I sit
here in the airport of the largest city worldwide only accessible by air with
its 1 runway, 3 gates, and 1 baggage claim. All its supplies, from food to
housing necessities, are flown into this tiny airport. Welcome to Wamena.
Dozens
of planes of all sizes fly in and out constantly. The steady whine of engines
and the gentle milling of people allows me to reflect over the past 2 weeks.
Spending most of the Christmas season in a village was not how I imagined this
Christmas going. Then again, I'm not sure what I was expecting. I knew well
enough that I would not be spending it with family but that doesn't mean I was
without loved ones.
A mission
team flew in from the states, which included: Seth and Sarah Hill, Nicholas
Wilson, Jordan Madrigal, Natalie Boswell, and Tiara Hebert. I was acquaintances
with most but after 12 days interior I'm happy to call them all friends. It
always amazes me how close people from all different backgrounds can get when
they work together with one goal in mind, especially when that goal is Christ
centered.
We went
to a village called Heberima (approximately 45 minute drive outside of Wamena).
The plan was to finish building a church that Pastor Darron's seminary students
had been working on for a few weeks. But in true mission fashion we ran into a
few stumbling blocks (quite literally).
I
arrived on the job site expecting to see a flat foundation ready for cement and
the metal framing. Instead, I saw a sloping mud hill with a few trenches. I
wish I could say that I was I unafraid and fully trusted God would help us
finish on time, but doubt filled my heart.
Everyday
we worked hard, easily pulling 9-10 hour days. But one thing that made this construction
site enjoyable was the weather! The Wamena area is nestled in the Papuan
Highlands. At about 6,000ft elevation, I traded 90-degree days with 90% humidity
for highs of 80’s and very low humidity.
Heberima sat even higher on the surrounding mountain ranges. The scenery was absolutely magnificent!
Whenever I became worn out with moving the thick clay-mud, or mixing cement (by
hand) I had two options. If I turned one
way I could look out over the valley stretched wide below us, or if I turned another way I could look
up to the peaks of the hills towering above us. Either way, I was in awe of
God’s beauty and felt rejuvenated. To
add to the beauty of this place, there was usually a stiff breeze that brushed
up the steep hillsides. At night, that breeze was down right chilly and would
howl against the district office building we called home. It was even cold enough that we would crave hot
drinks and I couldn’t wait to put on a jacket and snuggle into my sleeping bag.
The
entire first week was spent attempting to level the ground. By hand! The
process was extremely slow and at times discouraging. No matter how much mud
and clay we moved there always seemed to be more and the deeper we dug the
larger the rocks we found. Thus, came our stumbling blocks. These were not just
50-pound rocks; these were monsters that easily weighed 1,500 - 2,000 pounds.
What would’ve taken a jackhammer 20 minutes took 10 men with crowbars and
shovels most of the day to dig out the boulder and then muscle it up and out of
the trench.
There
were still other boulders that were too big to even attempt to move with just
sheer manpower. But the mountain villagers of Heberima have become accustomed
to living and working in this rocky terrain. They built a large bonfire over
the mammoth and added a few tires to ensure it stayed burning over night. The
following morning it was still putting off puffs of thick, black smoke and radiating
heat. They then splashed cold water onto charred rock, forcing it to
crack. However, even with cracks running down deep into the earth it still
required 6 men rotating blows with a sledgehammer before the boulder gave
way... Slightly. Even after fire, water, and pounding we never did completely
level that particular boulder. At the end of it all we decided to leave it and let it eventually give support to the stage.
The second week was similar to the first. Hard days followed by chilly nights. Thankfully, we began
going vertical with the church the last few days there! But the higher you build here
the greater the risks. Wood is extremely
hard to come by in Wamena, due to de-forestation, which means latters are also
hard to come by, and cranes are out of the question. The solution? Build your own scaffolding of course! They
called it “kuda-kuda”, which translates to horses. Quite literally the locals went out and found
some used and abused pieces of wood then nailed them together. The result is a very tall but wobbly platform
with nail heads sticking out. It was as
scary as it sounds. So with a special prayer of safety we all began climbing up
either on the metal church framing or on the kuda-kudas to begin working on
putting the trusses.
However,
even with the scaffolding the peaks of the trusses were too tall to
reach. So the lightest people got the
thrill of a lifetime (if they so volunteered).
The brave-souls would spider up between two trusses with nothing but air
under them. While up there, they would measure the space between the trusses
and screw in extra metal supports. Obviously OSHA is nonexistent here, but
thankfully God sent extra angels and we had no accidents.
In addition to working on the job site, we also
had to prepare our own meals.
Originally, we planned to eat lunch with the locals. That way we would
only have to make 2 meals a day. So we packed enough food our mission group of
16 (including the Boyd family and 3 SM’s) for 2 meals a day. But again, mission
work has a way of turning everything on its head. When we arrived on site we found out the
locals were not going to feed us lunch, we were now feeding up to 20 people, AND
the boxes we had packed and sent up early with most of our kitchen supplies was
missing (pots/pans, bleach, dish soap…).
Stress, frustration, and doubt reared their ugly heads in my control-freak
heart. But God had a lesson to teach me through the mess. Never once did we go hungry. Never once were
we left wanting. Everyday different
village ladies would bring us fresh veggies and fruits from their gardens. At the end of 12 days we actually had to
leave food behind because there was so much.
Just like there was extra after feeding the 5,000, there was plenty left
over. God always provides.
Well actually it was more like a salt water spring (about 3ft across and 8ft long). Not exactly what I had envisioned. Looking around we asked each other, so is this it? Yup. That was the "lake" we had come to see. Soon our guides mentioned a waterfall. So some of our group took off in search of the waterfall that we could actually hear from the spring but couldn't see. 
