Our first day took us to PNG’s civil registry where the archives were stored. The director of the civil registry was surprised to see us since he hadn’t been told that we were coming and Sapanga, IT man for the civil registry who we were to work with was in a meeting. The workers there graciously showed us the records that would be filmed – about 40,000 images. The space that we expected to see didn’t exist as they didn’t want to do anything until we had arrived. This probably meant another few months before the rooms was ready to be occupied for digital imaging. We were discouraged but “no worries” Elder Tarawhiti suggested that we work out of the Church center to train Elder and Sister Arua in doing digital imaging. A place was cleared out at the center and by mid-day we were set up and ready to begin the training. Another unexpected surprise was the willingness of the Civil Registry department to bring their records over to the Church center so we didn’t lose any time in getting the work done.
The days went quickly by as we laboured to teach the Aruas the process of digital imaging as well as how to navigate a computer. The Aruas are a very humble couple, native of Papua New Guinea. He has served as Branch President and is the Stake Patriarch but the level of leadership is pretty new and simple. Their hearts are pure and the desire to serve is strong. The Lord has told us in Ether 12:27 that He will make weak things strong and in 1 Nephi 3:7 – Nephi says he will go and do the things the Lord has commanded him because he knows that the Lord will help him accomplish it. And so it will be with the Aruas.
The PNG records are beautiful because they give information on the child being born, the parents, and siblings. Unfortunately most of the records are not of the village people but the “expatriates” or non-natives who moved to PNG mainly from Australia and Germany and either married natives or came as families and had children in PNG.
Our first day took us to PNG’s civil registry where the archives were stored. The director of the civil registry was surprised to see us since he hadn’t been told that we were coming and Sapanga, IT man for the civil registry who we were to work with was in a meeting. The workers there graciously showed us the records that would be filmed – about 40,000 images. The space that we expected to see didn’t exist as they didn’t want to do anything until we had arrived. This probably meant another few months before the rooms was ready to be occupied for digital imaging. We were discouraged but “no worries” Elder Tarawhiti suggested that we work out of the Church center to train Elder and Sister Arua in doing digital imaging. A place was cleared out at the center and by mid-day we were set up and ready to begin the training. Another unexpected surprise was the willingness of the Civil Registry department to bring their records over to the Church center so we didn’t lose any time in getting the work done.
The days went quickly by as we laboured to teach the Aruas the process of digital imaging as well as how to navigate a computer. The Aruas are a very humble couple, native of Papua New Guinea. He has served as Branch President and is the Stake Patriarch but the level of leadership is pretty new and simple. Their hearts are pure and the desire to serve is strong. The Lord has told us in Ether 12:27 that He will make weak things strong and in 1 Nephi 3:7 – Nephi says he will go and do the things the Lord has commanded him because he knows that the Lord will help him accomplish it. And so it will be with the Aruas.
The PNG records are beautiful because they give information on the child being born, the parents, and siblings. Unfortunately most of the records are not of the village people but the “expatriates” or non-natives who moved to PNG mainly from Australia and Germany and either married natives or came as families and had children in PNG.
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