MUSIC

Sharing God’s word through music

By HELEN TARAWA
MUSIC is an important tool for administering the gospel of Christ and Christian churches around the country have always utilised it for that benefit.
The Debeini’s Living Water Ministries in its bid to evangelise and extend God’s work throughout the country hosted a family fun day last month which featured popular artists and groups including the P2-UIF, Higher Vision, Sonarama and Zamar.
The purpose of the fund raising activities was to help raise funds for building the churche in Northern.
The family fun day was held at the Ela Murray International School on Oct 5 which attracted about 500 people, men, women and children.
The crowd braved the rain to attend the event to watch their favourite gospel groups belt out their numbers.
It was more of a family fun day in which side activities like the bouncing castle were organised for children while the adults had lots of food and drinks to choose from as they enjoyed the performances.
Organising committee deputy chairman Engelbert Hampaleki said churches in PNG had contributed a lot to the integral human development of the people.
“Biblical principles set the foundation of moral and ethical individuals. Moral and ethical individuals contribute effectively to nation building.
“Hence, promoting and assisting the idea of church building in the country is very important,” he said.

Hampaleki said DLW Ministries was aspiring to build a church in Popondetta, Northern.
“As part of the fundraising drive, we have organised a ‘Family day with P2-UIF’ and we’ll be hosting a major gospel concert in Nov 23,” he said.
Member of the organising committee Ben Mick acknowledged all who had attended and supported the first event and encouraged everyone to look forward to the second one planned for Nov 23 at the Sir John Guise Stadium.
The Debeini’s Living Waters Ministries is located at Gerehu Stage 1 in National Capital District and was founded by senior pastors Peter and Carol Solomon.
Debeini in the Dagua dialect of East Sepik means God hence it is called God’s Living Waters Ministry.
The ministry in recognition of the work in pioneering the ministry by Pastors Peter and Carol will be celebrating their 40th anniversary in March next year.
Besides funding the church building in Northern, the proceeds of the fund raising activities will also go towards the pastors’ anniversary.
The highlight of the gospel concert is popular gospel group P2-UIF comprising of artists from Morobe, Bougainville, East New Britain, Milne Bay and Northern.
Although the group had announced last year of their final live performance in December 2018, the DLW Ministries had invited them for their events.
The first concert last month featured Peter Bogembo, Joshua Tamanabae, John Uware and Eddie Ogomeni.
P2-UIF key vocalist Pastor Peter Bogembo who performed at the concert on Oct 5 said the group was happy to support DLW through its performances.
He said the Gospel of Christ and the message of salvation needed to be preached throughout the country which DLW Ministries was doing and they were more than happy to support.
“We believe that DLW is doing an evangelism and church planting or missions programme and anything to do with saving of souls and extending God’s kingdom on earth we would like to be very much part of it.
“The Bible says, there are those who give and those who go but for the one thing that souls are saved.
“It’s not about gospel concerts and performances but it’s about saving souls the most important mission on earth,” Bogembo said.
Band member and music director Joshua Tamanabae said the group has come on board to help Debeini’s Ministers with its fundraising drive for the church project in Northern.
“Churches play a big role in community development and this is just a small way that P2UIF wants to contribute to a worthy cause,” Tamanabae said.
The concert this month will feature Sonarama, Zamar Band, Higher Vision, P2-UIF, The Vibe, The Josephs, Eyrie Music, and the PNG Bible Church Southern District and outreach ministries.
In the coming concert the whole team will be featured, including Pastor Ben Hakalitz who arrives from Australia where he resides, John Warbat from Rabaul and Richard Mogu from Lae.
It is expected to be a major event and at the end of the day the gospel concert will serve the purpose of winning souls for the kingdom of God.

LITERATURE

Writers waiting to see Marape

By DANIEL KUMBON
IF ANYBODY close to the prime minister reads this and if you think it is important, please mention it to James Marape that a letter on behalf of PNG’s writers, authors and publishers sits waiting in his office.
The letter is from three representatives – Caroline Evari, Betty Wakia and myself Daniel Kumbon.
We requested the prime minister to make time available so we can present a petition signed by some 300 PNG authors, publishers and supporters from around the world.
We are seeking government support for a sustainable home grown literature in the country.
We strongly feel that our work has never been recognised by the Government and decided to present the petition to our new prime minister.
I wrote the letter in late September and hand-delivered it at the front desk of the Sir Manasupe House on Oct 1.
When I followed it up for the third time on Thursday, Oct 24, we were asked to wait another three weeks because it was still pending.
We will continue to wait patiently because we know that the prime minister is very busy with more pressing issues.
The Gordon police shootings, the Rainbow police shooting, the Tari shooting of a police sergeant from Chimbu and the subsequent closure of the highlands highway by grieving relatives, the recent parliament sitting, the Paladin saga, the Ramu Nico slurry spill, etc, all require immediate attention.
However, Marape has been able to find time to address journalists from the mainstream media. And he recently attended the PNG Fashion Week grand finale at Apec Haus. So we remain optimistic he will also be fair with us writers, authors and publishers.
I flew down from Wabag in Enga province to join my colleagues to see him. We will still wait patiently for the next three weeks as advised by the prime minister’s support staff.
But we have decided to publish the letter hoping to attract James Marape’s attention and maybe he’ll decide to see us. We fear the letter might not be brought to his notice even in the next three weeks we’ve been asked to wait.
Here then is the letter…. . .

Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing to you on behalf of myself and four colleague writers requesting to see you in your office.
We wish to present a petition to seek support from the government for a sustainable home grown literature in Papua New Guinea.
We, Papua New Guinean writers and authors believe our nation’s literature is something that needs to be encouraged and supported by everyone, but especially by the government.
Without a home-grown literature the story of our great nation cannot be told.
We strongly believe that if our story is not told, future generations of Papua New Guineans will not be fully aware of where they come from, who they are and what made them.
We will be happy to answer any of your questions if you can spare us a little time to present the petition to you.
I thank you for taking time to read our request.
We are dedicated writers and citizens of our country, and trust that you will give us the chance to present our case to you.
Most respectfully,

Daniel Kumbon
Author

And here are some paragraphs from the petition we wish to present to the prime minister
We, the writers of Papua New Guinea are currently struggling to tell our nation’s story.
There are no major publishers in Papua New Guinea interested in publishing our work. If we want to publish our books, we have to pay for that ourselves.
Our books are not available in schools. The students of Papua New Guinea cannot read books written by their own countrymen and women.
Instead, they have to read books written by writers from other countries.
Papua New Guinea has a poorly resourced public library system. Few of our own books are available in these libraries.
In most cases Papua New Guinean authors have to donate books free of charge to libraries so people can read them.
Our national literary award, the Crocodile Prize, is struggling to survive. It is supported by limited private funding.
The Papua New Guinean government has never shown real interest in supporting it.
Nor has the government shown an interest in supporting Papua New Guinean writers.
It is time this situation changed.
We, the undersigned writers of Papua New Guinea, together with our readers and supporters, are calling upon our Prime Minister, James Marape, to commit his government and future governments to providing the support our writers, our literature and our nation deserve.
It is time to secure the story of Papua New Guinea for present and future generations.
To do less is unthinkable.