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And Her Father Tried to Kill Her
Here’s the story and pictures from the day it happened. I will forward another one to you that shows Emma and her mother one month later. Carolyn Crockett
We just got back to Moi on Monday; it's always so good to get back to the welcoming faces of our Moi friends. Right off the bat my Moi lady friends started filling me in on all that happened in the weeks we were gone. One conversation went like this: "Carolyn, Iyodotabo (a close friend of mine who helps me with editing Bible stories) had a baby girl yesterday but her daddy thinks she's an adultery baby so is hitting her to kill her." (I made a mental note to get up to their hut ASAP to check on baby but didn't think it was likely true.) (About 2 minutes before we landed in Moi, a group of 5 New Tribes missionaries-in-training landed in Moi; it was a happening place! They had come to visit Papua and see what was going on in a tribal work since that is in their future.)
After saying good bye to our missionary pilot, we picked up our luggage and made the walk down the airstrip to start right into unpacking and cleaning up our house: taken over by spiders and other lovely insects. :) We were thinking we would have the rest of the day to get our house spick and span for our mission's pastor and his wife from The Chapel in Akron (Bob and Myra Schneider). Sometimes things don't happen as you expect though! :)
In the middle of our cleaning and sweeping, we heard our coworker Rich running down towards our house with a Moi bag in hand. He was calling for us to grab some scissors and help to cut the vines wrapped around Iyodotabo's newborn baby's neck!
Her head was white but she was still breathing! Praise the Lord, we were able to get the vines off her neck and see her breathing well again! However, her skull showed signs of abuse; bruising and indents. Her chin was red where she had been hit. Would she make it? Was there brain damage? So many unknowns.
Of course all house cleaning stopped as we got the precious little girl out of the bag and all the leaves that were stuck to her body from the blood and mucous still from being birthed the day before. We gave her a nice warm bath (3 times in a row) and got her smelling a little bit better. :) I had Indonesian style cloth diapers, blankets, and even a bottle and formula from when I had taken Desi and her Mommy out on the medivac to Nabire in February! God knew that we would need them again.
Our minds were racing! What would happen to this little girl now? Steve and I had already looked into adopting a Moi baby before but found out the Indonesian government wouldn't let us since we had more than one biological child. Our prayer right away was that God would convict the baby's daddy (Edeipiya) of the terrible sin of murder that he had been about to commit. (Found out later that it was actually Iyodotabo who had wrapped the vines around the baby's neck due to pressure from Edeipiya.)
The next two days were a whirlwind! We named her Emma Grace (first name is easy to say in Moi and second name because of God's grace in her little life). How fun to cuddle and love on this little one. Several of the girls in the New Tribes group visiting us were wonderful "Nannies" to her; wow, they were such a help. Emma Grace slept well and took to the bottle right away; it all felt so surreal.
The next morning our mission's pastor, Bob and Myra, flew in; we felt so blessed to have them come see us all the way to this side of the world! God's timing is perfect as they were a wonderful support over the next couple days as we prayed for Emma and asked God to undertake. Emma Grace slept in our home for two days; her color got better and better; she was thriving! Thank you, Lord. Meanwhile, as we were falling in love with her, God was convicting her Daddy's heart. He's a believer and God reminded him of the passage in Exodus chapter one where the two Hebrew midwives refused to obey Pharaoh's order to kill the Hebrew baby boys. As he thought of the birth of Moses and how God had a plan for the baby Moses, he came under conviction that God sees babies too as precious human beings. (See, in Moi culture it's ok for parents to kill their babies if there's suspicion that she came from adultery or maybe the older sibling is still be carried in a bag on the mother's head and they feel like they really don't want to raise another baby yet.) Edeipiya's relatives were talking to Edeipiya too and telling him to raise her (their thoughts though were not on the sanctity of life but rather of the shell money they'd benefit from when she got married off in the future.)
By the end of the third day in our home, Stephen came in and gathered us together to let us know that Edeipiya was ready to accept her back and said he wouldn't kill her. There were tears and confusion as we feared for her life. What if Edeipiya was lying? Emma Grace now smelled so nice and we enjoyed cuddling her only to put her right back into her harsh setting again. We had fallen in love with her but knew that the right thing to do was to give her back to her parents. God gave us such peace. I went outside and picked "baa iye" (baby poop leaves), arranged them back in her Moi baby bag. My heart played tug of war as I undressed her and laid her in the leaves. With Emma Grace in tow, we ALL (visitors and us) trudged up to Edeipiya and Iyodotabo's hut to deliver their daughter back to them. Iyodotabo was all smiles as I put Emma Grace on her lap. She latched right on, nursing great. (Another miracle, as I was concerned that she would struggle adjusting to nursing again after three days on the bottle.) Edeipiya and Iyodotabo both prayed, confessing their wrong to the Lord, and asking for God's GRACE in their lives!
Please pray for Emma Grace. Edeipiya is showing signs that he truly has a repentant heart. He went out hunting for Iyodotabo and caught her a wild chicken, a very cultural thing for a father to do for his wife who has just given birth. (By the way, Iyodotabo has been living by us since she was brought over as Edeipiya's bride back in 2002, at 9 years old!) Pray for this young couple and their two children Isaki (Isaac) and Emma Grace. Pray that Edeipiya will love his children and get over the unwarranted feelings of jealousy for his wife. He constantly accuses her of adultery and she's the most faithful Moi wife I've seen!
Schneider's and our New Tribes group all left yesterday. We are in awe of God's timing in allowing them to be with us during these last few days of upheaval and emotional roller coaster! The body of Christ and the care, love and encouragement we receive from each member never ceases to amaze us.
One last note: we are THRILLED to have our two PRECIOUS daughters back with us in Moi. Ashley and Mariah left back in January to attend the boarding school in Sentani. Our time apart from them felt like it lasted forever. They are such a huge part of the Moi ministry so we're glad they get the next month and a half in here with us.
Thank you for standing behind us in prayer.
Much love, Steve, Carolyn, Ashley, and Mariah
Jeremiah 32:17 Ah, Sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. NOTHING is too hard for YOU.
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