These past few weeks have been a whir of activity here in our little neighborhood, well actually all over Indonesia. Indepenance Day is coming up on the 17th but these people are seious when it comes to having parties for things. Two weekends ago was the kickoff here with games on Saturay for the little kids and then on Sunday games for the ladies and men. Sunday's activities started earlier than we thought and so we missed the biggest of the events – the greased banana tree climb. The day before, several men came to our yard asking to cut down one of our many banana trees and then carried it away to a nearby empty lot. That day, Saturday, they worked on trimming it down to where it was just the under layer of "skin". It's very slick once you remove the outer layers. They then put a ring around the top and hung prizes from it and then hung it (upside down) over an open pit that would later be filled with muddy water.
So then Sunday morning the fun began. There were several teams each having three men on them. They could use any means necessary to get one of their team up the pole to the top to get one of several prizes! Not something I want to ever try nor do I want Joel to try it!
One of our co-workers here also lives in our neighborhood and was participating in the contest. Tim, is a bit more broad shouldered than the average Indonesian man and so he was put at the base for his team. As the game continued, new strategies were put into place. The bottom man was to push the stalk over so it would be at more of an angle, helping the guys make their way up further. Unfortunately, as Tim was able to, he swung the stalk over to the bare ground and the middle guy, unable to readjust his grasp, slipped and fell right onto the middle of his back from about 10 feet high.
Narno, the guy who fell is now in the hospital with a dislocated backbone. Thankfully it was not broken. Because our neighborhood is like one big family, they are all very involved in what happens in the lives of one of their neighbors. So, the whole neighborhood is taking turns staying with this man at the hospital. Tim has been able to go to the hospital now several times, each with his car loaded with neighbors, to visit Narno. It's been hard on Tim as he feels more responsible as it was “his doing” but the neighbors are not feeling this way and keep telling us all that we are all in this together and that it was their game.
We have been praying for Narno that he would heal quickly and recover the use of his legs again. He is of the other religion but has asked Tim several times to pray for him. This is definitely not something anyone would ever wish for, but we do know that God will use times like this to bring people to the realization of their need for Him. We are praying now for open doors to share about the hope we have. Please pray for Narno and his family as they face a long recovery, he is still in the hospital.
Please pray with us for close ties with our neighbors as we work together in this situation. Pray also that our light will shine brightly and they will see the love and compassion of Jesus Christ in our lives.
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