Rescue in Paradise

It is now Sunday evening--Mother's day. Judy got a great Mother's Day gift, and I get to share it. The end of the story is that Sam is safe and unharmed, except for scrapes and bruises.

Yesterday Sam went with missionary Scott Dooley and volunteer medical student Ben Kumor to explore a cave that Scott has been talking about doing for several years. Scott loves caves, and has done quite a bit of spelunking (the term for exploring caves). Sam and Scott have explored several caves in the area here, but this particular one has fascinated them. The problem is that the entrance to this one is a 150' vertical shaft, and they just didn't have the equipment to safely get into and out of it!

On his last furlough, Scott acquired the equipment he needed, a longer climbing rope, and ascenders, devices that make it possible to climb up a rope. Ever since the Dooleys got back, they have been planning the day. They have been training in trees so that Sam could learn to rappel and ascend with the rope.

So yesterday they drove to Konduk (the title photo for this blog was taken from there), then hiked the 2-plus hours to the cave, along with John Opa, a local friend. They rappelled into the cave without incident, looked around, annoyed thousands of bats, and began to climb back up the rope. But they experienced trouble with the ascending equipment, and ended up with Ben and Scott out, and Sam hanging on the rope part-way up, unable to either go up or down.

Scott, Ben and John tried to pull Sam up, but the rope lay over several angles of rock which added so much friction that they could not move him more than a few inches.

We got cell phone service in the Highlands almost a year ago, which turned out to be a tremendous blessing in this situation. Scott was able to phone us. I brought Jeff Myers and a group of young men from our college of nursing, and drove to Konduk. The young men ran to the cave, and along with some people from Konduk were able to pull Sam up. Although I tried to get there, I did not make it to the cave by the time they got him out, so I waited for him along the trail. We got home about 10 pm, exhausted but thankful to God for His help, and for the wonderful, selfless people who got involved.

Today we went ahead with a previously made plan, and drove into Mt. Hagen for church and a mother's day lunch at a restaurant.

We know that many of you pray for us frequently, and we thank you all for those prayers.

Happy Mother's Day to you all, mothers or not!
Andy, Judy, and Sam

P.S. I'm writing a long, detailed account of the experience. If you want to get it, send an email, and use "Long version" as the subject line.

Photos:
#1 Sam at the top of Mount Tabi on the way to the cave
#2 Ben Kumor and John Opa
#3 Sam, talking to his mom on the cell phone from Mount Tabi after getting out of the cave.