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You are here: Home -> Current Fields -> Papua New Guinea -> Western Region Seminar

Trials along the way... the huge landslide caused immense damage to the highway to Mt. Hagen

Western Region Ministers & Leaders Seminar

Uploaded 11 May 2008

There are more photos from my visit to the Western Region!

2nd-4th May 2008

I had made plans to visit the Western Region, but a couple of weeks before the due date, an enormous landslide destroyed a major portion of the road link to Mt. Hagen. I had initially thought of canceling my visit, but I was very reticent to do so, knowing how much they were looking forward to it, and how it important it was.

I caught a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle, or minivan) in Goroka, and trawled around the Goroka market for over an hour, waiting for the minivan to fill up with passengers. It is quite comical to watch the "bosscrew" trying to convince passengers to travel with their van as against the many others who also compete for the same passengers. They literally try to pull passengers off opposing PMVs, desperately trying to persuade passengers that they are the best and quickest way to travel.

The peak of the white cliff in the background had broken off, sinking into the saturated soil and uplifting and displacing it, causing a lot of damage.

We eventually departed for the area of the landslide, with faithful brother Koko escorting me. Hundreds of people milled around the landslide area, with heavily armed police trying to maintain order against a sea of people (a fair portion of whom were pickpockets). Hundreds were walking over the landslide area, trying to get to the other side, with heavy laden bags of produce to sell on the other side. The 400 metres of landslide area was a real disaster zone. A limestone cliff face broke off a mountain, falling into the ground below. The ground was soaked with weeks of rain, and was extremely soft. The huge limestone cliff-face displaced the surrounding ground, lifting it up and moving it down the mountainside.

The devastation was astonishing, with village houses totally destroyed and buildings flattened as they were moved out of position by the landslide. We walked the length of the landslide through broken trees, debris and slick mud, but, although I almost ended up flat on my back in the mud a few times, made it safely to the other side without coming a cropper.

More road problems on the way to Mt. Hagen

The landslide had closed the road, and no food or petrol could move to the major centres of Kundiawa or Mt. Hagen. With petrol short, I had to bring a container of petrol up with me so we could travel to Mt. Hagen. Bro Andrew Awagl had his car ready on the other side, and after filling up with the petrol which I had brought with me, we travelled for a few hours to Mt. Hagen.

I won't go into detail, but the weekend of seminars was a great blessing to the Western Region. They made a sacrifice to come, as the shortage of fuel had made travelling very expensive. But the ministers and leaders still came, and soaked up the teaching. You could just feel the excitement building as the days progressed and they absorbed the principles of the Word of God. Although many have not completed high school, they are deep thinkers and love to hear the deep things of God.

It was a fantastic time, and they are very desirous to have me come back again soon. This is such an important work, as teaching is the way ahead for the church in PNG. Thank you for your assistance in making this work possible.

There are more photos from my visit to Western Region. Be sure to view them!

- Richard Carver (Jnr)


Those who attended the Ministers & Leaders Seminar in Mt. Hagen	Scores of people fighting to get on a bus back to Goroka

Visit Richard & Andreas web pages