by John Algate
Because of the big mudslide at the back of Sue’s house and the fact the ground was unstable there with six big cracks in the airstrip, Sue was evacuated to Owakbasik with the 1000 refugees they had collected from around the valley. It was the first time in months that both the helicopters had been ready for use. (They were always waiting for parts). Now begins the long task of keeping people fed until they can plant gardens. The government is very keen for them to be relocated but the people are not happy to move. This is inherited land. Do pray for all the decisions that have to be made.
This past week I have been running off 200 copies of I and II Corinthians in the Soba language (40 stencils) on the duplicator for Sue to distribute at Owakbasik and the other refugee village. She just finished translating this before the quake and of course now has no way of getting it done. She thought that whilst the people had time on their hands they could practice their reading. Where the people have heard about the disaster at Soba they want to help their fellow believers. Although they don’t have a great deal themselves they all brought potatoes enough to fill a plane to send to the Soba people. Out of their little they gave much. (September 1989)
Not surprisingly most of Jessie’s private letters to family around this time mentioned the earthquake.
August 10: Today they had another small quake which has caused more mud and landslides to come down. Now several other villages are threatened and they have to decide what to do with 800 more refugees. They are at 7000 feet so it is very cold. I sent over lots of little knitted singlets that many of you have made for the children. It should make a splash of colour and also keep the children warm. The people are going out to salvage pieces of houses wrecked by the landslides to make new homes. There is a shortage of housing with the influx of all those people. With most of the gardens gone it is hard for them. Sue is living in the village with the people and organising the distribution of the food the government sends in. She said for days the people were in shock, very dazed and had to be forced to eat. Almost everyone there has lost someone, and many, everyone. They are all grieving for loved ones swept away.
September 1: Very hard on the helicopter pilots and one nearly crashed when he got caught in a sudden change of cloud formation. They are delivering rice to the earthquake people every other day. The government is pushing for villagers to relocate but it is hard for them to make a decision when they are still in a state of shock. Sue is still living up there with the 900 refugees. Following the earthquake, many people around Soba were homeless so the government saw this as an opportunity to relocate them nearer the town. For those people who had never been on a plane it was exciting but gradually they just walked nine or 10 days back again.
Almost a year later villagers were still struggling to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. Following the dedication of a new church and the graduation service for Bible school students Jessie reported:
I was given a pregnant mother pig as a thank you offering for having trained the clinic worker for them. I decided I didn’t really need a pig so I have since sent it off to Soba to help the people there get their pig breeding started again. They lost nearly all their pigs in the earthquake. (June 1990)
27. An inspiration to many
The Lord has sent along quite a number of visitors lately which has been wonderful to break the loneliness for me. (June 2000)
‘Jessie has the gift of hospitality. She is always ready to give a cup of tea with cookies/biscuits and a meal or a bed for those who stop by accidentally (due to weather or medical emergency) or on purpose. Jessie entertained, and often would have a houseful of guests. She always had a place and always served good meals in spite of her busy schedule.’
– Kathryn Kline.
Rosa Kidd has similar memories:
‘When you minister in a small station together there is naturally a lot of interaction. Orin and I were the married couple and then besides us there were two single gals, Elinor and Jessie. We were partners in ministry but we were also friends. Aside from our Kimyal friends, we were each other’s only social contact for months at a time. We invited each other over for meals, went on picnics and treks together and almost always had our Sunday meal and evening service together. We even had ladies nights when Orin was banned and we just had some female bonding time. Every morning at 10 am and then again at 3 pm Jessie, Elinor, Orin and I would rotate to one another’s houses for our morning and afternoon coffee breaks. This was a time for sharing what was going on in our separate ministries, a time to pray with one another and to share our home and family news. It gave us all a break from the stresses of our work. An extra blessing of those coffee breaks is that Jessie always shared with us some of her special goodies that she received from her friends and family back in Australia.’
For Sue Trenier, Christmas at Korupun was a special time:
‘I often went to Korupun to spend Christmas, staying with Jessie and enjoying the break and fellowship with the missionary team there. However she managed it I don’t know but we always had endless presents to open, lots of meals and feasts with the locals, lovely music to listen to and endless ‘cuppas’ over which we chewed the rag for hours. We shared and chatted and also took walks around the area where Jessie was well loved and accepted.’
Other times they took a Christmas break together visiting other mission communities, as usual, sharing the novel experiences with those back home.
Sue and I ended up going to the south coast for Christmas to be with the Mills family. It was very hot and sultry and of course the lowland people are very different from the highlanders. It was interesting to be part of a different kind of Christmas celebration. No pig feasts like we were used to having. Instead we had sago grubs (like witcherty grubs) and perpeda which is made from sago. Of course everyone watched with great interest to see how we would cope. We decided the grubs were tough and tasteless but we kept them down. The perpeda is made by pouring hot water on the sago flour and stirring it until it is a glutinous mess like old fashioned starch clag, and they love it. The local people all cooked their own food in their own square houses and brought it to the airstrip to eat. They all sat on their own woven mats. (February 1993)
But Jessie’s hospitality and conviviality wasn’t restricted to close friends as Sue recalls:
‘I have an Indonesian doctor friend who worked for a time in Karabuga where he heard many good things about ‘Yetty’ and was keen to meet her. Some years later he made a visit to Korupun. At that time Jessie was the only expat in Korupun. Dr Andreas was no doubt used to the various conditions he could meet on a medical visit to interior areas. When he arrived in Korupun though he was directed to a guest house with a guest room all prepared – bed, sheets, towels etc. – and on the table a vase with a bunch of roses and a note welcoming him and hoping his stay and ministry in Korupun would be a blessing and that he would be a blessing to the Kimyals. He was very moved, especially when he found special foodstuffs in the kitchen and so forth. He was truly blessed by Jessie’s thoughtfulness and practical love shown him and it remains with him to this day.’
Hospitality was just one of the many qualities that endeared Jessie to people.
‘Jessie is a very good encourager, remembering folks with birthday cards, especially to all the children in the mission. Jessie is a gift giver as well. Her supporters gave her little gifts and cards for her ‘Encouraging’ ministry. She will be remembered by a good number of people for this gift. Jessie is also a prayer warrior. This goes along with her correspondence ministry of informing folks of news and prayer requests to her constituents of how and what to pray.’ – Kathryn Kline.
‘Jessie impacted many lives for Christ during her years of service in West Papua, both among the tribal people as well as the missionary community – many missionary children were delivered by Jessie.’ – Rosa Kidd.
Since I last wrote to you I have been helping at the small Team Hospital on the South Coast. While there, two missionaries had babies and the plane on which I
was scheduled to leave arrived with an emergency caesarean section. The pilot decided to stay overnight as it was late in the afternoon, so I hastily donned theatre attire to ‘scrub’ for the operation. A healthy 5lb boy was the result. (August 1967)
‘On various occasions she spent holiday time with us at Holowon, which gave the opportunity for her to get to know our family, and for our three boys to come to know her as Auntie Jessie – as she became for all the missionary kids in Irian Jaya. And for decades afterwards, without fail, they would receive a card or an email on their birthdays.’ – John and Gloria Wilson.
‘For me personally Jessie was family, somehow she always made her family my family which encouraged me to do the same. She has a great understanding of Christians as family, not least how she sent birthday cards to missionary kids for years and also many, many people like myself to whom she never forgets to send a birthday card.’
– Sue Trenier
Being a midwife meant Jessie often spent time with other missionary families during late pregnancy and at child birth, a special time in every family’s life, made even more so by the peculiar circumstances of missionary life so far away from their closest family and friends.
When a missionary is due to have her baby the whole family is flown in here three weeks before the due date. The family does all the cooking so that relieves me of the responsibility. (August 1966)
MAF called to say they had on board a missionary lady who went into labour five weeks prematurely. Organised another plane to borrow a humi-crib from the Mulia Hospital which arrived just in time for a little 4lb 8oz baby girl. All well. (July 1975)
This past month I have also helped in some medical emergencies among our own missionaries. I was asked to go to Mulia to help look after Janet and Dale Brown’s little premature baby. It seems it was baby month as Kathryn Kline began to have complications in her delivery and needed to go to Papua New Guinea for a caesarean section. I was asked to go along in case there were any complications en-route. The only one we encountered was the fact that it was Independence Day in PNG and a holiday so the officials were not too pleased at having to come to clear us through customs, immigration, etc. Someone jokingly said ‘here comes the flying nurse again’. (October 1978).
She gave more detail of baby Brown’s birth in a letter to family.
At the moment I am trying to prop my eyelids open as I am sitting watching a little three pound nine ounce premature baby. The Browns who have been here only a couple of months had a six weeks premature baby yesterday much to everyone’s shock. As he needs constant care at the moment they asked if I could come and help with the round the clock care. So here I am at Mulia once again. It is in the highlands so it is cool. They had the baby in the humi-crib yesterday but the generator broke down so now we are managing with hot water bottles. So far he is doing just fine so we are praying he will continue to do so. (August 1978)
Jess regularly reported back on visitors to Korupun.
We recently had a work team from the USA here to build two new classrooms for the Bible School. It was great to see it go ahead so quickly in the two weeks. They got the foundations, frame, roof and floor in before the wood ran out. The local carpenters are putting on the siding as it comes to hand. (May 1995)
I got back to Korupun just in time to welcome a group of men from the USA. Dr David Gee was here last year and this time he brought two of his friends with him. Chris was a builder who was able to help Sabil build an office cum guest house. (August 1995)
One of Jessie’s many visitors was Reverend Geoff Shepherd, now chaplain to the Richmond Football Club and senior pastor at the Mill Park Baptist Church in Melbourne. In an interview published on the Baptist Union of Victoria website he was asked: ‘Who do you admire?’ He listed his parents and a small number of others.
‘I’ve got a few heroes, mainly unsung ones,’ Geoff replied. ‘I admire Jessie Williamson, who I first met in Korupun, Irian Jaya. This humble nurse served ’til she retired in the Irianese highlands under conditions which would send most of us running away today.’
Geoff was not the only young person to find inspiration in the humble, and humbling, circumstances of Korupun. Rosa Orin recounts ‘Nellie’s story’:
‘Nellie was a young university student who came out with our summer short term program. She came out looking for excitement and wanting to visit a remote and exotic part of the world. Shortly after Nellie’s arrival it was reported that there were two medical emergencies in one of our outlying areas. The first was a very young girl who was having trouble delivering a baby, and the second a seriously ill patient that needed to be seen by a doctor. We arranged for a helicopter to pick them up and bring them first to Korupun, so they could be evaluated by Jessie to determine whether they could be cared for at Korupun, or would need to be sent on to Wamena where there was a hospital. The helicopter landed and Jessie had to make a quick assessment and decision regarding both patients. Being a midwife she felt she could help the girl in labour but sent the other patient on to Wamena. What they didn’t tell her in those hurried minutes at the airstrip was that the young girl had been in labour already for four days. After the helicopter left, Jessie, myself and Nellie took the patient and got her settled so Jessie could take a better look at her. What she found was that labour had stopped the day before and the baby was stuck in the birth canal. Jessie started her on medication to restart labour while I worked to calm the patient and her anxious husband who was very fearful that she was going to die.
Unfortunately, the girl was too small to deliver the baby and Jessie decided to do an episiotomy. So here is the picture! Jessie, Nellie, the patient and I are in one of the small, dark Kimyal huts. The girl is fearful and crying while I am by her head trying to calm her and explain what Jessie is going to do to help her deliver her baby. Nellie is holding the flashlight on the girl while Jessie does the episiotomy and delivers the baby. Jessie finally gets the baby out but it is not breathing. She needs to attend to the girl because she is losing lots of blood and needs to be sewn up. So, since Nellie is close to the baby, Jessie gives her a hypodermic needle and tells her to poke the baby in the bottom to stimulate it to cry and breath. Nellie starts saying that she can’t do it but realizes that this is life or death for both baby and mother. She finds herself doing something she would never have imagined and that was totally out of the realm of her expectations for this trip.
Even though many prayers were going up to heaven the baby did not survive. The mother did but had severe nerve damage from the extended pressure of the baby on her groin and was paralysed and unable to walk. Jessie gave Nellie the job of caring for this 14-year old girl, which she did with much compassion and tenderness for the next three weeks she was with us. That summer we had several obstructed labour patients and other very sick people in the village right around us. One was a middle of the night call to help a woman with a retained placenta. Nellie and I went as interpreter and assistant. Having these very personal encounters with the Kimyal people had a life changing impact. At the end of summer Nellie was sharing her thoughts about what she had learned through her experiences. She mentioned that she had come to Korupun for excitement, but He had given her a calling! Nellie returned home to take training as a nurse and give her life to helping others.’
Jessie also enjoyed playing host to the infrequent but welcome visits from her family.
This past week I went out to Sentani to meet my sister Thelma and her husband Jim. Jim is a dentist so had promised that he would teach the clinic workers how to pull teeth the right way. They were all keen and listened well and seemed to catch on to the procedures. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and I guess it will be the end results that will tell. Jim pulled several teeth and he had them all clustered around wanting to see it all. Pray for them and that I will be able to get them some old dental forceps to use. I also had several sessions with them upgrading and teaching them new concepts etc. It was a busy four days. (March 1994)
This past month my sister Jean and niece Judy were here for four weeks – an unexpected pleasure. During that time I had planned to go to Sumo, in the southern lowlands to give a refresher course to the clinic workers there. (So they came along too). The lowland people are not as energetic as the highland tribes (due largely to the humid climate and incessant malaria). However 15 of them turned up for the course. (May 1995)
My nephew Paul had quite a few different experiences whilst he was here. I had to attend an Eastern Highlands Clinic Workers Conference at Soba for part of that time, so he tagged along. Some 70 people attended including the head of the health department for Irian Jaya, head of the health department for our area and clinic workers from the four different tribes in the Eastern Highlands. Each delegate had to bring food to help with the menu. We had quite a few delicacies such as fried rice with turtle meat, several sago dishes, dried deer meat and noodles, roast pork and pork cooked in the pit etc. We ran out of eggs so I used turtle eggs to bake biscuits and cake for morning tea and they were quite tasty. (February 1996)
28. Rebels, war and payback
Before Christmas everything seemed quiet, but then right after Christmas there was a rebel flare up about a day’s walk from here, ending in the massacre of 75 people including women and children. Some Karubaga folk were killed.
With the coming of Christianity, western ideas, Indonesian colonisation and new examples of material wealth, expectations naturally rose among the local Papuan peoples. By 1974 Jessie had been long enough in the highlands to appreciate the impact the arrival of these foreign cultures and concepts could have. She was also aware that western concepts of education and opportunity brought with them expectations and that these expectations could not always be met.
Do continue to pray for our young people that they will not be dissatisfied after they have struggled through six grades of school to suddenly find themselves at a loose end as there are only a few openings for further education. Youth with nothing to occupy its restlessness finds mischief to get into and our young people are no exception. (August 1974)
