Revenge...

There is still much tension in the air here on our hill. Ice has given me a lot more information regarding the events of last week. Sadly it just shows how the people here are still unsure of what it means to truly be a Christian. Many are still following cultural traditions that have been practiced for 100's of years. The death of the young girl as it turns out, is a revenge killing. Years ago already, her father had tried to save a woman who had fallen into a fast flowing river but he lost his grip on her hand. Her family felt that as a strong man he should have been able to save her and so therefore he is responsible for her death. (Very logical not?) The woman's family has been seeking revenge since then. They wanted to kill the man's son but he is not an easy guy to track down so they decided to go for the daughter. Ice's cousin was best friends with the girl who died and she got a new boyfriend. Friday night she was going to up to the road up higher to meet him. Her friend asked to go along; an unusual thing as she wasn't normally allowed to go out much. Her family was protective of her. But she went along. At some point she asked if she could try out the boyfriends motorbike and he agreed and went along with her and they never returned. Ice's cousin went to look for them and only found the motorbike running with her friend's clothing on top of it. She freaked out and yelled for them but there was no answer so she ran home. The story is that the "boyfriend" used Ice's cousin to get close to her friend and then he sent a text message to the killers and told them where they were. Both families involved are Dani-mountain people. But they are from different tribes. Now the tribe of the girl who was killed feels that someone from the tribe of Ice's cousin should die as well. Actually, they would like it to be Ice's cousin as they blame her. She is still in police custody for her own protection. This afternoon she and the guy involved came up here for a meeting with all the families and they were under tight police protection. Ice said that the family of the girl who died is still very angry and emotional and so they didn't really discuss much and then it started to rain so the meeting was called off until tomorrow.
Everyone is frightened. On Saturday the relatives of the girl surrounded Ice's house and cut down all the banana bushes and whatnot around it. They pulled their bows and arrows out in a threatening manner. Ice's Dad told her to stand in the doorway and just look at them. She was very, very frightened but she did it and eventually the people went away.
In spite of the local pastors pleading with the people not to act the way they are, people are just going ahead with their traditions of revenge and retribution. Logic, rationale, and God's Word are just not being considered.