Religious gatherings

KEWAMUGL village in an obscure part of the highlands is going to become the centre of national and international attention next month.
One upon a time, the Dagle people carried a very bad name (they became the laughing stock) in the eyes of the rest of the Kerowagi people.
The Dagle tribal land, which is located about two miles toward the west of Kerowagi town, was once a “wild west frontier.”
Tribal warfare was the norm here in the 1990s.
No one ever contemplated that the Dagle people would one day evolve into a loving and peaceful people.
Kewamugl village today is a loving and peaceful place where both visitors and locals can walk the length of the village without the slightest nudge of fear or intimidation.
I must extend a humble word of thankyou to all the Christians from the various Christian denominations in the Dagle community who have been praying all these years for peace.
In September, Kewamugl in Kerowagi is going to become the centre of national and international attention.
One of the biggest religious gatherings in the history of the Lutheran church is going to be held in this part of the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
The Lutheran National Pastors’ Conference will be held here. Lutheran pastors as well as lay missionaries from the twenty two provinces of PNG, including overseas based missionaries and friends, are going to congregate in Kewamugl.
You can follow updates on other media platforms.
Let me conclude this message with a brief history of the Lutheran church in the Kerowagi area.
The Lutheran church is one of the two pioneer churches (the other being the Catholic Church) in the Western part of Kerowagi. Lutheran missionaries set foot in what is now Kerowagi town in the 1930s.
Rev Heinemann, a German missionary, and his Finschaffen missionary converts arrived in Chimbu via Bundi in Madang.
After they had endured the hardships and travails along an unforgiving Upper Simbu landscape inhabited by fierce warriors, the missionaries finally arrived in Kerowagi, walking down to the lower valley via the headwaters of the Koronigle River.
And so the seeds of Christianity was planted in the midst of a stone-aged people by these courageous missionaries, who began the vigorous task of converting the stone-aged Kuman people to Christianity.

Paul Waugla Wii
Demang, Chimbu