It was our welcome Sunday and Pastor Horrolt’s farewell.
1961 October 20 to Willa
Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Gurakor Mission station to Martin and Willa Tonn, 10316 Grand Ave, Minneapolis 20, Minnesota, USA
Dear Willa, Martin and family,
Last Sunday when we received your welcome letter, we were waiting for church to start. It was our welcome Sunday and Pastor Horrolt’s farewell. You see, Church starts promptly, between nine and 12 noon depending upon how much it’s rained. The streams swell so any villages that are more than a mile away have to cross at least one river. If it’s too high, some of the children get swept away.
Yesterday we had quite a time. At 5:30 AM, one of the girls came bringing us a note from Mrs. H saying she’d like to have us attend some flower show and festival in Wau. Wau town has a boarding school for European children. She said that some boys would be driving up from Lae in at Volkswagen bus between nine and noon. So now we had to get up and get all the diapers and clothes packed because we would be staying overnight at the school. Then we worked on counting all the garments that are here to be sold to the natives. A complete inventory had to be taken before we could leave. We were almost through when Paula started fussing and here after I had put training pants on her, she had a BM. It had fallen out of her pants and she was smearing it all over. Mrs. H said to leave Paula so that we could finish the inventory and that we had to leave. So we got done and had Paula cleaned up, and if she didn’t do it again in the bedroom. So I put diapers on her and put her to bed which is a wicker bench with the front turned to the wall at the foot of our bed. Our bed is two army hospital beds. I had my purse and all the things I had packed on the bed. Soon she started to cry. So I went to investigate and here she had gotten onto the bed from her ‘crib’, into my purse and had been trying to shave with Al’s razor, which had a blade in it and a cut on her face. After a bottle she finally took a nap. About 2 PM, these boys, four of them drove in a small English car. There was no room for the Erickson’s so we went back and unpacked.
I had planned to go to church with Al today. We had gotten another note this morning from the Horrolts at 6:00 AM to be ready for church at 9 o’clock as it was going to be held in another village 5 miles down the road. After the children and I were dressed, we were told that this was the dirtiest village with many kids and a dirty school for a church and that it was no place to go with the kids.
Two weeks ago, we had planned to go to Lae. I was packed as one has to stay overnight when ever you go somewhere with any distance. (Ampo is the mission headquarters near Lae where the Lutheran church missionary’s stay at a guest house) Then Paula had a fever with malaria so she, Tom and I stayed here. The Horrolts wanted Al to go along so he could get used to the road. Good thing we have pleasant surroundings as it looks like I won’t spend much time away from here. It really isn’t so bad, just had to complain.
I will be in charge of 20 school girls. They have to live on the station to go to school because their villages are too far away to go back and forth each day. I have to inspect their living quarters and back houses to make sure that they are well and clean. I have to teach them to both wash their clothes and not to run away and not to let any boys come around. For two hours a week I will sing with them and two hours a week teach them to sew.
Food is duty free except tinned meat and no pop cans can come in. Things like cherries and chocolate and cinnamon and clothes 5% duty.
The road we use, is one the army built and many of the army trucks are still in use. There are quite a few coconut trees around Lae with shell holes in them or some of the trees are partly blown away. One thing they tell us is that there was an underground Japanese hospital that the Americans blew shut or blew it up or something. The war is still in the minds of many people. The missionaries as well as the natives.
God has been good to us. The ‘E’s.
You can see the road here from Lae to Wau that Ina is referring to. Wau at about where it says GOOGLE and Gurakor is near Bundun and Lae further north on the coast as it turns eastward. Ampo is the mission headquarters near Lae.
Map of Lutheran Missions, "World Missions of the ALC," 1964
Church at the mission headquarters near Lae - Ampo
From the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea@elcpng · Religious Organization Facebook page -posted February 23, 2021:
At the beginning of WW2, St. Andrews Church building at Ampo was used as a hospital by the Japanese army when they invaded Lae.
Later when the Allied forces defeated them and conquered Lae, it was again rededicated as a place of worship by the Australian army. And today we still worship there.
It was also known that the Japanese had a cemetery near the Church but since it was later destroyed by the Allied forces, there's nothing much to show today. Occasionally Japanese tourism trialing the stories of their war histories visit the Church area to pay homage to their fallen soldiers.
Here is an old file photo from by Australian War Memorial with the following caption.
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1944-04-03
MEMBERS OF HEADQUARTERS LAE BASE SUB-AREA OUTSIDE THE OLD MISSION CHURCH. THE CHURCH IS NOW BEING USED FOR RELIGIOUS SERVICES BY THE ARMY. IDENTIFIED PERSONNEL ARE:- V75263 LANCE-CORPORAL W.K. BURNHAM (1); VX124076 WARRANT OFFICER II, A. GLASSCOCK (2); SX31321 CORPORAL R.F. WHITEBIN (3); VX24784 SERGEANT H. BERMAN (4).
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note by By Rudolf Hertle
"This church (St. Andrews) was constructed by my grandfather Johann Hertle and his crew. [...]. As my grandfather used only high quality hard wood timber the main structure was still in tact."
it was official commissioned on 8th Oct 1933
St Andrews Church in Ampo the mission headquarters near Lae. From the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea@elcpng · Religious Organization Facebook page -posted February 23, 2021