PNG Highlands History: List of chapters

  • 11. Tari Beginnings, 1953

    Tari, 1953 Roland Barnes was very keen to start his new work in Tari. He and his wife Miriam were on furlough in their home State of Queensland at the end of 1952 when they found out that he was to start a new mission in Tari. The government officers said that Mrs Miriam Barnes

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  • 12. The First Church Building in Mendi.

    Mendi, 1953 The people at the new Mission in Mendi were very excited when the first church building was opened. Gordon Young wanted to build a church as soon as he arrived in Mendi, but they had to wait until they had houses to shelter their workers. The new building was opened on 27 September

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  • 13. Laying foundations in Mendi: 1953

    Mendi 1953 Bit by bit, the mission team in Mendi were getting to know the people, the language and the customs of the place. The nurse Joyce Walker, the teacher Elsie Wilson and the agriculturalist David Johnston each wrote of their impressions. They knew that the work would be slow and that they needed to

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  • 14. A Visitor to Tari: 1954

    November 1954 The General Secretary of Methodist Overseas Missions (MOM) in the 1950s was Rev Cecil Gribble. He was very interested and encouraging of the new mission work in the Southern Highlands and began to visit Mendi regularly from 1951. In 1954 he came from Sydney to visit the new work in Tari for the

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  • 15. Life in Mendi, 1954

    People who liked to fight By 1954, it was clear that there were many challenges for both the Australian government administration and for missions working in the Southern Highlands. Tribal fighting was one of many problems. When some people asked why missions were there at all, the MOM General Secretary Cecil Gribble replied. “But behind

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  • 16. Visitors from a wider world, 1955

    Workers from New Zealand, Germany and Tonga join the mission team In 1955, the mission team spoke at least six different languages in their homes and tried to learn the languages of the local people as well. They were all a very long way from their homes. For many centuries, perhaps for thousands of years,

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  • 17. Drama and death among the people of Mendi, 1955

    The people of Mendi were busy with their own lives, their own ideas, traditions and beliefs. They saw that the foreign Methodist mission people, and the Government patrol officers, were living in their valley and making some changes, but most of the Mendi people were more interested in their own activities. The mission staff at

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  • 18. Learning to speak the language, 1955

    1955, Mendi ‘Beyond linguistics, beyond personality, we are sure that the Holy Spirit shares this task of language analysis, and teaches us. We acknowledge that it is by prayer and faith, our own and that of friends who uphold us, that we shall comprehend the things we seek to know. How else, than by His

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  • 19. Progress in Tari, 1956

    1956 New interest in church activities By 1956, the work of the Methodist Mission in Tari was becoming well established. The staff team was a strong international group with pastors from New Guinea, Papuan Islands and the Solomon Islands and ministers, teachers and medical workers from Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Germany.  The ministers were

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  • 20.  New Beginnings in Mendi 1956

    It is peaceful around the Mission area now. In the remote areas the way of these people is to settle all disputes by fighting. When the Government steps in, it helps with problems and gradually these are solved without bloodshed.  Gordon Young 1956 “This work of true consolidation in the area has been a hard

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