Fifty years on – the United Church of Papua New Guinea – the Legacy lives on

It all started with the roosting of the “Southseas Islands missionaries” from the Cook Islands, namely, Ruatoka, Anaderea, Rau and Eneri onto the shores of Hanuabada in 1873.  (Earlier on they had tried living in Manumanu but disease and most probably, providence, had waylaid them onwards and forward to Hanuabada).  They would be followed a year later, by the Reverend William Lawes, of the London Missionary Society (LMS), his wife, and infant son.

Deacons of the Poreporena United Church, Hanuabada.  When the LMS landed in Hanuabada, the only village leaders they could turn to, to help them with their work, were clan elders.  The elders of the clan, became their obvious choice to aid them advance their mission.  The deacons today, remain the foundations of the church.

The confirmation of the "Seekers' class 2017".  Boni Ako (seated second from right), and Aaron Sidney LAHUI-AKO (standing, first from right), were part of this class.  Their graduation formally confirms them members (ekalesia), and that they can now partake in the holy communion, etc.

Part of the Ekalesia of the Poreporena Lahara United Church of Hanuabada Village

 

Yours truly, posing for an after-church photo with Mr Ben Rima, Secretary of the Poreporena Lahara United Church, Hanuabada

From 1874 right up to 1962, the foundations of what is now the United Church of Papua New Guinea, was developed by these great men and women of the LMS.  But this is another story.

The historical Hanuabada village, with Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea, in the background

ON 21 November, 1962, a mere ninety years after the “Misi-tauna, Lou”, Tamate, Ruatoka, and his Rarotongan LMS colleagues arrived in Hanuabada, their dreams of a Church were finally realized when the Papua “Ekalesia” came into being.  Because from the very beginning of the New Guinea Mission, the LMS had longed for and dreamt of the day when there would be a truly Papua church in the Territory.  So, during the 1948 Papua District Committee meeting, they began to put together a plan, which would later result in the formation of the Papuan Church Assembly (PCA).

Two years later in 1950, another meeting was held in Delena.  At this meeting, a pastor and a deacon from each of the Papuan districts were invited to talk about the work of the Church.  The delegates then endorsed plans to conduct regular annual meetings.  But most important of all, they started working on a constitution for the PCA.

For the next nine or so years, the PCA gradually but slowly, developed under wise Papuan leadership, as the local church leaders began to take over many of the responsibilities which had been previously held by the missionaries.  In June, 1959, representatives from the PCA, and the LMS Australia and New Zealand Committee (ANZC) met to draft the constitution for the Papua Ekalesia.  After much consultations and discussions in the Papuan districts, the draft was finally adopted by the provisional Assembly of the Church in October, 1961.

So, when the ANZC met again in February of the following year, the directors finally resolved that “God has now brought us to the hour when, in His Worldwide Church, there is now a truly Papuan Church.  We offer our continuing cooperation as the Papua Ekalesia grows in wisdom and grace, and we pray that Christ may be able to present to Himself, a glorious Church, not having a spot or wrinkle, or any other thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.”[1]

The following year, a “truly Papuan Church” was finally born.  It was christened, the Papua Ekalesia.

On 19 January, 1968, the LMS (New Guinea Mission as it was known to the outside world then) and the Methodist Mission churches finally joined together, through a handshake, and gifts of shell money, and pig tusks, to form the United Church in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

This historical occasion marking the establishment of the UCPNG and Solomon Islands, took place at the Ela Beach oval (where IEA Ela Beach is now located).  After the formal part of the occasion had been concluded, the highly respected Motuan, Reverend Reatau Mea, representing the Papua Ekalesia, gingerly placed a necklace of pig tusks around the neck of the most revered Reverend Saimon Gaius.  In return, Reverend Gaius, representing the Methodist Church, placed a coil of shell money in the hands of Reverend Mea.  After both gentlemen had completed this ceremonial exchange of gifts, Keith McCollen took their offered hands, and on behalf of the United Church of Port Moresby, shook them to signify their lasting unity.  Then these venerable gentlemen in unison, turned around to face another part of the field, and under the watchful eyes of their equally important peers, signed the “Deed of Union” between the LMS and the Methodist, thereby formally endorsing the United Church in PNG and the Solomon Islands.

Everyone then turned their gazes around to enjoy the harmonious singing prowess of the choirs of the New Guinea islands members of the United Church while their Papuan counterparts readied themselves to sing and dance a number of their famous peroveta songs – both legacies of the Methodist and LMS missionaries - the LMS and Methodist missionaries had not come in vain!

Friday, 19 of January, 2018, marks 50 years of the United Church’s formal existence in PNG.  The formal celebrations to commemorate this historical occasion took place at the Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby on Sunday, 21 January, 2018.

Today, I, together with my other peers, some, whose parents have passed on, others, still alive, pay tribute to the hard work, devotion, and commitment of our parents, who, through their calling by the Most High God, had gone forth into the wilds of this country to do His bidding.  Together, we experienced the wonders of such a life - constant hunger pangs, sometimes lack of proper shelter and warmth, proper clothing, sometimes hostile locals in the areas they were posted to, and most times, the lack of general basic necessities of life which we, the children, and our children take for grant today.

With mum and dad at the Rarongo Theological College, East New Britain Province; circa 1973.

With mum and dad at Rarongo Theological College in 1972.  Holding me is late Bishop (retired) Nou Oru.  It was also during this time that the foundations of our strong family ties with the Orus' of Pari village, NCD were laid. Dad and Uncle Nou became true mates, right up to the passing of uncle Nou a couple of years ago.  There and then, they promised to cement this with the naming of their sons after themselves.  Nou Ako and Ray "Raju" Nou, both married with children of their own, are the living embodiments of this relationship.

Planting the foundations of what I am today. Mixing it up with people, albeit, children, of different colours, backgrounds, nationalities, and creed.  This is an early Saturday morning 1974 photo of Rarongo beach, where all the kids, including those of the lecturers, streamed to see this great killer fish the fishermen had caught!  yours truly has made sure that he stands faraway from the jaws of this fish...

The United Church General Assembly meeting held at Gaulim Teachers' College, East New Britain Province. Photo circa 1973?  This is a very significant meeting for United Church Women in particular. During the Women's Inter-Regional Conference held earlier in Kabakada, East New Britain province, mum due to her role as a women leader at the Rarongo Theological college attended this meeting.  During that meeting she was nominated to represent United Church women, for the very first time, at this General Assembly meeting.  Of course, she had to bring me with her too, to avoid me missing school and running around the college while dad was away in classes.  To this day, I truly don't know why I was allowed into this official United Church General Assembly photo.  But it remains, I was a participant! (hehe)

I am a very thankful beneficiary of this legacy, a legacy which to this very day has complemented, supported, encouraged, guided, and most of all, inspired me through life’s turbulent roll.  I praise God almighty for making it so.  Therefore, I stand today, in awe, of my parent’s humble achievements for the Church. 

I left Hanuabada and Port Moresby, for that matter, when I was four years old in 1972, to follow my father’s dream of becoming a religious minister of the United Church.  From the picturesque beaches of the Rarongo Theological college to the beautiful jungles of Siwai, with a brief year’s stint in between, in Adelaide, South Australia, then on to the PNGDF establishments of Lombrum, Moem, Igam and Taurama barracks to take over from the departing Australian Army Chaplains, me and my siblings became part and parcel of the LMS legacy that goes back to 1873. 

At Dad's ordination service where Bishop Beaso officially ordained him as a United Church Minister and conferred on him, the title of Reverend Ray Ako.  This occured on Sunday, 5 December, 1976 at the Tonu United Church, Siwai, in what is now the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

Mum, with well wishers after Dad's ordination service at Tonu United Station, Tonu station, Siwai, AROB.

Nou Ako having a bath at our backyard at Hurai, Siwai. We lived in one of the dilapidated teacher's houses at Hurai community school, Siwai in 1976. 

Dad, with his Catholic counterpart, Chaplain His, in Vanuatu during the Jimmy Stevens uprising.

An after service picture at the Small Northfield Church, Adelaide. Mum is standing in the foreground, circa 1975?

At this morning’s family devotion, Dad, who is now 75 and retired, led the devotion (as we were not able to attend the 50^th anniversary church Service being held at the SJG stadium).  He spoke about Micah and Micah’s advice to his people to be just, kind, and most importantly, walk humbly with God.  

Despite our many shortcomings as humans, this has always been our family motto, and will remain so for generations to come. 

The actual reading from the Book of Micah (Chapter 6: 8) says:

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Mic 6:8)

May God continue to bless and guide the United Church of Papua New Guinea, and its faithful members, to complement, promote, support and advance the spiritual, social, economic, and political development of this beautiful land of ours, Papua New Guinea.

 

Mum and dad, me and my little champ, Nou Ako Jnr, after church service on a Sunday in 2017.  We remain, devoted followers of the Most High God, in Whom, I place all my trust and belief, that He will continue to richly bless me and my family,  and guide us through life's wilderness, and that may He continue to confuse the thoughts and minds of all those who think evil of me and may want to hurt or kill me or my family, but that He also blesses them richly and show them the true art of friendship, kindness, and humbleness among mankind, AMEN.
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Note to the readers: The above is but a very very short summary of what I wrote in my first book.  For sales enquiries, please email me on lahui.ako@gmail.com.  Cost of a copy is K100.

 

 

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[1] Lockley, G. Lindsay (1972), p35-36

How a person half my age changed my life forever:

How a person half my age changed my life forever:

 Between September and November 2015, I had recurring HBP of 190/100.  A couple of checks at the PIH found nothing that could explain why this was so.  There was already talk by the Dr for me to consider some serious examination of my heart.  My one and only bestie Daera Ako gave them a blunt “NO” and bundled me off, cap in hand, to Prof Kevau’s clinic.

After some ear-bashing by uncle Isi for rushing off to the so-called experts at PIH when the real helpers were at POMGEN, he told me to stand on the weighing machine and grimaced as the needle pointed into the void at 126kg.  (Void as in going past the “obese” category on the machine).  There and there, he started laying down the law.

 That December, (in the first week, I think), me and my colleagues Marie Eorage-Vele and Julie Wapo were in Canberra to pick up our Peruvian visas to attend the APEC ISOM in Lima the following week.  A couple of days later I receive a text message from a mate of mine from our Defence Rugby League days, Robert Ilu, asking me if I was available to have a short talk with the shyly spoken Kato Ottio, who was feeling homesick and was already thinking of packing it in and going home.  I jumped at this opportunity to meet this champ and do my best to talk him out of it so that he can go chasing his dream.

The following day, the ladies and I drove to locate where GIO stadium was (and nearly getting booked by the police for driving up a wrong lane).  Finally locating it, we met up with Rob and Kato at the GIO car park.  We all then drove off to the nearest coffee shop to have a yarn.

 

Forming the Canberra Raiders "frontrow" at the carpark of the GIO stadium, with me as hooker, Robert as prop, and a visibly shy Kats as the other prop

 

The first time I met this champ who would change my lifestyle for the better.

Sitting down, I asked him in Motu, “Ede bamona, be Rob egwaumu hanua taudia olalo dia mu?” (Whats this Im hearing from Rob that you are feeling homesick?)

 

He looked up at me shyly and replied in the same language, “Its just that everything here is new and Im finding it a bit different from my time at the hunters. I also worry about my mum because I'm here now and Im not sure how she is coping in my absence.”

I nodded my understanding and asked him to communicate in pidgin so that Rob could understand and also give some helpful advice too. 

So, over a couple of capuchinos and blueberry muffins, Rob and I did our best to convince him to stay strong to his dream, which could only be achieved at GIO and not in Port Moresby; and to forget about home for a while but to concentrate on the job at hand - which was to secure for himself a contract with the Raiders.  Most important if all, we told him too that there was no turning back from hereon, and that he could kiss his dreams goodbye if he packed it in there and then. 

 

As we left him standing outside his apartment, I leaned out of the driver's seat and told him that for whatever the reason, he carried the hopes and dreams of all Papua New Guineans; that if he was to succeed in playing top grade for the Raiders, we would rejoice with him for his success; as such, he was not to do anything that would bring us sorrow instead. (How was I to know that in less than three years down the road, he would do exactly that?).

I told him that I would be returning back to Canberra again from Peru in a week's time and that we would catch up again. 

We returned from Peru a week later and I made a beeline straight to Queanbeyan to see my sister.  Tina was having her Xmas BBQ that Saturday and we invited Kato to Tina’s where he met Tina’s family and got to know them too.  During the next 7 or so days in Australia, I made sure we (my wife, Daera, daughter Boni, and sons Aaron-Sidney and Nou) visited him every second day in the evenings, just to keep him company and to support him get over his trial and train sessions; and most of all, to give him that family warmth he was obviously missing. 

 

Tina also told him to visit her now and then and to call her if he needed anything.  I was surprised when Tina informed me later that Kato had gone to her place one day, of his own accord, to weed around her hedges and do general cleanup, etc.  He also called Tina during his very first winter in Canberra for blankets which Tina hurriedly rushed off to him...

Visiting Kats at the AIS where he was staying during his Trial and Train at the Canberra Raiders in December, 2015.

With Mr Rex Nou of the Department of Defence, cleaning Tina's garage out in Queanbeyan

  

Catching up again at the Port Moresby Waterfront shopping centre that December 2015

 

As we developed out relationship, he started opening up to me and telling me about his training regime at the Raiders, the type of food to eat or not to eat, etc.  Taking this opening, I asked him how an "old man" like me could use some of his training tips to cut down his weight and beat the HBP hovering over him.  The first time I asked this, he gave me one of his shy smiles and just for the sake of it all, he provide me a tip or two, but couldn't elaborate further.  I knew why he opted not to venture further with his unofficial tutorial.  Been the respectful young man he was, he was conscious of the gap in our ages, and most importantly, Motuan protocol decreed it disrespectful to talk openly about an elder’s health and lifestyle in his presence.  I knew there and then, that he was destined for greatness.

 So, I asked him one night. 

“Kats, when you return home for your break, which gym will you use?”

“I don’t know,” he responded.  “Why? Do you have one in mind?” he asked.

I nodded.  “Listen, I'm a member of the Aviat Club, and I know that they have a gym there with new equipment.  You could train there?”, I hinted.  I knew and I knew that he knew that for him, the High Performance Training Facilities in Port Moresby were available to athletes of his calibre.  Again, with God driving our relationship, he opted to "train with me" instead.

So, commenced a training program built upon the foundations of a very strange relationship between two very unlikely training partners: A 22-year old professional Rugby League player trying to secure his first ever rugby league contract in the world’s toughest rugby league competition; and a 47-year old wannabee trying to do the impossible.

 

During our first training session at the Aviat Club gym. Here we are posing for a pix with the gym attendant.  This was when Paul Taumik Jnr also interviewed him for the News coverage that evening.

Kats showing me how its done at the Raiders

After-gym visit to Nese Heights as he wanted to meet my family, especially my parents in particular.  Here he is posing with my mum.

By the time Kato left the following year, I promised him that the next time he saw me, he would see a totally different me.  I visited Tina again the following December and he congratulated me on looking much more “trimmer than the last time I saw you, kaks”, he said.  I told him yes, from 121kg I was now down to 107kg.  He smiled approvingly.

That December after he had returned home in September due to injury, he joined me at the gym, this time with Kohu "Kouchy" Dai.  We would do marathon gym session under his guidance and mentoring (rowing machines, and other cardio exercises, etc) to assist me get to 100kg by 31 December, 2016.  We all cheered loudly, with him giving me a couple of high fives, when I made 98.6kg on that last day of the year.

Kato calls a "break" in training for a selfie shot..

The end of another workout session, as both youngsters congratulate the old man for successfully completing gruelling high-speed 8 x 20-seconds rowing session

Keeping time as the champ rowed for his contract...

Kouchy Dai going at it...

...and the one-minute plank sessions...

Pushing and pushing...rowing and rowing...

..under the watchful eyes of Aaron Sidney LAHUI-AKO

He returned back to Australia in the beginning of 2017 for his second season with the Mounties, and the last time I would see him and talk with him would be in July that year.  Both Ambassador Pomaleu and I were guests of the Australian APEC team in Canberra (and also to observe the ongoing training of the 52 PNG public servants on APEC-related policy initiatives in Australia).  that night, Tina invited the both of us to dinner.  Being the person she is, she also instructed me to check on Kato and to see if he was available to eat with us.  He was.

 

Kats came to my hotel at the Mantra on Northbourne and was quietly sitting at the corner, trying his very best to look inconspicuous.  Too bad for him. The hotel was full of Papua New Guineans - all 52 of them.  They all crowded him, wanting to meet him for the first time, and just to talk with him, get to know him better.  He got photos with a few of them too.  Which was the reason why he quickly but apologetically got up from where he was sitting when he saw me walk out of the lift...  The rest of the team, sensing his distraction from their queries, jokes, etc, made way for him as he slowly strolled towards me.  Hugging me he apologized for intruding like this. I shrugged off his apologies and quickly introduced him to Ambassador Pomaleu.  In the car, on our way to Tina’s, he quietly asked me in Motu, “Kaks, you’ve lost a lot of weight now.  How much?” I replied, “I'm 94kg now.”  He nodded and smiled to himself, the smile of a person knowing that one's success was also his success.

Our God is an awesome God and He works in very mysterious ways, and I believe that people come into your life for a reason.  God almighty, in His ever lasting wisdom, put Kato into mine - purposely to bring me back to health.  Our God, in turn, put me into Kato's life during the early days of his "Trial and Train" outing with the Raiders to support him and encourage him to reach his goals, and not to lose hope.  I praise God because we both carried out His will to the letter.  You see, both of us needed something which the other had.  And we could only obtain them through no other way but by "sharing" our expertise and God-given talent and gift with one another.  

 

When I reflect back on his passing, I know that he is now reporting to our God that "Yes, Father, Your will was carried out and your servant Lahui is now rolling on with what You had task me to teach him..."

 

Well bro, I am well now, and I exercise regularly for someone my age.  I tipped the scales at 87.7kg today (Saturday, 6 January, 2018), I walk 5km in under 40-minutes now, and I row 2,500m in 10 minutes now.   I no longer have those health issues I had before meeting you in December, 2015.  My BP is normal, and so as my sugar level.  All because you rubbed your youthful exuberance, enthusiasm, and your great need to succeed at the Canberra Raiders, off on me and pushed me on to regain my wellbeing. 

 

Kats congratulating me for achieving another milestone in our training sessions in December, 2016.

Today, I pay tribute to you, my brother, Kato Ottio. You have changed my life forever.  My family and I will never forget you for as long as we live.  Today, the Akos of Nese Heights, Hanuabada mourn your passing and Remember you as a Game changer and Legend!

“Rest in peace, Tadigu lalokau na.  Aola, eda Dirava ese emu noho gabuna na vada e ahegaegae a. Aola, mai maino mu ida…”

 

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