Holding fast to the Miti

Weekender

When isolation hampers and frustrates government’s efforts to improve lives in a mountain community in the border of Madang and Morobe, there is yet boundless hope and strength to face each day. Head Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG, Jack Urame recently flew in a helicopter into Nankina in the Finistere Mountains to learn of the locals’ resilience through the Word of God.

By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
A VAST majority of Papua New Guineans reside in the remote areas of the country and have no have access to roads, or any opportunities to advance economically.
There is no communication or network coverage, not even the convenience of banking services, electricity, or television stations.
The only means of transport is by air and because of the rugged mountainous regions, roads could not constructed.
The average access to air services is probably five times in a year. Nearly all airstrips are rundown and non-operational.
Health facilities are in a bad state, and located five to six hours walk away from catchment villages.
Many health facilities cannot cater for population they are meant to cater to. Many old people do not even use the facilities; the sick lie in their huts and await their final breath.
I recently visited a typical Papua New Guinean village of such description. It is located near the border of Madang and Morobe.
The first thing I noticed about the village is that the environment is very clean.
The people need services like health and education, but majority of them do not know how to make that happen.
Gubayong or Gumbaion village is in ward 11 of the Nayudo local level government of Raicoast District in Madang. The village is a splendid sight, circled by high green mountains in the Nankina valley.
The land is so fertile, a variety of fruits and vegetables are grown there. Children could just pull a fruit off a tree whenever they want a snack. A river is just down the steep mountain, a stream of water from the mountain is found right in the middle of the village, and serves fresh drinking water for the people.
The head bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG Jack Urame was invited to unveil a monument to mark the 88th anniversary of Lutheran missionaries to the area. This meant a lot to the Lutheran villagers as they never saw a head bishop, and no head bishop had sat foot in the area until Nov 6.
Under the church administration, Gumbaion village is in the Nankina Circuit of Ukata District. Ukata District is one of the 17 districts of ELCPNG.
According to the book The Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea; The First 100 years, 1886-1986, first printed and published by Lutheran Publishing House in 1986, Gumbaion village was one of the last villages to have been evangelised by German (Lutheran missionaries) from Ulap.
“There were further regions untouched by the Miti. In 1930, the Ulap missionary Karl Saueracker, together with Hans Neumeyer and American missionary Paul Fliehler, for the first time travelled through the hinterland of Saidor/Biliau in the Finisterre Mountains.
“The area is called Nankina after the main river. Quite rightly it was called ‘the last mission field’ of the Ulap congregation. Here, the area of the Finschhafen Mission already touches the Madang District.”
Ulap was a German mission station established in 1928 to support the work of missionaries in Komba, Timbe and Selepet.
The interiors of Saidor and Biliau in the Finisterre mountains were first discovered by Saueracker in his patrols. However, most of the mission work into those areas was done by coastal kate-speaking congregations.
Kalasa evangelists (from the now Tewai-Siassi district) eventually reached the densely populated Jupna valley (between the borders of Madang and Morobe), in the late 1920’s, during the “great mission movement”.
The movement was the time when indigenous evangelists were actually spreading the Gospel to their own people.
“In 1929, the first evangelists were placed in Keiweng and Isan. In the Jupna area, the chieftain Japit himself proved to be helpful to the evangelists.”
In the Gumbaion history, Japit was the chief of Isan village, who was converted and later became an evangelist.
Japit was the one who brought the three German missionaries to Gumbaion, along with three evangelists, Nowatuo, Wosenu and Somoa.
When they arrived at Gumbaion, the place they first had contact with villagers, and later dedicated to Miti, is the very place where the monument stands today.
The area is called Tamaiwe or Gutnius em i kam.
The great grandson of one of the local evangelists, Yowape Yowagupe, is the head teacher of the village’s first primary school, the four-month old Puyana Primary School.
Yowagupe was very vocal in having the Lutheran bishop visiting the village, because to him, it seems that the village has been forgotten.
“The Miti or Gospel brought by the missionaries and evangelists is the only thing that has been with us always,” he tells me.
“We do not have any consistent or basic government services here since the 1990s.”
I asked him how the people have been receiving government services, and he said, “There is not much government services here, we have not been receiving any government services.”
In a village like Gumbaion, the villagers need someone who resides among them to provide leadership, in terms of planning for projects. And who else could it be but the teacher, who was also a former lecturer at Balob Teachers’ College.
Yowagupe said there were currently three projects that the villagers need; a primary school, an aidpost and the re-opening of the Nankina airstrip.
“The primary school is already up and running since June 22 this year.
I have already enrolled 89 students, for Grade 3 and Grade 4 classes only.
“This is a first primary school that a provincial government has set up.
“We will eventually need to reopen the airstrip next to the school, so it will be possible for us to transport supplies for the school.”
He said the people need an aidpost facility in the village, with actual staff working each day.
“We have a population of more than 5,000 people, which includes the surrounding villages. Babies are delivered at home because mothers could not climb the steep mountains to get to our nearest health centre.”
“Our population is increasing, there are so many children.”
The national secretary for Lutheran Health Services who also visited the village, said there was a need for an aid post, and to set up one would need the help of the Government.
“In health services, partnerships are important,” she told the people.
“And it will be a long process to make this happen, but just by being here, I have already seen the need.”
Yowagupe said the people are happy that the Morobe government, through the office of Governor Ginson Saonu has established the Puyana Primary School.
“Education is very important, but because of the isolation of the village, most of our children have no access to it.”
“Though in Madang, the school will be registered under the Morobe education division, and the teachers and staff will be provided by Morobe,” he said.
Saonu has been undertaking a reform in education services in the province.
At the same time; he is establishing an inter-provincial border programme, to provide basic services to cater for people living in the borders of the province.
“For far too long, these people were neglected, and have been marginalised,” Saonu said this during his address during the Independence Day celebrations in Lae.
“The programme has already started, the people living on the borders must see basic services,” education reform director Haring Qoreka told the villagers in Gumbaion on Nov 6.
“Schools are important, and must be set up so that the children can learn to read and write, keep up with the world, and to learn how to embrace the change that is happening.
“When they grow up, they must leave all the bad customs of sorcery and witchcraft, and learn how to take care of all government services that will follow, such as airstrip and health services,” Qoreka said.
Bishop Urame, who, after unveiling the monument to mark the 88th anniversary, blessed the three projects, saying “it must happen to serve God’s people.”
“I see a lot of children here, and I wonder how they have been getting the education they need, in those past years,” he said.
“I pray that the school will be established properly, so that these children can attend, continue on outside and comeback, and provide service to this village.”
The bishop was very fascinated at how the people of Gumbaion have lived all those years, with no sign of government services at their door step.
At one point of our conversation, he asked: “Do people really need money? Do they really need money to live and survive in this world?”
Gumbaion as a small village today is blessed with good land and good food, but it is growing in terms of population.
From the time the missionaries set foot in the village, till today, the Miti or Gospel is with them but not much could be said about the Government’s influence.
Morobe has taken a small step, but if it continues, not many people in the villages would see the need to go to Lae to access basic services.
When the helicopter lifted off, I didn’t see any roads, cars, or a shopping centre, and it troubled me because the people were totally isolated.
I wonder how the missionaries went there the first time, and I wonder how the people have been living all those years.
I found peace in recalling Bishop Urame’s speech to the people that day, “God’s word has always been with you, and through all those challenges, His word has always been your strength to see through each day.”
Though it was late, I later read a story (in this paper on Tuesday Nov 13) that the Rai Coast MP Peter Sapia on Oct 25 signed a MOA with the Rural Airstrip Agency (RAA) to restore and maintain seven airstrips. He also presented a K250, 000 cheque.

My heart leapt for joy!