President Eleasar’s Account of the Volcano Eruption in Papua New Guinea

President Tobby
Tobby Eleasar, President of the New Guinea Islands District of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, sent the Virginia Synod this update on his district and the volcano eruption that occurred in August.

Well, here is one that I would not forget – being caught unexpectedly in a volcano eruption. And mind you, this was one such eruption that the volcano observatory in Rabaul failed to inform the locals and the residents of Rabaul Township. It all began on the 29th of August when we were just about to begin our district conference.

Our conference was scheduled for 29th of August to the 31st of August and every circuit made its preparations to send 25 delegates each. Delegates started leaving their circuits a day or two early. Some of the delegates left for Rabaul 3 or 4 days earlier.

Delegates from Kimbe and Bialla planned to travel by speed boats so they all came together and slept at Soi which was much closer to Navo where the boats were going to pick them up. They all left for Rabaul on speed boats on the early hours of the morning. It was about 5 to 6 hours journey on a speed boat. I didn’t travel with them that day because I still had some unfinished tasks for the conference to complete, so I got a plane ticket to leave on the afternoon of the same day.

At Hoskins Airport I met Paul Nabok who was also travelling to Rabaul on that same flight. I was grateful that now I had a companion which I could travel with. The date 28th was set for our district council meeting too and our presence was very important.We were supposed to depart by 2 o’clock in the afternoon but the flight was delayed until 4.30 in the afternoon – another one of those unexpecteds. We arrived in Tokua Airport at dusk and had to wait for nearly 30 minutes before we were picked up by one of Paul’s colleagues and driven to Rabaul.

We arrived in Rabaul around 8 o’clock in the night and were taken straight to the conference site which was at our Rabaul Congregation Church area. In the dark I saw that there were several tents all set up and there were people already in them preparing for the night. The delegates were all there and have been waiting for us.

We had night devotion and then the council met to decide what to do. The council decided that since we were tired after our journey we would all retire for the night and have our council meeting in the morning before the opening of the conference.

I was very tired after my journey but I didn’t sleep until after one o’clock in the morning. I woke up two hours later to the rumbling of the thunder and the sound of the rain on the roof. After some minutes I realized that something was not quite right. I was sleeping right under a window that has no louvers but only the fly wire and I could feel something like dust and sand falling on my bed and all over me. I stood up and looked out of the window and saw that it was dry outside and every time there was this rumbling the sky lit up and there was a shower of dust. I then heard Pastor Freddy telling someone outside that the volcano was erupting. I came outside the house I was sleeping in and was told not go outside but to stay inside.

All the tents were now covered in dust and everyone was told to stay inside the tents. It was not long before someone rang me and told me to tell everyone not to panic, but to stay where they were inside the tents until day light before we could decide what to do. We did just that and waited for dawn.

Papua New Guinea (an independent nation since 1975) is NORTH of the northern tip of Australia and the region that is a Companion to the VA Synod are the islands EAST of the PNG main island where you see the names KIMBE, RABAUL and KAVIENG.

I want to share something else with you also. While I was in Bialla about a week before coming to Rabaul I saw a dream of the volcano erupting. All throughout that week I just had that strong expectation that not long I would get a message from Rabaul that there was a volcano eruption. And that morning as I stood and watched the eruptions I remembered what I saw in my dream.

When dawn finally came we could see clearly what was happening. It was Tavurvur which was erupting and the dust from the volcano eruption was falling everywhere and we had to walk with our heads covered or with an umbrella. All the tents and houses were covered with dust.

It was around 5.30 AM when a man from the disaster office drove up and told us that villages living near the volcano have all been evacuated in the night when the eruptions started. He told us that it was not safe for us to remain in the area and that we were to be moved immediately out of the area. And so transport was arranged to evacuate us out of the danger zone. Women and children and those who were allergic to dust were told to leave first.

We now had a problem – to get away from the danger zone and also to find a place to have our meeting. We decided that we would go to Kokopo Town and have a council meeting first. As we travelled on the road to Kokopo we could see banana leaves and plants beginning to wither. The vehicles drove us all to Kokopo and dropped us off at the church area. Kokopo Town was safe and it was several miles from Rabaul. We were an unusual sight when we entered Kokopo. All eyes were upon us because the vehicle we were travelling in and every one of us was covered in dust.

We had no breakfast and while the women from the hosting circuit rushed about trying to prepare something for us to eat the district council members convened. We were faced with a dilemma now. We had no place to house about 200 plus people and no place to have our meeting and that left us with a choice to continue or to call off the meeting. The council after a lengthy discussing decided that because we were having our executive elections we would still proceed with our conference at Kokopo. And so some men returned to Rabaul and removed all bamboos and materials used to build the tents and brought them back on a vehicle. They quickly put up three long tents which housed us over the weekend.

The conditions were not good but we had to bear with it all throughout the weekend. The good thing was that we managed to have our conference and the elections. The conference ended on Sunday and everyone left on Monday and on the early morning of Tuesday. I was the last to leave the conference area on Wednesday.

On Tuesday I went to Rabaul again and could not believe my eyes. There was no plant standing that had green leaves on it – everything had dried up and there was dust everywhere. Police had also set up road blocks to check vehicles and people.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your prayers. If it wasn’t for your prayers things would not have turned out the way they did. I saw Diane and Bishop Mauney’s email on Monday 1st of Sept.
I was so engrossed in the disaster and also the meeting that I did not even check emails on my iPad. I want to thank them both for their concern and for the emails that they had sent. I am always grateful for Bishop Mauney who always alerts or quickly contacts me when there are natural disasters.

I have told the story as briefly as I could. Thank you for being our wonderful partners. It is always good to know that there are brothers and sisters in another part of the world who care for us. God bless you all.

Reverend Tobby Eleasar
President ELC-NGI District