Kingal’s body arrives in Port Moresby

MORE than a thousand people gathered outside the Jackson International Airport’s domestic terminal yesterday afternoon to welcome the body of the late tele-evangelist Pr Joseph Kingal.
Christians and theonlookers most of whom were dressed in PNG colours, started arriving as early as 2pm to get a glimpse of Kingal’s casket and the family who were arriving from Lae.
The flight that was bringing the body of Kingal arrived at 4pm after bieng delayed for one hour but that did not bother the crowd.
The outer arrival section of the domestic terminal came to a standstill as cries of mourning from family, friends and those who had gathered echoed through the airport when the casket was taken from the plane and handed over to the casket bearers into the awaiting Funeral Home vehicle.
Kingal’s casket was taken in a convoy of vehicles, escorted by police, to the Servant Heart Ministries at Gerehu where Kingal’s Port Moresby haus krai had been staged for the past five nights.
After a 40-minute visit to the haus krai, the body was taken to the Funeral Home where it stayed overnight.
Dei MP Puri Ruing and chairman of the Port Moresby Ministers Fraternal Pr Vincent Miria flew to Lae last weekend to escort the body and Kingal’s wife Susan and children to Port Moresby.
Meanwhile, Tom Watinga, who is in charge of funeral arrangements, said the funeral service would be held today at 1pm at the Assembles of God Conner Stone church in Gordon.
“There have been rumours that the venue of the funeral service will be changed to a bigger place because of the number of people who will turn up but we want to assure everyone that we will stick to our original plan as announced by the committee last week.
“For all those people who will turn up, we want to encourage them to dress in PNG colours instead of the traditional black and white because Pr Kingal was a patriotic man who loved his country by wearing its colours everywhere he preached, so we want to celebrate his life and send him off in style,” Watinga said.