To all my brothers and sons who are fathers, “Happy Fathers Day”, and I request you all to serve our families today instead of them serving us. Papua New Guinea can be a better place if all fathers lead a life of service in all our homes.
If you are a Christian father going to church today or have gone to church on Sabbath yesterday, here are some pointers for you on fatherhood and leadership. Leadership starts at home: the first person to commit sin was Eve but when God came looking for our first parents, it was Adam. He called out for Adam and not Eve in Genesis 3:9. Why did God call out Adam despite mother Eve causing the sin? My assumption is that it was Adam whom God placed responsibility on by being first to be created and first to be tasked work as steward over rest of creation in Genesis 2:15.
Therefore, man as a father, the leader of the family, has greater responsibility over our household as its chief steward. Sometimes, our wife and children may cause us grief, but it is us as man and father that must show direction, forgiveness, tolerance, kindness, love and peace at home. Leadership comes first at Home. All fathers must serve well at home, instead of waiting to be served, not just today but all the days of our lives. PNG fathers must care for all your family members.
As Government, we are trying our best as our Nation’s Father through our efforts to bring back school dropouts to second chance education; our programmes to pay school fees from elementary up to universities/colleges; our removal of taxes for those earning salaries under K770; we are trying our best to link people back into earning money through SMEs, agriculture and so forth. But our efforts will be in vain if the father of the individual family is non-responsive. Good leadership at home will impact the society positively from the ground up. I ask all fathers of PNG to be a good server at your respective homes and you rise up.
My colleagues in Parliament will try our best with the good people first programmes we have started and we will come down to meet you all halfway up! Take Back PNG starts by taking back our homes. Don’t look elsewhere to work for your God and your country if you are not serving your family well. To all PNG fathers, it starts at home. Pray that Government does the right things but you too do it right at your home because your next generation is watching you.
At 12 years of age as a Grade 7 student with no shoe and torn Sunday clothes (I had only 10 pieces of clothing back then). It was February of 1984 when my dear hardworking father left me at Paglum High School as a boarder with K35, one suitcase with 10 items and a comb, a Bible and his parting words: “Son, education is your pathway into your future, don’t come back home, keep on the educational road.” To all of you fathers out there, I am looking for ways to make education affordable, wholesome and meaningful for our children to prepare them for formal work or being a good economic contributor after Grade 12.
Myself and Government cannot do this alone. We need all the fathers of our country to rise up by being a leader at home. If me and my father can do it, based on his word to me to focus on education almost 40 years ago, the rest of you rural and settlement families too can do it. All fathers, let us rise and serve our family and our nation of families. May God bless all our fathers today. And to my old man back in the land of Huli, you gave me God and education. I left you and mother at 12 years of age on the education road and you, to this day, allow me to serve others first. I love you, my Father, and thank you for your steady presence in my life.