Gruelling ride to synod

ADVENTURE

By SCHOLAR KASSAS
BRINGING youths out of drugs, homebrew and illegal activities was difficult for community and church leaders in the Jabim District of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG but the church’s bicycle ministry was able to achieve that.
Jabim District youth representative and bicycle ministry leader Timothy Jethro from Wangangluhu village in Naweab, Morobe, initiated the ministry last year, involving youths to travel using bicycles to church events and conferences.
This year, the ministry had taken a bigger challenge to attend the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s 33rd Synod in Port Moresby on bicycles.
The nine-day journey from Lae, Morobe to Port Moresby was seen as a success by the 27 youths despite missing out on the actual synod.
Jethro said their journey to Port Moresby started on Jan 6 when 28 of them had left Ampo in Lae around at 12pm and reached Wau at 7pm.
When they arrived in Wau, they found out that one of the riders was asthmatic and the road ahead was going to be tough and too risky for him so he was sent back.
The youths had their dinner in Wau and continued cycling in the night to Biaru One village.
Jethro, the ministry leader said Biaru has a total of nine villages with very bad road conditions and they could not ride on them.
“Most of our journey through the Biaru villages we had to push or carry our bikes when there were big rivers to cross,” Jethro said.
During their journey through the villages they stayed connected with God. In every village they spent a they held devotions with the locals in the morning and continued on their journey.
Jethro said the road stopped at the eight village of Biaru and it was just mountainous with small tracks.
The locals had told them that the mountains are very dangerous places no one had ever walked and if they did it would be the first time for people to walk.
Locals kept telling them to leave their bicycles and go back to Lae because chances of them making it to Port Moresby were very slim but the youths had put their faith of making it to the synod and ending their journey there was not an option.
“Dangerous or not we will still make it because we were attending God’s event and he will Guide and protect us and bring us to our destination,” Jethro told his group of adventurers.
Along the way, they had shared some of their clothes with people who have never seen government services though they are part of Morobe, said Jethro.

Jabim District youths in Morobe beat the odds to trek and cycle to Port Moresby but miss the 33rd synod of the ELC-PNG

From Friday to Sunday they cycled, walked and carried their bikes on the mountains and crossed the rivers through the nine villages of Biaru.
On Monday, Jan 10 they had tracked in the midst of thick forest of Biaru-Biangai track.
There were no villages and proper shelter to take refugee. The youths said they made shelters with tree branches during the rainy days and freezing nights to kept themselves warm.
In the middle of their journey into the thick jungle of Biaru two of the youths had grown weak and could ride their bikes nor carry them and walk.
They came to an agreement and threw away two bikes which made it easy for two to walk freely and other youths had helped them to carry their bags. The 27 youths for the next three days fought the cold and freezing nights, crossing flooding rivers.
On one occasion they were separated by a flooding river at Biaru. It was raining heavily where they could only shout and use flashlights to communicate.
The cold had taken over and dry twigs and logs to make fires to kept them warm were nowhere to be found. They had burned their shirts and riding helmet just to kept themselves warm.
Jethro said they had a lot of injuries, some fell sick in the jungle but their small first-aid kit containing Panadol and Amoxicillin, and prayers had saved them.
After a lot of river crossings, walking and climbing they finally reached Kakoro boat stop in Gulf where they spent a night there.

On Friday, Jan 14 they took two boats and travelled to Yopoi in Kerema where they finally took network connections after six days and had no idea about the progress of the synod.
From Kerema they had agreed to ride to Port Moresby. They called their mothers but were told that the synod had ended but the youths said they still had to reached their aimed destination.
When they reached Bereina junction, all of them had grown weak due to no proper rest and proper food. A 16-year-old was also part of the ministry riders.
They spent a night with the locals at Mekeo in Central and they helped them arrange transport and brought them into the city on Saturday, Jan 15.
Jethro said it was an experience they had and thanked God they had made it despite challenges they faced along the way.
He said the bicycle ministry youths were ready to get on the next challenges synod in Southern Highlands in 2024.
Jethro said the bicycle ministry had changed most of the youths who had been involved in drugs, homebrew criminal activities.
“They put their interest into the bicycle ministry and left their bad ways and ride with us, and listen to God’s word and had changed their lives. The main aim of the ministry, from personal experience as youth leader, is to change from the bad situations and habits I have been in before and came out. I want others to do the same. And the way to get them out is through serving God.”
Jethro said the government of Morobe and Evangelical Lutheran Church Jabim District should recognise the bicycle ministry to support such activities because this was one of the best ways to bring youths out of illegal activities and introduced them to a new path.
The youths acknowledged the member for Lae John Roso for financial assistance for their Journey from Lae to Port Moresby, Labuta (Bukawa) families for their hospitality in Port Moresby, and the hard working Geamso delegates who had always checked on them during their journey, and Morobe Governor Ginson Soanu for assisting them to return to Lae.
His encouragement to the youths was to leave their bad habits and c look to God the Father, through whom they could reach their goals in life and the destinations they were aiming.