Anticipation mingled with my sweat as we neared Ama for the first time. We had been squished together in a small canoe for eight hours and walking in sticky mud for two miles. At last we could see Ama’s mountain towering straight in front of us with 10 little bush houses nestled beside a tiny creek. We had finally reached our people group for a quick preparatory visit.

A small crowd gathered to greet us and shake our hands. Everyone was shy but friendly. Naked children ran excitedly around us, examining us and talking loudly in a strange language. We felt awkward being examined so closely. Eventually we were escorted to a house where we could set up our screen tent and sleep. I later discovered that a family had moved out to make room for us.

The next morning Elder Kasper of the Ama church took us to his garden and picked some snake beans in their pods and gave them to us. Thankfully we had a small pot with which to cook the beans. The whole village crowed around to watch us cook with our tiny kerosene stove—they had never seen a backpacker’s gas stove before.

After our meal we got the grand tour of each house and learned who lived where. The village is a quarter mile from the Ama SDA airstrip and old mission site from the 1960s. The airstrip is still in amazing condition, but the old mission is long gone. Giant coconut trees mark the old village site, but the jungle has reclaimed the ground. The leaders of Ama proceeded to tell us that they were giving AFM half of the old village site for us to build our home, school, gardens and a new church. It is very good land and close to other villages. Let us rejoice together!

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