South West Papua Mission, South Pacific Division
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Former Kikori Mission office until 2018. Photo courtesy of Calvin Sio. South West Papua Mission, South Pacific Division BARRY OLIVER Barry Oliver, Ph.D., retired in 2015 as president of the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists, Sydney, Australia. An Australian by birth Oliver has served the Church as a pastor, evangelist, college teacher, and administrator. In retirement, he is a conjoint associate professor at Avondale College of Higher Education. He has authored over 106 significant publications and 192 magazine articles. He is married to Julie with three adult sons and three grandchildren. The South West Papua Mission (SWPM) is the Seventh-day Adventist Church administrative entity for the southwestern area of Papua New Guinea.1 The territory of SWPM is “Gulf Province (excluding Kaintiba Sub-District), and Fly River Province (excluding Kiunga District) of Papua New Guinea.”2 It is a part of and responsible to the Papua New Guinea Union Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The Papua New Guinea Union Mission comprises the Seventh-day Adventist Church entities in the country of Papua New Guinea. There are nine local missions and one local conference in the union. They are the Central Papuan Conference, the Bougainville Mission, the New Britain New Ireland Mission, the Northern and Milne Bay Mission, Morobe Mission, Madang Manus Mission, Sepik Mission, Eastern Highlands Simbu Mission, Western Highlands Mission, and South West Papuan Mission. The administrative office of SWPM is located at Epo, Kerema, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. The mission operates under General Conference and South Pacific Division (SPD) operating policies. Those policies state that the officers of SWPM are elected by the Papua New Guinea Union Mission.3 “The mission president elected by the union is a member of the union committee and is the union representative in the conduct of the work in the mission. The president shall, with the local mission committee, supervise and carry forward the work in the local mission.”4 Mission associate officers and departmental personnel are elected at a duly called session of the mission where representatives from all churches in the mission are present.5 In 2018, SWPM had twenty-five organized churches and ninety-two companies. Church membership at the end of 2018 was 11,389. The mission had forty-three active employees. Its tithe receipts for 2017 totaled US$104,695. Its tithe and offerings per capita were US$13.76.6 The Institutions of the South West Papua Mission As of 2018, the South West Papua Mission operated six schools. Aivau Seventh-day Adventist Primary School, located in the Kerema district, had an enrollment of 191 students and a teaching staff of four. Kitomave Seventh-day Adventist Primary School, located in the Kikori district, had an enrollment of 155 students and a teaching staff of four. Kukkia Seventh-day Adventist Primary School, located in the Kerema district, had an enrollment of 198 students and a teaching staff of five. Kumaiyo Seventh-day Adventist Primary, located in the Turama district, had enrollment of ninety-one students and a teaching staff of one. Kuri Seventh-day Adventist Primary School, located in the Turama district, had an enrollment of 129 students and a teaching staff of two. Woigi Primary School, located in the Daru district, had enrollment of 140 students and a teaching staff of two. The Arrival and Early History Adventists in the Territory of the Mission Septimus and Edith Carr, expatriate teachers at the Buresala Training School in Fiji, were nominated in 1907 to lead in the establishment of an Adventist mission in Papua.7 They chose one of their students, Benisimani (known asBennie or Benny) Tavodi, to assist them. They arrived in Port Moresby in June 1908 and found temporary accommodation there.8 Carr travelled to the Sogeri Plateau northeast of Port Moresby where he found a tract of land at Bisiatabu.9 He applied to the government requesting permission to purchase 150 acres from the Koiari people so that he could lease it long term.10 Late in 1909 ,these arrangements were completed. At the same time, help arrived in the persons of nursing graduates Gordon and Maud Smith along with Tuaine Solomona from the Cook Islands.11 Tavodi and Solomona did much of the hard labor, clearing and preparing the ground and planting taro, bananas, citrus, and rubber trees.12 A mission home of local materials was erected which, together with the land, was dedicated on February 28, 1910.13 Among the young men who came to Bisiatabu were several young men from Gulf Province. One of them was Koivi Muku who, after graduating from Bisiatabu, returned to his people in the Vailala area and started sharing what he had learned. He was the first known local Advenitst who initiated an interest in the Church in the Gulf Province.14 Early in 1927, William Lock and Gerald Peacock travelled to the gulf and inspected land at Belepa on the Vailala River. They were “favourably impressed.”15 The plan was for the Peacocks to take up residence on the Vailala River and commence work. However, before any action was taken, they were called to the Solomon Islands where Gerald Peacock became superintendent.16 By May 1927, George and Christina Engelbrecht had arrived in Papua.17 They spent some months at Bisiatabu learning the language and preparing to commence working before moving to Vailala by the end of 1927.18 A Fijian by the name of Tereti Niqara and his wife, Kelera (or Clara), arrived in Bisiatabu and then moved to Vailala in 1930.19 They stayed a short time at the mission station and before moving further along the coast to commence work at Kailahu.20 At the end of 1930, the Engelbrechts were briefly back at Bisiatabu. Christina Engelbrecht in particular was suffering from ill health. In fact, doctors instructed that they return home to New Zealand to recuperate.21 After some eight months, their place at Vailala was taken by Cecil Howell and his wife.22 Soon thereafter they were joined by a brother, Laurence Howell, and his wife.23 On October 5, 1950 an ordination service was conducted at Belepa where the first Papuans were ordained to the ministry.”24 On April 26, 1952, Ernest Lemke arrived in Woigi Village along the Oriomo River to commence Adventist work there. Soon after, the Woigi School was established.25 It was from Woigi that work extended eastward toward the Fly River delta, westward towards Sibidiri, along the Maikusa River, and later into Kurunti along the Pahoturi River. Also, in 1952 Lemke and the union president arrived in Daru where they selected a site for a mission station.26 At the end of 1952, a tragedy occurred. Delys Lemke and two of their sons, David and Adrian, died in an accident aboard the mission vessel Lao Heni. Ernest Lemke later wrote: I pressed the starter button, and the mission boat exploded. I dashed below, then dragged my wife and our three boys up to the rear deck. It was 5 am. They’d been sitting on their bunks. We had just finished our morning prayers and they were still in their pyjamas. Our ship, the Lao-Heni, was in flames from bow to stern. Six 44-gallon drums—our petrol reserve—exploded, spilled, and burned on the surface of the water with searing heart. Another explosion. We were thrown into the water, and I lost consciousness.27 Lemke and his remaining son, Lester, returned to Australia. However, just twenty-one months later they returned to Papua New Guinea with Lemke’s second wife, Valmae. They served together in the country for twelve years; first as president of the Sepik Mission and then as president of the Central Papua Mission.28 Diari II, a vessel of twenty-eight feet was dedicated in Brisbane on April 23, 1954, and sailed to Papua by Jack Radley.29 In 1958, two blocks of land were purchased on Daru Island for the church and the church pastor’s house, which were both built that year. The Central School at Kitomave was opened in 1969. Leon Miller was invited to be the principal and remained there in 1970 and 1971.30 From the time of its organization in 1960 to 2018, the Papuan Gulf Mission, which embraced all the territory of the present South West Papua Mission, grew from twelve churches with 1,253 members to twenty-five churches and eighty-two companies with 11,389 members. 1960 12 Churches 1253 members31 1970 15 Churches 2134 members32 1980 18 Churches 3316 m embers33 1990 22 Churches 5876 members34 2000 26 Churches 72 Companies 10290 members35 2010 26 Churches 72 Companies 11461 members36 2108 25 Churches 82 Companies 11389 members37 The History of the Development of the South West Papua Mission: Structure Adventism was established in Papua with the arrival of S. W. Carr and Peni Tavodi in 1908.38 In 1928, the Papua Mission was organized with headquarters at Bisiatabu. W. N. Lock was the first superintendent.39 The address of the Papua Mission changed to Bootless Bay, Port Moresby, Papua, in 1932,40 and changed again to Mirigeda, Port Moresby, Papua, in 1935.41 In 1945, thePapua-New Guinea Mission was formed. It included all the territory of the former Papua Mission and the former Territory of New Guinea Mission.42 It was located in Port Moresby. The superintendent was R. A. R. Thrift.43 The name of the Papua-New Guinea Mission was changed to Papua North East New Guinea Mission in 1946.44 The Coral Sea Union Mission was organized with four local missions in 1949.45 The Bismarck Archipelago Mission (formerly included in the Papua-New Guinea Mission, but organized as a separate mission in 1947) covering the territory of New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville, Buka, Saint Matthias Group, the Admiralty Group, and adjacent islands.