On Saturday the Post Courier’s weekend paper had another story on Bible Faith Outreach Orphanage.

1. Breakfast one Saturday morning

Please find the linked article below (not sure how long the link will last). Hopefully will have an update this week or next for the orphanage.

Orphans need proper care

By DAVID MURI

How would you best describe her? A Good Samaritan? The lifeline? Or the redeemer? I would rather sum all up and call her the perfect lifesaver. Mt Hagen’s Rosa Kepa is quickly becoming the lone breadwinner for more than 100 unfortunates, mostly orphaned and abandoned children in the city. These children are Papua New Guinea’s future. They have a bright destiny, but no today and no tomorrow. Their moment of joy and happiness is riddled with hunger and sadness. The little ones live with bated breath. They don’t know what the future holds for them and see Mrs Kepa as their sole light.

Mrs Kepa — or Aunty Rosa — as she is affectionately called is the only mainstay. She is the food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless and hope for the hopeless. Caring, loving and providing part of their basic necessities for these bereaved children has been part of her life. She strives to feed them as best as she can with the limited resources she has at her Newtown home. Her mission began 10 years ago when she started work with the Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF).

As an elite national, she was constantly challenged to see expatriate missionaries at MAF reaching out to the remote settings to serve unfortunate Papua New Guineans. Back then, her charitable operation was minimal and confined to the neighbourhood. She started giving out her hand for a few children who would pass her backyard with broken noses, swollen faces and teary eyes. Her deeds still remained unnoticed and isolated until the Weekend-Courier visited the safe house last Saturday. It was then that this paper saw the lifesaver at her best mood of feeding, caring, clothing and consoling. The children turned out as early as 6am for their breakfast followed by a main meal of rice and bisque. They also received miscellaneous items from toys to clothing, balls and footwear courtesy of MAF missionaries as Christmas presents.

Seeing the huge turnout at her yard and the desperation for survival on a daily basis, Aunty Rosa wanted to lend her services in a more organised manner. Today she not only caters for the orphans but also focuses her eyes on beggarly settlers, deserted children and jobless parents who can not afford to raise their children. She also counsels HIV/AIDS victims and abused women and children. Aunty Rosa has registered an association called Bible Faith Outreach Inc (BFO). This entity’s prime motive is to establish a home for the orphaned and destitute children. It also aims to set up a school to provide Christian-oriented syllabuses and to establish a vocational school to train and equip teenagers with basic life skills and ability to earn a living. BFO also aims to educate hostile parents and guardians on raising healthy and well-adjusted children.

“As long as the centre is sustain-ed through gifts and donations, we will enable a safe and secure environment where children can be nurtured and encouraged to reach their full potential,” she said. “We wish to meet the needs of orphaned, neglected and abused children with food, clothing and personal hygiene products. We will also strive to provide hope, wisdom and understanding by sharing the Word of God.”

Aunty Rosa lives with her husband Jiwa and their five children at Newtown. Their home is located next to a squalidly populous squatter settlement. Most of her adopted children hail from this community. She has a pressing task to provide for them. She is a mother whose heart is fondly generous and soft. “I want to raise and breed them as my own children,” she said, saying everyone was created for a purpose and plan. She feels that that plan and purpose must be realised somehow. Aunty Rosa says she had made a lasting covenant with God to make sure caring for others would be the way for the rest of her life.

Others may think that feeding hundreds of children en masse would be too costly. But for Aunty Rosa, that’s normal. She has seen the hand of God. She is satisfied when everyone gets a share of the daily meal through God’s divine intervention. Aunty Rosa also leases three houses to accommodate around 20 homeless children. Due to space limitations, others live at the settlements and come to get their feed. She has engaged three like-minded volunteers, women who are involved in the informal sector daily to earn a living. The proceeds from their sales sustain the three houses with food for the day. The routine continues.

Even though rich with a very small and manageable population, Aunty Rosa says PNG needs to do more as a nation to fight against pervasive poverty, alleviate HIV/AIDS epidemic, domestic violence, child abuse and other turbulent issues like law and order. “These are serious cross-cutting issues that need to be eliminated. If the Government cannot do it on its own then we, as concerned citizens and Christians, should contribute in any capacity we can to minimise some of these pressing issues,” she said.

Aunty Rosa said overseas missionaries were very committed and sacrifice themselves to save the lost, tame the wild and heal the sick even though they were highly educated and “so rich to come too low”. “They live the life that we expect but they sacrifice to bring hope, salvation and light to our dark corners. They remain the tower of strength for the deprived, the marginalised and the abused,” she said. “If we don’t raise these kids properly they will remain a nuisance in this country and continue to spoil our image. The golden asset PNG has today is these children so they have to have a proper upbringing.”

She expressed grave concerns about her children being lured to work as labourers and bag carriers in farms and rural areas. She pleaded that this exploitation must cease. “They are not slaves. They are young human beings. Leave them alone and respect their rights,” she said. Aunty Rosa’s challenge during the festive season is to task every thinking citizen to contribute positively towards PNG’s growth. There is no better time to pass a personal resolution to do your bit to change this country than this Christmas and the New Year. Be like Aunty Rosa and see what you can do for your country. Aunty Rosa can be contacted on 545 1477 or 725 87753 or email: rkepo(at)maf(dot)org

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In December was Maipson’s birthday. In PNG birthdays are not normally celebrated or a big deal, not like in western cultures. A lot of people do not know their actually birthday or age, and have to try and work out their age if asked. For Maipson he had to find out the hard way when he was applying for his PNG passport to do aviation maintenance studies in Australia a few years ago. His mother did not know his birth date and he had no birth certificate. He went to the hospital to try and find some records, but there were none. So no records and no one in the family could remember. But then a lady in his village remembered that she had a son a week before Maipson was born. So from this woman’s memory Maipson was able to work out his birth date.

1. The birthday boy with his niece (she was afraid of me)

With birthday’s not being a big deal in PNG, I wanted to celebrate Maipson’s birthday but at the same time I didn’t want to enforce it. After talking to his sister, I wanted to surprise him but thought it be best to make sure with him before making the effort. He wanted to celebrate it, but didn’t want me to go to the effort if I didn’t want to. I knew how much it would mean to him, turning twenty seven and celebrating it for the first time. On the day none of his family were aware of his birthday, I only knew because he had told me one time but was reminded by facebook funny enough.

I couldn’t afford to take him and all his family to a restaurant and thought it was important to celebrate it with them as well. So in the end I brought food and drink for a BBQ in his village and made a cake. Sunday afternoon after church I went round to his village at Kimininga. I did as much food preparation as I could before going, as I knew that the ladies wouldn’t let me do any cooking or prep. So while they got the fire going, Maipson took me for a tour around his village and the area, It was good as I had been to his village numerous times to drop him off or pick him up or go to his village church. He has shared a lot of stories too, so seeing what I have heard and for him to tell more stories of his family history was really good and also discuss some issues that have been ongoing in the village.

2. The girls preparing and cooking

We got back to his place and his sister’s had almost finished cooking. Maipson’s mother was there with his four sisters and his younger brother was out. A few other close relatives and friends were there too, so there were at least ten to twelve people there. It was a real special time for Maipson being able to celebrate his birthday for the first time and he was really grateful for the provision. For me it was refreshing just to be out of town and in the village on a Sunday afternoon with him and his family. Maipson is one of my closet friends here in PNG. We do work together a lot, serve together with the ministry team and he has been part of our mountain climbs and watched a lot of sport together. Most nationals are not always comfortable coming over to a whitemans place when invited, but Maipson is always there if he can make it when invited. It has been quite hard for me even still not having the friendships I had/have back in Sydney. But I am grateful for God’s provision of friends in PNG, especially those of my national brothers and as friendships continue to grow.

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In August was the Mt Hagen cultural show, the biggest annual event in the Western Highlands. Up there as the biggest cultural show in PNG with the Goroka show. Took these photo’s outside the showground while the groups got ready and practiced. Then inside the showground during the display and then on the actual grounds. Being in the midst of several singsing groups as they performed was quite an amazing experience.

Mt Hagen Show

Photos from the 2009 Mt Hagen Cultural Show

112 Photos

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Back on the Friday afternoon of the 11th of December we had our Engineering Christmas party. It was good timing as we didn’t have any scheduled maintenance in the hangar. Most of the guys left work in the morning to go prepare the mumu (food cooked in a ground oven). The guys had chipped in out of their leave from overtime to cover costs, especially that of the pig. The expats had contributed putting in money. The guys picked up the pig from a village the previous day and had killed it that night. The rest of us spent the morning doing a big hangar cleanup.

1. Volleyball in the hangar

The plan was to start at 1300, so I went without lunch and in the end got really hungry. The families of the Engineering staff were coming to the bung (gathering) as well. So I thought it would be great to get a volleyball court going (it is a popular sport in most villages). I spent some time investigating the location of MAF’s net, net poles and volleyball, it had been three years since last used and I could not locate it. In the end came up with the idea to use some of our scaffolding as net poles and some rope with high vis vests as a net. Fortunately someone had a volleyball at their place. After marking out the court, it was ready for a game.

2. The special guest

The families started arriving at the hangar and there was no sign of the guys yet. So we started to play volleyball, most people just watched on. After a few games more and more people were getting involved. After sometime the guys turned up with the food and our special guest (the pig). It was well after 1500 and was not eating until after 1530. But the volleyball kept everyone entertained in the mean time for the two hours and interacting together.

3. Some of the kids

After a speech by Ben our Engineering manager and someone saying grace, everyone was into the food. I was starving, but there was plenty of food. We finished up sometime after work hours and got people home before 1800. It was a really good gathering, just to be able to get everyone’s families together and thank them for their contribution to Engineering. It was a good time of fellowship all together.

4. Some of the guys after the big feed

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