Following along in vein of the last post... There is a village head here who has pilfered 23,000,000 USD from the government. These funds were meant to be used for social programs in his village. He currently has about 10 wives and they live in multiple houses and he makes regular visits to Brazil, for fun. The hospital in the village is well, inhospitable...
The other evening, Ice's niece Sarah was not feeling well and was resting on her bed in her bedroom. She thought she heard a voice at her window but then thought she was just dreaming so she went back to sleep. Suddenly there was a guy in her room, drunk of course, and he whispered in her ear asking her permission to have his way with her. She screamed and Ice's friends in the living room jumped up and began to hit the guy. He ran off up the mountain but they caught him and to teach him a lesson, beat the snot out of him. No point in calling the police...
Then the next day, Sarah's mom was beaten by her husband, Sarah's dad. These two have had a tumultuous relationship from day one. It seems he was asking her for money (what's new-she has a job, he doesn't) and she explained that she had just paid the electricity bill and so she had no money. I think she went on and taunted him a bit about the fact that he had never been a responsible father and so on (all the exact details of the event are somewhat unclear). He decided that she was out of line and so he beat her rather badly. My neighbour did take her to the hospital and she is home again on the road to recovery, constantly surrounded by all the ladies of the kampung (loosely translated = subdivision).
Moving on to more corruption... There is an expat family here who has devoted their lives to the Papuan people. They have a free clinic, an orphanage, a church and employ many people to be guards (for MAF, the school etc...), yard guys, moving guys etc... They bought land quite a few years ago and over the past year or so have been fighting in court to keep their land. Unfortunately, their opponent is the Gereja (Church) Kristen (Christian) Indonesia. This church had a land deed with the land area on the deed being 1.9 hectares. Rather mysteriously (or not) the little dot between the 1 and the 9 has disappeared and they are claiming ownership of 19 hectares of land. They, through corruption have managed to obtain this land. Interestingly enough, they said that the expat family could continue to live on the land for three more years, but that their church had to go. I'm thinking the GKI is feeling threatened by this church as it is growing in numbers and is quite popular with the locals. This event has left all of us with a less than savoury taste in our mouths. It is really unbelievable that this "church", which happens to be an extremely wealthy one, would resort to such measures. Please pray that this event will expose the church for what it is and that the locals will see and know the truth. Please also pray for this expat family as this has been a long and arduous fight for them and is crushing as they have done nothing but give, give, and give to the Papuan people.
All these events have left us feeling rather unsettled and shaken. Please pray that we will see God's plan in all things and continue to trust in His goodness and wisdom.