Church revives shipping services

By MALUM NALU
All of us Lutherans, and especially from coastal Morobe, have fond memories of the old Lutheran Shipping.
My last trip on a Lutheran Shipping vessel was in Oct 2007, when I travelled on mv Rita with my late mother, Moasing, to the beautiful seaside village of Buakap in Salamaua for the 100th anniversary of the Malalo Lutheran Mission Station.
Mum’s people from Laukanu, further south, sailed a kasali (traditional sailing) canoe to Buakap in a re-enactment of them bringing in the first Lutheran missionaries from Finschhafen in 1907.
Bart Philemon was then Lae MP and addressed the crowd as a prominent Lutheran leader.
So much has happened since.
Mum is gone.
Lutheran Shipping was closed in 2014 after Kambang Holdings, the business arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG, was liquidated with debts of up to K27 million.
Philemon lost his seat in 2012.
Being the son of a prominent Lutheran evangelist from Butibam village, and having been educated by the church in Australia, he was utterly angry and depressed about the whole Lutheran Shipping saga.
After all, this was an icon of the church, having been started by the early Lutheran missionaries, which was brought to its knees by incompetent management.
Philemon’s saving grace came in his elder daughter, Emma, who was sick in Australia.
She told him he owed it to the church to help revive Lutheran Shipping.
Philemon, now 73, reluctantly became chairman of the liquidation supervisory committee charged with bringing back a shipping service and improving the church’s cash flow.
The last five years have been filled with drama, so much so, that he often jokes to me that if I ever get to write a book about the whole Lutheran Shipping saga, it will be a bestseller.
Last Saturday morning, he drives me from our Butibam village to Asiawi Wharf at Voco Point, in our beloved hometown of Lae, as the church’s newest ship, mv Ialibu sails in from the Phillipines.
As we stand on the wharf watching the magnificent custom-built K13m catamaran sailing in, escorted by a kasali from Buingim Village in Bukawa, Philemon sheds a quite tear.
It’s been a long time between drinks, so to speak, but ‘Captain Courageous’ (as I call him) has achieved his mission.
Lutheran Shipping is back, aka Lutheran Shipping Services, and managed and operated by Irok Services and services, tourism and income opportunities will start flowing again after an unnecessary stalemate.
Later, addressing hundreds of Lutheran faithful at the beachfront, Philemon says the church is synonymous with shipping.
“Lutheran Church is synonymous with Lutheran Shipping, since 1908, when the first Lutheran mission boat Bavaria entered the waters of Papua New Guinea,” he says.
“From then, until now, Lutheran Church and Lutheran Shipping have been one.
“I was on the board of Kambang Holdings, which used to run Lutheran Shipping, for 18 years from 1984 to 2002.
“I left when I was in politics.
“Everything was running well at Lutheran Shipping.
“After 2002, things started to go wrong in our business arm; not because of anything but people.
“If you have professional people, business will run well but if you have people who are not professionals, business will not run well.
“In 2012, the Church Council announced that we would no longer run the business, because of huge debts amounting to more than K27 million which could not be paid back by the church or Kambang Holdings.
“Under the laws of Papua New Guinea, if a business cannot repay its loans, that business must go into liquidation.
“It must sell off all its assets, get money, and repay all debtors.
“The Church Council also appointed the supervisory committee of the liquidation, with me as chairman.
“On July 24, 2015, the church signed a contract with Bradex Shipyard of Cebu in the Phillipines to go ahead with boatbuilding.
“At the Synod on Karkar Island in 2014, the Prime Minister (Peter O’Neill) himself promised to give K10 million.
“However, when we signed the contract for this boat, the K10 million didn’t arrive.”
The church itself had to dig deep into its finances with six progress payments of US$500,000 each, hence, what should have taken a year took three years to complete.
Delayed payments meant penalties, hence, the bill building up to K13 million: K10 million from National Government and K3 million from ELCPNG.
Head Bishop Rev Jack Urame says life has been a struggle, especially for coastal Morobe, since the closure of Lutheran Shipping.
“Many people have felt the pain and the struggle as we walked together,” he says.
“I thank Philemon and his team for their work to bring this ship here.
“The Government and the church must work together to serve our people.
“If we work together, we will achieve much in serving our people.
“Many are living in rural areas and need help from both Government and church.”
Urame also acknowledges the work of a team of consultants led by ELCPNG acting asset manager, Dr Jaap Schep, who worked hard on the project.
Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu is a relieved man given that the transport burden, especially on far-flung areas such as the Siassi islands, has been eased.
The Siassi islands, since the collapse of Lutheran Shipping, have gone backwards big time.
Saonu says his government will sign a memorandum of understanding with the church to work together for development.
Saonu is a big supporter of tourism in Morobe and wants Ialibu to spearhead this revolution.
“Tourism, especially church tourism, must be developed using this boat and bring more money into Morobe province,” he says.
“We must use church history, and church culture, to bring in tourism.
“We must create church tourism.
“This will help us to appreciate the rich history of the church.
“Apart from that, we also have our rich culture and environment, which we can combine with church history, to build the future (in tourism).”
Once bitten, twice shy, and Saonu says the mistakes of the past must never be repeated in this new-look Lutheran Shipping outfit.
Bart Philemon is smiling.