Late Christian Outreach Centre founder returning home to rest

THE man who established the Christian Outreach Centre (COC) church in Papua New Guinea, Ps Francis Apurel, passed away last Sunday in his home in Brisbane, Australia.
Friends and the family are mourning Apurel’s death, which comes 17 months after the death of his son Howard last February.
The body of the late pastor, who was from Ialibu in Southern Highlands, will arrive in the country mid-next week and will be flown home to be laid in the family plot in West Kuri, Ialibu.
Ps Apurel was the eldest son of respected tribal leader and councillor, the late Fabian Walipe Apurel.
Ps Edward Wange of the COC church at Hohola, Port Moresby, described the late Ps Apurel as “a pastor’s pastor”, a mentor, coach and trainer.
“He had very great influence on COC pastors in PNG and Australia,” Ps Wange said.
He said Ps Apurel was an influential mentor to many Christians and served alongside other noted preachers like Ps Charles Lapa, Joseph Walters and Joseph Kingal during the early 1990s.
Apurel was a third-year double degree engineering student at the University of Technology in Lae when he decided to go into ministry in the late 1980s.
Ps Wange said Apurel studied at a COC Bible College in Australia and while a student there, arranged for the COC church to be established in PNG.
He returned to Port Moresby in February 1989 and in November that year, registered the COC church in PNG. The church today has over 370 congregations throughout the country.
Ps Apurel also started the Miracle Christian Centre at Ensisi Valley in 1992. Ps Apurel is survived by his Australian wife Pauline and three daughters.