Page 95 - Introduction to New Jerusalem Evangelism

to be started rightaway where a long big boat had waited us overthere to transfer us
to the nearest village by sailing on the river for another 4 hours. The speedboat would
return to pick the remaining members of the groups until the last part of the team was
on board. The second decision was made again: the team would transit, stay and spend
the night in that village. It would be too dangerous to continue sailing on the river
during the night time. Wow, we had missed our lunch and, at that evening time at the
riverport, we had to skip again our dinner. Thank God for some cakes and snacks
brought by our team which could reduce our hungriness a little bit.
The journey was continued via a wide and large river to the nearest village where
the PNG military station was situated. The station also served as the local immigration
office. The sailing at night was so calm but nobody could really sleep because
sometimes some crocodiles showed up and floated on the water. Finally the boat
arrived and docked at the simple wooden jetty in the destined village by midnight. All
the team members, like a choir, exhaled the sighs of relieve and exclaimed:
“Hallelujah!”, tried to stand up with the totally-stiffed back and legs in the still-shaken
boat. The team had to stay and spend the night in an elevated on-pile wooden house
(rumah panggung) which was open in the 4-side with a rather short ‘rumbia roof’
almost covering the wooden floor. There was no chair, no table and no 4-leg bed. One
could sit, lie down and sleep on the wooden-shelves floor but nobody could stand up
vertically. One had to bow him (her)-self when walking or just to crawl on the floor.
Wow, a really unique and unforgettable experience that God gave us! The WC was
naturally a dug hole in the land covered by several wooden shelves with a small hole
in the middle. It was situated somewhere outside under a tree and shielded at 4-side
with bamboo meshes. Surely not everybody especially the ‘city people’ could use the
‘semi-natural WC’ like this for the concerned biological needs.

2017: Trip to Wandouw, PNG – The transporting river and the unique natural-temporal lake
(only in rainy seasons).

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