I returned to Papua New Guinea last year, 28 years after we left in 1979. We had worked with the United Church for 11 years in coastal Papua and I needed to go back to see old friends, catch up with developments and take our youngest daughter Cathy back to see where she was born and to visit our son Robert’s grave.
We had arrived in the Delta country with three children, Karen (five years old), Lynnette (four) and Stephen (six months). Our first child conceived and born at Kapuna, Catherine, was born in 1969 with cerebral palsy; Robert, born in 1973, died the following day. Here we were at the height of our obedience to “the Call” and tragedy strikes, twice. The cause, we now believe, was my lavish use of the wood preservative Dieldrin mixed with creosote to prevent the white ant termites from eating our house. Some of us still have traces of it in our systems, as have Australian colleagues who also used it.
With Robert’s death, things changed both in ourselves in our understanding of the cost of mission, and in our Papuan colleagues and village folk. Now we were seen to be human and to suffer just like them. Now we too were vulnerable. We almost lost Stephen in 1970 with the sudden onset of cerebral malaria. Only the personal care of hospital staff and Peter Calvert’s injections of quinine and prayer as we knelt around his bed, brought Stephen and us through. I even waved my fist under God’s nose as I shouted in agony “Don’t you dare!”
So to return and see Robert’s grave and the gravestone I made out of cement and river sand was deeply moving, and very fulfilling. Its inscription still inspires - Ekalesia Helaro, Toreisi Lou – the hope of the Church is the Resurrection. Here was a seed we had planted that would bond us forever to that place, that church and those people – and the bond is very deep and rich, even now.
PNG’s population has grown rapidly to 5.5 million people. The country is a democracy with 109 elected members of Parliament. Elections last year brought Sir Michael Somare, the first Prime Minister in 1977, back to power with a rather
shaky coalition.
Port Moresby, the capital city, has grown with the influx of people from all over the country, as well as refugees from Irian Jaya. A few days reorientation to the city let us visit favourite places and to discover the exciting variety of people, markets, churches and chaotic traffic. We were amazed that we didn’t see another white face until a day after arriving!
With Airlines of Papua New Guinea we flew west to Baimuru in the Gulf Province in a Twin Otter plane. We were amazed at the size of everything – rivers, farmland, jungle and then the river deltas of the Gulf Province, which had been our home for five years. The local United Church congregation welcomed us with leis, cool drinks, delicious fruit and food and gifts, with a welcome note that told us the seed we had planted was bearing fruit. Quite moving! The dingy and outboard journey to Kapuna Hospital in the Purari River delta, which had been our home, set the memories flowing, re-ignited my amazement at the beauty of the rivers, dense bush, tropical birds and the relentless tides. In fact if I ever write a book about that era of our lives I plan to use the title The Tides Rule our Lives.
The welcomes were moving but the absence of so many past staff (life span is shorter than in New Zealand) and the splintering of the local church through a widespread revival in the 1980s saddened us. Small villages now have two, three or even four churches vying with one another. One Pentecostal pastor confided that the renewal has lost its kick and they don’t know how to revive it. On the other hand, Kapuna Hospital has become a mission centre not only training nurses for medical work around the country, but running courses for Christian leaders, youth leaders and discipling believers. A new sense of unity is growing, with meetings for forgiveness of past hurts and splits.
Back in Port Moresby we visited our old home at Boroko United Church. The three congregations I worked with in the 1970s have now become independent of each other and are all thriving. One of them meets in a new church building nearby - the Sione Kami Memorial Church seats 2000 people and on the Sunday we attended there were 1200 present; quite an increase from the 80 or so when we began our ministry there in 1974!
By Andrew Dunn