Jubilee Campaign USA, February 25, 2005
The Christian Village of Waii: Rebuilding Out of the Rubble
February 25, 2005
Last week, a team from Jubilee Campaign traveled to the Maluku Islands of Indonesia
to visit the Caleb Chandler House, a residential facility for children orphaned during the
religious violence that rocked Maluku Province for nearly three years, from 1999 to
2001. Jubilee Campaign has conducted a sponsorship program for a number of years
to provide housing, food, education and spiritual and emotional nurture to the orphans.
In the following report, Jubilee Director Ann Buwalda offers her reflections on the
history of the place and her hopes for the future of the residents of Caleb House and
the Christian village of Waii.
Background
The attacks lasted from January 23, 1999, through August 2001 in the village of Waii,
Indonesia. The attackers, members of the Laskar Jihad, wore white, including white
turbans. Those attacked were decapitated and mutilated beyond belief, even the
elderly and women. One pastor tearfully beseeched us as visitors to help him
understand how he could possible counsel his flock in the wake of such horrors.
In January 2002, a Jubilee Campaign team visited Ambon Island, in the Maluku
Province of Indonesia. Ambon was one of the pivotal areas in the conflict between
Muslim and Christian communities that lasted four pa inful years. We had visited a
refugee camp located near Passo Village, to which all the surviving villagers from Waii
had fled. Waii villagers in that camp told us that the Islamic militant group Laskar
Jihad had attacked Waii forty times, escalating to the use of military weaponry before
the villagers finally gave up and fled on foot across a mountain range to the Christian
area in Passo.
During a meeting in that area with twenty bupatis, these pastors and Christian village
leaders poured out their grief and fears to us as they recounted the horrors of random
attacks, butchered bodies of friends and relatives and lack of military or police
protection. Both were suspected of taking sides against them, particularly because
military weaponry had been used during the attacks and because the attackers were
never apprehended, even when there was advance notice of the attack and when
military barracks were close by. Thus, at the time of that visit, Laskar Jihad persisted,
an estimated 10,000 militants in the Maluku Islands lived within entrenched terrorist
training camps and prospects for the Waii villagers appeared bleak.
Hope finally broke through one month later. In February 2002, Christian and Muslim
leaders, along with the government, settled the terms of the Malino Peace Agreement.
Since then, violence has diminished to a few random incidents of shootings. The most
serious of these occurred in April 2002 and April 2004, but further escalations did not
take place.
The Christian Village of Waii: Rebuilding Out of the Rubble
Now, three years later, relative peace has been sustained in the Maluku Islands, the
village of Waii has been returned to the Christian community, surviving families have
returned to government-built housing and most of the refugee camps are empty.
The purpose of our Jubilee Campaign team trip to Ambon from February 17 to 19,
2005, was two fold. We wanted to visit the orphans we support at the Caleb House
dormitory, built to assist the most traumatized of the orphaned children, and we
wanted to visit our local partners' staff. In response to the overwhelming need,
beginning in 2001 Jubilee Campaign has worked in partnership with Yayasan Penabur
Maluku to provide direct aid to over 176 Christian children who lost one or both
parents during the conflict. A number of the children we support were from Waii
Village. Some of the highlights of our team's trip were our visits with Waii Village
families in their new homes.
We drove along the now serene coastal road through Passo, noting the empty refugee
camps. The demarcation between the Christian and Muslim areas was still evident as
we passed from the next Christian village of Suli into the Muslim-controlled area.
Adjacent to Suli had been the Christian village of Tial, but it now remains a
Muslim-conquered village; the prior inhabitants have been forced to resettle in Suli.
Tial's Christian church remains an empty, burned-out shell. The next two villages,
Tenga-Tenga and Tulehu, retain their reputation for fierce attacks on their Christian
neighbors, and the fear of those villagers remains strong. Crossing a rebuilt bridge
from Tulehu, we entered Waii Village.
Many of the new houses were literally built upon and around the rubble and
foundations of destroyed homes. The families we visited in their homes generally
consisted of extended families of grandparents, aunts and uncles and their children,
and the surviving parent and orphans we sponsor. The determination of these families
to reclaim Waii and make a living has overcome adversities of lands and crops now
too far away or still too dangerous to try to farm. One teenage boy, Berli Delima,
determined to live in Waii with his grandmother, even though his high school required
him to travel a significant distance away.
The families reported that their Protestant Church, which had been burned to the
ground in 2000, was also being rebuilt. Meanwhile, church services and meetings are
held in temporary tents in the church yard. We said good-bye with hope for the future
of these children and their families.
During our time in Ambon, we stayed the two nights in the Caleb House with the eight
boys and six girls who moved in last month. YPM continues its search for dorm
parents who meet the criteria of being at least middle age, without their own young
children, ideally with ministry training or experience, and who are familiar with
Ambonese culture and the local Indonesian dialect. Meanwhile, a "big brother," Ben,
lives on the boys' side of the dormitory and a "big sister," Olin, lives on the girls' side.
Ben is a student in his final year studying agriculture at Patimura University, and has
had significant past training with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in leading Bible
study cell groups. He told us he is committed to staying with the children and
program for at least one year. His beaming smile flashed frequently as he interacted
with the children, reflecting how much he genuinely seemed to enjoy his ministry with
the boys.
According to Ben, when the boys moved in they were very shy toward each other and
introverted. They are learning to communicate with each other as the days go by. Ben
has observed that from the experience here, at school, and following the Sunday
School, they are helped to be more extroverted. Now they easily introduce themselves
and lead worship. They pray for each other when they have problems at school. They
are in a process of building friendships. Ben begins each day at 5:00 a.m., leading the
boys in a brief time of singing, prayer and Bible reading.
Olin likewise awakens the girls for 5:00 devotional time before they prepare for school.
Olin herself was one of the first children sponsored by Jubilee Campaign. She has
graduated from Patimura University with a degree in children's education. Her mother
and siblings were among the families we visited in Waii.
Meeting with Olin and the girls, we found the girls very talkative. Yvonne shared with
us that she is happy at Caleb House because there are a lot of friends here. They are
happy with their "big sister" and the YPM staff that are here with them as well. Gebby
says that she likes the schedule here because she can have lunch, then rest and
then study on a schedule. Mary said it is safer here in the House than in her previous
house. Irny said that there is more discipline here and that this is more convenient
than a lack of discipline. They have regular lunch and dinner time together and regular
study time.
The testimonies of the families and children we met profoundly demonstrated the
Lord's restorative mercies. We praise the Lord that in the little village of Waii, the night
has passed and the dawn has risen. We pray that his people who are called by his
name will continue to abide in him.
For more information, contact:
Ann Buwalda
Jubilee Campaign USA
email: jubilee@jubileecampaign.org
voice: 703-503-0791
web: http://www.jubileecampaign.org
This email was sent to shortcut2justy@yahoo.com.au, by Jubilee Campaign USA.
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