Church needs additional funding

By PAUL MINGA
LACK of infrastructure development is a big worry and setback for rural communities in PNG.
The need is all around us, whether for a classroom, church building, footbridge, aid post, airstrip or road link.
On Dec, 12, 2020 I went to witness a bride price ceremony at Vasira village in the Rigo inland area of Central.
The bride price ceremony was staged on a Saturday. In the morning the next day my friend Hauta said, “We’ll go to our church up there and you will take photographs of our church building.”
As a visitor to the place I thought Hauta was referring to a church building that the congregation were currently using for their church activities. It was a few minutes’ walk and we reached the church area in the early morning of Sunday.
To my delight I found out that what Hauta referred to was an incomplete church building that had been left idle after its partial construction because of a shortage of funds in 2018. From what I saw, it was a 30-post building. About half its roof has been covered. The walls were only a few iron sheets nailed to the frame. The incomplete building stood sad and in and idle state.
The sawn timbers lost their original colors due to exposure of sun and rain over the time. The instant I saw church building I figured out what Hauta really wanted me to do so someone can step in with help in one way or another. Or else the timbers would most likely be rotten if left like that for another decade or so.
When I started to take photographs of the incomplete church building, Hauta said she would go and get the church chairman over so he could give a brief report of what had contributed to the delay in the completion of the church building project.
When the chairman Vebui Sife came forward, I asked him when they started this church building and how much they had already spent on it and who was the sponsor.
Sife responded, “This huge 1.5 metre high, 30-post church building was initiated by our United Church congregation of the four clans of Vasira, Jubene 1, Jubene 2 and Wosira clan for Vasira Ward 12 in Rigo LLG.”

Government assistance
Sife further gave an account that the church congregation had embarked on this big building project in 2018 after a K10,000 funding assistance was made possible by former Central Governor Kila Haoda during his term in office.
The donation from Governor Haoda seemed quite a lot of money but as those funds were used on chainsaw and truck hire, fuel, workers, food, roofing iron purchase, nails and other things the K10,000 was used up, stalling the construction since 2018.
Sife also added that their pursuit for additional funding elsewhere to get their incomplete church building project off the ground has seen them knocking and approaching several organisations but no positive response has been received.
“We are still in need of 70 sheets of roofing iron for its roof, 30 sheets of iron for the wall and 60 louvre frames to get the building complete,” Sife said.
The plight of the four clans in this outback part of Central is what many other communities and church groups are facing.
I’m bringing to light the plight of this community so appropriate government agencies could come to their aid in one way or another.
Any Good Samaritan who wishes to step in and assist with building materials to complete this church building can call the chairman on phone number 71913127 or church women representative Hauta on phone number 72685930.

•  Paul Minga is a freelance writer.