It all started by a Divine Appointment with a Village Chief who “just happened” to be in town while I was preaching evangelism meetings in Nabire in December 2013. . . Over lunch one day Pastor Gad Windewani and Pastor Yordan mention the Kehu tribe. Then the village chief showed up that very evening. Talk about Divine timing. . . this village chief had to start riding down the river in his little boat a full 12 hours before we were discussing the opportunity to reach beyond the small foothold the Adventist church has in the Kehu village. As Pastor Desmond Sirami and myself talked we learned that the Village of Kehu is the only “Civilized” village amongst the Kehu trive. The other Kehu live deep in the jungle and swamps about 50 Kilometers East-Northeast from Nabire. Their home until now is still lost to the outside world.
Kehu Village Chief, Marten Dida, eagerly awaiting the Helicopter to take us to explore his tribal lands for members of his tribe who have remained in hiding.
Village Chief, Marten Dida, shared a story that many from this tribe had been living peacefully along a major river and its tributaries when one day a military group under past leadership in Indonesia came up the river to “squash” an uprising. This military squad were fired on by bow and arrow from “nearly naked men.” The soldiers in turn mowed down whole villages with their guns to squash this uprising. No one knows for sure when this took place but estimates are around 30-40 years ago. The result is that fewer than 20 native speaking Kehu were left according to eye witness accounts . . but their population has more than doubled since the time the Adventists entered this area in 1989.
The river that passes the “modern” Kehu village
Marten Dida said, “Many ran into the jungle and vowed to never be seen again by these “big bang guys in green” (presumably soldiers who wiped out their tribe). Incidentally the report from one Doctoral Student who is studying tribes in this area is that the commander of the platoon who killed the Kehu people was promoted to General as a result of him ‘squashing’ an uprising in the Kehu tribe. In actuality, the Kehu probably never knew they had a government on the fateful day the soldier came to “squash” the “revolt”. The “big bang guys in green” were some strange new enemy whom they couldn’t communicate with and they were determined to act bravely and shoot the first arrow.
Who knows if this is a real story for after all. . . the Kehu are also sure there are people who have short tails who live in the jungle. But as we talked further there kept being a niggle in my mind. . . are there Kehu people who are still unreached? Could it be that some of the last people on earth who have never heard of Jesus are just 30 miles away from this developing city of Nabire? The more we talked the more we had to know. I asked, “do you know where your family members are who vowed to never be seen again?”
“Yes, but they live in a very hidden place deep in the jungle and swamps.” Marten replied.
“How long would it take you to walk from your village to their places?” I asked
“The closest ones would be up another river where there are three creeks close together and under the trees. Probably 1 week walk away through swamps full of Crocodiles and thorns from wild plants.” Marten answered.
Me: “Have you been to their village?”
Marten: “Yes a long time ago. . . but many in our village see them when we go out hunting! We keep inviting them to come out and join us back on the river where life is easier but they still remember what our parents told us about the “big bang guys in green!” Perhaps they feel it will happen again and they are very afraid.”
Me: “Could you point out on a map where their homes were before?” We were now bending over google earth.
Marten: “Yes, near a lake with three small creeks.”
As we conversed more, an idea was hatched. . . what if we could fly over the area and let the chief point out where he last saw his people living?
Adventists first made contact with the Kehu tribe in 1989 and ultimately placed a Global Pioneer (Bible Worker) who was from the Kehu people in the only known existing village of the Kehu. The Global Pioneer is originally from this tribe and was paid for several years to help raise up a church. His name is Samuel Dotiri. Samuel has prayed for years that we can reach the rest of his tribe.
The Kehu people eagerly await us as we land in their village via Helicopter.
Fast Forward to February 4, 2014. After much dialogue with lots of leaders it was agreed that we should take a helicopter with the district pastor, myself, pastor Desmond Sirami and the village chief to see if we could find the unreached villages of the Kehu people. Heli-Mission operates 2 helicopters for mission service. Helicopter pilot, Erwin, took us around and around. Within 10 minutes of reaching Kehu people I thought I saw a tree that had been cut. Around and around we went trying to get a good view of it but at last we determined that is was just a termite ridden tree that died and fell recently. Each time we thought we’d seen something we circled and circled and each time everyone in the back got more and more nauseated. Each time we began to get more clues for what to look for. 1) Smoke = people burning fires below, No smoke except in the Kehu Village but that may mean they cook at night only. 2) bamboo in large clump = people planted it in this area for making things for their homes and to store food in, 3) things like Coconut trees are sure signs of life because in this area Coconuts are only naturally near the ocean and we were 15 miles away from the ocean. 4) cut trees, foot prints on sand bars, grass roof huts all would be signs of life. Around and around we went. But non of these things were at first evident.
Notice: Banana’s in the lower right corner and bamboo just above and towards the center. These are signs of Human activity. The Global Pioneer said it is their “old village”. The dead bamboo tops in the water in the center of the picture in the water could possibly be evidence of humans cutting bamboo for some project not terribly long ago.
It was evident that our turning around was silencing the 3 in the back of the helicopter as they had to concentrate on keeping the contents of the stomachs inside their body. Time to make for the known village and ask the locals more questions so we can pinpoint things.
Somehow in our excitement with 3 of us nearly constantly shooting our cameras the best shot of Samuel our Global Pioneer in the Kehu tribe. He’s the guy in the yellowish T-shirt here.
Everyone was excited to see us. There was not much space to land the helicopter but pilot Erwin is a bush pilot and at last saw a whole big enough just in front of the school. Samuel the Global Pioneer came running out with enthusiasm. He was so happy he was crying freely. Never before the the history of Kehu people has a helicopter come without either looking for gold or to “squash” bow and arrow shooting peoples. Some were reserved and in the shadows but not Samuel. He soon was convincing enough that we left district Pastor Gad on the ground and took him instead.
We first went in the direction of a completely unknown tribe not related to the Kehu but that proved to be a false direction. Next we flew toward some lakes and trying to find the elusive three creeks. Is there signs of life anywhere in these swamps? Suddenly Samuel and the chief were excited “There’s the old village where one of the people were looking for is from. See the bamboo. See the beetle-nut trees. Is that a Coconut tree?” I had to admit these were signs of life from the past but where are they now? We spent the next hour turning round and round and by now I was green with nausea. We came to a small hill and Samuel said, “That’s the hill where we met them last week.” But still there is no running native into the bushes. Only lots of darting birds as they seek shelter from the chop-chop-chop of the helicopter flying a few meters above the tree canopy.
Our day was waning so it was time to go drop the Global Pioneer and pick up the pastor but first we had to stop by the small lake where our Helicopter had stashed extra fuel in some jerry cans. Our 10 minute stop was incredible – a clear quiet lake on the edge of the foothills where no one lives. Oh if I could come here again for a quiet time with God.
Marten – The village Chief and me (Pilot Erwin in the background) At the small lake where I’d like to come for a quiet rest sometime.
We landed back in Kehu’s known village and handed out candy for the kids and concentrate baked Sago palm flour for our sago loving swamp people. You would have thought I was giving away free gold bars on wall street. We prayed with this tribe and we had just enough time to ask a few questions about their ministry and make tentative plans for what we will do next.
The Jungle Chapel built sometime in the 1990’s for the Kehu People to worship in. The Termites are enjoying the church too.
The sign for all the “traffic” that passes.
1) We need Indonesian citizen nurses at this Kehu village and in the one down stream in Totoberi. They desperately need medical help in both villages. The government is willing to pay.
The empty clinic the government built. No nurse and medicines.
2) We need a fiberglass or aluminum boat with two 40 HP engines to get around the rivers in this area.
Fiberglass boats stacked and for sale in PNG
3) We need a GPS unit with Bahasa Indonesian instructions so that someone can go by foot and find the unreached villages and mark them on the GPS. Then they need to clear a Heli-pad so we can land or if its by a river or large enough stream we can go by boat.
4) They are mostly educated in basic Bahasa Indonesian but they need Bibles in the simple form of Indonesian.
In closing we brought up the subject with them about the road that the government is planning to build through their land. Because of the previous perceived threat to the Indonesian government the government is planning to have the Indonesian Army build the road through their tribal lands. . . this is likely to cause more problems than solutions as many of the unknown semi-nomadic peoples are still afraid of the government. Pray as we seek to help our government leaders understand that soldiers may not be the best way.
One of many Oxbow lakes surrounding by the much coveted Sago palms which are chopped down and the inner parts of the tree are beat into pulp and made into flour for consumption.
Baked Sago flour in the clear sacks and candy plus lunch was shared with the Kehu people.
The Kehu tribe has long promised land to the Adventist tribe for a future University. In flying over this land we easily saw that there is plenty of land that is out of the swamps and on the edge of the foothills where Hydro electric power could be had. We could easily see that there were thousands of fertile acres of land for a farm to help support student labor so that tribal people can learn new farming techniques and more. There were pure streams flowing down from the mountains that were clean enough to drink. While at present the nearest portion of the Kehu land is still 5 Kilometers away from the nearest road one day in the near future that could change. Could it be that this could serve as a training school for a technical school and training school for Papuans who wish to serve their own people back in their own tribes? Or will it be another place? We left with more unanswered questions than answers. We will search until we know.
Right now we are praying that as the district pastor seeks to make plans to find the semi-nomadic Kehu people in the “unknown” villages that 1) they will be open to the gospel, 2) that we can find them soon, 3) that we can find nurses and teachers who will volunteer time in this place. Who will go?
To help us support projects like this contact me by email: pastordarronboyd@gmail.com
Me congratulating Heli-mission pilot Erwin on the landing into a very tight location in the Kehu Village.
The Children were not too afraid to pose in front of the Helicopter which came right in front of their school.
