Little Green Palai 

Every Sunday we dress up and we go to that church down the road. We clap and sing praises to God and listen attentively to the preacher’s words.

Oh alleluia, outside the church building a woman in rags drags her children to a place somewhere but we do not want to be bothered. She is just a poor woman and right now… we are busy with God.

In our jam-packed church pews a man is sitting and praying quietly that God will hear him and feed that woman outside but most importantly help to end the massacres across the border in Indonesia. Tears rolling down his face, his fist clenched, his head bowed, he was with a different God than those around him. Is the person on his left or right listening and sharing this prayer too? Did the preacher hear his prayer as well? Oh he was in a crowd but alone in his prayers… and the way the church is looking this morning and every other Sunday morning… alone in his struggles too. A freedom he prays for that he knows he may not see but for the future of his people – the Papuans caught under a rule that refuses to see rainbow.

I remember six years ago sitting with a group of women in East Awin, Western Province. We shared stories and we laughed then suddenly silence and tears in their eyes…. as they remembered those they lost. A woman wailing fell to the dust in front of us and turned and rolled herself in it… Another woman whispered in my ears, “Her son was fed to the crocodiles and she was made to stand and watch.”

On Sunday the priest comes for service and she is there singing and praying along with other church members. Like the man in that church in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby God is their strength and comfort.

The Papuans under Indonesian rule have been subject to atrocities and killings in masses but continue to this day begging for their freedom to be who they are and to live life to the fullest as God promised.

The Christian story of Egypt gives a lot of hope for those who beg freedom.  International governments and agencies have continuously and some deliberately ignored the West Papuans. Christian churches welcome West Papuan worshippers but will not stand up for them. The Christian history is marred with blood, poverty, war and killings but out of it a ray of hope… one bishop walks out and joins the people. Bishops and priests and clergymen have led movements for a better world. 

Today we have yet to see a bishop, or a church elder stand up for his people. The Catholic Bishops of PNG and Solomon Islands have taken a mute role on many issues that called for the church’s voice. The Lutherans will stand for environmental issues but will not stand for their brothers and sisters across the border. The Pentecostal churches have yet to show they care for humanity.

What hope then is there for humanity if this group of people, the Melanesians of Papua, is forcefully wiped off God’s creation list?

Those who lead God’s people are letting God down with their silence. Is there a Moses among the bishops and preachers today?