We spent 4 days hugging Muslim family members. We have had 5 the most amazing days in the area where Heidi grew up on the south coast of Papua in the village of Ufia and the small town of Kaimana. I was so touched to hear all who shared how this Christian family was totally adopted into this totally Muslim village and 40 years on they are dearly loved and treated as family members. (Read Ted Dekker’s book, Tea with Hezbollah). Nobody would let us pay for anything and we were feed and squeezed and loved so powerfully. We heard so many stories of Mama Jeanie sewing up chopped fingers and delivering babies and loving so many through her medical ministry. It seems everyone has a scar that was loved by Mama Jeanie. Little bits and pieces of ”Life Together” leaked out everyone. The queen sharing to Roland, ”Remember when you told us about the fishing industry and how we could earn money and use it to pay for our kids education and medicine?”
I know few families who immersed and lived incarnationally like the Walker’s did. It was relatively short time but the potency has left a beautiful mark to this day. But when they left some 26 years ago it all looked like ”failure.”
I don’t know if God has given us this trip to give us hope to hang on or peace to let go but in a few months we will see how it fits.
Things continue to ”crumble.” We are desperate to hear God’s clear direction for our family and the school.
1) The war between clans is not resolved and therefore we have again had to change the school schedule and move our staff training to the town of Wamena in hopes that peace will return and we can start classes by the end of January after 2 weeks of training.
2) The government official continues with his plans to take as many of the 10th graders as he can woo, intimidate and manipulate so that he can claim they are the result of his investment and efforts at educational development. Please pray for Ame and Elsa whose parents are essentially ”selling them” to this man in exchange for the benefits they will receive by joining him. Pretty much human trafficing because everything, especially women, that this man touches are destroyed. As you can imagine I am raging inside and having the hardest time trusting that God is in control. Walker has never been more emotional distraught than watching his two buddies that he has grown up with go through this drama. We are getting an amazing lesson in powerlessness. This man’s regency has some of the worst education in all of Indonesia so he is desperate to prove that he has ”done something” for his political career. He also is ticked that we supported his arch rival the church president and he doesn’t have a whole lot of love for me and my outspoken prophetic ”support” for leadership. He has said that he is shutting down all our schools.
3) There is more and more unrest and violence in the highlands. Our high school principal informed me yesterday, 2 days before we are all to start the semester, that his wife’s family has threatened that if he continue at Ob Anggen they will take his wife and baby away from him forever. They are torn apart. Another teacher resigned yesterday and I lost an American couple who was planning to come join us next year. So we have lost almost half of our high school teachers and leadership.
We gather Sunday evening in Wamena to start up 2019 with the questions, ”Is this the last semester for Ob Anggen?” Please pray with us for clear direction and that God would show us what our real needs, versus our perceived needs, are and how to go forward. I think we always need to be asking if God is still running this, if this is still the direction He wants us to go or not and if we need to stop or change or continue on. Please pray with us for clear direction. Please pray that God will show up and do something that makes us all say ”Wow, He is Awesome!!”
Thanks and please don’t feel depressed. Choosing to join our lives with the poor automatically means this is the world we live in. It might be that this takes 30 years till the hugs come and the seeds grow. It is like joining the military and complaining about the diet, fitness program and live ammo the enemy uses. Please pray that we will go into this loving, full of grace, turning the other cheek, laying down our assumed rights and giving all control to Him.
Scotty, Heidi, Walker and Arwen.