No public viewing after body ‘had
been outside for more than 72 hours’
By RIGGO
NANGAN
The casket containing the remains of Joseph Kingal at the funeral service in Lae, Morobe, yesterday afternoon |
THOUSANDS of Lae residents flocked
into the Sir Ignatius Kilage stadium yesterday afternoon to farewell evangelist
Joseph Kingal, The National reports.
The people were not allowed to view
his body because it “had stayed out for more than 72 hours” after he died when
his Toyota troop carrier flipped over four times at Mutzing on the Highlands
Highway on Oct 18, officials at the funeral said.
The Joseph Kingal Ministry’s board
had kept him at their headquarters at Omili and “petitioned God to return his
spirit or give them a sign”.
Church officials did not clarify
whether they had received any sign.
His white casket was surrounded by
his wife Susan and children Shekiana, 14, Jordan, 10, Joshua, 8, and
four-year-old Elshadai. All the children did not show any signs of injury.
Shekiana climbed steadily to the
stage and delivered a poem she had written for her father while her mother sat
with her head in a scarf under a tent nursing a broken arm and a strapped ankle.
Dignitaries, including Morobe
Governor Luther Wenge and Dei MP Puri Ruing, were allowed to lay wreaths along
with hundreds of other mourners.
The funeral costs, from the staging
at the stadium to the flights to Port
Moresby today and then Mt Hagen on Wednesday, were met by
the Morobe provincial government.
Wenge’s reason: Kingal had started
and based his ministry in Lae.
“Even though he was a Western
Highlander, he was a true son of Morobe.
“We, Morobeans, had taken the Good
News to the highlands, but he had brought it back to us and taken it
abroad.”
Wenge also delivered a cheque for
K10,000 to Kingal’s wife to cover costs.
Kingal was born to Tengi Koka and
Kimnistengi in Gumanch village, Dei council area of Western
Highlands, on Nov 25, 1969.
While still a student at Unitech in
1990, he was baptised at the Bumbu River and was said to have received a
prophetic vision to preach the Word of God.
From 1996 to 2004, Kingal moved
between settlements in Lae preaching God’s messages. It was during the time in
the settlement ministering that he started focusing on ministering
abroad.
With help of business friends in
Lae, Kingal made his first ministry abroad to Brisbane, Australia, in 1997.
His ministry bought off the old
Tanubada Dairy Product facilities at Ngamli Street, Omili, in Lae in 2004 to
become the base of Joseph Kingal Ministry.
Ruing said on behalf of the family
that they did not know how effective Kingal’s ministry had on people until the
funeral where they saw people from all parts of PNG
attending.
“We, the people of Dei and
Western
Highlands, are surprised to
see all these people here today.
“We can see the impact our son’s
ministry has had on people,” Ruing said.
He said the families of Kingal were
thankful to the Morobe government and its people for their
generosity.
Ruing said his families and
tribesmen dressed themselves in PNG colours to the funeral, instead of the
normal body paintings with mud and clay, because the late pastor was a patriot
and a Papua New Guinean.
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