Information is yet to be received on the members of a Simbu delegation who went missing while travelling to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea’s youth conference in Finschhafen, in Morobe Province.
The 14 ELC East Simbu District delegates were on their way to attend the 21st National Youth Conference on Tuesday, September 26th, when the boat they were travelling in went missing.
ELCPNG Head Bishop, Reverend Dr Jack Urame, said they were informed of the mishap on Thursday, September 28th, where they quickly liaised with the relevant authorities to conduct a search.
“We are a church and we don’t have the capacity to conduct a search that involves high-level capacity so we work closely with relevant authorities while we provide the support needed,” said Rev Urame.
“Today is the second week and we are yet to receive any information of the whereabouts of these people and the boat.”
Rev Urame said search and rescue teams were sent out to sea, into the air and along the coastlines but they are waiting for an official release of the search team reports from the Morobe Emergency and Disaster Office.
“I want to appeal to the relatives of those ELC East Simbu delegates back at home that this is an unexpected natural disaster and we cannot directly say the church is exclusively responsible, but the church is concerned and deeply sad,” he continued.
“We share the sorrow and pain with the families of those who went missing because we are talking about human life and they are the future of this church so we are doing what we can to at least find information leading to the incident.”
Rev Urame said this incident could have been avoided if proper communication and coordination of transport arrangement was done between church officers in Lae, those in Finschhafen and the delegates to avoid the bad weather and strong winds on the day they travelled.