Yesterday a young man who worked for MAF drowned in the ocean. Chris had just turned 21 on Saturday and his family went to the ocean to celebrate. He was overwhelmed by the waves and undertow and his cousin went to help him and also drowned. Chris was responsible for servicing and washing the cars and helping out with other maintenance and construction that occurs around here. It feels like a tragedy to us, but the truth is, as a Christian, what other place would you rather be than with your heavenly Father?
I popped by Rita's place again today. Her sister, who works for my neighbour, said that she is very bored right now. So I brought her a needlepoint that I had bought and started in Bandung but never finished. I have other things like scrapbooking to keep me busy here. She was happy to have a project to work on. Each time I go to see her, I get more information. It seems like that's the way it is here, you never learn the whole story in one time. She says now that her husband had some rope burns on his neck and arm. But she feels at peace now and says that God called him and the way that he called him doesn't matter. What I also found out was that her husbands female relatives, sisters I think, sleep in Rita's house every night along with their kids. They come around dark and bring food which they prepare for everyone, remember, Rita is not allowed to cook, and then they eat together and everyone sleeps in the living room on mattresses. How cozy!!?
She also told me that the land that her house is on was from his family but not really. His family came here a generation ago and settled in a certain area on this hill we live on. The family or tribe that apparently owns the land doesn't want to sell it and they charge each house owner 50,000 rups a month rent for the land. So Rita hasn't really wanted to put a lot of money into her house as she is afraid one day this tribe will come and take it away from her anyways. And she can't really buy another piece of land and build a new house as it is so hard to safely buy land here. Too often the person selling a piece of land isn't actually the owner and so they fraudulently sell it to you. Even government workers have been guilty of doing this. It has happened to MAF before too. Someone pretended that he owned the land and sold it to people. It is very difficult for MAF to get this land back. So Rita is stuck in this very poor house that she lives in. Half her roof is metal and half is palm branches. The walls are a hodge podge of pieces of wood and asbestos-type corrugated roofing. Please continue to uphold Rita and her family in your prayers. This is a very difficult time for her.