Baptist church collapses after quake, killing 25

May 25, 2011

Washington (BWA)--Several Baptist World Alliance (BWA) groups are providing help after a Baptist church collapsed and killed more than two dozen persons in a village in Myanmar following a severe earthquake on March 24.

The Baptist church in Kyakuni, a mostly Lahu village in eastern Shan State, near the border with Thailand, collapsed after the 6.8 magnitude quake, leaving 25 dead and 57 injured. The relief and development arm of the BWA sent a grant of US$10,000 and the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, one of six regional fellowships of the BWA, sent US$5,000. The Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC) dispatched a two-member team to the different areas to do assessment. The MBC mobilized approximately US $11,000 from local churches for emergency relief, and aims to help more than 1,200 families or approximately 6,000 persons in 26 affected communities. Christians in the area are mainly Baptists belonging to minority groups such as the Lahu, the Wa and the Shans.  "There are many teenage children among the dead. The earthquake hit when they were praying," said U Kyar Khu, the head of Kyakuni village, according to the Myanmar Times. "About 200 people were in the church at the time," he said.  "Because it is difficult to reach the road, the injured people were sent to the hospital only the next morning. Although they were in pain they were mourning the dead throughout the night." Kyakuni village, which was destroyed, can only be reached by motorbike in good weather. Extensive damage and fatalities were reported elsewhere. In the 50 most affected villages near the epicenter of the quake, more than 50 percent of buildings were severely damaged or destroyed.   There was extensive damage to roads and bridges, and communication was disrupted. Thirty one churches and monasteries, 11 schools, and one hospital sustained severe damage. An undetermined number of persons died as a result of the quake, but some estimates put the death toll at more than 150. The earthquake was felt as far away as Bangkok in Thailand and Hanoi in Vietnam. www.bwanet.org

The scourge of homelessness

May 17, 2011

Washington (BWA)--For a growing estimated 100 million persons worldwide, the concept of "home" is only a desperately distant idea, despite the Christian principles of sharing and charity.     Recognizing the wide disparity in resources for living in different parts of the world the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) in 1985 urged Baptists everywhere to examine their ways of life in the light of the scriptural injunctions to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, heal the sick, care for the disadvantaged, visit the prisoners (Matthew 25:31-46). The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Housing (UN Human Rights Council) has declared, "The human right to adequate housing is the right of every woman, man, youth and child to gain and sustain a safe and secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity."  This right is denied more and more people in recent years as economic recession has created greater disparity between those with access to adequate housing and those with no hope of such housing. For the period 2003-2007, an estimated three million persons were homeless in Europe, one million in France alone. The United Kingdom has more than four persons per 1,000 who are without shelter. An estimated 78 million are homeless in India, and 100,000 sleep on the streets each night in Australia.   In Brazil, experts estimate as many as 20 million persons live in hovels, under bridges and other street structures, or are squatters in clandestine rooms or properties.   In Mexico City, 40 percent of the residents live in what are called "informal" housing.  In Malawi, an estimated 90 percent of the urban population lives in slum conditions.    In the United States, homelessness is estimated at between 600,000 and 2.5 million persons. Among the 200,000 homeless persons in Canada, women and children are the fastest growing group.   For census purposes, only those sleeping on the streets are generally counted as homeless, indicating that insecurity regarding shelter is even more widespread than outright homelessness. Each nation defines homelessness differently. In developed areas, some cultures may define homelessness as the state of lacking permanent, safe housing. Those living in temporary quarters or moving from shelter to shelter are considered homeless, as well as those who live on the street.  In more impoverished areas, a clear definition of homelessness may be undetermined. The causes of homelessness are as numerous as the causes of poverty generally: unemployment and underemployment; unavailability of securable affordable housing; chronic or weakening disease; substance abuse; domestic violence; forced eviction; effects of imprisonment; abuse by government or others with power; war or armed conflict; and disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes. In Singapore, in 1986, the BWA passed a resolution commending Baptists to study and take action on homelessness through observance of the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, a UN designation for 1987, and encouraged action to lessen this social problem.   The BWA has done much to address the problem of homelessness through the ministry of Baptist World Aid in the provision of shelters after major disasters and the resettlement of refugees and other displaced persons. It has, in various ways, such as through resolutions,  urged churches to work tirelessly to alleviate the general effects of poverty that may also lead to homelessness. The demand for action has not diminished, but has only grown more urgent.

Communication training seminar planned for Malaysia

Washington (BWA)--The Baptist World Alliance will host a communication training seminar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in July.

The seminar will be one of the activities held during the BWA Annual Gathering in Kuala Lumpur from July 4-9, and is aimed at leaders and communicators from conventions and unions in the Asia/Pacific region. 

Presenters include Tony Cartledge, former editor of the Biblical Recorder, the Baptist state convention newspaper for North Carolina in the United States and a blogger with Baptists Today. He is associate professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School in North Carolina and chair of the BWA Communications Committee.

Other presenters are Julie Belding, a freelance editor and writer who is former editor at DayStar Publications, a New Zealand  evangelical Christian magazine publisher, and past editor at New Zealand Baptist, the national Baptist magazine in New Zealand; Gillian Francis, director and chief executive officer of Caribbean Christian Publications, publishers of Sunday School and Vacation Bible School materials for 26 countries in the Caribbean and Central America, and editor of the Jamaica Baptist Reporter; and Leo Thorne, associate general secretary for Mission Resource Development for American Baptist Churches USA.

Topics to be explored are writing skills - press releases and news stories; producing a newsletter; news and social media; developing a strategic communication plan for conventions and churches; and using audio visual media for more effective communication.

Approximately 60 convention leaders and communicators from Asia/Pacific are expected to attend, in addition to local Baptists from Malaysia and other persons who have registered for the Annual Gathering.

The meetings will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Baptist Church on July 3 and 4.

May 13, 2011

Praying for peace

Washington (BWA)--World Sunday for Peace will be observed on May 22.

The observance carries significance for Christians around the world, and will be especially important as the day falls during the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation that will be held in Kingston, Jamaica, from May 17-25. Burchell Taylor, a vice president of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), has been invited by BWA General Secretary Neville Callam to represent the BWA at the convocation that is expected to draw approximately 1,000 participants from around the world.

Inasmuch as the BWA has been an advocate for peace many times over many decades, the BWA views it as appropriate that Baptist conventions and unions and their churches have a general focus on peace and offer special prayers for peace on May 22, during worship.

As several countries in the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing turmoil at this time, we encourage our Baptist churches to follow up on a 1981 BWA resolution that called "on Baptists in every land to pray for peace in the Near and Middle East."

In response to the accumulation of powerful weapons that are capable of widespread destruction and devastation, the BWA, in another 1981 resolution, urged its member bodies to "take responsibility within their own nations and states to preserve and propagate peace and to effect the reduction and ultimate cessation of armaments, both conventional and nuclear."

Furthermore, in 1982, the BWA urged "that peaceful means be used by national Baptist bodies to influence national governments toward peace and disarmament" and that "The world Baptist community will accept courageously its Christian calling as peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)."

The BWA's consistent call and work for peace should be sufficient encouragement to Baptists everywhere to see peacemaking and peace building as a vocational calling.

There are a number of initiatives taken by Baptists that serve as example and inspiration and which the BWA commend to Baptists everywhere. These include the work of the All Africa Baptist Youth Fellowship in its efforts to promote peace in West Africa. The youth group, among other things, held conferences and workshops on Peace and Conflict Resolution in Africa in Ghana in October 2008 and in Sierra Leone in November 2009. The conferences drew participants from countries that have been affected by internal conflicts and civil wars and focused on the ways youth can contribution to the peace process in their countries.

  

A source of inspiration too are the efforts  of Wati Aier, principal of the Oriental Theological Seminary in Dimapur, Nagaland state, India, who, for almost two decades, worked for peace in Nagaland. His efforts led to the formation of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation in 2008, which held more than 60 meetings, resulting in a reduction in attacks and violence following the signing of the Covenant of Reconciliation in June 2009 and a high level meeting of the leaders of the Naga factions in September 2010.

Groups and persons such as the All Africa Baptist Youth Fellowship and Wati Aier live out the 2008 BWA resolution: "encouraging dialogue between different faith and ethnic groups to promote peace and harmony in society." They "exemplify the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ and, as reconciled people, [are fulfilling] a ministry of reconciliation in the world."

We pray for peace.

Gereja Di Agimuga Menyatukan Warga Pasca Peristiwa 1977

Jubi --- Kehadiran 4 gereja baru di Paroki Agimuga diharapkan mampu mengobati trauma akibat peristiwa Hak Azasi Manusia (HAM) tahun 1977 di wilayah Agimuga. Sebab peristiwa tersebut telah membuat warga sipil Agimuga hidup terporak-porandakan kurang lebih 34 tahun lamanya.

Demikian diungkapkan tokoh masyarakat Kampung Amungun Distrik Agimuga, Johan Anggaibak. ”Dulu penduduk semua tersebar menempati kampung-kampung ini,” ujarnya berkisah. Diantaranya Kampung Kiliarma, Amungun dan Aramsolki Distrik Agimuga Kabupaten Mimika. Namun akibat peristiwa pelanggaran HAM tahun 1977 warga semua mengungsi.

”Waktu itu ada penduduk yang ke hutan, ada yang ke gunung dan ada yang ke kota Timika,” jelasnya. Lebih lanjut operasi militer yang dilakukan aparat keamanan yang rata-rata bersenjata tersebut sangat keji. Mulai dari penyiksaan fisik, hingga tembak di tembak. Akibat Operasi militer tersebut juga, sejumlah rumah dibakar bersama penghuninya. Sejumlah pesawat dioperasikan untuk menembak dari udara termasuk membuang racun dan bom di sekitar rumah warga dan di lokasi pengungsian.

”Sejak itu, warga kampung (wilayah Agimuga-red) tidak pernah kembali. Sekarang mereka kembali karena ada peresmian gereka Katolik di 3 kampung ini,” jelasnya. Pasca peresmian gereja oleh Uskup Keuskupan Timika, banyak warga dan keluarga korban telah menyatakan bersedia kembali ke kampung halamannya.

Hal senada juga diungkapkan tokoh masyarakat Amungme di Timika, Thomas Wamang. ”Memang setelah kejadian tahun 1977, banyak yang tidak mau kembali ke Agimuga. Tapi belakangan saya ikuti kemauan masyarakat, mereka mau kembali ke kampung asalnya (di Agimuga),” terangnya.

Sebenarnya, wilayah Agimuga adalah wilayah bertanah subur yang cocok untuk pertanian dan perkebunan dan  berpotensi menjadi daerah maju bagi suku Amungme dan warga suku sekitarnya.

Terkait dengan rencana pergerakan masyarakat dari kota ke kampung tersebut, sumber lain mengatakan, wilayah tersebut akan dimekarkan menjadi satu kabupaten baru yaitu Kabupaten Agimuga, seperti yang sering dikampanyekan oleh Bupati Mimika Klemen Tinal, sebagai salah satu calon gubernur Papua pada periode pemilihan Gubernur 2011 hingga 2016 mendatang. (Welly)

ANDREAS KOGOYA: SECRETARY GENERAL THE FELLOWSHIP OF BAPTIST CHURCHES OF PAPUA DIED WHEN HE WAS 43 YEARS OLD

Andreas Kogoya was born in District Magi, Lanny Jaya regency. He was the eldest of three brathers and one sister. His father named Wene Kogoya and his mother Wakerkwa (late). After completing elementary school (SD) and Secondary School (SMP) in District Magi, he went to continue his school on senior high school, in Wamena, the capital of Jayawijaya regency, and then Andreas continue his college at the Baptist Theological Institut in Jayapura, capital of West Papua province. Then married with three sons of Charles Man Kogoya (12), Endrikus Kogoya (7) and Krisman Kogoya (5). Andreas in addition to being the Secretary General on Papua Baptist Church, and also serviced at Hill Wachno Church Baptist in Kotaraja, Jayapura, West Papua. He was died on May 6, 2011; at 02,30 AM at the Abepura Hospital, Jayapura, West Papua. He was died after he got coronary for a week.

Since childhood, Andreas Kogoya actives in church. He actives on Sunday school and youth of Baptist church in the District Magi, in Wamena city and in Jayapura city. After graduating at Baptist Theologi Institut, he was working as a Costar’s at the Centre Office of Papua Baptist Church in Kotaraja, Jayapura-Papua, and then he trusted to handle incoming and outgoing mail in the leadership of Andreas Yanengga (Former Chairman of the Papuan Baptist Church from 1990 to 2002). Later he was appointed a second assistant general secretary of the Baptist church of Papua in the leadership of Andreas Yanengga. Then in a period of Socratez Sofyan Yoman leadership as Chairman of the Papuan Baptist Church, Andreas was appointed General Secretary since 2002-until now.

His dedication serviced at Baptist Churches in Papua was very good, he was very sincere and diligent works, serving the Lord until the end. His father testified that Andreas since childhood until he died, he was never angry, making his parents heartache. He was a very meticulous in his work. He has done well and ended the game well too. Although as human beings should be recognized that there must be common mistakes made intentionally or not, but the Lord Jesus said that I have to forget your mistakes and have forgiveness your sins. We believed that the Words, God said to him and for us too. You are giving us, you also take it from us, praised the Lord. The struggle had left the service will remain our forward. Presumably at this time, Andreas with you in Heaven.

On behalf of the Papuan Baptist Churches say sorry on the passing of a servant and the servant of Jesus.

Reported by Pares L.Wenda
Staff
May 6, 2011.

ANDREAS KOGOYA: SEKRETARIS UMUM PERSEKUTUAN GEREJA-GEREJA BAPTIS PAPUA MENINGGAL DALAM USIA 43 TAHUN

Andreas Kogoya Lahir di Distrik Magi, Kabupaten Lanny Jaya. Dia adalah anak sulung dari 4 bersaudara. Tiga orang laki-laki dan 1 perempuan. Ayahnya bernama Wene Kogoya dan Ibu-nya Wakerkwa (alm). Setelah menamatkan Sekolah Dasar (SD) dan Sekaloh Menengah Pertama (SMP) di Distrik Magi, kemudian melanjutkan SMA, sekolah menengah atas di Wamena, Ibu Kota Kabupaten Jayawijaya, Andreas kemudian melanjutkan sekolahnya di Sekolah Tinggi Theologi Baptis di Jayapura, Ibu Kota Provinsi Papua. Kemudian Menikah dan dikaruniai 3 orang putra yaitu Charles Man Kogoya (12), Endrikus Kogoya (7) dan Krisman Kogoya (5). Andreas selain menjadi Sekretaris Umum pada Gereja Baptis Papua, Andreas juga mengembalakan Jemaat Gereja Baptis Bukit Wachno, di Kotaraja luar-Jayapura, Papua Barat. Andreas meninggal dalam usia 43 tahun karena serangan jantung di rumah sakit umum Abepura setelah ia dirawat selama seminggu

Sejak kecil Andreas Kogoya aktif di gereja. Dalam kegiatan sekolah minggu dan pemuda gereja Baptis di Distrik Magi, di Wamena dan di Jayapura. Setelah tamat sekolah tinggi theologi baptis bekerja sebagai koster di Kantor Pusat Gereja Baptis Papua, kemudian ia dipercaya menangani surat masuk dan keluar di masa kepemimpinan Andreas Yanengga (Mantan Ketua Gereja Baptis Papua 1990-2002). Kemudian ia dipercaya menjadi asisten sekretaris umum gereja baptis Papua pada masa kepemimpinan Andreas Yanengga. Lalu dalam masa kepemimpinan Socratez Sofyan Yoman sebagai Ketua Gereja Baptis Papua, Andreas dipercaya menjadi Sekretaris Umum sejak 2002-sampai sekarang.

Dedikasi dalam pelayanan di Gereja Baptis Papua tidak diraguhkan lagi, orangnya sangat tulus dan rajin bekerja, melayani Tuhan sampai akhir hayatnya. Ayahnya bersaksi bahwa Andreas sejak kecil sampai dengan ia meninggal, ia tidak pernah marah, membuat orang tuanya sakit hati. Ia orang yang sangat teliti dalam pekerjaannya. Ia telah melakukan pertandingan dengan baik dan mengakhirinya dengan baik pula. Meskipun patut diakui bahwa sebagai manusia biasa pasti ada kesalahan-kesalahan yang dibuatnya baik sengaja maupun tidak, namun Tuhan Yesus berkata Aku telah melupakan kesalahan-kesalahanmu dan telah mengampuni dosamu. Demikianlah Andreas. Engkau yang memberi, Engkau pula yang mengambilnya dari kami terpujilah NamaMU. Perjuangan pelayanan yang ditinggalkannya akan tetap kami teruskan. Kiranya saat ini, Andreas bersama Engkau di Sorga.

Atas nama Persekutuan Gereja-Gereja Baptis Papua mengucapkan turut berduka cita atas kepergian seorang hamba dan pelayan Jesus.

Dilaporkan oleh:

Pares L.Wenda.

May 6, 2011.

A BWA reflection on the family

May 3, 2011

For Immediate Release

Washington (BWA)--In the historic Judeo-Christian tradition, the family is ascribed a place of great significance whatever the location of the society in which it is found. Celebrated attempts have been made to destroy the bonds of family but with little or no success. Notwithstanding this, the question of the form the family should take has not admitted unanimous agreement whether in Jewish or Christian circles. One reason is that the family takes its shape in the social context in which it exists. For many years, some have assumed that the normative form the family should take derives from what was sometimes referred to as "the British tradition" and its Greco-Roman precedents. The so-called "nuclear family" would include a man and a woman, united in publicly attested bonds following socially sanctioned mores enjoying legal recognition. Children - offspring of the husband and wife - would complete the family unit. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when missionaries took the Gospel to lands far away from their own, they tended to assume that the form of family they had in their home country was to be replicated by the people who would become the benefactors of their "civilizing" efforts. To complicate the situation was the fact that, in some of the situations in which the missionaries served, sections of the civilizing party actually owned human beings and counted these as part of their property. As property belonging to another, these enslaved persons were not entitled to benefit from the protection of the state in the matter of family relations. The result is that the enslaved developed patterns of cohabitation that differed from those of their "masters." With emancipation, what was to be the socially approved situation with the family of the formerly enslaved? In some cases, churches that once accepted into leadership enslaved men who lived with their female partners and children started to require these leaders to participate in the traditional marriage rituals formerly allowed only to their overlords. Forty years ago, Barbadian social and cultural historian, Edward Kamau Braithwaite, popularized the recorded exchange between a missionary and a church leader over justification for the leader suddenly being considered unsuitable to continue to hold office because his recent emancipation from slavery required him to mimic the marital customs of his former oppressors. In the Caribbean, beginning in the 1970s, politicians have collaborated to arrive at definitive answers to the question of the forms the family may take. The result has been a raft of legislations to ameliorate the adverse position of persons living in households in so-called "Common Law Unions." Some people once felt that determining admissible structural forms for human cohabitation that are not based on canonized social conventions is a most challenging undertaking. Is it possible that today far more difficult issues arise whose resolution will take many decades and perhaps even centuries. Many will not dispute the church's responsibility to support the family, recognizing, for example, the contribution of the family to the spiritual formation of people in community. Not surprisingly, the 1989 BWA General Council approved a motion to encourage Baptists throughout the world "to acknowledge and endorse anew the need for the home and the family to be deeply rooted in the Christian faith." When the General Council met again in 1994, the International Year of the Family, the BWA passed a resolution acknowledging that "since family life is under threat in all cultures, Christians must ensure effective marriage preparations, teach family members to communicate with each other, provide relevant models of parenting and benefit from the older generation of Christians."