Oro’s Iron Lady

By HELEN TARAWA
“PLEASE stop the plane. We must get on the flight. It wasn’t our fault!”
These were the words of Peggy Jawodimbari, who was leading a group of women on a church mission in the United States some years back.
The late Peggy from Northern is referred to in the province as Iron Lady. People from Oro likened her to strong women leaders from around the world.
Iron Lady was how her nephew nicknamed her on Facebook when informing family and friends of her death late last month.
Aia (mum) Peggy, as known to many around her circles, came to be called by the moniker after she became the first Papua New Guinean to make a jumbo jet turn back to the terminus in Phoenix, Arizona to pick her and her group up after they had arrived late.
The aircraft broke every record in the US aviation history when the authorities turned the plane that was already taxing out of the terminal at Los Angeles to Phoenix, Arizona, to return to pick up 29 women from Northern.
In 1992 Peggy led a group of Oro women for the Aglow Women’s Fellowship conference in the US. Their flight into Los Angeles arrived late for the connection to Arizona and while the group was in the passenger terminal trying to sort out forward bookings, the giant bird was already taxiing out onto the tarmac. Peggy was forced to feverishly negotiate for her group, explaining that the lateness wasn’t their fault.
She begged airline staff to make the plane turn around. And it did.
The Oro women made it onto the plane and as the doors were closing, the pilot made an announcement over the intercom, specifically directed at the team leader.
“Madam, no one in the whole of US has ever been and is allowed to turn a plane from its course except the President. You have just created history and I salute you. You may take your seat.”
Applause erupted throughout the aircraft. The contingent of Oro women thanked and praised God knowing that such things only happen when God was in control.
Peggy and her charges made it in time for the start of their conference in Phoenix, Arizona. That was the kind of leadership role that she played that made her so unique.
When I heard this story at her funeral recently, I wasn’t surprised.
The episode brought back memories of a similar incident that I witnessed at the Girua Airport in Popondetta.
We were late arriving at the airport.
Heavy rain at home, at Gona, the night before had caused flooding along the road which delayed our trip into town.
By the time we arrived, the Air Niugini Dash 8 aircraft doors had shut and the propellers were in motion.
Peggy quickly sought out the ground supervisors and tried to rationalise on our reason for being late.
To my, and other late passengers’relief, the propellers stopped turning and we were soon on board and bound for Port Moresby.
She was no doubt a leader and I was thankful for someone of her persona.
Peggy took on a leadership role in 1989 after her husband left his capacity as Culture and Tourism Secretary.
The family moved to Northern and the following year he became Oro Provincial Secretary and maintained the top administrator post until 1995.
She became coordinator of the Christian Revival Crusade (CRC) women in Northern for 25 years from 1989. During that time she also assumed the role of president of the Oro Women’s Aglow Fellowship. She led local women to several meetings and conferences in Australia as well as that history-making trip to the US.
Between 1991 and 1993, Peggy was president for the Oro Provincial Council of Women. In 2007 she was appointed coordinator of All People’s Prayer Assembly.
She was the overseer of men, youths and women Arise in Oro and Women Arise coordinator also reported to her.
Leading women within the province to conferences throughout the country and eventually overseas to Australian and other places was her trade mark and no one could match that.
She is now gone taking with her the talent and gift of leadership that God had appointed and set her for.
The Oro women have been challenged to rise up and take on from where she has left off, to lead by example as she did.
Peggy, from Surirai (Killerton) village in the coastal area of Northern, attended Holy Cross Primary School from 1964 to 69.
She went to Holy Name High School and completed Grade 10 (Form 4) in 1973.
She attended Lae Secretarial College and graduated with at PETT certificate in Stenography in 1974.
She worked with the Anglican Church for four months in 1975 before meeting her husband Arthur in April 1975. They married at the Holy Cross Anglican Church in Gona on Dec 22.
National chairman of CRC International Pastor Bill Vasilakis paid tribute to Peggy at her funeral service.
“She had a Christ-like character and her commitment to the cause of Christ was inspiring,” he said.
Rhoda Hageyo, wife of the National CRC president Pastor Fuwe, said Jawodimbari was a woman leader in her own right.
Her nephew Silvanus Bawo who read the tribute during the funeral service on Saturday Dec 2 at Konje village said: “Mum Peggy was a unique person with very high moral, there was no blemish on her character.
“There was integrity in her life, she said yes to Uncle and remained faithful until she diedon Sunday Nov 27.”She walked through the Binandere area, up to Evore from the mountains down to the sea with her ability to coordinate and influence people in a positive way.
Her Otao (friend) and fellow woman leader Sylvia Kapaia described their friendship as a very close one.
“My cry is that have the women you’ve taken around and led picked up from you? Have they heard you accurately, and run the race, the race you have run? I’m sure the Lord will say well done good and faithful servant.
My Otao I want you to rest in peace because you have done well.”
Her husband Arthur described his wife with words from the Bible in Proverbs 31: 11 and 12: “Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm all the days of her life.”
He added that in Proverbs 19: 14 – Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.
“She was always behind me to see me through but at the same time very protective over me. Behind every successful man is a woman and I believe my wife has fulfilled that,”Jawodimbari said. She may have been that ‘Iron Woman’ in her leadership role but back home she left a legacy which was evident by the number of women who flocked from all over Northern to mourn her death.
Peggy Jawodimbari was laid to rest at Konje village.