Six-week stint in US for cop

PORT Moresby-based policeman Sgt Ben Tolpare will travel to the United States next Tuesday to attend a six-week missionary scholarship programme at the Chaplains Training Academy in Seattle, Washington State. Sgt Tolpare, a devout Christian, who devotes most of his time working with the Christian police ministry in Port Moresby, will use the opportunity to acquire some knowledge on the roles and responsibilities of chaplains in the various police and county sheriffs department in the US.
The itinerary includes visits to the Tacoma police department, King county sheriff’s department, Snohomish county sheriff’s department, Des Moines police department, Federal Way police department and the Kirkland police department – all in Seattle.
He would witness how the chaplaincies were structured in the US, and the type of services chaplains provided to law enforcement agencies there.
Sgt Tolpare has an ambition to one day become a police chaplain and he sees this scholarship as an opportunity for him to pursue that dream.
He joined the Police Force on Dec 3, 1973, and worked in the various sections, including, communications, traffic and mobile squad in Port Moresby and Western Highlands province.
He acquired a pastoral certificate in theology last year from the Living Light Foursquare Church Bible College in Port Moresby and was one of many volunteer Christians involved in the activities of the Christian police ministry.
Sgt Tolpare’s lifetime ambition is to encourage others to remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus and the church.
The activities of the ministry include conducting regular church fellowships inside the various barracks in NCD and conducting outreach fellowships in the communities, settlements and suburbs.
Their roles and responsibilities also include providing welfare and counselling services to police personnel and their families and visiting inmates in police lockups to repent and turn to God for forgiveness.
Most problems affecting police personnel and their families include marriage breakdown, police personnel and their children indulging in alcohol and drugs youth and peer pressures affecting children living inside the barracks and unethical conduct by police personnel.
In a bid to help the RPNGC to overcome these problems, senior pastors Ken Iskov and Mick Fields of The Living Light Foursquare church in Port Moresby wrote to chaplain Rick Bulma of the Pierce county sheriff’s department in Seattle early this year and secured the sponsorship for Sgt Tolpare.
The scholarship offer is part of the Living Light Foursquare church’s on going commitment to encourage police personnel to uphold their faith, discipline, morale and ethics based on Christian principals.