Dear Rated R people, Here is some war and violence for you, American’s will find it okay, Europeans will be appalled. Next update will be about sex and then we can shift it up so everyone can be equally appalled.
Because war between the clans of Dogobak and the clans of Bokondini broke out at the start of the church conference in November we were unable to finish our semester and planned to run exam week on January 6. The payment for the killings was schedule for January 8 with a high likelihood that violence could break out. So we decided to change the date and location of our 2 weeks of staff training hoping it would give time to resolve the conflict. We moved the exam week back and staff training up but, of course, the payments never happened. We spent the first 8 days in the town of Wamena at a teacher training college that is super supportive of us. We monitored the road situation and quickly decided on Monday when trucks got out that we would move our group of 70 to Bokondini while the road was open. The beautiful thing about Papuans, and most Indonesians, is how amazingly flexible they are and how they can turn on a dime with a great attitude.
Tuesday morning Wayne and Seth Von Borstal flew straight into Bok and Tina had just arrived the day before to take on the load of training. The 9th and 10th graders are part of all the training and it has been awesome. We have covered dating, marriage, money management, conflict transformation, lesson plans, classroom management and more and we are all full and ready to explode with good stuff back at our individual campuses…. If we can get there.
We are scheduled to leave tomorrow morning and start school on Monday but there a few small kinks. The Dogobak and Eragayam kids can’t come to Bokondini because of the clan war between Dogobak and Bok. Last week a husband killed his wife. One was from Eragayam and the other from Kelila. So, now fighting broke out between those two clan groups and apparently somebody shot an arrow into the leg of the police chief which isn’t usually a good idea. Right now the road is blocked at Kelila and Eragayam people can’t go through there, Bok people can’t go to Dogobak and Dogobak people can’t go anywhere. Before the gospel came most people never traveled more than a few kilometers from where they were born in their entire lives because of the constant revenge based wars. We are now returning to the old ways. It isn’t any fun if you were wondering. So, we don’t know how to get everyone home tomorrow but we will see what happens and flex with it.
(To help explain a bit, ”war” here is more similar to gang violence inner city America… it rarely is over 1000 people involved and most of the time it is only 1-5 people killed and maybe 10-20 injured with a few buildings getting burned and some pillaging. It isn’t like USA vs Iraq or anything. Also, it is very targeted against specific people or clans and if you are not part of that then it almost never threatens you except for the inconvenience of not being able to pass the roadblocks).
Another wrinkle we are facing is our political leader is still intent on wrecking us as he sees us as supportive of the church president and leadership. We are free from resentment or hate and at peace in our hearts towards him and his gang which include a few of our parents who are being serious Judas’ right now. We are praying that the Sauls and Judas’will become Pauls. Today we got word that they plan to take over all the campuses and replace all the staff with his own people and remove the schools from under the church and put them under his own foundation. He already has something like 100 schools that don’t operate and produce the worst education in the entire nation of 250 million people.
He is not happy but because all the students that he tried to take and send to another island refused to go. Several of the parents are furious because their kids won’t go with this man’s plan. They are stuck because their kids are honoring, respecting and loving them but are committed to following what they feel their father in heaven wants them to do. These kids are gonna change the world with the character shaping they are getting in this furnace which is creating the strongest steal.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried this week as I’ve heard what they are facing and how they are standing by what they believe in spite of incredible pressure and obstacles. Thanks for holding us all up and especially them during this time. Praise God that we only lost 3 staff over this and haven’t lost any students yet. Praise God that are staff team is more united, more enthusiastic and more committed than ever before. Praise God for all the external support we are receiving. We are at peace, we are full of gratitude and we step forward in faith believing that God is going to do something really cool. Even if all it is is shaping these young people to be men and women of the finest caliber for His future work, that is enough. Hardship, problems, adversity, threat and suffering all bring about the character of Christ in us.
Here are a few pictures. God promises that he will take care of the poor, the weak, and those the world considers of no worth. I think we can fit into that category so we are gonna trust Him to be the defender.
1) Our team today.
2) Little club footed Mawra who brings us all a ton of joy!
3) Marlin’s (Arwen’s classmate) grandmother who has raised her is one of our most faithful parents. I pity the fool who takes her on because she is surrounded by giants… not just Wayne and Seth but His angels.
4) Training has gone great, staff and students are sucking it all down!
5) Super excited about the new Kolibre Blended learning we are starting into. Kids have a whole world of excellent education at their fingertips and are not limited but us teachers anymore. This opens up huge options for us now. Many have helped put this together for us.
6) Our poster child and hope for the future, Aniel the hardest worker we know. He doesn’t let the few parts he is missing slow him down for a second.