This Story Must Be Told

The following paragraphs are written by one of my friends, Susan Stubbs.  She is a woman I greatly admire.  Not only is she a mother of 4 boys (so we are automatically kindred spirits), but she also has the sweetest spirit about her.  Despite getting malaria 42 times in the 11 years (I think that is right) of living here, she still has a positive attitude.  Her husband is the chief pilot for one of the mission groups here.  I thank her for giving me the permission to share her writings.  This story is about Mark.  Mark is a senior at the school Aubrey and Andrew attend.  He is always calm, polite and has just such a positive attitude about him.  He has every reason to be bitter and angry…..but I will let you read this story to see how one young man can make a huge impact for Christ.  Also I want to point out how when in need the mission community pulls together in incredible strength and support to each other. You will see this unfold before you as you read. This event happened on the mountain right behind the International school.   Without further ado…..

 

 

At 6 am, December 31, 2012 a crazy group of us assembled to hike to the top of Mt. Cyclops (a 6000 ‘ish foot climb) to bring in the New Year at the top. Mark Westlund had arranged 3 guides from “kolam renang CPA” to accompany us. Little did we know at the time what a Godsend that decision was! The hikers were myself (Susan Stubbs), Ben, Luke, Bryce Stubbs, Lucy Wecks (Stubbs Niece), Ben Simmons (teacher here at HIS), Santi and Bella Lopez, Janelle Cripe, Delayne Moxness, Dale Price, Brittany Martin, and of course Mark Westlund. Our three guides were Luther, Ricky and Ezekiel, followed by a volunteer guide Ian.

Several of the students had already been to the top of Mt. Cyclops over the years, some multiple times.

The night before, as my boys were packing their backpacks, I was teasing them for the HUGE amount of “first aide” equipment that they were carrying up. My oldest son Ben was on Christmas break from his sophomore year of college. He is in his second year of Army ROTC and in September had completed his training as a Volunteer Fire Fighter. In fact, just the week before I was bugging them as I had come home to find both Luke and Ben repelling off of the second story balcony of the home we live in…”refreshing themselves” on rope techniques, knots and methods for repelling. Ughh. I forgot to teach them how to sit still and knit.

As we set out to hike the mtn. Ben realized their ropes had been accidently left behind and delayed the group to go and retrieve them…God literally seemed to pack our bags in preparation for what was ahead! For Luke’s birthday last year all he wanted was a huge first aid kit, weird kid. J So he had assembled a kit with a SAM splint, several packages of “quick clot” ,and lots of good quality basic first aid supplies. It goes with him everywhere. We teased him as he even had a huge tarp in his backpack to cover us all at the top in case it rained. Once again God knew what we would need!

            We set out in super high spirits, passing HUGE spiders, pulling little leaches off our ankles and pulling ourselves up the steeper spots with ropes and the vines that guides before us had pulled down and tied off to help hikers climb the muddy, very steep terrain. It went really well…and we had hiked about 4 hot and heavy hours with our packs UP the mountain when we stopped to send some boys down a ravine to fill our water bottles from a clean river. We were going to eat a bit and push on. Mark, on a whim (but the kids swing on the big vines all the time) grabbed a massive vine and went to swing out on it. He had swung and returned one time successfully, and went to swing again. He swung out and the vine kept going, apparently coming loose from the tree tops…dropping him 10-15 feet to the trees and roots and everything else below.  Luke began running down to him immediately as we heard Mark call out (in an incredibly calm and gentlemanly like manner), "Guys, I am really sorry but I messed up my knee".  If you don’t know Mark Westlund, this is just who he is…ever the polite gentleman. For the remaining hours of 2012 I believe I heard Mark say thank you over a hundred times to each and every person he saw. Luke and Luther hauled Mark up out of the ravine where he had landed, to the flattest place they could find. I had chided the boys that morning because I always feel like their backpacks weigh 70 pounds and it is all first aide stuff that is overkill.NEVER again will I say that. As they laid Mark down, and Ben looked at his leg he began calling out what each of us should do.  Use the machete to cut trees to assemble a stretcher, guides began to call on their cell phones for extra help, Ben began working quickly on treating Mark’s leg. Although his injury was really bad, it is a MIRACLE he was not hurt worse. He was fully conscious, able to tell Ben about the fall and landing and clearly communicate if anything else hurt. As Ben went to clean the wound (with the little amount of clean filtered water that we had left) it was a MESS and looked as if there was broken, open bone, so it was decided that stopping the bleeding, properly closing the wound and getting him down the mountain were the priorities. Pictures were taken of the cut and Dale Price began his RUN down the mountain to get them to the medical team that was waiting in town below. Dr. Lopez, and nurses Karin Alrich, and Karen Juneau met at the clinic to prepare for Mark and await the pictures. We are so thankful for the MANY students who had brought their cell phones up the mtn., fully charged and with many contacts. Although cell phone reception was sketchy, we were able to get through to Brian Stubbs who became the point person in Sentani to organize response and help. Without the team at the bottom we could not have made the trek down. Mark fell at 10:20 and by 10:30 Sentani was buzzing with people preparing to help. Teams were organized to help in so many ways, from preparing a car for Mark to be transported in, to gathering water, gloves, flashlights, etc and then finding Papuan guides to lead the relief teams up.

Ben cleaned the gash, but it was FILTHY and it looked like the bone was actually broken and all we had were our bottles now filled with river water. We ditched the cleaning and began wrapping. Luke and Ben's first aid kit: every single thing was used. SAM splint SAVED us…. gloves, good tape, scissors, lots of large gauze pads…ace bandages (more than one)… with out this we would have been in trouble! Everyone gave anything they had to make it work. Hammocks and clothing cushioned and supported Mark, at one point we had teased Janelle Cripe for bringing a WHOLE bottle of Tylenol and Ibuprofen….thank you LORD she did! Half way down the mountain even Ben’s roll of duct tape saved the day. 

Without the STRENGTH of Santi Lopez, Bryce, Luke and Ben Stubbs, Ben Simmons and our Papuan guides we would have had to spend the night on Mt. Cyclops with Mark. These guys began carrying Mark down. None of us voiced how IMPOSSIBLE it looked in our minds. It was hard to imagine coming down what we had just climbed even in the best of shape, with two legs and lots of time to go slow. As the guys prepared Mark for descent the girls were sitting and praying behind them, for every detail they could think of before we began. They carried the huge packs some strapped with two or three backpacks now, for the guys as the guys carried the stretcher. It took every single one of us to make the whole process happen. I have never witnessed such a beautiful group of kids.  It took 7 1/2 hrs to carry Mark out. It was terrain that was IMPOSSIBLE. For about 4 of the hours Mark had to be repelled down, in Ben Stubbs lap…. with ropes and a “Swiss seat” made up for each of them and other boys and the guides lowering him down. Thank you Lord for climbing rope and caribeeners! As Ben hung by the ropes with Mark in his lap other boys at times had to place Ben’s feet in the next step that could provide a good footing. It was so less than ideal, but every decision was made trying to take into account TIME, weighing the risk of infection and blood loss, further injury to Marks leg, especially if his bones were broken. At times Mark’s condition weakened, even though he was AMAZING all the way down, his pulse in his ankle was very faint and he was shaking and turning pale.  The ropes that had ALMOST been forgotten in the morning literally saved us! All of us prayed so hard as we watched Luther (a GODSEND) hold/tie off Ben’s ropes and then help lower him down, each of the other guys tumbled through the terrain to get in front of them and clear the rocks and branches with the machete and then guide Ben and Mark’s feet down.

At one point, the worst point of the descent, a very large rock was knocked loose falling and landing less than a foot from Marks head, hitting the pole of the stretcher. It hit Bryce’s hand destroying his watch, and it hit and bruised Luke’s leg. The cry of the boys as the boulder came made everyone almost throw up.

Two relief teams of strong men were organized and eventually came up the mountain to meet us, what an INCREDIBLE RELIEF!!!!! THANK YOU Andrew Clausen, Paul Snider, Dan Kimball, Joel Heuton, Dave Price, Kevin Martin , Jeremy Sayer, Jared and Theresa Wiley, and Tim and Caleb Harold!

We alternated between Ben repelling Mark down the impossible spots and then everyone carrying him on the stretcher. After hours of repelling Mark’s bleeding had worsened.  The blood soaked bandages could no longer contain the loss and blood was dripping off Mark’s ankle.  At this point, concerned about the loss of blood, we consulted with Dr. Lopez and decided to use precious time and open up the wraps again, applying the WONDERFUL PACKAGES OF QUICK CLOT (thank you Luke Stubbs for hauling that stuff all over the planet)!! We began realizing, with two hours left to descend and about the same daylight left, that the jungle built stretcher we had made at 10:30 am might not hold up to the end.

With another call down for logistics help, Tim and Caleb Harold were organized to retrieve a new stretcher from YAJASI and deliver it to the team.  The timing of the response was amazing.  Just as the tarp stretcher and duct tape began to give from the abuse, Tim and Caleb showed up with an amazing stretcher! Along with Tim were Caleb, and Jared and Teresa Wiley  (a nurse with STRONG painkiller and antinausea drugs for Mark) who had hiked in flashlights and 15 liters of water to replenish the teams. By this time news was on the prayer chain, many prayed for the rain to stay away, literally clouds would move over us and then leave. Mark was shaking and very ready to be done, we have bags of bloody clothes that we had used to try to keep his leg straight and cushioned when we could actually use the stretcher, and to keep him warm. Someone hiked up a camel pack and fresh water for Mark (not from the river) so we literally tucked it in the “space” blanket we had wrapped around him (random BEAUTIFUL item from the first aide kit!) and put the straw in his mouth and told him to drink. We KNEW that if he went unconscious we were TOAST as Ben would not be able to repel him well at all without Mark able to help by using his good leg.

            By he time we reached the "gardens" at the bottom, daylight was leaving fast. People were taking turns carrying Mark and then flattening out the path ahead and moving rocks and limbs. When we made it to the road darkness had set in. There were cars lined up and a huge crowd of people cheering and clapping and as we lifted Mark into the waiting car with mattress, Lavonne (Mark’s mom) was waiting for him.  The orthopedic surgeon met us at the HIS clinic. (ON NEW YEAR’S EVE!!) By the time we got him to the clinic and on antibiotics, it had been 8 hours since his fall.

NO WORDS for the grace of God over us. NO WORDS for the angels that lowered us down the mountain, for 10 high schoolers that gave everything they had to get Mark down, yelling out his name as we all slid down the mountain.  For the MANY who cancelled all their plans for the day and quickly climbed up to meet us. The guides later said that they had never seen this type of rescue done on Mt. Cyclops before.

            Mark’s incredible dad, Paul Westlund, died in September of 2011 in an airplane accident.  Mark is a lot like his dad, there is no one that Mark is not friends with, his kind spirit is deep! Please keep praying for Mark and Lavonne! Surgery the next day revealed no broken bones but lots of “damage”. He is “home” now in Sentani, but extremely sore. They need wisdom on what the next step is. Please also pray for the wound to remain infection FREE.

            REJOICING in our Great GOD!!!!!