During the early hours of May 24, an unprecedented landslide claimed 160 lives, displacing hundreds more. The communities surrounding Mulitaka have been shattered by the loss of life and survivors have been deeply traumatised by the disaster, both materially and emotionally.
As part of a response together with Samaritan’s Purse, chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (BG-RRT) travelled to Mt Hagen to explore how they could support local pastors and their congregations to respond to those impacted by disaster in their communities.
In July, BG-RRT Chaplains were invited by church leaders to conduct a Sharing Hope In Crisis seminar, a workshop designed to appropriately provide emotional and spiritual care with a biblical foundation.
Over 100 pastors and ministry leaders across several denominations attended the first of three seminars in Wapenamanda, Mt Hagen and Kudjip. Participants learned that the crisis needing to be addressed is actually the suffering and pain people faced through natural disaster and conflict. Part of the training detailed how to react to psychological trauma, caring with a compassionate ear, using well worded questions to open up conversations with those traumatised and how to share the good news that every person is loved by God.
One participant, a youth leader, Faith Lasala shared her key take away from the training was to be an active listener without judgement.
“A lot of young people today they have so many questions, they have scars, and don’t want to share their secrets, but I can just sit close to them and listen with my heart ….And now I learnt I can also make Jesus very simple to them”.
Mulitaka Councillor Kupilyo Mangau said many attendees came with a lot of pain of losing their loved ones in the massive landslide, however they are now empowered from the training to help those in the communities that are also hurting.
“After the training we are now prepared to become care givers and we are also happy to work in unity (all churches) as it is also the last days and God has been good to use this disaster to bring us the local churches together”.
The training formed part of a multifaceted response together with Samaritan’s Purse, which included the distribution of kitchen utensil kits to displaced families, and more than 1,600 shoebox-gifts to children which included a The Greatest Gift gospel presentation.
Chaplin Stewart Beveridge shared the role of the church is to represent Jesus well.
“Our role as the church and as the followers of Jesus is to communicate it well. By not being judgemental but focusing on the love Jesus has for the person… We have to be patient and kind and point them towards the Hope that God has for us through Jesus Christ”.
We thank God for the opportunity to respond to our Pacific neighbours in this meaningful way, through the local churches and ministry partners to come alongside the community in Jesus’ Name.