Chimbu family boosts church company

By ZACHERY PER
THE Chimbu district of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Papua New Guinea has launched a new company to financially support pastors and the church.
The ELC-PNG Simbu District Investment Ltd was launched in Kundiawa last week with a seed capital of K1 million from the Kua family, K50,000 from the family of the late Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Joe Mek Teine and K1,000 each from 18 circuits of the church in the province.
The Kua family handed over
the money to head bishop, Rev Gigere Wenge, at the Ega Lutheran church grounds witnessed by the head bishop of Gutnius Lutheran church Rev David Piso, Chimbu Deputy Governor Teine Sogan, Ogul Beng Lutheran church seminary’s Rev Charlie Pora, deputy provincial administrator Otto Siune and others.
A senior member of the church and lawyer Kerenga Kua said the church had assets and property that could be used to raise money to look after pastors working in trying conditions in rural areas.
“ELC-PNG has a membership of around 1.5 million, with over 1,000 pastors working in rural areas around the country, it is getting no financial support from anywhere,” he said.
“The financial needs of pastors are not catered for as they are expected to work for free throughout their life but they do face difficult times when it comes to meeting expenses for their children’s school fees, food and other basic items.”
Kua said successive generations of pastors raised the concerns at every bi-annual synod but the issue remained unresolved and the pastors continued to suffer.
“We have realised this problem exists in Simbu district and we want to commercialise the land under the new company to help the pastors and the church,” he said.
He said the two main purposes of the company would be to make money to pay the pastors on fortnightly basis and to give financial help to the mother church.
He thanked the ANZ Bank for giving them a loan of K1 million as seed capital for the new company.
Wenge thanked the Kua family and the Simbu district for making the decision to take this new direction to help the church.
Members of the church presented cash contributions towards the church and also performed drama that highlighted the plight of pastors facing difficulties in meeting financial needs.