “missing”
person and kept looking for her for another 3 or 4
months. During an interrogation, the Muslim twin
broke down and told her father what she had done
after a fierce interrogation. They immediately went
to the home of the layman and found the girl.
The layman was charged with rape and the others were
charged with being accomplices. The two pastors got
2 years, and the layman 3 years. The one with the
rape charge appealed. The judge was a Muslim woman.
Her husband was also the Judge that gave the first
sentence. The appeal did not even go to court, and
the Muslim female judge doubled the sentence. Even
in Indonesian standard, that was illegal. Sounds
just like the Jewish Pharisees getting Jesus
arrested and crucified.
The pastors began to have church services in the
prison with the okay of the warden and we went to
them a couple times. In the fall of 2002 they got a
new prison warden and he stopped the church services
as too many of the Muslim inmates became a
Christian. So we stopped doing medical clinics
there.
had asked Khairini about this subject as it had been
on the news, and she described what she remembered.
She said that they had raped a Muslim girl and
deserved their punishment. They news had told a
complete different anti-Christian view of it all.
We
found out before going to the prison this time, that
an uncle had raped the girl (17) and both of them
were removed from Padang so that they could not be
found and required to testify. Without a witness
that could refute the charges, there is no clemency.
Uncles are supposed to be more important to a girl
growing up than even a father.
We
had a 2.5 hour clinic in the prison and then back to
the hotel we went. It sure felt good that I was not
one of the inmates there.
The time comes on Thursday that we leave for the
Mentawai Islands and we go back to Seberut, pulling
up to Malipet dock again. My interpreters were
Yohannes and Doud (John and David), both being
Christians. I think John finally got my message that
I always need a nurse or doctor with me for medical
clinics to happen. So I continue having a nurse,
thank you God. This time I was assigned to go up the
river, literally. Boy does that make a person think
……… being sent up a river. Hmmmm ……… At least it was
being sent to jail my Khairini’s father. It is a
river that has the mouth of it going by Seberut
City. The islands have had enough water this year
that they think we can get to the last village up
the river using two smaller boats. Each team picks
up one volunteering nurse in the village of Seberut.
We leave there approximately 8:15 am.
The mouth of the river is at least 150 feet wide as
it goes by the village. It was to take about 4 hours
but at noon we were about 60% of the way there so we
stopped to eat. It was at a point where we had to
take a right fork in the river to continue. I still
amazed how a Christian can go anywhere, at least
where I have been, and be treated like royalty. We
go up to a house and ask if it would be alright if
we rest and have lunch in their home. The lady of
the house smiles with the honor of us being there in
her home. Even though we show up unannounced, they
just offer their homes for whatever our needs are.
Our cook gets lunch ready and then after eating we
were and got things cleaned up, we are on our way
again.
About an hour later the river was getting quite
narrow with 12 foot high banks along both sides.
When the river was 50 foot wide the banks were about
4 feet high with mud from the rain run off. When it
came down to 25 feet wide, it was about 6 feet high
with debris. When it got down to 12 to 15 feet
wide, the banks had debris up to 10 or 12 feet high
on the banks. We began to hit bottom and we would
back up and try another way and then we continued
on, over and over again. Now the river was about 10
feet wide and the debris was in the lower branches
of trees and to the top of the banks.
We
traveled on for a total of 6.5 hours and reached the
farthest village, Mototoman. It was about 4 pm when
we arrived at the village. We climb the muddy 12
foot bank and walk about a block in distance to
where the first houses are. There we find a 12 foot
wide concrete street being made, right in front of
us. The sand and the concrete was in a pile and the
man poured water onto it and used a hoe to mix it
right in place. Then when it was finished being
mixed he smoothed it out to be the street.
We
went to find the village leader and the Christian
church leader. The village leader lets us know where
we can hold the medical clinic as their clinic was
too small, so they thought. So we were to hold it in
the church. We found we were to sleep in the church
also and eat at the house to the right of the
church. It was a Catholic Church. In the front of
the church there was a room on each side of the
stage area with doors.
The village was about 80% Muslim village and 20%
Christian oriented. The Catholics were literally
afraid of the Muslims because of what happened on
9-11. They had heard of what happened somehow,
probably by radio even though there is no
electricity in this village. Come to think of it
there were no enclosed bathing areas and no toilets.
Do not ask where we had to go as there will be “no
comment.”
I
asked when I could hold the Bible study. They said
Saturday night that evening. So we just relaxed
until dinner and then waited for the Bible study to
take place. My itinerary was different in that we
were to do the Bible study the first evening and
then the medical clinic the next day on Sunday
afternoon.
After we had determined all this I began or wanted
to begin taking some pictures of the children that
were following me. Every time I picked up the
camera, they would disperse. The village had not had
a white person in their village for at least ten
years. So I then held the camera at belt level, took
the picture and then turned the digital camera
around so they could see the picture. After doing
this about 5 times, then they all wanted their
picture taken. But they would not let this strange
white person touch them in any way. They would
giggle and laugh at the pictures.
I got to the point
that I needed to get behind a tree to relieve myself
but the children kept on my heels until dark. Before
dinner, I used a small "set" of flannel graph to
tell the story of David and Goliath. The children
and the adults were intrigued by it. After I
finished the story, they finally went home or
somewhere and I had some personal moments by myself.
Finally a time to find a tree, or maybe a bush to
get behind, or ……, well my mind just went blank so
have no comment.
Dinner came and went and then it was time for the
Bible study to start and about 5 men came and one
asked if I would not have the Bible study at this
time. Here I am a protestant and they are Catholic.
I thought that they meant not to have one altogether
so I said to myself “No Bible study in this
village.” But I said to them that it was all right.
Then they asked me to give the morning mass message
for them the next morning at 10:30 am.
WOW, me, wow, the one that is not totally cool when
giving a Bible study and now they want me to do
morning mass. I do not have a degree in theology, or
have been in any kind of formal training except for
Sunday School classes all my life. "WOW, oh my," I
thought, "tomorrow is palm Sunday." If you do not
know Him, God sure is good. If you do know Him and
Jesus is your personal savior, you know He is very
good and he takes care of situations like this. So
then we sat there talking about their problem with
the fear about the Muslims. They said their sons and
daughters were marrying Muslims and their
congregation was getting smaller and smaller.
Because of 9-11 was not too long ago, they were
scared of what might happen. They also made comment
about the 1,000s of Christians killed in East Java,
East Timor, and other places in Eastern Indonesia by
Muslims. There numbers were getting smaller and they
were very scared. We talked for about two hours or
so. By this time in my life, I had read the Quran
and read 4 books about Islam. I shared some of what
I could and told them always to keep their eyes on
the true and only God and he will give them the
strength to live day to day and God and those that
believe in Jesus as their savior will inherit a
place in heaven. Suffering in the name of Jesus
would bring crowns presented to them when they did
get to heaven.
The next morning came and it was enlightening with
the children given palm leaves to walk in a group
into the church. They sang a couple of songs and
then my interpreter, John told me that it was time
to go up and start. I do not remember the title of
my message but I talked about God's covenants,
promises, the birth, death and resurrection of
Jesus. After I finished, John told me that the
priest was very surprised with my message and was
pleased with it and asked me to come back again.
What a request, God uses little ol' me, WOW, the
insignificant follower that probably makes Him very
upset at times.
I
am not perfect by far, just ask my wife. But
Jesus died for my sins and cleanses me continually
with the shedding of his blood on the cross, and
tells God that Joe, little insignificant me, will be
coming to heaven. In fact my perfection does not
even meet with that which is thrown in the trash,
even my best moments. I had a person tell me one
time that my email went to her junk file. That sums
it up in a nut shell. No matter what I do to please
God in any way, is like junk compared to His
holiness. Maybe I should thank that person for
telling me that.
All I know is that Jesus loves me, this I know for a
fact with no reservations. I fully stand on John
3:16 and 17 and John 14:6 in the New Testament. The
teachings of Jesus tells the truth about Gods love,
the reason why He was on earth, and why He had to
die upon the cross. That is the proof of why Jesus
was and is who He is and why he came to earth.
I
may not have much when I go to retire but I pray
that God will continue to be with me in these trips
to Indonesia and the Mentawai Islands. I do know for
a fact that if it would bring one person to know
Jesus as their savior, it is worth a hundred trips.
It took 15 years of living in India and teaching the
love of Jesus, before the first believer prayed the
sinners prayer.
Before going to this village I was told that this
village was considered a primitive village. As I
walked around for awhile and took some pictures I
cam to a very deep gorge (20 feet down) that
separated the village into two parts.
The
next afternoon they had boards across the gorge so I
would not have to go down the hill and then back up.
There were
building a modern bridge spanning this gorge. They
had the normal wells, but the bathing area was a
stream without any walls or foliage coverage.
The people keep coming for hours. The nurse
each adult and sick child. She diagnosis the
problem, the interpreter rights it down, hands it to
me or the other interpreter, and he explains the
usage and we go onto the next one. We have had over
200 patients through one clinic in 4 hours.
The
village did have a segment of the population that
was shaman. Shaman are those that follow idolatry,
voodoo dolls, and are the witch doctors.
John
telling shamen couple about medicen and how to use.
Remember the Shamen were the medical witch doctors.
This couple was in their late 30s.
We
had the medical clinic starting at 1 pm until 5:30
pm with a 1/2 hour break in the middle. Remember? I
mentioned that nursing mothers did not feel shame
when baring their breast or breasts while feeding
their child. There was one in this village that had
a child that was about 2 years old and he was a big
boy. She was seated on the front row waiting her
turn to see the nurse. He straddled his mother’s leg
and would nurse. But he was kind of tired or just
tired of being in the waiting room. She bared both
of her breasts with her pull over shirt resting on
the upper part of her breasts and the boy would be
nursing on one breast and use the fingers of his
hand closest to the other breast and strum the
nipple with his fingers. Then a couple minutes later
he would shift and nurse on the other breast and
using the other hand would continue strumming the
other nipple. I almost broke out laughing but kept
my composure. He did that for at least 15 or twenty
minutes.
For my bath I got up at 5 am the next morning and
went down to where our boats were while it was still
dark. I got into the river at the back of the boat,
which was at an outside corner of the stream. It was
about 4 foot deep there. The water was not too cold
and so got my bath without standing in the middle of
the stream that the others used, with it maybe covering
the feet. Then I heard some women coming and had to
hurry to get into the boat and dry off and dressed
before they showed up. When they came they went
upstream about 40 feet without seeing me and got
their two and three person boats loaded with what
they needed to have for their day’s work.
The next morning we left for the next village. Thank
goodness it had rained during the night and the
river was up enough to where we did not hit bottom
but once. It only took a half-hour to get to the
huge village of Ugai. Well, maybe not so big. It was
another one block walk to the first house. It was
also the local restaurant and a retail store. Above
the 12 foot wide window in English was written in
large letters, "Ugai Shopping Mall" and they also
have not seen one white person in over 10 years, let
alone another English speaking person. I should have
taken a picture but for some reason didn’t.
The shaman are also in this village. Their means of
clothing themselves for the men were rolled cloth
jock strap type cover and nothing above the waist.
The women wore something similar but also had a two
piece flap with one in front, and one in back and
nothing above the waist. The men also wore hand made
beaded necklaces along with some women. They are
quite beautiful and each one was different design.
There was a significant meaning to them for the
pecking order of their rituals that they do depend
upon which necklace a shaman had.
But when the medical clinics opened, a number of the
shamans came, both men and women and their children.
I asked the nurse how old one of the couples that
she was diagnosing at the time. They looked as
though they would be about 60 or so years old or
older, as their skin was leathery and wrinkled
looking, but they were only 32 years old. Those that
were not shaman wore clothes like you and I lounging
around.
During the clinic I took a stroll around town, so to
speak and took some more pictures. During this trip
around the metropolis, remember it had a shopping
mall, I came across another custom when in their
home or on their front porch. There were two houses,
across the street from each other. Remember the
temperature is about 95 F and 90% humidity. I found
out that women would hang their blouse or shirt on
something close to where they sat or next to the
door into the house. Then they would be a little
cooler, I guess, while lounging. But when a neighbor
down the street, or me, that would come up to the
porch, they would get the blouse and put it back on,
or if they left the front porch they would put it
back on.
The clinic lasted a long time and I had to change
the plans as to when we were to leave. It was past
3:30 and I did not want to be on the river after
dark so we just lounged around and would leave the
next morning. We were out of a number of the
medicines also and could not go to another village.
Ughai
Church.
About 5:30 I was stretched out on the front porch of
the church resting when a lady came running down the
grass covered street, yelling and flailing her arms.
I sent out Yohannes (John), one of my interpreters
and he was told a man had fallen from the top of a
tree and landed on his own machete. I immediately
went into the church and got the medical bags and
started following the woman. I paused where I could
see into the house next to the church, where the
nurse was and motioned for her to follow. She came
right away and we ended up at the home of a shaman.
They had put a poultice on the bottom of his foot.
It was cut at an angle, one side to the other at the
bottom edge of the instep to the far side all the
way to the bone. The nurse was wonderful. I
immediately started looking for wound cleaning
supplies and suturing items including deadening
liquids, needles, cleaning gauze, Benzedrine and
such. Wow …. I am getting to be a full fledged
medical person ……. Yeah ……. Right.
Notice the yellow flashlight used for the
medical operation. No anesthetic with no crying.
Preping the loose skin
and who knows what.
Two lights as it got
darker on the front porch.
She made sure
that the wound was totally clean first. She removed
the poultice and the blood was not running out of
the foot anymore. I could only watch about 1 or 2
minutes at a time. My stomach just doesn't like
surgery rooms. It started to go completely dark and
all we had were two small flashlights with two AA
batteries to power them. We had to use them from the
time we got there to the end. They started going dim
so I had to go back to the church and get some more
batteries.
I
asked one of my interpreters to see if the lady of
the house could get a lantern. They brought one that
was about 6 inches tall and gave out very little
light. She was about 5 feet tall and probably
weighed about 90 pounds. She wore the typical
two-flap clothing and a bare chest. She looked like
she was 90 years old but probably younger than 45.
Her breasts were almost nil. The young shaman men
had more developed chests than the shaman women.
After 30 some sticthes
the nurse in done and time to go back to her house
to get a good night's sleep.
It
took about another hour to complete making the 18
stitches. When she finished Yohannas informed me
that the nurse would like to see the patient in her
clinic in Seberut in two weeks. But the young man
did not have enough money to go there. I asked how
much it would be and he said 50,000 rupiah (about
US$6.00). It was totally dark now and the only
lighting we still had was the two flashlights each
energized by two AA batteries.
This village was 100% Catholic oriented. Muslims
came into the village a few months prior to me being
there and built a Mosque. They were to start moving
into the village the following Monday after they
completed it. For some reason the Mosque burned down
over the weekend and no Muslims moved in. They also
invited me to come back and share additional Bible
studies. Every time I think how God must have used
me without me knowing it, boggles my mind and I
almost get emotional. Well, sometimes I do get
emotional. Well, a lot of times I get emotional when
I think of the love Jesus had for each one of us to
take the abuse and the death upon the cross. One
thing that puzzles me is that with all the proof
there is that Jesus died on the cross, the Muslim’s
reject that just like the Jews reject that Jesus was
the Messiah. The Muslim’s just cannot understand
what the name Messiah means in Hebrew and Greek.
They will pay the penalty later just like the Jews
have done for the past 2,000 years.
Between the two clinics and the surgery item, we
were out of most of the medicines and now no more
suturing material. So the next morning we started
back to Malipet and then back to Padang. I was
supposed to go to 3 villages.
When all the teams got back to base camp, John and
Huise made a decision that the team leaders would
take a boat about 35 feet long and breadth of 6 feet
wide. It had built in seats and a plastic (?) canopy
over the top. We gave the interpreters and cooks
enough money to pay for their trip on the slow boat
the next afternoon. They had plenty of food and
water still with them. This boat we are going to
take added another motor giving 2-25 hp engines.
John wanted to get back on Friday so we had plenty
of time to shower, sleep, and get packed to leave
Padang on Saturday. The slow flat bottom-cargo boat
would not be there until Saturday morning. It was to
take about 4 hours to go 100 miles in this boat.
So
everyone woke up and got up at 3 am to get ready.
All the cooks and interpreters wanted to give us a
Bo voyage. We were going to leave at 4 am but the
boatman said the waves were too high to get going at
that time. (Here it is 1.5 years later as I write
this and I do not remember packing any food for us
to eat on the way.) Then at 5 am start time was set
and later cancelled. Then 6 am came and the boatman
said to get on board. We got our backpacks and other
baggage, a case of water and off we went. The lagoon
was like a sheet of glass, nice and calm. Then we
got out onto the Mentawai Straits within 3 or 4
minutes and the wind picked up and the waves were
about 3-foot swells. For those who do not know what
a swell is yet, the water in the ocean and on big
lakes kind of go up and down and there are troughs
that are low and the peaks up high. If close to land
the peaks are pushed onto the beaches and become
waves. From the lowest part of the trough to the
highest part of the peaks, are called swells. At
least that is my definition. A 3-foot swell is not
bad at any time.
Then it began to rain and the winds picked up a
little more. The canopy was a plastic material with
a pattern of green threads running through it making
squares. It leaked a little. Well maybe I should say
a lot when it began to rain harder. I began to wipe
the salt water from my forehead and eyes.
The swells became more intense and the bow of the
boat would cause sea spray to come into the boat so
Huise and I pulled the excess part of the canopy
down in front of us to keep the wind from blowing
the rain and sea spray into us.
About an hour later we began to smell gas and we
told the boatman. At first he said that was normal
but one of the ladies from Singapore complained
strongly. So one of the boatmen (out of 3) went
forward and found one gas can without a gas cap. It
was being jostled around when we crested the swells
and was splashing out gas onto the floor of the
boat. He stuffed a rag into it to stop the spilling
of the gas. There was enough gas in the bottom of
the boat with the water that the lady from Singapore
got sick and threw up over the side of the boat
(maybe a couple of times). John Colvin and her were
sitting on the same seat, one on each side of the
boat. They pushed the canopy forward so that it did
not cover them so they could have fresh air. They
rather have the rain and sea spray hitting their
faces than to breathe the gas fumes.
The rain stopped about 45 minutes after it started.
We went another 1/2 hour and the winds picked up
more and the rain came down again. This time the
rain was coming down harder. Now the swells and
troughs were about 6 to 8 feet high. What an
adventure this is becoming to be. I thought of what
Paul in the Bible went through when his ship was in
a storm. I did think of Jonah too, but I did not
like the big fish thing to think about. I think we
could have enjoyed the trip more without the
theatrics of the storm but we had no choice. The gas
fumes continued to bother the two in back. The water
was dripping from the canopy steadily and would run
down my forehead and into my eyes. I was constantly
wiping them with my fingers. I tried to wipe it off
at the forehead but was not enough so had to wipe my
eyes. My right eye felt like something had scratched
it. This wind and rain continued for another hour or
so and the rain stopped but the swells and troughs
continued the same.
At
times the boat would swing a little and cause a wave
to come over the side and where the canopy had been
removed, the wave would come inside. More than once
a wave would be about 2 feet over the side of the
boat and crash across the front of the lady next to
John, drenching her totally. But she would rather
have that then to breathe in the gas fumes.
We
now were about 4.5 hours into this adventure and no
let up of the wind or waves and then it began to
rain again and even harder. The wind blew at the
tops of the waves and made a large amount of sea
spray. Oh my, oh my, the wind also increasing too.
Some of the sea spray would go completely across the
boat. The canopy continued dripping water and I kept
brushing it away and my eye hurt even more with more
salt water getting into it. Oh my, it is now time to
start praying continually for those who were not
praying yet. I think I was also remembering the
storm my team had gone through going around the end
of Sipora Island. This wash much worse and thought
that it was good that Jean and Khairini was not with
us. I was also glad that we did not have all the
interpreters and cooks with us. The swells and
troughs were now about 10 to 12 feet and the boat
labored going up the side of a swell and then picked
up speed when we hit the top and started down the
other side. The boat most likely had both ends out
of the water at times, as the crest of the wave
moved under the boat.
The boatman said we would not pull into Padang
harbor when we got there, as the waves were to high
going into the harbor. I thought, “Too high, what
does he think we are going through right now?” No
kidding, 12 feet is kind of high, in fact rather
darn high. So they decided to go to a protected bay
(lagoon) area and pull up on the beach. For about
1.5 hours the boatman fought the storm moving
towards the secondary goal. My eye was really
hurting, I could hardly keep the eye lid open now
and we all were soaking wet and not too warm.
Finally we see land as the rain had blocked it for
quite some time. We soon went around a very small
island and finally the waves went to about 3 foot as
we began the course into the harbor/lagoon. By the
time we got to the beach the waves were about 2 feet
high. A half an hour later we finally got to the
beach for us to get out.
The rain had subsided to a gentle rain. The wind was
not blowing at all and so we carried all of our
stuff to a café that was on the beach. It was nice
to have a roof over out heads that was not leaking
and a floor that did not move. Huise had to get with
some local people and line up a small truck and an
auto to take us to the hotel. I found a restroom and
I found a mirror and saw that my right eye was
completely blood shot. While we waited for the
automobiles, all of us changed into dry clothes. It
took about a half an hour to get the two vehicles
and off we went.
All the clothes not in plastic bags in our back
packs were all slightly damp from the rain soaking
through the sides of our back packs. When we got to
the hotel, boy did the shower feel good. A normal
trip of 4 hours took 6.5 hours. We arrived at the
hotel about 3:30 pm. We now found out that the boat
the others were to get on had not even left Padang,
as the surf was too bad for it to get out of the
port. So the cooks and interpreters had to stay
there at least another day plus an overnight trip.
Because we left on Saturday afternoon, we did not
see them again on that trip. That was hard on me as
we did not get to say our formal good-byes to some
wonderful young people as well as the older cooks. I
have thought of them over the next couple of years
with a soft heart knowing that we will probably
never see them again.
Saturday came and both of my eyes were now infected
and totally blood shot. So I got some eye medicine
to put on them. I had a hard time when outside as I
had to squint so my eyes would not hurt so much.
People that looked at me always gave me funny looks
and kept their distance. We get to the airport about
2:30 pm and get on the plane at 4 pm and I take my
seat and it was a window seat. Soon an older
Indonesian couple sat down next to me and the wife
turned to me and looked at my eyes and said
something to her husband in Indonesian. They
immediately got up and took seats farther back on
the plane.
When we get to Singapore I have to get a hotel room
and I use the Transit Hotel on a concourse in the
airport. We caught the United flight at 7:00 am the
next morning and off to the East we fly.
When I get into San Francisco I call my wife and ask
her to call the doctor's office and make an
appointment so when I land in Denver we would go
straight there. Jean picked me up about 3 pm and off
I went. He just gave me some pills and some more eye
drops. It took about 2 weeks before you could see
the whites of my eyes. That was a very exciting
memorable trip. Many things happened and I believe
that the love of Jesus was so very strong among
those Christians in each village.
|