National Capital District receives Kingal

 Hundreds of Christians, tribesmen and women and curious members of the public turned up at the Jackson Airport yesterday afternoon to receive the remains of the late evangelist, Pastor Joseph Kingal, The National reports.

The casket was accompanied from Lae by the late pastor’s wife Susan and their children, friends and relatives and members of the Joseph Kingal Ministry. Kingal was killed in a vehicle accident at Zumim Bridge in Morobe. 

Today’s funeral service will be held at 1pm at the Assemblies of God Conner Stone church in Gordon.-Nationalpics by EKAR KEAPU

Lae farewells Kingal

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.

Public mourning begin for late Joseph Kingal

By ELLEN TIAMU and JASON GIMA WURI

PAPUA New Guineans and overseas friends who have waited for permission from the Ministers Fraternal in Lae, who were holding prayer vigils for the late evangelist Joseph Kingal, can now publicly mourn his death, The National reports.

A public haus krai was finally put up at the Joseph Kingal Ministries headquarters at Omili yesterday to allow the public to attend and pay their last respects.

On Sunday, there will be a public viewing of the late Kingal at the Sir Ignatius Kilage stadium starting at 10am.

In Port Moresby, funeral arrangement committee member and Dei MP Puri Ruing said they had received news that three funeral services would be held in Lae, Port Moresby and Mt Hagen.

Ruing also told reporters yesterday that the condition of the late pastor’s wife, Susan, had improved and she regained consciousness on Monday.

“After the funeral service in Lae on Saturday, the remains of the late tele-evangelist will be flown to Port Moresby for another funeral service next Tuesday at the AOG Conner Stone church.

“Next Wednesday, the casket will leave for Mt Hagen for the final funeral service at the Queen Elizabeth Park before burial at Gumanch in Dei, Western Highlands,” Ruing said.

Fellow evangelist Pr Joseph Walters described the late Kingal as “a passionate patriot” who showed his true nationalistic colours when preaching in Russia, China, Australia and other countries “by wearing the PNG colours while on stage”.

Organisers said a mourning house in Port Moresby would start this evening at the Servant Heart Ministry grounds near the Gerehu roundabout.

Angau: Susan Kingal condition 'stable'

By PISAI GUMAR

SUSAN Kingal’s condition is being closely monitored at the Angau Memorial Hospital, The National reports.

Apparently, her situation was not as bad as thought.

“She is not on life support,” hospital chief executive officer Dr Polapoi Chalau said in a statement last Friday.

“Though the injuries sustained are serious and severe, the condition is stable.”

Kingal had sustained head injuries and suffered a broken right arm and nose in the fatal road accident in Zumim bridge last Monday that claimed the life of her husband, evangelist Joseph.

The Kingals had been returning from a rally in Madang when they failed to negotiate a sharp corner.

Their four children also suffered injuries but Chalau did not say anything about their state.

Members of the Joseph Kingal Ministry at Omili said last Thursday, at a press conference, that they were planning on a medivac for the wife and children to Australia.

After that public statement, all information on the Kingals had been tightly guarded.

There was no information on the corpse of the late evangelist.

While his Rolka tribesmen were in mourning in the Dei council area of the Western Highlands, fellow directors of his ministry were keeping a vigil in “an upper room” of the multi-million-kina complex that housed the movement at Ngamili Street at Omili, Lae, Morobe.

They had been praying since last Tuesday for the return of Kingal’s spirit or for a sign from God that he was not going to return.

Plea to God

Joseph Kingal Ministry prays for rise-from-the-dead miracle

By RIGGO NANGAN

Directors of the Joseph Kingal Ministry talking to reporters for the first time in Lae about the death of their leader and evangelist Pastor Joseph Kingal who died in a tragic road accident on Monday. – Nationalpic by RIGGO NANGAN

DIRECTORS of the Joseph Kingal Minstry have “petitioned” God to resurrect their evangelist founder Pastor Joseph Kingal, who died tragically in a highway accident near Lae on Monday, The National reports.

While accepting the medical announcement that Kingal was dead on arrival at the Angau Memorial Hospital on Monday evening, the directors told reporters in Lae yesterday that like-minded Christians nationwide had been praying with them for a miracle since then, “petitioning God in prayer for the return of his spirit”.

The bizarre twist of events started hours after Kingal’s body was taken to his Omili suburb home where directors of the Joseph Kingal Ministry (JKM) kept an all-night vigil on the body, some even suggesting that he was not dead.

Church leaders and Christians in their droves had been flocking to Lae since word got around that a second resurrection – that of Kingal – was in the making.

Yesterday, the directors issued an official statement on the events of the previous 48 hours.

“We confirm that Pastor Joseph Kingal was pronounced dead upon arrival at Angau the same day, however, the JKM board, the leaders fraternal and Christians around the country are petitioning God in prayer for the return of his spirit,” the statement said.

The JKM board, leaders fraternal and Christian followers said what they were doing was biblical –  in asking God for two things, which were “for God to return Kingal’s spirit to his body and, if it is the contrary, then God would reveal so”.

The leaders said in the statement that the obvious reasons for resurrection were that Kingal had started a great ministry work which would now be left uncompleted.  

“God is sovereign and we are not questioning his sovereignty but, as human beings, we are pleading God’s own word that he has done it and he can do it,” they said, adding that if God had decided to take the pastor’s life, then they were waiting anxiously for an answer from God.”

The leaders said in the statement that Christians nationwide and abroad were also in the same spirit of prayer and, upon receiving a response, another statement would be released to specify the next cause of action.

The JKM board and leaders fraternal also said they were planning on evacuating the Kingal family, who were injured but in stable condition at the Angau hospital, abroad for a speedy treatment and recovery.

Wife Susan Kingal is on life support at a ward at Angau hospital as well as one of their four children, who is also being watched closely by doctors in a ward at the hospital.

“We are considering relocating them to a hospital overseas to accord them appropriate treatment,” they said. 

They have extended a call to all Christians and followers around the country, who wish to help in this cause, to send their contributions to One Church Ministry account number 0012749795 at the ANZ bank Lae branch.

All the while, family members of the Kingals and their Rolkaga tribes of Dei in Western Highlands were holding back the pain and sorrow.

Family member Sam Koim, who spoke for the families and tribe, said they were leaving the situation with the JKM board, the fraternal leaders and Christians to pray for God to have his way.

“It was a tragedy for us but we are holding back our tears and waiting for whatever answer God gives through the prayers,” Koim said, adding that whatever the ministry board comes up with, they will take on from there.

JKM board member Paul Barry said the death of the evangelist was a shock to the revival ministries around the country.

“We are still trying to come to terms with what has happened,” he said.

Pr John Garu from the COC church in Lae said the death of the evangelist was a shock to the ministries.

Pr Veneo Kario, who the late evangelist conducted an evangelistic meeting with in Madang and was returning to Lae where he met his fate, was lost for words and did not say much. He could only agreed with what other ministry board members and the Christian fraternal had to say. 

Pr Newman Watapi, a JKM board executive who chaired the press conference yesterday, said the news so far in the media about the tragedy was not sanctioned by them.

He said they were deep in prayer because they believed God could perform miracles.

A nation mourns

Flashback: Kingal in China during the international students’ convention last year. More than 500 foreigners in China attended this annual convention in Beijing. Kingal had also ministered the Word of God to believers in Russia. – Picture courtesy of MATHEW YAKAI

PAPUA NEW Guinea is in mourning over the sudden and tragic loss of evangelist Joseph Kingal.

Kingal, in his early 40s, from Western Highlands, as the head of The Word, The Spirit and The Cross evangelistic ministries based at Omili, Lae, was seen as the flag bearer of hope and redemption in a country racked with social problems, The National reports.

The graduate accountant-turned preacher and wife, Susan, registered the evangelistic movement as directors in 1996 and went on nationwide crusades wooing in thousands to their nightly sessions.

Their messages, based on the Bible at the week-long crusades, hit a chord with thousands of people at all levels of society.

Many people from the streets and settlements of Lae, Port Moresby, Mt Hagen, Goroka, Madang and Rabaul were shocked upon learning of Kingal’s demise in a nasty traffic accident on a bridge in the Markham Valley, Morobe, while returning from a crusade in Madang.

The influence he wielded was so much so that his death had sparked people into taking up a national government function of building and maintaining infrastructure. People are now trying to set up a fund from donations from the public to make the Zumim bridge safe.

Many callers yesterday were told that Kingal had passed away and that his wife was at the Angau Memorial Hospital requiring life-saving surgery and one of their children was being monitored while in a critical condition.

Outside his ministry at the old Tanubada ice cream factory at Omili, hundreds of mourners and well-wishers tried to gain entry but were prevented.

Members of the ministry had barred the public, only allowing pastors to enter as Kingal’s body lay, having been transferred from Angau Memorial Hospital.

More mourners were flocking in by road from Madang and the highlands provinces of Enga, Southern, Western, Chimbu and Eastern.

Traffic officers at Air Niugini said many more would be travelling in from Port Moresby, Kimbe and Rabaul.

In Port Moresby, a prayer vigil was being held by fellow evangelist Pastor Joseph Walters where hundreds of mourners attended.

Kingal’s death had gripped a nation so much so that public office holders, including Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane and settlement dwellers, were sending in their condolences to the media.

An attempt to blanket news coverage was made by the managing director of Wantok Radiolight, Pawa Warena, who asked not to broadcast “any more stories” about the accident “until advised by the Joseph Kingal Ministry”.

But public demand for details surrounding the death, and of the state of his family members, was overwhelming.