S

ince early December, shopping malls in big cities have been echoing with Christmas carols and pop hits. Red and green accessories stretch as far as the eyes can see and stores offer tempting discounts on almost all products.

On Christmas Eve, churches will be filled to the brim. Buildings, restaurants, even celebrities are rented out for the holiday.

Christmas trees, Santa Claus, gifts and the whole paraphernalia will complete the joyful story.

But do we care about how Christmas is celebrated in the midst of poverty and hardship?

Consider Gagemba, a small village in Intan Jaya, Papua, where I worked for the group Flying Doctors doctorSHARE until mid-2015. It takes half a day to fly from Jakarta to Sugapa, the capital of Intan Jaya, and two more hours on a motorcycle along a muddy road to reach Gagemba.

The village is surrounded by mountains and, hence, isolated. Local people have to travel great distances for primary health services.

Human life is cheap, even worthless, there.

Christmas, as well as Sunday, prayers are held in an old church. Its altar, tables, chairs and walls are made of simple timber. Dogs and pigs enter and leave as they please. There are none of the musical instruments that enliven mass services in urban churches.

I was stunned to hear from a pastor that we, the Flying Doctors, were the first medical team ever to have served in the village. I could not imagine how many generations had prayed for divine help in the church. The place of worship has surely been an eyewitness to millions of prayers and hymns sung from the deepest regions of the heart.

Last month the medical team returned to Intan Jaya for a humanitarian mission in Ugimba village, which according to my friend, Karnel Singh, is a place that can be reached only after a nightmarish journey. Volunteers have to risk their lives, climbing steep cliffs and rocks and fording rivers before walking for 13 hours almost without rest.
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The plight facing people in many other outlying villages will certainly overshadow my Christmas.

The Flying Doctors coordinator, Riny Sari Bachtiar, said: '€œNo helicopter? No problem. If God wants us to use our feet to serve the community, we are ready!'€

Although the team acknowledged that they may not fully meet the needs of health services, I believe their presence is a much-awaited Christmas gift for local people.

In fact, Ugimba is the last village leading to the Carstensz, one of the seven highest mountain peaks in the world.

The plight facing people in Gagemba and Ugimba and many other outlying villages will certainly overshadow my Christmas here in Bandung. I believe, however, that God wants to express his love to the marginalized through my stint in the Papuan highlands.

As Jesus Christ was born for the poor, sick and needy, it is imperative the church start to have more of an impact beyond the four walls of its buildings. That is the meaning of becoming the salt and light of the world. If it fails to do so, the church will be no more than a parochial, self-involved association.

There is no source of happiness other than being a blessing for others wherever and whenever we are, a passion that goes beyond the church walls and the Christmas rituals of December. The next step is to make it happen.

Merry Christmas.
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The writer is a doctorSHARE volunteer.