Saturday, February 26, 2005
REBUILDING OUT OF THE
RUBBLE IN AMBON
By Michael Ireland
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA (ANS) -- A
team from Jubilee Campaign last week 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.
 According to a report from Ann
Buwalda, Director, 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 an e-mail to ASSIST News
Service (ANS), Buwalda offered 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.
Buwalda said the attacks by members of Laska Jihad on the village
lasted from January 23, 1999, through August 2001 in the village of
Waii, Indonesia.
“The attackers 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,”
Buwalda said.
In January 2002, a Jubilee Campaign team visited Ambon Island, in the
Maluku Province of Indonesia, she said.
“Ambon was one of the pivotal areas in the conflict between Muslim and
Christian communities that lasted four painful 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.”
Buwalda explained that during a meeting in that area with twenty
bupatis, these pastors and Christian village leaders poured out their
grief and fears 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,” Buwalda said.
She said 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, Buwalda said.
“The purpose of our Jubilee Campaign team trip to Ambon from February
17 to 19, 2005, was twofold. 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,” Buwalda said.
The Jubilee group 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,” Buwalda said.
She explained that 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, Buwalda said.
Meanwhile, church services and meetings are held in temporary tents in
the churchyard.
“We said good-bye with hope for the future of these children and their
families,’ she said.
During the group’s time in Ambon, they 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.”
Buwalda said 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,” she said.
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.”
Buwqalda said Olin likewise awakens the girls for 5:00 a.m. 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,”
Buwalda said.
“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 dinnertime together and regular study time.”
Buwalda concluded: “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
- phone: 703-503-0791
web: http://www.jubileecampaign.org
- Jubilee Campaign US, 9689-C Main Street, Fairfax, VA 22031
| ** Michael Ireland is an
international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a
London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News
Service of Garden Grove, CA. Michael immigrated to the United States in
1982 and became a US citizen in Sept., 1995. He is married with two
children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a
British Christian radio station. |
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