Pastor Gwaibo’s Visit

Pastor Gwaibo from the Bethel Church and a member of the Sunrise Bethel Christian School Board was a special guest when he visited many of the schools. He was over for a International Conference with about 80 other people from Papua New Guinea. Ps Gwaibo loved the schools and was deeply touched by the sense that they belonged to something much larger than his small school in Port Moresby.

His photo and an article made the Whyalla news when he visited the Whyalla Campus.

Housing

We have plans in the local Council in Port Moresby to build housing for our staff. These facilities are much needed as the staff are living in rooms normally used for the visitors to the church.

If you are interested in more information on how you can help, contact Mel Rawlins on 83519131 or email, melinda.rawlins@sunrise.sa.edu.au.

The photo is a picture of Jill and Rogers house (centre) with the Bible College student accommodation on the right.

 

The students are learning well. Pastor Gwaibo has a child called Leonard in the school is thrilled with his progress. He has a number of other children, one who is studying linguistics and English as a second Language at the university in Port Moresby. This daughter is really surprised that Leonard is learning things at Sunrise Bethel that she is learning at Uni in regard to phonics and the mechanics of language. Everyone involved is very pleased.

A Few Stories and a Reflection

The following statement was made in pidgin english by a very proud father to pastor at the school. ‘My son came at the start of the year with only our own language and Tok Pisin (Pidgin English). He did not have any English at all and in a couple of weeks he was stringing English sentences together and now six months later he can read and write in English better that I can. The school has done some magic on my son and this school must be a magic school!’

There is the squeal of delight when the whistle sounds for the start of school each day and a sadness in the children when the weekend comes. The holidays are ‘very bad’ to quote one child, as ‘we love school and we learn so much. There is nothing to do in the village when there is no school.’

There are stories of children travelling for hours just to come to school. There is a story of a father of a carrying his five year old daughter on his shoulders for 8 km to school and then the same to return home each day. Stories such as these bring us great delight, and there are many.

Sunrise Bethel Christian School is going very well! The standards are good and the general feel of the school is very positive. The staff are doing a great job. The Australian teachers love the people and have settled in well although they are still not unexpectedly grappling with some cultural issues.

The readers that were sent up are being used and loved by all the children. They were presented to the children by the Temple Kokoda boys. The children will read each one of their readers many times each night and will know them off by heart by the time they arrive at the school the next day. The staff and students in the school are extremely thankful for the effort the schools are going to in order to raise money for essential resources in the school. Thankyou. The educational needs in PNG are great.

I have outlined the needs in the past using statistics from UNICEF so I thought this time I would illustrate the need with a story. Tony Hudson from the Bethany Campus of Temple Christian College was one of the teachers who walked Kokoda with the Temple students. In one of the villages they passed through on the trek Tony has chatting to a young fellow who was very proud to say that he was doing Year 4 in a village the Temple team walked through. This young man was not from that village, but a village some distance away. He could not study in his home village as the school in their village finished at Grade 2, where this school went to Grade 7. Once he finished his Year 7 he planned to go into the city to do his high school. The story does not seem too unusual, except the ‘young man’ was 19! Sadly, this story is commonplace with many villages not having access to any form of schooling with a number of people trying to educate themselves by going to primary schools as adults to learn to read and write. Unfortunately the vast majority of children do not receive an adequate education, with many not receiving any education at all. Our project in developing a school and training teachers will hopefully go some way to make it possible for children to have access to a quality education.

Kokoda Trek

Four students and three staff members from Temple Christian College came to Port Moresby to be part of the life of the school and walk the Kokoda trek.

The students arrived on Monday 21^st June at about lunch time. We took them for a tour around Port Moresby where we visited some villages built over the sea, looked around Parliament House and saw some of the sites around the city. After tea the boys settled into the library and a classroom where they slept.

On Tuesday 22^nd June, they met the school children and helped in the school. Throughout the year, they had raised money for readers and presented them to the children.

After their school visit they went to an open air market in Boroko before spending the afternoon in a fishing village named Gaire. They enjoyed meeting people and experiencing a culture very different to what they were used to.

On Wednesday 23^rd June, they spent the day on an island called Loloata and snorkelled on a nearby island called Lion Island.

The snorkelling was sensational and the day was relaxed where we spent the afternoon playing cards with a doctor from ‘Doctors Without Borders’ who was a surgeon having a break from his hospital in the PNG Highlands.

On Thursday 24^th June, they flew to Kokoda to begin their trek back to Port Moresby. The lads thoroughly enjoyed their time. They all found something in their characters that pushed them through those difficult times and caused them to keep pushing on. They all were reasonably healthy with the only issue a few blisters from a random unplanned rugby game with some local lads.

They walked the trek for eight days and were very pleased to bet back to Port Moresby to have a shower and a sleep in a comfortable bed.

Their overall experience was a very positive one. They all would do it again tomorrow if they had the time and money. The only things they would change would be spending more time in the school and spending at least a night in the fishing village.

Update of School

The school is going very well.

The children are learning and the tone of the school is very pleasing. The phonics program seems to be very effective. The children are reading and spelling very well.

One positive story I heard thought I would pass on was about a father with a child in a school.

The father has an elementary child that came with only pidgin and his own dialect at the start of the year. His father speaking in pidgin came and said that within three weeks of starting his son was stringing English sentences together and now six months later his child could read and write in English better that he can. The father said the school had done some magic on his child and that it must be a magic school! I may not have expressed it like that but I know what he means.

The teachers, SSO’s and the Office Manager are doing a great job.

We are beginning the process of planning for next year. We have 90 students and 70 on the waiting list but will probably have only one new class to allow for slow and steady growth.

DVD

The school has settled down very well with the classes full and the children happy.

The staff seem to have adjusted and enjoying their new surroundings. The staff are doing very well with the teachers and SSO’s doing a great job, with Maria in the office performing admirably. Sadly Esuva’s (the teacher of the Grade 1′s) brother-in-law passed away. She has taken time off to be with her family.

Regular updates are included on the face book page 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sunrise-Bethel-Christian-School/324055100597?ref=mf
#!  and a YouTube clip on the opening of the school can be found in this link.

The Opening

After years of planning and preparation, the Sunrise Bethel Christian School has become a reality. On 1^st February, 2010 Sunrise Bethel Christian School commenced with 90 students.

The school came together very quickly once the last container arrived with the desks finally arriving from China at the last moment. The rooms look great and are a credit to the teachers for their hard work.

The opening of the school on Sunday 31^st January at the Bethel Tabernacle of Praise was a huge success with about 2000 people attending the service. The opening was a great celebration with a feeling of high expectations and enthusiasm. After having dreams of a school at Bethel Centre for decades, Pastor Barry Silverback opened the school with great joy.

The opening was followed by a huge luncheon where the 2000 were all ‘filled to the brim’ with food drinks and a good time.

The first day saw the children arrive with some hesitation where Esuva and Pastor David took the first assembly before taking the children to their classrooms, finding their desks and settling into the new school lives.

Some of the stories of children travelling with their parents for three hours each way from outlying villages and an orphaned child carried on the shoulders for 12 kilometres every day by her ‘adopted’ father who has been recently widowed amaze us.

The Australian staff, Roger and Jill Tumes and Caleb Cure have settled in and are doing well.

Caleb has had a run of unusual illnesses including a full body rash and a throat infection but seems to have bounced back well.

We have employed a wonderful national teacher named Esuva Puele, who has vast experience and an excellent reputation on the public school system in PNG.

We have also employed three SSO’s who help in the classes.

The staff list is as follows-

Principal and Elementary Two Teacher- Roger Tumes

Deputy Principal and Elementary Two Teacher- Caleb Cure

Elementary Teacher- Jill Tumes

Elementary One Teacher- Esuva Puele

Office Manager- Maria Kave

SSO Elementray- Merilyn Mai

SSO One- Shalom Ovio

SSO Elementary Two- Catherine Katawara

Jacqui Munro, the Principal of the Sunrise Christian School in Whyalla has made two visits to the school to help with curricula matters. Her input has been invaluable.

The schools have a number of friends who have donated time or finances or both into the school.

Without acknowledging them all I would like to thank Peter and Kerry Angel for their commitment to make the school a success. Kerry has put an enormous amount of work into the preparation of the school and Peter donated about 3 weeks doing electrical work around the school making the classrooms liveable by installing fans and the generation that were all kindly donated by others.

More information about the project can be found at
http://acsnationbuilding.com/
,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sunrise-Bethel-Christian-School/324055100597?created#!/pages/Sunrise-Bethel-Christian-School/324055100597?v=wall
and continual updates on this site.

Our next major objective is to continue to grow the school and then begin some basic teacher training.

November Visit

Registration of Incorporation

The registration of the Incorporation has been granted to Sunrise Bethel Christian School. We are very excited as the process has been slow and at times interesting to say the least. The registration allows us to establish a bank account and apply for work permits for the Australian teachers.

I must acknowledge the work and responsibility that Keith Iduhu undertook in obtaining the registration. His legal background helped us throughout the whole process. Without his help we would not have achieved the registration.

Container

After going to PNG to meet the first container, it arrived at the church the day after I left the country! The process of getting the container from the port to the Church was an arduous and at times frustrating one.

We ended up paying a little more than we had planned with some payments needing to be made in cash in order for the container to be released. Apparently it arrived in good shape with all contents in tact.

The container is being unpacked slowly and will be used for storage and to house the generator.

Schools

There is growing interest in the school in PNG. We have been offered land in at least one village in order to start a school, while an established school has approached us to help it out for a 12 month period.

It seems that there will be a groundswell of interest that will need to be managed well and carefully as not to extend our current resources.

Kina

The strength of the Australian Dollar has helped with some of the extra costs we have incurred. The Kina is 2.4 to the Australian Dollar at the moment where three months ago it was 1.8 to the Australian Dollar.

Staff

I have interviewed a number of people for the positions within the school. We are in need of a teacher, two SSO’s, an Office Manager and two security guards. The process of employing a teacher has been a reasonably long and interesting with a number of applicants with varying degrees of skill.

The Office Manager and the SSO that I have interviewed will be employed while the current security guards at the church will also be employed by the school. These men work for the and live on the site.

Work Permits

The work permits are being processed and will be completed shortly. We did have a surprise PGK9,000 (A$3,700) fee during he process in a for the three permits. The permits will be processed, a permit number provided and then we can apply for the necessary visas for the Tumes’s and Caleb.

Classrooms

The classrooms have been painted by the Church and the newly arrived blackboards and pin boards are currently being installed.

The desks and chairs purchased through Brian Bell should arrive in the next few weeks.

Fence

After a great deal of work by Mark Nokes that has unfortunately come to nothing, we have decided to build the fence around the church using a local contractor. The fence should be completed by the commencement of school.

Electrical

Peter and Kerry Angel are friends and key figures in the development of the school. Peter Angel will be going to Bethel to volunteer his time as an electrician to complete some vital tasks such as installing the generator, fans and other necessary electrical work. His help is much appreciated.

Board Meeting

I met with a number of the inaugural Board members to discuss their function in the new school.

Apart from managing the school, one of their major challenges will be the management of the growth and development other schools in PNG due to the demand.

Below is a brief profile of the Board written by Pastor Gwaibo ( I have added a few comments to Gwaibo’s profile);

1. Pastor FUWE HAGEYO – Senior Pastor of Bethel Tabernacle of Praise joined Bethel Team as a teenager and worked with Pastor Barry Silverback since then. Papa Fuwe is the current oversight of all Bethel Operations.

 

2. Pastor AI WARI – Associate Senior Pastor of Bethel Tabernacle of Praise. Ai has been with the Bethel Team for the last 30 years

3. Pastor GWAIBO BADIRA – Assistant Senior Pastor of Bethel Tabernacle of Praise. Gwaibo has been with the Bethel team for the last 20 years. Gwaibo is the key figure for all communication and tasks in the development of the school. His willingness to help has been pivotal to the success of the project thus far.

4. Mr. JOHN TOGUATA – Is a lay-pastor and serves on the eldership of Bethel Tabernacle of Praise Church. A former Police Officer with PNG Royal Constabulary Police. He has climbed the ranks and files of the PNG Police Force to become New Guinea Island Regional Police Commander as Assistant Police Commissioner. He has served as Operational Commander in North Solomons Province during Bougainville crisis. He then worked with the Ombudsmen Commission as Operations Director. Mr. ToGuata is currently working with Aus-Aid project on PNG Law and Justice Sector. He is very vocal on anti-corruption both in PNG and International forums. He said “I am very passionate about Sunrise Bethel Christian School and I want to be very much part of it”.

 

5. Mr. YATI BUN – Is also an elder of this church. Formerly worked with National Forest Product on a very senior management role within Forest Department. Mr. Bun currently works with an NGO on Environmental issues affecting nations. In his capacity has an NGO worker he has travel around the world attending and speaking in conferences and seminars. He has an international reputation for his expertise and integrity. Mr. Bun is the Leader of our Men’s fellowship in Bethel Tabernacle of Praise church.  And he quote; “I want to be part of Sunrise Bethel Christian School – I want to contribute to school by participating in this way.”

 

6. Mr. KONE KULA – Is an elder of this church. Mr. Kula works for PNG Telikom a leading telecommunication organization in PNG. He is in the senior management position with Telikom and has a role in marketing. He is also a leader of our Men’s Fellowship who assists Brother Yati with men’s activities in the church. Kone says “I am excited that we have our own school in the movement to reach Parents and families in nations for Christ”.

7. Mr. ROGER TUMES – Principal of Sunrise Bethel Christian School – Port Moresby, PNG. Mr. Tumes is Principal under appointment of both the Adelaide Christian School (ACS) Board and Head of Schools for Sunrise Christian Schools, Temple Christian College and Sunrise Christian School – Whyalla. He has over 30 years teaching experience in Australia.

 

Three (3) Pastors and the three (3) Elders with the Principal will form the Board on the interim until further adjustments are made to facilitate female counterparts to this board.

Bank Account

The school now has an ANZ Bank account!