Soma Salango, a pioneer of the Lutheran faith in PNG
07 July 2015
CARLOS HILDALGO
HE was a small, frail old man, who certainly looked insignificant in a photograph.
But he was a giant of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, a dynamic and growing church.
Endengnuka Soma Salango, a pleasant and humble man, was an individual worth honouring for his efforts in spreading Lutheranism to this scattered, far-flung area of West New Britain.
I met him in 2010 after being posted to the area as a young didiman to manage Sarakolok oil palm settlement. Soma would often bring betel nut to my small outstation office and we'd chew and chat the afternoon away.
I found this old-timer fascinating. Not only because, as I learned, he was related to me but because of his long history of evangelising far from home which shaped the church to what is today.
Soma Salango was born in 1932 in Fio, Finschhafen born. After completing his tokples school at Mawaneng, he ventured far and wide, ending up in 1955 at Rainao Copra Plantation on East New Britain.
It was here that, after a hetman course, he got inspired to set up and manage pocket congregations of immigrants from mainland New Guinea who, like himself, found themselves in the New Guinea Islands as plantation workers.
Soma was taught and mentored by a Mexican clergyman, the Rev Max Dima.
In 1969, Soma came to settle in West New Britain on a block of land which he had applied for. Here the huge galip, malas and figus trees fell to his axe. In that same year, he started the first pocket Lutheran congregation in a makeshift tent beside his house.
There were 38 Morobeans, five Simbus and two from Madang. These 45 men and women were Lutheran pioneers as well as settlers and farmers.
In 1972, Soma conducted the first confirmation class with their children, the first generation born in this new place. Later he began to evangelise in the Whiteman ranges where he found a nomadic tribe that is today located in Kumali and Mingai villages. Ninety percent of them are now converted Lutherans.
The top photo is of Soma. It was taken by me on a Sunday afternoon outside Sarakolok Lutheran Parish which he constructed in the mid-1980s.
The funeral photo was taken by me last month – Friday 19 June, my birthday and Soma’s burial day - at the very place he had once posed for my camera.
I surely miss him. Rest in peace, great pioneer.
Comments