We were wondering last week about what happens to what we build and thinking that so much just crumbles, and returns to green or whatever color it was before we came. We look at the world using Google maps, satellite view. I looked for the places I knew in Zaire to see if I could recognize anything that was there when I was. The highlands in that part of Africa are predominately green except where thousands of people have dug gardens and built their houses.

There are people who are very concerned if forests are cut. They want us to go green. I guess I helped destroy a couple forests and started a forest fire while I was at Rethy. A lot remains hidden when looking at satellite photographs of the world.

God sees the world in a very different way. He sees the thoughts of men and their inner motives for what they do. Nothing is hidden from Him and mankind will answer to God for what he has done with what has been given to him. It is appointed to man once to die and after that the judgement. We bring nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. When a man dies we often hear the phrase, “Dust to dust”.

It was probably mud to mud in the valley near the hospital. That cement cylinder we sunk into the marsh to collect the spring water for the hospital water system is probably full of mud again. The eucalyptus forest of trees planted to produce perfume became materials for the Koda Hydroelectric project and the forest can’t be found. Of course there was no forest there in the first place, until it was planted by the Belgians. There may be some volunteer trees coming up from the seeds.

There was another forest of Cypress Trees we called Red Arrow, about four miles from Rethy, on the road past the airstrip. The trees were being cut by hand, and made into boards when we lived at Rethy. That forest too, is hard to find in the satellite view of the area. It looks like a big section has been totally cleared and replanted with coffee trees, little round, carefully spaced, green dots in well-defined plots. The forest that was on the other side of the hill is covered with a dark green, broadleaf foliage. I think that is what grew up over the fallen crooked trees that were of no use for lumber.

We bought truckloads of boards from that forest for projects at Rethy. Truck loads also went to Ndrele and some were exported to Uganda. We also cut poles to build the log cabin at Rethy, mostly used to house pets. There is not much left of that forest.

Before the Belgians came there were very few trees in the area. The forests had been planted by the Belgians, the trees in closely spaced rows so they would grow straight and tall, eventually to be harvested as lumber.

We also used the forest as a great place to take kids for a camp-outs. It was dark in the dense part of that forest, and very quiet; any sound absorbed by the carpet of fallen needles and the millions of thin dead branches found beneath the green growth at the top of the trees. It could be spooky at night.  

A treasure hunt in the forest at night, using flashlights, compasses, and measuring rods to find gold would make an interesting Saturday night activity. The kids might even learn a little about reading a compass and orienting a map. As a dorm parent and teacher, I had signed us up at a Joint Staff meeting to take the responsibility for a treasure hunt. We’d combine it with a moonlight hay ride.

We could take all the kids out to Camp Red Arrow in the six meter trailer I had built to carry the power poles for the Koda hydro project. I’d add a little hay and pull the trailer with the red and yellow Massy Harris tractor. The kids would have a great time!  Ellen could give them hot cocoa when we came back, while I was weighing in any gold they might find. I’d pay them ten Sengis a gram, measuring the weight of the gold using the pan balances from the science lab at school.

In my garage carpenter-shop I prepared two identical thin rods, about 2 meters long. The two rods, a compass, a tape measure, a hammer and nails, and a pad and pencil were the items needed for our preparations in the forest.

We rode double out to the forest on my blue Yamaha 100 street bike. Dave, my fellow missionary and also a dorm parent, held the long rods with one hand and somehow held on to the bike and me with the other. The long measuring rods projected out in front of us over the headlight while the hammer and nails were strapped to the carrier behind us with a strip of inner-tube rubber. The pad and pencil rested safely in my back pocket.

We arrived somewhere near where Mr.  Miller had made Camp Red Arrow many years ago. When we stopped at the bridge, I discovered I now had two pencils and neither had a point. My red Swiss Army knife was always in my pocket so I had soon sharpened both pencil pieces. I pounded a nail in the log which formed the curb at the edge of the small bridge. Standing on the log, over the nail, I selected a tree among the many straight trees some distance away.

Dave started measuring the distance to the tree with one of the rods, flipping it end over end, counting as he went. I sighted over the compass, lining up the two hair lines and the tree. Holding the compass steady, I looked at the dial to read the number of degrees indicated on the dial. I recorded the number on my pad:  145 degrees. That was nearly south-south east. 180 degrees would be exactly south. I took my rod and began counting the number of rods it was to the tree. 23 rods, I counted. I stopped at the tree, pounded in a nail 2 feet above the ground. Since Dave had gotten the same distance, I wrote down 23 rods beside the 145 degrees.

I could still see the log at the side of the bridge, so I sighted back to the bridge and got 215 degrees. The sum was 360 degrees, so my sighting checked. We selected another tree and repeated the process at a different angle and distance. We were mapping out a path through the dense, silent woods. The segments of different lengths, at different angles, made a crooked path towards a rocky hillside in the darkest part of the forest. That was where I planned to hide the treasure.

It was nearly noon by the time we had returned to the starting point and repeated the whole process making a second trail of similar length. The second trail started off in a different direction but zigzagged back to the same ending point. We walked back to the motorcycle and returned to the dorm for lunch.

The yellow enamel paint wasn’t quite dry on the quartz rocks I had painted, but that didn’t matter much. The dirt and pine needles that would cling to the strips of paint would make the gold ore more authentic looking. I put the rocks in a small plastic bucket and, carrying it in one hand, drove back out to the forest after dinner to hide the gold. Some marked rocks I just threw here and there, scattering them on the rocky hill side at the end of our two trails. Others were buried; some I left visible. I hid a couple of the biggest ones a number of yards away from the rest.

That afternoon, I created two treasure maps, drawing the separate routes out to the approximate scale, using a ruler and a protractor. After rubbing some juice from a split lemon on the paper and scorching the edges of the parchments, I rolled the paper into two scrolls. I now had the ancient treasure maps all ready.

When we chose the teams after supper, there was lots of excitement. Biggies who knew how to use a compass were included on each team. They were given the treasure maps and the measuring rods. Kids went to get their flashlights, and wanted us to open the canteen to buy new batteries.

The cold, starry night, seemed particularly dark since the moon, which had been full just a couple days ago hadn’t yet risen. The girls sang songs riding on the tractor wagon, while the guys jumped off, ran through the bushes, and then came running up behind to climb on again. Flashlights bobbed here and there as we drove slowly down the airstrip traveling parallel to the road that led to the forest. At the end of the strip, I had everyone get in.

The moon was just starting to rise when we got to the bridge in the forest. I shown my flashlight on the nail and explained the rules again.

“The gold is in rocks similar to this one, which I dug up in the area at the end of your treasure maps,” I said. “The treasure maps look to be similar to the one I lost. Follow them carefully and seek for the gold, even if your team doesn’t get there first. Keep the gold you find and I’ll buy it at 10 Sengis a gram when we get home tonight.”

Chattering together the kids tried to decide what to do.  First they studied the maps, and finally one team shown their brightest flashlight over the compass along the bearing and began measuring off rods and counting.

The other team began to argue. “This is stupid,” Danny said. He rotated the map and looked off towards the hill. “I know where the gold is anyway. I don’t need this old map. ”  He shoved it at Keith.

“Which way do we go?”

“I will do the measuring, I’m older than you. ” 

“Where is the compass?”

“Does it have to point north?” 

They shined their flashlights at the compass and in each other’s eyes. They didn’t ask for any help, though I was just standing there wanting to be asked. Keith held the map, turning it first one way, then the other. I thought at least the picture of the road and bridge I had included in the map would help them to know the general direction of the first sighting. Danny wasn’t interested in working as their leader, and I knew he could read the map. He had done well in science class.

One of the kids grabbed the rod, trying to take it, apparently wanting to use it like a spear. “Gimmie that,” yelled the first, and caught the other end of the slender rod. It nearly snapped. No one else said anything. They just stood there.

From a distance off in the woods we heard the happy voice of some Titchie, “Hey, here is the nail, just like Pa Brown said. ” He had discovered the nail in the first tree. The guys measuring with the rod had almost gotten there. “Which way do we go now?” was the next thing I heard. Alan’s team definitely had the idea.

We were using the forest and, though we didn’t hug the trees, neither did we hurt the trees much, except maybe with the nails. God gave us a wonderful place to enjoy. We hear quite a bit about saving the forests, why not use them? 

God, who created this world for us to use and care for, destroyed it all with a flood, because of the evil hearts of mankind. The land recovered after the flood and people multiplied again. God told them to repopulate the earth, to care for the world and rule over it. He told them that he would not destroy the earth again with a flood, and gave them the rainbow as a reminder of that promise.

They proudly decided instead to build a tower, the top of which was to reach to heaven. They wanted to make a name for themselves. They decided to build a city, and God didn’t approve. The introduction of many languages resulted in total confusion and they quit building. They were scattered over the face of the earth. The building was never completed. Maybe it returned to green, maybe whatever is left is under the sand.

I think we can confidently say that all that is seen, all that we build is transient, only that which is not seen, is eternal. Why would people ever deny the existence of their creator God and worship the creation, trying to force people to keep it green.

As to the treasure hunt, Danny did find a small white quartz rock, with a strip of yellow gold, but a Titchie, Kathy Williams, found one of the largest rocks, with the yellow paint, that I had hidden.  The rest of the story is in the book, Grandpa Still Remembers.  Our desire when at Rethy was to build into the lives of our kids there, to communicate eternal values to them, treasure in heaven.

What we build here doesn’t last very long.  Acknowledge God.  He says, “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.”